Danny Fenton is an Invasive Species

by GoingDeceased

Summary:

All Danny wanted to do was to go home after school with Jazz. But a random encounter sent them to an entirely different dimension where powers are normal and heroes are an everyday sight. Now they live with a grumpy cat loving man and his loud husband and he goes to a school for heroes. No he longer has to hide his identity from the people around him and is in an environment he can actually be trained properly.

But the two of them still have to find a way back to their real home.

...Right?

Notes:

Hey I'm writing this completely for myself but if someone else comes along and enjoys it the more the merrier.
I can't guarantee constant updates but I'll try. I have up to the USJ attack planned out fully and some of the sports festival.

Chapter 1: A New World With New problems

It all went wrong on the way home from school. It was nearly summer and they were stuck walking all the way home in the blistering heat. Danny was on his phone leaning against Jazz acting as a personal AC unit for her since she was currently without her car. Which was mostly Danny’s fault so he couldn’t complain about it too much.

“Thanks again for trying to cover for me the other day. I really didn’t think mom and dad would ground you for it though.” There was a ghost attack in the middle of the night. Apparently Maddie had a burst of late night inspiration and on her way down to the basement she went to check on her two kids she found Danny’s room empty.  Thankfully Jazz managed to calm down her panicking mother with a few lies about his whereabouts but they didn’t line up when Danny was back in his own room the next morning asleep. So now they were both grounded for the foreseeable future. Which meant Danny was going to be tasked with cleaning the lab again , he was definitely not looking forward to it. Last time he had to, one of the experimental ecto-guns went off and hit him right in the shoulder because his dad forgot to build a safety into it.  

“Of course, not like I could let them find out about the whole ghost thing. A week or so without a car is nothing as long as it means you’re safe. Or at least as safe as you can be. Plus I can use you as a way to cool off so walking isn’t too bad. It’s a good form of exercise.” 

Danny was pretty sure he got enough exercise already in the form of fighting a ghost every few days. But Jazz was the smart one of the two so who was he to argue. He was jerked to a stop, almost dropping his phone, as Jazz froze and put an arm in front of him. “What the hell Jazz?” 

Jazz didn’t even have time to point let alone explain before a small blob ghost collided into Danny setting off his ghost sense. It then decided his hair was a great place to sit, which honestly was pretty common for blob ghosts to do, something about the ambient ectoplasm he let off. He turned to tease his sister about freaking out over a harmless blob ghost  of all things, or he would have if a woman wearing brightly colored spandex wasn’t charging at the two. At any other time Danny might have commented on the bizarre getup or the fact that something about the woman didn’t feel right, like she was out of place. But at the moment he was more focused on the fact she was running straight at him and her hand was glowing, and then a second later the fact she was grabbing him. All That information was pushed aside as the world started spinning around him and the air left his lungs. It felt like he was being sucked into the Fenton thermos, while it was in a washing machine, which in turn was chucked into a tornado. To say the least it was unpleasant. 

Danny couldn’t say how long the experience lasted, all he knew was that it was too long. Once the attack on his senses stopped he let out a groan. If he never did that again it would be too soon. Slowly he became aware of the world around him once more. Except there were a few problems. He was now laying on a bed of grass when before he was in the middle of the city. The heat of late spring was replaced by a cool breeze. Already he could feel the lack of ectoplasm in his surroundings, so he was definitely not in Amity anymore. 

He opened his eyes and was met with a cloudy sky. He turned his head to the side and saw Jazz with her arm over her eyes. “You okay Jazz?”

“No.” Jazz grunted. “I feel like I have a nasty hangover, or a concussion, or both.”

“How do you even know what a hangover feels like?”
“If aunt Alicia ever asks if you want to celebrate her divorce with her and of her friends, say no. None of them seem to understand watering down drinks or drinking responsibly.” 

“Mom was okay with that?”

Jazz snorted. “I think she was just happy she didn’t have to face that alone.” 

Danny finally managed to sit up, he didn’t feel like puking so he considered that a plus. Now they just had to figure out where they were. Jazz got up off the ground soon after and pulled out her phone.  She dialed a number, then she dialed again, and again, and again. “Danny, give me your phone.”

“Uh okay?” 

He handed it over. Jazz dialed more numbers on his phone, though by the look on her face she wasn’t getting anywhere. She ran a hand through her hair. “There’s no signal.”

“Well I guess we try to figure out where we are then? We can try and find our way home from there.” Looking around  it seemed they were in the middle of a small nature park. Past the treeline Danny could see the top of buildings. Neither of the two had much of a better idea of what to do so they picked a direction and started walking. 

They barely made it a few steps outside the park when they were met with the next shock of the day. The sidewalk was crowded, Danny and Jazz were struggling to even stay together. The person in front of Danny came to an abrupt stop causing him to collide into them. “Hey, watch it!”

“Me watch it? You’re the one who-” Danny stopped mid sentence as the person(?) who was in front of him turned around. They had to be at least twice Danny’s size, their hair was practically a blond mane, but what put Danny off the most was the fact that they had the face of a dog. Now if he was back in Amity that wouldn’t be too weird, Wulf was a great friend to have around, but the person in front of him was not Wulf, nor were they a ghost. The lack of ectoplasm in the environment wouldn’t allow any advanced ghost to remain in a stable form for more than a few seconds. The only reason Danny was fine was because he wasn’t a full ghost and could survive off of things like a normal human. 

Not-Wulf looked him up and down. “You okay kid?”

“Uh yeah I’m fine, sorry for bumping into you!” Danny turned and ran off to catch up with Jazz. As he worked his way through the crowd he noticed more strange things about the people around him. He finally found Jazz who was part of a group of people looking up at the sky. Danny followed their gazes up and saw someone flying through the air. Said person was wearing the second obnoxious spandex suit he saw that day. It was an awful mix of red, yellow, white, and blue. It reminded him of the crazy outfits some people wore to the firework show on the Fourth of July in Amity.  Before he could critique the outfit more the flying man left his line of sight.

Jazz turned to him. “You saw that too right?”

“The ugly outfit? Yeah, wish I didn't but yeah. Only slightly better than Vlad’s vampire getup.”

Jazz lightly swatted the back of his head. “You know what I meant you brat.”

Danny shrugged. “Yes I saw the flying man. But I also ran into someone with a dog head a few minutes ago, and I’m pretty sure the person who just walked past us had bright orange skin so…”

Jazz looked around trying to see if she could spot who he was talking about but the crowd around them had somehow seemed to get even larger. People were pointing up to the sky where the ugly outfit dude was just a few seconds ago talking about some ‘tall night’ or something. If he was being honest Danny wasn’t too interested.

They decided to make their way past the crowd. They continued walking as they discussed their current situation. “So we are definitely not in our dimension anymore.”

“Gee Danny what makes you say that? The fact people are flying through the sky and others with orange skin, or was it just a weird hunch you happened to  have?” 

“Hey I’m the one here with experience in other timelines and dimensions and stuff.”
“Okay then,” Jazz huffed, “if you have so much experience how do you usually get home?”

Danny was suddenly very interested in the ground. “Oh you know-” He mumbled something under his breath. 

“Sorry, what was that? I couldn’t quite hear you.” Jazz hummed.

“I said either Clockwork sends me there and brings me back or I use the infi-map!”

“And you don’t happen to have the map, or the pseudo-god of time in your backpack do you?”

“No.” Danny grumbled as he kicked a rock. His eyes followed its journey as it skipped down an alleyway. Only for the rock to come to a stop after hitting someone's shoe. Danny probably would have apologized for hitting them with a rock, if it didn’t look like the person was in the middle of an attempt of mugging. 

Danny and Jazz stopped at the entrance of the alley and for a moment just stared at the mugger and victim as they stared back. Danny wasn’t a stranger to stopping petty or even more severe human crimes when patrolling Amity for ghosts. Sure it didn’t happen as often as fighting ghosts but it did happen. Protecting people from ghosts or from other people made no difference to him. All he knew was that he wouldn’t leave someone who was in danger.  

“I may be wrong but I’m pretty sure robbing people, or whatever you’re trying to do is illegal.” Danny said. 

The mugger seemed to snap out of the shock of them walking in on him threatening someone. “Look, how ‘bout you two scram and I’ll pretend I never saw you. Otherwise you’ll be in a world of hurt.” He pointed his knife at them.

 Danny could feel Jazz leave his side and take cover against the side of the building. There wasn’t much she could really do to help in this situation. “You know I’d really like to, but sadly I do have morals and I’d feel pretty bad if I just left  this poor dude to fend for himself.” 

Looking over at him the mugging victim looked to be in a pretty rough shape too. Not in the sense that he was beat up or anything he just looked like he spent a little too long living on the streets. His clothes were black and baggy, he had a long grey scarf that covered most of his face, what parts of his face that weren't covered by his scarf seemed to be hidden behind a curtain of messy black hair. He also seemed to be studying Danny, it felt like his eyes were staring straight into the boy’s soul. Danny briefly wondered if the man even had any money on him to steal. 

Looking away from the man with a knife was a bad idea. The next thing Danny was aware of was a knife lodged into his side. Which was definitely strange seeing as the mugger was still a few feet away from him. Stranger yet was that there were now several knives hovering around the mugger all pointing at Danny. Huh he must have telekinesis then. That wouldn’t be much of a problem though. The mugger sent another knife his way but Danny just went intangible as it soared through him. 

The mugger seemed only a little phased at this as he readied more knives. Danny at that moment remembered the fact that there was an open street behind him, and letting a bunch of knives just fly into the open probably wasn’t a good thing. The knives started flying towards him and he threw up a shield. Before the knives could make contact with the shield they froze midair and clattered to the ground. 

Danny looked around trying to figure out what just happened. Then he saw it, the homeless man’s hair was floating and his eyes were glowing red as he stared the mugger down. He then, in Danny’s opinion quite gracefully, kicked the mugger right in the head knocking him out cold. The scarf he was wearing reached out and wrapped the mugger up restraining him. The man then rushed over to Danny. “Listen it’s all going to be okay. I've already sent a call out for an ambulance and it’ll be here any moment.”

Danny looked up in confusion at the, surprisingly badass, homeless man. “What for? Are you hurt?”

“Kid, you have a knife in you. You’re probably running on adrenaline right now but that won’t last long. Let’s sit you down okay?” 

Danny looked down, oh yeah he was stabbed he almost forgot about that. Not the first time it happened, it wasn’t even ecto-based like Skulker's knives so no big deal. He reached down and grabbed the handle and braced himself with his other hand and pulled. He felt a burst from his core as it aided his body in the healing process.

“Woah kid careful don’t touch it, what are you- holy shit!” The man pressed his hand up against where the knife had just been. “You’re supposed to keep foreign objects in the wound until you get actual help.”

Danny probably should have realized that straight up pulling a knife out of his gut would cause panic. Oh well. “Oh it’s fine it won’t even need stitches, look it’s already healing.” Danny pushed the man off of him and lifted his shirt up. He wasn’t wrong either, the wound already stopped bleeding. It’d probably still leave a scar though, just one more added to the list he supposed.  The man seemed to just stare at the wound.

Jazz peeked out from behind the building. “Danny everything okay?”

“Yeah, got stabbed though.”

“Again?” Jazz asked.

The man turned to Jazz and after he seemed to assess that she wasn’t a threat he turned back to Danny. “What does she mean again? You’re what, twelve? How have you been stabbed multiple times?”

 “I’m fourteen actually." Danny shrugged. “Plus it’s better than getting shot. Hurts a lot more. I usually need stitches when that happens.”

“You’ve been shot before?” The man ran his hands down his face. 

“Well yeah but that usually only happens when our parents have a new invention they want to try out.” Danny said. Jazz gave her brother a look that clearly said ‘stop talking idiot’.

The man put  eyedrops in his eyes and blinked a few times. “Alright I’m not unpacking all of that right now. I need to bring this villain to the police station, he’s been the suspect of multiple muggings and assaults. I’ve been trailing  him for a while. You both will come with me.”
Jazz crossed her arms. “How do we know we can trust you? We don’t even know your name.”

The man almost looked impressed. “I suppose you don’t know if you can. I’m pro hero Eraserhead, or you can call me Aizawa if it makes you feel better.” Aizawa picked up the unconscious mugger like a sack of flour. “But I'm giving you an option you can come with me peacefully or I can call in some backup. Technically you used your quirk illegally in public and interfered with the work of a pro hero.” 

Danny looked over at Jazz who shrugged. “I don’t think we really have a choice. Plus maybe they can help us  find a way back home.” With their minds made up  and very little other options, they followed the hero to the police station.

Chapter 2: (Not) An Interrogation

Summary:

Danny and Jazz are questioned by Aizawa and detective Tsukauchi. Jazz doesn't trust them, Danny's just happy to have adults who know about his powers that aren't trying to kill him.

At the police station they were brought to a side room and Danny was given a new shirt since his other one was covered in blood and had a hole where he was stabbed. They weren’t in an interrogation room but it certainly felt like one to Danny. Jazz was sitting beside him with her arms crossed glaring at the officer in front of them who introduced himself as detective Tsukauchi. Aizawa was off to the side doing some sort of paperwork while he looked like he was about to fall asleep.  

Tsukauchi handed each of the teens a pre-wrapped sandwich and a can of pop.  Danny took the food instantly, he hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning due to a ghost attack during lunch and the fight lasted through the whole period. Jazz on the other hand was more hesitant taking the food.

“There’s no need to worry miss, the food and drinks are just from the precinct vending machines.” Tsukauchi assured her. 

Jazz slowly started to pick at the sandwich just as Danny had completely finished his. “So am I in trouble? Aizawa said something about illegal quirk usage, and I don’t really know what that means.”

The detective sighed, “That's a good question, but a bit complicated. You did technically engage in an act of vigilantism but I can’t seem to find either of you in our systems. Do you by chance know the reason for that? Fenton definitely isn’t a Japanese surname, are you two American by chance or European? That would explain why you weren’t aware of our quirk laws.” 

“Wait, we're in Japan?” Jazz asked.

“I still don’t know what a quirk is.” Danny said at the same time.

The detective gave them a strange look. “A quirk is just the name for the ability you’re born with. You, according to Eraserhead, have either some sort of permeation quirk or some type of healing quirk, he seemed a bit confused over that.” He looked at Jazz. “ Are you saying  you don’t know what country you are in? Japan is an island, how would you not know where you are? Even more, how do you not know what a quirk is?” 

Danny rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh it’s a long story. I really doubt you’d believe us if we tried to tell you.”

Tsukauchi smiled. “How about you let me decide that okay? As long as you tell the truth there is no reason I won’t believe you.” 

Jazz sat up a bit straighter. “Shouldn’t we have a lawyer or representative before we tell you anything?” 

“This isn’t an interrogation, we just want to understand your situation. Especially since, by the looks of it, this is going to turn into a child endangerment case for us and whoever and wherever your parents or guardian is.” Tsukauchi reasoned.

“I’m not a child.” Jazz protested.

“Oh really I apologize I never did catch your age. How old are you and your brother Miss Fenton?” He asked.

“I’m almost seventeen, Danny is fourteen.”

Aizawa took the chance to finally speak up. “You do realize saying how old you almost are is hurting your case right? You are both children, end of story.” 

Jazz opened her mouth to say something but then closed it thinking better of it. Tsukauchi cleared his throat, “Back to the original question, where are you two from?” 

Jazz didn’t seem like she was up to cooperate so Danny spoke up. “Would you believe me if I told you we’re from a different dimension?” Seeing the questioning looks on both adults he dove in explaining where it began and how they got to the point they were at now. “-and then Aizawa knocked him out with a really cool kick and then I think he arrested us. Did that count as an arrest?” He asked, looking at the hero.

Said hero looked over at Tsukauchi who gave him a nod confirming that everything said was true. Aizawa shrugged “Technically it was an escort for your own safety. That's not really important right now though. I’m going to go out on a hunch and assume the woman you ran into was from our dimension since you said not many people have quirks in your world. And while I’ve never heard of one involving dimension hopping, but I don’t doubt it’s feasible. We'll have to look into it more at a later time.”Aizawa paused for a second. “That does raise another question. You said quirks are very rare in your world, but you have one. Do you know why? Are there just not many people born with them? Did they just start to appear recently?”

Danny looked confused. “Born with- what? No, as far as I’m aware powers have to be acquired somehow. Like I got mine from an accident in my parents lab, and there was this one crazy dude who could control ghosts, but I think that was more the scepter than him. I know of a ghost necklace that can make you turn into a dragon. Things like that.”

Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose. “Did you just say ghosts exist in your dimension?”

“Oh yeah, but really they’re only a problem in our city and the surrounding areas. Most of the world still thinks they’re not real or don’t really have proof if they do believe in them.”
“Of course, why wouldn’t there be ghosts?” He muttered. “Back to the more pressing matters you said you got your quirk- err powers in a lab accident how did that happen?” Aizawa seemed fully awake now and the papers he was filling out were long forgotten. 

Jazz stiffened. “You don’t have to tell them if you don’t feel comfortable doing so Danny.”

Danny just gave her a weird look. “It’s fine, not like mom and dad can get in trouble for it, we're in a whole different dimension. Plus not like it was their fault.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about.” She said with a frown.

Danny didn’t know what that was about but whatever, the two adults in the room seemed pretty invested in the story already anyway. “So my friends and I were being stupid teenagers in the basement of my house which is where my parents’ lab is and where they keep all their ghost hunting stuff. My parents had just finished working on an invention they’ve spent most of their careers on but it wasn’t working like at all. So they decided to leave it be for a few days and come back with fresh eyes. It was supposed to be a portal to the Ghost Zone, basically a parallel dimension where all the ghosts from our world live. My friend Sam really wanted a picture of it with me in it, we figured there was no danger since it was clearly not working. I was at least smart enough to put on my hazmat suit. That's probably one of the reasons I’m still here today honestly. After going in I tripped over an exposed wire and inside the portal there was an emergency off button my parents must have left on by accident. Well when I braced myself on the wall to prevent myself from falling I turned the switch off. All I remember after that was like a shitton of pain and green then I blacked out. Once I woke up Sam and Tucker were crying over me, probably thinking I died.  I mean they weren’t totally off with that thought. A little after strange things kept happening around me and I found out I had ghost powers. I later found out I became what the ghosts call a ‘Halfa” or half ghost and half human.”

The two adults sat in silence for about a minute before the detective spoke up. “So in basic terms you’re half dead?”

Danny thought a bit before answering. “I mean according to Clockwork, he’s kinda my ghost mentor and the master of time, I’m somehow both fully human and ghost at the same time. Like a liminal space or Schrodinger's cat but instead of a box it’s my own mortality.” 

Aizawa looked at Tsukauchi again who nodded his head with a look of dismay on his face. “It’s the truth.”

“Fuck” Aizawa swore. 

“But back to me only kinda being arrested. Am I going to have to pay a fine for the ‘illegal quirk usage’ thing? Because I only have like ten dollars and I don’t know how much that is worth in Japan or in this dimension but I don’t think It’d be enough.” Danny said, opening his bag to grab the money inside. “Oh.”

“You got powers due to a freak accident and are now stuck in another dimension and you’re worried about a fine? No it’s quite clear with the circumstances that you can’t be faulted, just don’t do it again.” Tsukauchi waved him off.

“I mean at this point I just kinda accept all the weird stuff that happens in my life. But that’s good,” Danny said as he reached into his bag, “because I think this ghost ripped the money.” He pulled out the blob ghost from before who was currently sleeping. “It must have been brought here with us and got so scared so it hid in my bag. Poor thing.”

“That's what ghosts look like?” Aizawa asked.

Danny nodded. “Yeah, or at least the really weak ones. It’s a blob ghost. A type of ghost that forms naturally in the Ghost Zone instead of when a person dies. They pretty much have similar intelligence to a cat or dog. They’re attracted to large sources of ectoplasm when not in the Ghost Zone, sorta like moths to a light. So they end up scouring me out because of how much ectoplasm I naturally give off. Plenty enough for them to survive off of outside the ghost zone since they're so small. But I usually have to shoo them away though since my parents would try to shoot at them if they saw them around me. Which sucks because they’re really cuddly and are really good at relieving stress.” Danny cradled the ghost in his arms as he tried not to disturb it.

“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned your parents shooting at things. The first time you mentioned they shot at you back in the alleyway. Would you elaborate on that?” Aizawa asked, almost fearing the answer at this point.

“Oh it’s not that big of a deal. They’re ghost hunters, so shooting  at ghosts is kinda in the job description.” Danny shrugged.

“Even though you’re still part human, and their son?” Aizawa leaned forward.

Danny laughed. “Oh they don’t know either of that when they’re shooting at me so it’s fine.” He saw he was just getting blank stares so he explained. “I have a separate ghost form that is mainly referred to as Phantom. While I can use most of my powers in my human form, they become a lot more powerful in my ghost form. My ghost form looks different enough from me as a human that it’s not easy to tell the similarities between the two at a glance. Plus no one thinks a ghost has a secret identity, ghosts are dead. Why would you think a random fourteen year old is secretly moonlighting as a dead ghost fighting other ghosts? ” 

“I suppose that makes sense. Why not tell them about your powers when you first got them though? Did they give any reason not to?” 

“I mean I was going to I really was, I’ll have to eventually. But when they started to talk about tearing Phantom apart molecule by molecule once they got their hands on him it kinda made me hesitate.” Danny saw the horrified looks on their faces and quickly backpedaled “It’s not as bad as it sounds! Like I said they don’t know they’re talking about me when they say that kind of stuff.”

“Detective Tsukauchi, can we talk in the hallway for a moment?” Aizawa said not giving the detective much of an option as he stood up and walked out the door. Danny was pretty sure he saw his eyes flash red as he passed him on his way out.  Tsukauchi gave the two teens a smile before walking after the hero.

“I think you told them too much.” Jazz finally said after sitting in silence for a few minutes.

Danny just shrugged as he pet the sleeping blob ghost. “Maybe, but it’s too late now.  I mean they already know about my powers and superpowers are actually normal here. So there’s no threat of dissection or inhumane testing to figure out how my powers work. Plus I just feel like I can trust them.”
“Danny, name one adult you’ve actually been able to trust completely since you became a halfa.” 

“Tucker’s parents are pretty trustworthy. Mrs. Foley taught me how to properly give myself stitches once, didn’t even ask why I needed them. And I think Vlad is slowly coming around”

“They don’t know about you being a halfa, and Vlad tried to kill you multiple times.”

The conversation was interrupted from going much further by the adults who came back into the room.  

Aizawa looked annoyed, but for the limited amount of time Danny had known him for that seemed to be his default state of being. That and exhaustion which Danny could relate to. He might not need as much sleep as a regular human anymore but between ghost attacks and catching up on homework he still didn't sleep as much as he probably should.  According to Jazz he should still get at least four to five hours of sleep at night to be healthy but in all honesty he was lucky if he got three most nights. 

As the two sat down Aizawa shot Tsukauchi a dirty look who in turn just responded with a smug one. “All right. For the time being you both will be staying with me. At least until we can get things with foster care sorted out or find you a way home. Whichever happens first.” Aizawa explained.

“Foster care?  We can take care of ourselves.” Jazz objected. 

Aizawa looked at her unimpressed. “You are currently stuck in a world you have little to no knowledge of, and no current way to get back to your own dimension. You have no way of making any type of money, unless you resort to more illegal methods in which case you’d be brought to juvenile detention and separated from each other once caught. I am, at the moment, the most suitable person to act as a temporary guardian since I am already aware of your situation. Or at least until we can place you with someone more suitable.”
Jazz still looked unconvinced. “What do you even know about taking care of teenagers? Plus Danny isn’t a normal teenager.” She ignored the protest from her brother next to her. “He doesn’t just have one power like everyone else here seems to, it’s a large amalgamation of powers, half of them he forgets he even has.”

“I know plenty about dealing with overpowered teenagers. I teach at the most prestigious hero schools in the county where I teach dozens of teenagers with dangerous and deadly quirks how to avoid dying or hurting civilians in the line of duty. I can manage the two of you just fine. Even if one is a handful.” 

Jazz didn’t seem to be able to find an argument against that so she just crossed her arms and turned her head away. Tsukauchi turned to Aizawa. “Will you need a ride back to your house? I know you walked here.”

Aizawa shook his head. “No, I texted Hizashi a few minutes ago. He's on his way now. I finished all the paperwork for the serial mugger, if you need anything else done you have my number. We’ll need to pick up some of the essentials for them on the way home anyway.  It’s getting pretty late so we'll have to get all the rest tomorrow.”

Tsukauchi seemed okay with that answer and left the room seemingly to do other police things, maybe review the paperwork. “So who’s Hizashi?” Danny asked.

“Don’t call him that, call him Yamada. He’s my husband, and just to warn you he can be a bit loud.”

Notes:

The reception of the first chapter was so good it motivated me to speed through the writing process. Thank you all so much!

Chapter 3: End of The First Day

Notes:

Sorry this took so long to post. I rewrote it like 3 times. Started a new job with regular hours though so I'm hoping that'll get me some more stability and time to write.

Shouta could admit ‘a little loud’ was a bit of an understatement. He had to give props to Hizashi though, it was clear he was trying to distract and cheer up the kids. Shouta gave him the basics over the phone, he’d fill him in on all the details later at home. Preferably when the kids were out of the house or asleep. Hizashi tended to be more expressive with his emotions and he wasn’t sure if he’d respond with anger or sadness when he heard what the two had gone through. He wouldn't put it past his husband to try and spoil the two to death after learning about their seemingly less than subpar parents. 

“So who’s your favorite hero?” Hizashi asked. It was a common question asked to lost or worried kids found on patrol or during a case. Probably not the best to ask in this situation, seeing as the only heroes they’ve met so far were the two of them. 

“They don’t know any heroes, remember?” Shouta reminded him.

“Oh right, no problemo.” Hizashi looked into the rearview mirror. “So is all that green goo on your head part of your quirk?”

Danny seemed to have forgotten about the actual ghost sitting in his hair. He reached up to shift it down to his lap. “Uh sort of I guess. They follow me around because of the ectoplasm I put off.”

“Ectoplasm you said? So you can make clones then? That’s a pretty rad quirk. They must be native to where you live then? I haven’t seen anything like them around here.” Hizashi said.

Danny seemed to be put off a bit. “How did you-”

“Don’t be ridiculous Hizashi,” Shouta scoffed. “I told you he had a ghost quirk. What about ghosts made you think of cloning?” 

Hizashi huffed and continued the drive in silence. They made a quick stop at the superstore to get essentials the two displaced kids would need for the night. They would get the rest tomorrow. Shouta finished his call with Recovery Girl in the car just as the other three came out of the store. Hizashi was laughing while Jazz and Danny seemed a little bit more at ease. Hizashi seemed to have composed himself by the time they got back into the car. 

He promptly started laughing when he looked over at Shouta “What's this about you having to be saved from a mugging by a FOURTEEN year old? Did you get distracted by a cat again?” 

Shouta probably would have been more insulted by that last part if it didn’t happen so often. But apparently he looked like a prime mugging victim to criminals while he fed the stray cats on his patrol routes. Not like they actually got too far. He was a pro-hero after all, and a good one at that. It did make for more paperwork though. But he would not stand for the slander from the first part. “No. I was not getting mugged.”

Danny snorted. “I don’t know, the only way it could have been muggier was if you had some coffee with you when it happened.” 

Shouta could not handle puns after the day he had. “You’re expelled.”

Danny’s face scrunched up in amusement. “I wasn’t aware I was a student.”

“Oh yes, my mistake. Welcome to UA’s hero course.” Shouta paused. “You’re expelled.” 

He could tell Hizashi was struggling to not burst out laughing now that he was driving again. “Could I ask what exactly you were doing then? Because Danny’s right, it did look a lot like a mugging.” Jazz asked. It was probably the first time she’d spoke more than a two word sentence since the police station.

“It was a trap to lure the villain in. There had been a large string of assaults in the past month with all the victims describing the same person as the villain who attacked them. So I went into an area where he had multiple reports and waited in an alleyway. Even if he didn’t attack me I would hear the attack happen and be able to apprehend him then.” He honestly thought he would be waiting well into the night for even a chance of the villain showing up. The fact the police couldn’t catch a man robbing people in broad daylight was honestly just disappointing. 

“Oh that’s why you’re dressed like that then it was to lure the criminal out.” Danny said as if it answered all the questions in the world.

Hizashi finally broke trying to keep in his laughter. Shouta could go for some coffee right about now, or a drink. “No, this is my hero costume.”

“Oh uh nevermind then.” Danny said and suddenly was very interested in the ghost in his lap. 

Jazz looked over at the ghost. “Will it even survive long here? You said you didn’t sense any ectoplasm around here right?” 

Danny nodded. “Yeah they’re just one blob ghost and a small one too, they could just siphon off the ectoplasm I give off naturally. I wouldn’t even have to do anything.”

“Well it looks like we have a pet until we can find a way back home then, yay.” Jazz sighed.

“Hey I take care of Cujo just fine, I can handle the ghost equivalent of a cuddly goldfish in terms of care.” Danny defended himself. 

“You definitely have a weird view of ‘just fine’ then.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Jazz scoffed. “Didn’t Cujo ruin your now ex -girlfriend's life causing her to become hellbent on killing you?”

“That was when I first met him and you know it. And Valerie stopped actually trying to hunt me when she found out Vald was just using her, she hardly even shoots at me just as a warning shot anymore either.”

“That’s so not what I meant and you know it.”

‘No! I don't know. And for someone who claims to be so mature you’re acting pretty childish to me right now.”  

“Childish? We’re stuck in another universe with no way home Danny! I’m trying to take this as well as I can and think rationally, but you don’t even seem to care about the situation we’re in!” 

Shouta was pretty sure the argument had escalated too far at this point. He thought they might just talk it out but they were starting to yell and the car was a small space, he could feel the headache starting. He was going to turn and glare at them until they quiet down but Hizashi beat him by interrupting them.

“HEYYYYYY THere.” Hizashi yelled out over the shouting putting just a bit of his quirk into it, which seemed to shock the two out of their argument. “So does the little guy have a name?” 

Danny looked at the ghost who had hidden under his legs once the yelling started, then out the window. “How about Laika?”

“The space dog?” Jazz asked.

“Yeah, I’m actually surprised you remembered. But they’re stuck here just like we are and doesn’t even know why they’re in a place with so little ectoplasm.” Danny coaxed the blob ghost out from underneath him and into his hands. “But this Laika will return home safe. I'll make sure of it.”

“Of course I remember about the dog, you cried for a week after hearing her story.” Jazz rolled her eyes. “But- it is a sweet sentiment, the name fits.” The tension between the two was still there but it seemed to be just a simmer instead  of the roaring heat it was before.

“Yeah I agree the name is nice, does that mean Laika’s a girl then?” Hizashi asked as he pulled into their apartment's parking lot.

Danny shook his head, then seemed to realize Hizashi wasn’t looking at him while he was parking the car.. “No blob ghosts are agender, they sorta just form from high concentrations of ectoplasm in the ghost zone. So they don’t have the need for-” He cut himself off with a gasp halfway out of the car, a distressed look on  his face.

“What? What’s wrong?” Shouta quickly scanned their surroundings,  they lived in a pretty low crime area but who knew nowadays with how many villains were running about. He didn’t see anything but he kept his capture scarf ready just in case.

“Tomorrow’s Saturday!” Danny exclaimed like it was obvious.

“Yes it is. Did you hit your head after the villain stabbed you? Shouta asked, the boy healed pretty quickly after getting stabbed but head injuries tended to be fickle, maybe he should have made him get checked up in the hospital after all.

Danny ignored Hizashi circling him and freaking out over the fact he was stabbed earlier that day. “What, no. I was supposed to have my T shot tomorrow! I could manage without using needles if I had too but I don’t even have my prescription!” 

Hizashi paused his panicking, “You’re trans?”

A guarded look appeared on Danny’s face. “Yes, is that a problem? Because if you’re gay but transphobic I have a whole PowerPoint presentation on my phone as to why that's bullshit and why you need to reevaluate your life.” 

“Shou are you hearing this? Me transphobic? I’d rather die.” Hizashi posed dramatically with the back of his hand to his head. 

Shouta was positive \ he learned the pose from Nemuri. “Don’t be dramatic, he’s clearly just nervous. No one likes rejection.”

Hizashi straightened up. “Ah yeah, sorry about that little listener.” He apologized after seeing the unsure look on Danny’s face. “No hate from us, trust me I’d be pretty hypocritical if I did.” 

“Wait are you-?” Danny asked.

“You bet. I also have a spot on my radio show once a month to showcase trans artists.”  Hizashi preened, he was particularly proud of that segment. 

Danny’s excitement quickly left again. “That doesn’t change the fact I’ll miss who knows how many doses while stuck here.” 

Shouta shook his head. “Don’t worry about that. I'm taking you to Recovery Girl tomorrow to get you both checked up. Who knows what side effects dimensional travel comes with, you also need physicals to get temporary citizenship here.” 

Jazz twisted her hands. “Do you think we’ll be here long enough to even need that?” 

Shouta shrugged. “Ideally, no you wouldn't be. But we currently have no leads on who sent you here and only speculation on what their quirk might be so it’s better to be prepared.” 

Jazz seemed to take the answer well. Shouta led the group up to the apartment. He stopped at the door and faced the two teens with a steeled expression. “Now I need to warn you about The Queen of Arson before we enter. She will attack you if you don’t take your shoes off fast enough. Okay I'm opening the door now be ready.” He ignored the protests from the two teens as he walked through the door and changed his shoes out. Danny and Jazz stumbled through the door Jazz quickly started untying her shoes and Danny… stepped through his shoes, he could admit it was efficient at least. Hizashi was the last in the door. 

Shouta heard the telltale bell indicating The Queen of Arson’s approach. It seemed like Jazz was too slow to her liking as she pounced at her feet. Jazz yelped and almost fell causing Danny to laugh.

“It’s a cat?!” Jazz asked as she attempted to ward the cat off in vain. 

Shouta picked the one eared calico up off of Jazz, “What did you think she was?”

“I don’t know what kind of name is Queen of Arson?” She asked

“ The Queen of Arson, don’t forget the ‘the’ it’s important.” He said. “She’s a rescue from the cat café I go to a lot after patrols. When we first brought her home she swatted a piece of paper into a lit candle and it hit one of our friends, Tensei, and it set his shirt on fire. So she was given her name, we call her Arson for short though.” 

“Oh okay.” Jazz nodded, eyeing the cat uncertainly. 

“So the kitchen is to the right, if you get hungry go ahead and grab something from there. The hall past the living room is the rooms and bathroom. Ours is the one at the end of the hall. We have a guest room and a blow up mattress that we can put in the office, you can choose who gets what, it doesn't matter to me. I’m going to bed. Hizashi will help you out with the blow up mattress, wake me up if someone’s dying or there's a fire. The last thing he heard before falling asleep was Jazz and Danny discussing who’ll sleep where. 

Notes:

Laika the blob ghost is an agender icon.

Chapter 4: Checkups and Quirks

Summary:

Danny and Jazz go in for a checkup and Danny gets the chance to show off his powers.

Notes:

Check out my Tumblr and feel free to ask questions/talk about the story @going-dead

Danny phased his head through the wall into the room Jazz was staying in. “Hey Jazz are you awake yet?” It was pretty early in the morning. But Danny wasn’t too used to being able to sleep more than a few hours between ghost attacks and just generally patrolling the city for any threats. He was laying on the blow up mattress for two hours before he decided to try and talk to his sister.

He saw her form shift underneath the covers of the bed. “Yes, did you get four hours at least?” 

“Yeah five actually, it feels like I overslept to be honest.” Danny shrugged and phased the rest of the way through the wall. 

“Makes sense.” Jazz reached to turn the lamp on. “What did you need?”

Danny suddenly felt unsure, “Can we talk about what happened in the car? Because I am worried about being here, I just don’t really see a reason to be constantly fretting about it. I mean it’s not like freaking out will get us home any faster you know?”

“When did you start making good arguments instead of just throwing around childish insults?” Jazz teased.

Danny shrugged. “It happens sometimes,  don’t expect it too often. But seriously I am worried. It’s not like there’s anyone to protect Amity if a powerful ghost attacks. Mom, dad, and Valerie are good but they’re still just human.” 

Jazz nodded. “We’ll just have to have trust in them. Nevermind the fact that you should not be Amity’s only protector. Like you said, no use freaking out over things you can’t control right?”

“I suppose.” Honestly Danny should just be glad she wasn’t trying to psychoanalyze him. It was probably too early for her, and she hadn't had any coffee yet. “Do you think mom and dad are worried that we’re missing? They’ve probably noticed at this point.” 

“I’m sure they are. No doubt they think a ghost did it though, or maybe the Guys in White.”

“Great just what I need, more fuel for them to hate me and every other ghost with.” Danny groaned. 

“They don’t hate you Danny.”

“No, just Phantom.” Danny huffed. 

“I am sorry for what I said back in the car. I shouldn’t have said any of that.”

“It’s okay, like you said we both were stressed.”

Jazz stood up. “No it’s not okay Danny, I was stressed sure but that doesn’t excuse me for being rude and lashing out at you. You do understand that right?” 

“Yeah sure.” Danny said, still unconvinced. 

They sat in silence until the smell of food reached them. Danny decided to investigate the source of the smell, he was starting to get hungry anyway. He turned invisible and stuck his head through the wall facing the living room.

The apartment was pretty open concept, he could see through the living room into the kitchen. Both adults were awake already. Yamada was in the kitchen with his back turned to Danny. Aizawa was in the living room sitting on the couch looking through papers with what seemed to be the news on in the background. They both seemed pretty preoccupied so Danny figured it would be safe enough to just phase the rest of the way through the wall and turn visible again. He made his way towards the kitchen to see what Yamada was cooking. “What you making?” He asked leaning past him to look at the stove.

Yamada jumped and whipped towards him, his eyes wide, the tongs in his hand passed through Danny since he easily phased past them. Yamada seemed to calm down once he saw it was just Danny then looked down at the tongs that he accidentally hit him with. “Wait how did-? Oh right the whole ghost thing. Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you did I? Does doing that hurt?” He asked. He started circling around Danny to make sure there was nothing wrong. 

Danny shifted uncomfortably, he wasn’t used to someone fretting over him for something as small as almost hitting him with a kitchen utensil. “Yeah I’m fine. No I’m not hurt, and no it doesn’t hurt. Really it’s no big deal.” 

Yamada shook his head. “Maybe so, but I’m still sorry. You certainly gave me a scare. I’m surprised neither of us noticed you leave your room though.”

“Probably because I just phased through the wall. I smelled food and was curious at what you were making.” 

“Pancakes and bacon! Did you want to help?” He asked.

Danny cast an uncertain look at the stove. “I’m not sure how much help I’d be. I don’t really know how to cook.” His mom was the one who usually made meals. His dad wasn’t allowed to cook in the kitchen alone after he set the kitchen on fire and contaminated the food with a lethal amount of concentrated ectoplasm at the same time. His mom preferred cooking alone anyway. She’d always say she got her best ideas when she had a knife in hand. A sentiment that had really only become unnerving in the past year. 

“That’s okay, I didn’t know how to cook at your age either.” He laughed. “Never the wrong time to learn though. Only if you want of course.”

“I’ll help.” It was either this or sitting in the living room with Aizawa, and Danny could feel the man’s eyes on him even if every time he glanced over he was still looking at the papers in front of him. “I should probably do something that doesn’t involve fire though. I’d probably burn the food.”

“No problem, you can help cut the strawberries. They’re washed already, they  just need the tops cut off and to be halved.” He showed Danny where the cutting board was and which knife was the right one to use. “Just be careful not to cut yourself.”

Danny was able to do that much at least. He started cutting the fruit in front of him while Yamada finished cooking the bacon. He could hear Jazz leave her room and a quick look over showed she was sitting in the chair next to the couch. Once he was done with the strawberries he brought the bowl of them over to Yamada who instructed him to set them on the table. 

Soon enough the food was done and everyone sat down to eat, and if the strawberries were cut unevenly no one said anything about it. “Make sure you have a list of anything that might be pertinent to tell Recovery Girl. Medications, medical history, any current injuries, things like that. Make sure to be respectful. She's talking time out of her busy day to help us.” Aizawa told the two.

Danny started thinking up anything he’d have to tell her as he put his dishes in the sink. Did broken bones count as a medical history if they healed in a few days at most? Probably not. If it did they’d be in the office all day. He’d probably have to explain the portal accident again, he wasn’t sure how much this Recovery girl would be able to help with the physiology of his ghost form though. Maybe she’d just examine his human form. 

He gave Laika a quick pet before they all headed out of the apartment and down the stairs to the car. He watched all the people walking on the sidewalk as they drove by. 

It was weird to see so many people look so different grouped together. He was used to seeing such a big difference in appearance when it came to ghosts but not for humans. Just because a ghost looked threatening didn’t mean they were, Frostbite was a good example of that. The opposite was also true: Skulker's actual form outside of the armor was tiny but he still was a threat. Danny knew it was probably no different here as well. Any one of the people they passed could be a potential threat and he wouldn’t be able to tell. At least with ghosts he could tell when one was around, friendly or not. 

“Stop trying to case everyone on the street, it will drive you mad.” Aizawa said from the front passenger seat. 

“I’m just trying to keep an eye out for threats.” Danny huffed.

“I was talking to both of you, your sister is doing it too.” Aizawa pointed out. “Also you’re in a car with two pro-heroes, even if there was a threat there would be no reason for you to get involved.”

Danny shrugged. “Can’t stop something I'm used to having to do. Being the only protector of a whole city tends to come with having to be aware of the threats around you.” 

The car swerved as Yamada turned to look back at Danny. “The only protector!?”

“Watch the road!” Aizawa snapped as he tried to steady himself. “We can come back to that statement later. In the car is probably not the best time.”

Danny wasn’t quite sure why they seemed so concerned over the fact. He was the best equipped to fight ghosts after all. Like he told Jazz earlier that morning, humans can only do so much against a ghost. Plus he liked to think he managed pretty well so far. Especially since he juggles all of his other normal life stuff on top of it, though he could admit his school performance suffered from it. Soon enough they pulled into the parking lot Danny could only assume was of the school Aizawa and Yamada worked at. 

Inside the building there were swarms of students in the hall making their way to their classes. Danny leaned over to Aizawa. “Why are there other kids here it’s Saturday?”
“Due to it’s intense curriculum UA has a six day school week.” Aizawa informed him. 

“Doesn’t that mean you two should be teaching right now?” Jazz asked.

Aizawa shook his head. “We were able to get the next few days off to help you two settle in.”
Yamada laughed. “Plus he expelled his entire homeroom class this year, so he doesn’t have as much work to do.”

Jazz’s face blanched in shock. “You can do that? Why would you do that?”

“I’m a heroics teacher. If my students do not show the potential to make it as a hero they shouldn’t be heroes. Better they learn that now than out in the field with not only their life but the life of civilians and other heroes at stake.” Aizawa said.

“It still seems harsh for a fourteen year old.” Jazz refuted. 

“Maybe so.” Aizawa shrugged. “They still have the opportunity to make it back into the hero course if they work hard at it, they would get a different teacher than me though. But most of them just give up and stay in general studies or transfer to a different school.”

Danny could see where he was coming from. He’d been in enough situations where making a mistake or not acting quick enough would’ve cost lives. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if that ever did happen. Hopefully it never did. 

When they arrived at what Danny assumed was Recovery Girl’s office they were ushered in by an old lady who was using a giant syringe as a cane. “You two must be the ones Eraserhead was telling me about. I’m Recovery Girl, come on in.” She handed each of them a stack of paper to fill out. 

Danny glanced through the stack. Some of the questions were pretty simple, others on the other hand- “What should I put down for my quirk? Should I just put none down where it asks for my parent’s quirks?”

“Just put down what best describes your powers in as little words as possible, she’ll probably have you do a quirk assessment after your check up so we can get it registered.” Aizawa told him. “If neither of your parent’s have a quirk like you said, put down quirkless.” 

Seemed simple enough, the fewest words possible though would be hard. His list of powers was long and he seemed to find new ones all the time. He supposed for now he could just write ‘ghost’ down. Otherwise he’d need a lot more room to write. Jazz finished her paperwork first so she was taken into the exam room first while Danny finished his up.  “What’s a quirk assessment?” 

“It’s usually done at schools around the age when children first get their quirks. It helps get a baseline of the quirks power and to see if any student needs to see a quirk counselor.” Aizawa answered.

Oh they were going to be here all day if he had to go through a list of every one of his abilities. Maybe he should just stick to the ones that could cause the most damage? But used correctly most of his powers could cause serious damage. He also really doubted that he’d be able to show all of his powers off in the office without knocking a wall down. 

Eventually Jazz came out of the exam room and motioned for Danny to go in while she sat down next to Yamada. Danny entered the exam room and shut the door behind him. Recovery Girl took the papers from him and gestured for him to sit on the exam bed. She gave a small hum as she flipped through the paperwork. “It seems you put down what your quirk was but not what type it is. Did you need an explanation of what they are?” 

Danny shook his head, Aizawa explained it to him while he was filling the forums out. “No, I just wasn’t sure which one my powers would fall under since it sort of fits all of them. I have a ghost form I can transform into but I don’t have to transform to use my powers, I can make ecto-blasts and control ice for the emitter type, but half my DNA is that of a ghost and I can’t really stop it being half so that sorta fits the mutant type. So I just left it blank, figured It’d be easier to just ask your opinion.” 

Recovery Girl nodded her head. “Very well. I will want to do an examination on your ghost form as well then. We can figure out how to classify your quirk after we do an assessment. From the sounds of it we’ll have to go out to the training grounds.” She started her examination, checking his vitals, reflexes and even took some x-rays. She then asked him to transform into his ghost form. Danny had to give her credit that she really only stopped to stare for a few seconds before getting to work. She’d ask a few clarifying questions as she went along. “What is your power source for this form? You don’t seem to have any organs like you do as a human.”

That was a tough question to answer. He knew the answer of course it was his core. But even the existence of ghost cores was a closely kept secret. Even his parents didn’t know they existed. It was basically a ghost's soul, ghosts could take a lot of damage but as long as a part of their core remained they could heal from most things. The thought of telling someone he just met about them, even if she was trying to help, made Danny uneasy. Especially if it was going to be documented on paper. 

Recovery girl seemed to sense his mood shift. “You don’t have to answer dearie, it’s simply out of curiosity I ask. We’re pretty much all done with the physical so why don’t you change back. No need to give Eraserhead and Present Mic a heart attack.” 

Danny didn’t think his ghost form was that unsettling. She probably just meant they wouldn’t expect him to come out looking so different. Danny did as he was told and walked back to where everyone else was waiting.

“How did it go?” Jazz asked.

“Fine.” Danny shrugged. “She wants to do a catalog of all my powers though.”

Jazz winced. “We’re going to be here for a bit then.”

“Only if they ask questions.” Danny nodded before they started making their way to the training grounds.

 Danny couldn’t help but marvel at how large the school was. Even the grounds around the school seemed to be purposed towards training. It made sense, Aizawa did say it was a school to train the future hero’s of this world after all. The students that passed all wanted to help the world and save the innocent. Part of him wanted to stop a few of them and just talk. Ask what made them want to be heroes. But there wasn’t time for that, they were almost at their destination. 

They arrived at what seemed to be a mock city. All the buildings were made of concrete and were lacking in things like actual windows or doors, just holes in the shape of them.  He briefly wondered how long it took to build, not too long he hoped. He had a feeling he’d probably damage a few of the buildings during this. 

“All the buildings are made by Cementoss, one of the teachers here, everything is easy to fix here so don’t feel like you have to hold back if you don’t want to.” Aizawa said, it was like he could read minds. It was sort of creepy if you asked Danny. 

“So how exactly does this go, where should I start power wise? I’ve never really had to just show off my powers.” He asked. 

“Just go in order from least to most dangerous.” Aizawa answered. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jazz shake her head and went to go sit by a building.  

Danny rubbed the side of his neck. “Well that doesn’t help much to be honest. Do you mean dangerous by deadliness or amount of property damage?”

Aizawa’s brows rose. “What’s the difference?”

“Intangibility for example.” Danny took a few steps towards Aizawa and raised his hand in front of him and wiggled his fingers. “Wouldn’t be great for physical destruction and is mainly used for easier travel or getting into blocked places but-” Danny thrusted his intangible hand into the man's chest. “I could easily rip out your heart if it wanted to as well.”

Aizawa went stiff, even his breath seemed to stop. His eyes went from Danny to the hand through him then back up to Danny. They were red now and his hair started to float. 

Danny quickly retracted his hand, Aizawa was freaking him out. He still wasn’t sure what the man's power was and didn’t want to find out by it being used on him. He remembered the red eyes and floating hair from back in the alleyway when they first met, so it must be part of his quirk. 

“So does that answer your question?”  He really hoped it did. The way Aizawa was staring at him was unsettling. 

“My quirk doesn’t work on you.”

“What?” 

“My quirk, it erases other peoples quirk. It doesn’t work on you.” The frown on his face somehow deepened even more.

So that’s what it was, it seemed like a pretty cool power in Danny’s opinion. “Is that a bad thing?” 

“...No it’s fine, let's continue.” Aizawa said. “Just go in whatever order you want, you know your quirk the most.” 

Seemed fair enough. “Alright I’m gonna transform first though, there’s a few things that take up less energy in my ghost form and I’d rather not pass out from exhaustion before we can finish.” Exhausting his core wouldn’t hurt him but he’d probably need a long nap after. 

Aizawa just shrugged and gestured for him to continue, he still didn’t seem to want to take his eyes off of Danny though. Danny couldn’t imagine why though, from the looks of it Aizawa was professionally trained to fight he’d probably be able to take Danny down easily. He also doubted Yamada would just stand by and just watch his husband fight, and Danny didn’t even know what his power was. 

Ending that train of thought Danny transformed for the second time that day. Aizawa was still looking at him but he looked paler now. “You okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Danny chuckled, Aizawa did not. “Right, showing you my powers now.” 

He started off with flight, he thought that would be simple with no questions asked. Apparently not.

“Do you know how fast you can fly?” Recovery Girl asked.

“115 miles per hour last time I recorded but it’s been a while since then.” 

“Would a strong wind slow you down?”

“Only if I wasn’t intangible.” 

“Okay please continue.”

Invisibility was next. With more questions.

“Can you still see and breathe while intangible or invisible?” 

“Yeah, why wouldn't I?”

“There’s a second year with a permeation quirk who loses his senses when he uses it.” Aizawa answered this time. At least he wasn’t staring Danny down anymore. 

He showed off his ecto-blasts. (Are they hot or cold? Hot. Can they hurt people? Yes.) His shield (How much force can they take? Depends.) Telekinesis (What’s the weight limit? Don’t know.) His strength. (How strong are you? Lifted a bus pretty easily once) How he could manipulate his ghost form. (Can you do that in your regular form? Yes, but it hurts).

It was nice being able to freely use his powers with other people around when he didn’t have to fight ghosts, but he was getting tired of all the questions. He didn’t think using his powers could get boring but here they were. He could probably make this next part fun. All the rest of his powers were the property damage ones. He didn’t get much of a chance to play with his ice powers in a large sense outside of the Far Frozen. 

He looked over at the building next to him sizing it up. He probably could freeze it over, it was only four stories tall. Only one way to find out. He placed his hand against the concrete building and focused in on his core. Finding the concentrated icy energy and letting it flow out of him. Stepping back the building was more of a giant ice cube now than anything else. So were the two buildings on each side of it. Oops. 

He looked back at the others. “Sorry! I was only trying to freeze over the smaller building.”

“I told you before, it’s fine.” Aizawa waved him off. “Any questions Recovery Girl?” 

She shook her head. “No, but I do suggest working on finer control over that power. Do you have any other powers?” 

Danny gave a small pout. He had perfectly fine control over his ice powers, at least when it came to using them on a smaller scale. ”Just one left.”

He thought back to early that morning before they left and Aizawa pulled him aside. 

“Remember, you don’t have to give everything away if you do not want to. It’s always good to keep a few things close to your chest.” 

Danny wasn’t sure exactly why he needed him to know that but he was glad he told him that. Some of his powers were more helpful when he had surprise on his side, like duplication. Though he could really only hold one duplicate stable for more than an hour. Other powers like overshadowing would probably just be too much for them to learn about. He knew from experience that someone talking over your body was not pleasant to watch. 

“I call it my ghostly wail. Basically a really loud scream, it’s good against lots of powerful enemies but it takes a lot of power.” Danny explained.

“No way!” A voice came from the side yelled out. It was Yamada, who previously was sitting next to Jazz but now was excitedly making his way towards Danny. Danny floated a half step away from the rapidly approaching man not sure what had him so excited all of a sudden. 

“Woah you look a lot more ghostly up close.” Yamada said, leaning in examining Danny’s face. “Anyway! Your ghostly wail sounds a lot like my quirk.” He smiled.

“Wait really?” Danny asked.

Yamada nodded. “You wanna see?”

Danny nodded his head crossing his legs in the air. Yamada stood in front of the iced over building and double checked to make sure everyone was behind him. He took a deep breath and let out a loud, “ YEAAAAAH!!! ”  The ice on the buildings shattered, falling to the ground and a few cracks appeared in the concrete. 

Danny wasn’t even in the line of the blast and his ears hurt. He was pretty sure if he wanted Yamada could easily bust people's eardrums. He was right though his power was similar to Danny’s own ghostly wail but it wasn’t the same. “Woah, that was loud, and cool.” 

Yamada seemed to preen at the praise. “Your turn little listener!”

Danny readied himself, his wail always took a lot out of him. But now he really wanted to show it off. He stood where Yamada was just standing in front of the now ice free building and screamed . 

The weakened building in front of him crumbled, as did the building behind, and the building behind that one and so on until the wall of the training area could be seen and even that now had a large crack marring its surface. Danny stumbled back and felt himself detransform. He might have gone a little overboard there, whoops. 

Looking back at everyone else they had the same face Sam and Tucker usually did when he had to use the wail. A look close to horror. Definitely went overboard then. “Sorry I got a little excited. I'll clean the rubble up, I didn’t mean to do so much damage.” 

They weren’t looking at the damage behind him though they were looking at him. “What was that?” Aizawa asked.

Danny rubbed the side of his neck. “My ghostly wail? I just explained it to you?”

Yamada shook his head and let out a ragged sounding breath. “Not that bud. It’s just the scream was pretty intense.”

Danny tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

“It’s just-” He seemed to struggle finding the words. “It’s just that we only hear screams like- screams like that when it’s indicating we didn’t get to a scene fast enough.”

“Oh.” Danny hunched in himself. “Sorry.”  

“It’s not your fault we are the ones who asked you to show us.” Aizawa spoke. “Recovery Girl, did you get everything you need?”

“Yes I did, thank you. I'll make sure to call in your prescription today Danny, you'll be able to come get it Monday. You should be able to pick up the papers you need for temporary citizenship in about a week.” She said.

“If we’re still here in a week.” Danny pointed out

“Of course; in a week, if you haven't found a way back home by then.” She smiled. “Now I must get back to my office, some of us have work to do.” She laughed before heading back towards the school. 

“We should probably get something to eat, it’s past lunchtime now.” Yamada said.

Aizawa nodded. “Sure, I have to grab something from my desk first. Take Danny to the car, he looks tired. Jazz, do you mind coming with me?” 

Jazz looked the man up and down. “No, I don't mind.” She turned to her brother. “Take a small nap, and make sure to tell Yamada if you need anything.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “You won't be gone for longer than ten minutes just go. The longer you dawdle the longer it is until we can eat.” 

They all split off from each other heading in different directions. Once Jazz and Aizawa entered the building she turned to him while they walked. “What did you want to talk about then?”

Aizawa glanced over to her and raised a brow. “What makes you think I wanted to talk about anything?” 

Jazz frowned. “I’m not stupid. Earlier you said you don’t have any students so it’s not anything you have to grade, and if it really is just something you forgot you would have grabbed it when we were already in the building earlier today. So therefore you want to talk to me. And since you asked Yamada to take Danny to the car it’s probably about him. So, what did you want to ask?” 

Aizawa let out a huff. “Never said you were stupid, you’re quite smart it seems.” He glanced around and ducked into an empty classroom. Jazz followed hesitantly. “Don’t want people or rodents listening in.”

“Rodents?” 

“Possibly a bear, not important right now.” Aizawa said. “But you’re right I do have a question that I didn’t want your brother to hear.” He bent down to look Jazz in the eyes. “Do you think you could fight Danny if he was trying to hurt you?”

Jazz shook her head. “Danny would never try to hurt me on purpose. I don't think he’s capable, physically at least. He definitely works on my patience though with some of the things he says or does.” 

“Okay but if something happened and he did try, would you be able to?”

“You want the truth?” She asked, and Aizawa nodded. “Not a chance. Even if I had ecto-weapons it would only prolong the inevitable. I’m only telling you this because I can tell you have our best interests at heart. And so you realize both what you’re getting into and why we need to find our way home sooner than later. Danny hasn’t had his powers for a long time in the scheme of things but is already just as strong if not stronger than ghosts that some would consider almost godlike.” She paused. “But like I said, Danny wouldn’t hurt me. Or anyone without a good reason. He gets bullied daily even though he could easily stop it if he actually fought back. But he wont. He’s a good kid who put’s the safety of others before himself.” 

Aizawa nodded. “That’s what I figured. I’ll need to make sure  Recovery Girl downplays his powers on the forums. I’m sure she already knows but it doesn’t hurt to verify.” 

“What why?”

“Because a lot of people have access to the quirk registry, and a lot of people would be interested in someone with even a few of Danny’s abilities.”

“Oh.”

“Oh indeed. Now let's get back to the car. I’m hungry and I’m sure everyone else is too.” Aizawa said walking out of the classroom. 

 

Notes:

This was a longer one dang. I wasn't expecting it to come out with so many words but oh well I hope you enjoyed.

Chapter 5: Adventures in Vigilantism

Summary:

Danny engages in some light Vigilantism and meets a familiar face (to us).

Notes:

Small warning for guns in this chapter

Danny was bored. Once they hit the two week mark of being in this world a few days ago Jazz decided the two of them needed to keep up their studies and started to draft up lesson plans based on the textbooks in their backpacks they brought along with them. And Danny went along with it! Just because there was nothing else to do in the apartment.

Unfortunately she was still working on them so all Danny could do for now was watch TV or snoop through Aizawa and Yamada’s hero paperwork when they weren’t looking.  Apparently Aizawa started a case along  with some cowboy themed hero named ‘Snipe’ trying to track down some villain who was allegedly linked to multiple robberies and the subsequent murders of a few shop owners and one cop. Yamada was finishing up a report from a villain he caught a few days ago on his way to his radio show. 

Danny had also taken up knife throwing. Aizawa had a practice target hung up on the wall, who offered to teach Danny how to actually use throwing knives after he caught him trying to figure it out on his own and almost got a knife stuck in the wall. 

He told Danny not to use the knives unless he was there to supervise though, so Danny was stuck watching the news for now. One thing he learned watching the news all the time was that there was a lot of crime here. At first Danny wondered why there seemed to be so many heroes, and why there was a whole school to train them, but after just a few days of the news he could tell villains were a recurring problem. It made his obsession itch to go out and help . 

Now it wasn’t like he wasn’t in control of his obsession, he very much was, just as much as any other sane ghost. Obsessions were honestly more like a craving than a need. You might really want a chocolate cake, and eating some won't hurt if you didn’t go too overboard and eat so much you got sick. But you could also choose not to eat cake and go about your life just as easily, if  not a little disappointed.  An obsession wasn’t a need, sure, but it was definitely nice to indulge in as long as it wasn’t harming anyone. 

Plus it wasn’t as if he could just leave. The two of them weren’t allowed to leave the apartment without ‘adult supervision’ until said adults felt like the two teens were familiar enough with the surrounding areas. Even if both adults were out at their job and wouldn't notice, Jazz seemed to agree with them and would tell on him if he left during the day. He looked over at Laika and The Queen of Arson who were asleep curled up with each other. A friendship he honestly didn’t expect to occur since the first few days they were here she would try to knock Laika out of the air as they flew around. At least those two were content and not bored. 

He sighed and got up to head to his room, maybe something to do miraculously spawned in there. It didn’t. 

Still just an air mattress, the few things that were in his school bag like the thermos, and the stuff they got when they went shopping with Yamada. He turned to the window, maybe if he looked out of it long enough he’d be lucky and see a hero pass by. 

Watching the sun slowly set behind the skyline, Danny got an idea, both Yamada and Aizawa would be working late night today. Or it was more apt to say, they were working until early morning. 

He made his way over to Jazz’s room and knocked on the door. “Hey Jazz I’m heading to bed.”

“Already?” Her voice was muffled by the door.

“Yeah, I’m feeling pretty tired today. Figured it’d be better to just turn in a bit early.” He replied, faking a yawn.

“Alright, goodnight. Don’t forget to brush your teeth!” She called out.

“I won’t. Night!” He felt a little bad lying to her, but not bad enough to change his mind. He lied to her about his half ghost status for a long time after all, though she figured that out herself after a bit. He went back to his room and made sure to lock the door.

Danny grabbed a bundle of clothes and stuffed them under the blanket, shaping it in what he hoped was at least vaguely convincing human shape. He transformed for the first time in two weeks and flew through the wall invisible. It’s not like this world heroes didn’t need the help anyway, he just had to make sure he wasn’t caught. By heroes or Jazz. 

The first criminal, or criminals he should say,  he ran into were doing some sort of drug trade gone wrong in a back alley. Which was pretty stupid to do when there was still a bit of daylight, if you asked him. They further proved their incompetence by being absolutely awful fighters. Danny was eighty percent sure one of them hit the other at one point, but that might have been on purpose. He was able to knock them out easily enough. The only problem now was what to do with them. 

Obviously take them to a police station, wasn’t the one detective Tsukauchi worked at the closest? Danny was sure he’d recognize it if he saw it. He didn’t have anything to tie them up with though, he could use ecto-energy for today but he would have to get rope or something for the next time he went out. 

He lifted each criminal under an arm and took off, turning invisible once more. He started looking for the police station and eventually found it. He touched down in the middle of the station and carried them to a holding cell. He wished he had a pen and paper so he could leave a note though. Oh well, nothing he could do at this point. Maybe he’ll carry paper and pens around next time too, or sticky notes.

After flying around apprehending a few more criminals, and helping one lost child, Danny came across a beach absolutely covered in trash. The place was practically a landfill. A bit farther down the beach he saw some movement. Was that a person dragging a fridge? Flying closer revealed that it wasn’t just a person, it was a kid who looked around Danny’s age actually. The kid had green hair and eyes, as he got closer Danny could see there were a few freckles on his face as well. 

While Danny was pretty sure dragging a fridge around a dirty beach wasn’t illegal but it definitely couldn’t be safe. There could be broken glass in the sand or who knew what else. He dropped down next to the boy. “Dude what are you doing? It’s like eleven o’clock, shouldn't you be asleep or something? Or at least at home.” 

To the other boy’s credit he only jumped slightly when Danny appeared out of nowhere. “I’m training, I missed yesterday so I have to make up for it today.” The boy looked Danny up and down after letting go of the fridge. “Who are you anyway?”

“You can call me Phantom. You still shouldn’t be out this late anyway, this city is practically overrun with criminals.”  

“My name is Midoriya. Are you a villain then? You’re certainly not a hero.” His fists curled up into fists when he spoke, as if he was readying for a fight. 

“Wow, just because I look a little spooky means I can’t be a hero?” Danny was honestly offended at the notion. 

The boy seemed to panic waving his hands around in the air trying to backtrack. “What no! That’s not What I meant to say at all! I’m just a really big fan of heroes! I keep a log of all the heroes in the area and the surrounding areas, so since I’ve never seen you before you couldn’t be a hero.” Midoriya finally stopped to catch his breath. “Plus you look like you’re around my age so there’s no way you could have your hero license already. If you’re not a villain then you’re probably a vigilante right?”

Danny shrugged. “I suppose so. You don't have a problem with vigilantes do you?”

Midoriya shook his head. “No, not at all! That was going to be my backup plan if U.A. didn’t let me in actually.” 

“Oh you want to be a hero?” It made sense why he was training so late then. From what he’s heard from Aizawa and Yamada, the U.A entrance exam could be ruthless to people not properly trained with their powers. “What's your quirk? Is it strength related?” It would make sense if it was since he was lugging heavy trash around.

Midoriya seemed to think for a bit before he  looked down at the ground. “You’re going to think it’s stupid.”

Danny really doubted that, honestly the fact that powers were a commonplace here, even if they were something simple, made any quirk cool in his opinion. “Try me. It can’t be that stupid.” 

“I’m quirkless.” His face pinched up, like he was expecting to be laughed up. 

“Oh is that all?” Danny was expecting something that might just not be suited for combat or support. Or even something that was just sorta goofy. 

“What do you mean ‘is that all?” Midoriya asked.

“I just don’t see why that’s such a big deal? My sister doesn’t have any powers either but I’ve also seen her take down a full grown man with shocking ease.” That GIW agent had no idea what was coming for him until he was already laying face down in the dirt. It was quite funny to watch. 

Midoriya still looked a little unsure but at least he didn’t look ashamed anymore. Danny stayed on the beach making small talk until Midoriya had to go home. Danny offered to help clean up some of the trash but was turned down. Apparently cleaning the entire beach was a part of his strength training that his mentor had him doing.  

Danny patrolled the city a bit longer but after nothing interesting happened he headed back home. Aizawa would be back home in about an hour unless something caught him up and Danny wanted to actually be in bed before he got home. He transformed and pulled his pajamas on before heading to bed, actually tired now. 

In the next two weeks, now marking a month since they came to this world, and still no leads on how to get back to their own world, Danny was able to sneak out quite a bit. He didn’t do it every day but often enough to help with boredom. Jazz had finished up the lesson plans so that had also helped.

Danny was watching TV with Aizawa, after some training with knives, who was critiquing the hero fights they were showing on the news. Danny  agreed with him, a lot of the heroes seemed more interested in showing off then actually helping people. There was nothing wrong with being flashy, but it was another story if it compromised the safety of others. The news was currently talking about a recent vigilante that seemed to emerge out of nowhere. No one except the villains they turned in actually saw them, so they were calling them ‘The Specter’ for now. Danny was pretty sure it was him they were talking about, unless there was someone else out there who could turn invisible and go through walls. The name was better than Inviso-Bill at least. 

Aizawa always seemed to have a  pretty neutral stance on vigilantes. He seemed to actually  like a few of them, but thought a lot of them just got in the way and became a liability if they intervened on a job a pro was already handling. Danny was pretty sure he didn’t suspect him to be the newest vigilante on the block. At least he had yet to say anything that would make Danny think he did. 

Aizawa would be leaving for patrol soon though, and Yamada turned in early after a long work day. That meant Danny would also be able to leave a little bit after Aizawa did.

 Maybe he’d visit Midoriya on the beach again. He usually stopped by to see if the other boy was there. He had made some serious progress on the beach but there was still quite a large chunk to go. He often asked Danny about his powers and what villain he fought most recently. 

He also would talk for hours about heroes. Especially his favorite hero All Might. After he found out Danny didn’t actually know about many heroes he made it his mission to tell him about all the heroes he thought Danny might like.  Eventually Danny settled on the Space Hero: Thirteen, how could he not she could create black holes! Danny thought it’d be cool to meet them one day. Apparently they work at U.A as well, training students in rescue work. Maybe he could convince Yamada or Aizawa to let him meet them. 

Danny would have to ask later though since Aizawa had  just gotten up to leave for the night. Danny figured he’d make himself something to eat before leaving. He had to eat more recently, he wasn’t sure if it was due to the lack of a direct source of outside ectoplasm or if he was finally going to be going through a growth spurt soon, or maybe a bit of both.  He’d gotten better at cooking in the last month with the help of Yamada. He hardly ever burnt food anymore, and actually started to learn how to bake desserts as well. Aizawa even said they didn’t taste awful! But he made sure to point out the ones at the cat café down the street were still better. Which Danny agreed with, the cakes tested really good when they took him and Jazz there.  

With food eaten, and a slight craving for sweets, Danny once again headed to his room and transformed. He felt like he was getting pretty good at making the clothes look like a body under the blanket at this point. Yamada said they should get him an actual bed soon though. Danny wasn’t sure how he felt about that. A bed meant they were expecting him to be here even longer. Which made sense since they didn’t have any leads, but it was definitely  disheartening after a whole month. 

Danny stopped by the beach first, if he did so later in the evening he wouldn’t be able to talk to Midoriya as much since he had to be home by a certain time. Sometimes they’d just be each other's company while Midoriya worked in silence. Apparently his mentor would sit in on his sessions often but had been out of the area on ‘hero stuff’ for a bit. Midoriya always avoided talking about who his mentor actually was though. And while Danny was definitely curious he wouldn’t pry. Not like he didn’t have his own secrets.  

The section of beach Midoriya was working on now was clear of all the large debris and it was just small trash now. Danny found him carrying a few full trash bags over to the pile. “Hey Midoriya!” Danny waived.

Midoriya, who had gotten used to Danny appearing out of thin air at this point, waved back. “Hey Phantom!” 

“How’s it going?” Danny asked.

“Good! I just hope I can finish the beach before the entrance exam.” He sighed. 

Danny could acknowledge that it was a valid worry. Midoriya had made a lot of progress in just the two weeks Danny had known him. But the beach was huge, and Danny knew Midoriya didn’t want help so he held in his offer to help. “I’m sure it’ll be fine, you just got to think positively.” He really hoped that sounded encouraging. 

Midoriya nodded his head. “You’re right! Moping won’t help me pick up the trash any quicker.” He took a drink out of his water bottle. “Did you know Snipe and Eraserhead are in the area?”

Danny stiffened. “No. I did not.” Oh no, if Aizawa found him he’s screwed. 

Midoriya didn’t seem to notice Danny’s possible  impending doom though. “Yeah! I’ve seen Snipe in action a few times before but Eraserhead is an underground hero so it’s difficult to even find clips of him online since he mainly relies on the element of surprise. I wonder if I wandered around a bit if I could find where he’s patrolling.” 

Danny was extremely opposed to that idea. “If he’s in the area that probably means there’s someone dangerous in the area as well. So you’d probably be better off focusing on cleaning the beach. Or going home even. I’d walk with you if you want.”

Midoriya rolled his eyes. “I can’t be a hero if I have to rely on a vigilante to walk me home.” 

“Of course you can. Because you’re not a hero yet.”

Midoriya laughed. “You’re technically not a hero either Phantom. Actually I’m pretty sure the news has labeled you ‘an unknown and most likely dangerous vigilante’ they even gave you a vigilante name.” He pointed out. “Though you already have one so I don’t know how much you like that fact.”

“You saw that, did you? Plus, if I told them my actual hero name my guardians would find out and not let me out of their sight.” 

Midoriya nodded as if saying ‘fair enough’. “Why don’t you apply to U.A? The entrance exam is only in two more months.  We could be heroes together. There’s also other hero schools too if U.A isn’t where you want to go.”

Danny shook his head. “If everything goes well I’m not planning on being in Japan for that long.” He honestly hoped he wasn’t going to be here even for another month. Everyone was nice here but Amity needed him. 

“Oh.” Midoriya frowned but quickly shook it off and smiled. “Well you have to tell me before you leave. You’re the nicest friend I’ve had.” 

Oh wow, that was sad. They’d only known each other a few weeks and Danny already had the top spot of friendliness? Not to mention Midoriya didn’t even know his actual name. It felt rude to point that out though. “You know what, how ‘bout we switch numbers?” Yamada had added his and Jazz’s phones to their phone plan in case they had to get into contact with either of them. 

Midoriya lit up. “Yeah! That would be great. Don't worry I’ll try not to text you too often.”

Danny waved him off. “Don’t worry about it, text me all you like. Even  if it’s something small, like if you saw a cool hero fight. Trust me I get pretty bored during the day. It'd be nice to have someone to talk to.” 

They exchanged numbers before Midoriya had to leave. “Text me when you get home?” 

“Phantom you sound like my mom.” He laughed. “But sure.” Midoriya waved goodbye. 

Danny took to the sky heading in the opposite direction that Midoriya went. He only flew for a few minutes before the sounds of breaking glass caught his attention. Following the source of the sound he found a broken window leading into a jewelry store and a figure running away clutching a bag to their chest heading into an alleyway.

Seriously what was with villains and alleyways Danny wondered as he gave chase. He caught up with the thief easily but even though he was invisible and to their back the thief somehow managed to dodge his first attack. 

The thief turned around glaring at the spot Danny was. “I know you’re there. I can sense you.” A deep voice came out from behind the mask the thief was wearing. 

If there was no point in being invisible Danny wasn’t going to bother keeping it up. He dropped his invisibility as he aimed another punch at the man who just dodged again with a laugh.

“Trying to fight me is useless. My quirk allows me to sense attacks aimed at me, making me untouchable.”

Oh ancients, he was monologuing. Why did they always monolog? Even while talking he managed to dodge Danny’s attacks with ease. Danny wasn’t going to give up that easily, the man had to have some limit on what he could sense. 

Danny backed up and switched to ectoblasts. “Even the cops and quite a few heroes couldn’t land a hit on me. Do you think a little boy like you could even come close?” The man taunted.

“I don’t know. But you seem sorta like a coward to me. You haven’t even attacked me once.” Danny said as he threw another ectoblast while trying to subtly cover the ground with ice. 

The man growled. “Why you little shit!” Before lunging towards Danny. 

Danny flew up into the air before turning invisible again while the man tried to catch his balance on the ice. There had to be a limit of what he could detect, maybe invisibility would help. Or a way to overwhelm his quirk so he couldn’t sense everything. He just had to think.

He couldn’t just use an attack so big he couldn’t dodge. There were too many buildings nearby and there could be people inside. He half heartedly threw some ice attacks and ectoblasts the man's way but he once again easily dodged them now that he had stable footing. 

Then Danny got an idea, he really hoped it worked. He created a large ball of ecto-energy in one hand and threw it directly at the man’s head. While he was busy dodging that attack, Danny quickly froze his feet to the ground.

“Ha! Who’s the little boy now?” Danny grinned and grabbed the rope he started to keep on him, before turning visible again as he landed behind the man. 

Suddenly a bunch of things happened all at once:

Danny heard the ice crack as the man in front of Danny swore and quickly dropped to the ground just before the sound of multiple gunshots rang out.

Right before Danny’s world exploded in pain he heard Aizawa’s voice  yell out “Wait! Snipe no, STOP!” 

Notes:

Sorry not sorry.

Also Danny and Midoriya friendship isn't something I knew I needed before starting this story.

Chapter 6: Consequences of Vigilantism

Summary:

Aizawa's view of Danny's vigilantism and the aftermath.

Notes:

This story has almost hit 1000 Kudos and I'm freaking out about it! Thank you all so much, I never thought I'd get this even close to this much engagement on this fic so once again thank you so much!

Contrary to the popular belief of those who knew him, Shouta didn’t mind teaming up with other heroes when needed.  It was often a tactical advantage to have people with different skill sets on a difficult case. That's why, when he was brought a case the police were having trouble with, he approached his fellow hero and U.A teacher Snipe to ask if he wanted to work together on it. 

Unfortunately the case was dragging on. It had been two and a half weeks since they started on it and they hadn’t managed to capture the villain yet. Snipe managed to corner the villain once, but his quirk seemed to alert him of incoming attacks and he managed to get away unscathed. So the two patrolled together as a pair for now until they could capture the villain.

Shouta wasn’t going to be on patrol until a little later in the day though. So currently he was on supervisor duty to the kids while Hizashi was out on his daytime patrol. Not like the two kids who had been living with them for the past month really needed supervision in the apartment.  Well that wasn’t entirely true, seeing he found Danny trying to ruin the drywall a few weeks ago after deciding that trying to throw Shouta’s knives around unsupervised was a good idea. 

Not to mention the boy thought he was doing a good job pretending that he wasn’t moonlighting as a vigilante. He and Hizashi made sure everyone in their household (as well as their friends) had trackers on their phones in case anyone got in trouble in the field or was kidnapped and held as a hostage. It had saved each of their lives a few times. But even if that wasn’t the case, even if no law enforcement officers saw Danny, all of the villains the boy captured described someone with too many similarities to Danny’s ghost form. Not that they were taken seriously.

Not like Aizawa could blame the police who interrogated them, he wouldn’t believe the descriptions either if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. Even in the age of quirks Danny’s ghost form just seemed off . Some of the features individually wouldn't raise many questions but put altogether it was a different story. His ears became pointed, his lips and the tips of his ears had a bluish tint as if he was out in the cold just a little too long, and when he talked pointed teeth were visible. His whole body seemed to give off a glow even in the daylight and his eyes almost seemed radioactive with how they shined.  Even if he walked on the ground instead of floating, gravity seemed more like a suggestion with how he moved around.  Some of his hair occasionally wisped up like smoke or fog (Or a cloud, the small part of his brain that still grieved for a lost friend whispered). 

He was a bit skeptical the first day they met and Danny said no one recognized him in his ghost form, but he understood once he saw it. His ghost form just seemed unnatural. Shouta also knew he couldn’t hold how unsettling Danny’s form was against him. He had no control over how he looked, and Shouta was able to get used to it in the few hours he was exposed to it during the power assessment a month ago. 

But that was beside the point. The point was that Danny was not as good at sneaking around as he thought he was. Maybe Shouta could add stealth training into the knife fighting lessons as well. The only reason he hadn’t confronted the boy about it yet was because he hadn't gotten into any trouble and he mainly went after more small-time villains.

He’d have to bring it up to him soon though. Shouta could understand why Danny was doing it. Or at least he was pretty sure he could. From what Danny told them the kid was used to being the sole protector of an entire city, which in his opinion sounded absolutely exhausting. Shouta was no stranger to sleepless nights and all nighters but he also knew if he had to take a day off there were dozens of other heroes who could fill his place. The kid probably felt restless after going from having little to no time for himself to living peacefully with an abundance of free time on his hands. 

But being restless wouldn’t hold up in court while on trial for illegal quirk usage and vigilantism, so he needed to talk to Danny before he somehow got caught. Though whoever tried to capture him would have a hell of a time dealing with his array of abilities. If he was tracked back to the apartment on the other hand it could fall back on him and Hizashi since Danny was still a minor and they were his current guardians. While he wasn't too concerned with his own barely existing public image it would be a PR nightmare for Hizashi and his agency. So it’d probably be better to talk sooner than later. He could put it off until another day though, he didn’t want to have that conversation right before a patrol. 

He got a text from Hizashi saying he was on his way home and that he was making the executive decision that he was picking up takeout on his way home today for dinner. Shouta was fine with that, it seemed his husband had a bit of a stressful day if the play by play texts he would always send were anything to go by. That meant Hizashi would probably eat then go straight to bed. He’d complain to Shouta about his day tomorrow after he got some rest.

With two out of three members of his household accounted for Shouta figured he probably should check on the third. He made his way to Jazz’s room and knocked on the door. The girl had been  more reclusive lately and honestly Shouta was starting to worry.

“Come in.” He heard her voice call through the door. 

Shouta opened the door peering into the room. Jazz was sitting at the one of the desks they had to move from Danny’s room to make room for the air mattress, the other one was in his and Hizashi’s room. She was fiddling with the thermos that was usually sitting in Danny’s room. 

“What are you doing?” He asked.

Jazz sighed and put down the screwdriver in her hand. “This is the only piece of ecto technology we have here. I’m hoping I can make something like the portable ghost portal gun my parents made once. The portals weren’t too stable but it did still give access to the Ghost Zone.”

“You’re trying to create brand new tech, that rips a hole in reality,  with a thermos and the toolkit we use to put furniture together?” Shouta was pretty sure even Powerloader wouldn't be able to do something like that, and he was one of the best support designers in the industry. 

“Rip a temporary hole in reality, but yes. It’s not like I have much else to work with.” Jazz shrugged. “Plus it only looks like a thermos. It’s actually used to capture ghosts.”

Of course it is. “Do you have any experience with inventing ghost technology?” He really didn’t want to explain to the landlord that there was an explosion in his apartment because he let a teenager tinker with unknown technology. 

“Yeah mom and dad would drag me and Danny down into the lab all the time to help with stuff. They wanted us to follow in their footsteps and study ecto-science like they did.  Neither of us wanted to do that in the end but we both still know our way around FentonTech in case something went haywire when neither of our parents were home.” Jazz paused. “Or if they were but didn’t notice, like the turkey incident.” 

“The turkey incident?” Shouta wasn’t sure if he actually wanted to know. 

“Christmas turkey came back to life through ecto-radiation when we were kids, I had to fight it off with a broom.” Jazz shuttered at the memory. 

Shouta felt like at one point he would have been concerned about a dead bird coming back from the grave for revenge. But after a month of living with the two teens it just made him add another tally mark in his ever growing list against the Fenton parents. “Let's get back to the original topic. Why are you trying to rip a temporary hole in the fabric of reality?”

“Well the Ghost Zone is a parallel dimension to my own world. They’re both connected, the Ghost Zone can't exist without the living world and vice versa, but it is still a separate realm. I’m hoping that it’s separated enough that if I can somehow open a portal here we can enter the Ghost Zone and find our way back home from there. The main problem is, from what Danny can tell, there is no naturally occurring ectoplasm here. So even if it is possible we’d need a very large energy source comparable enough to ectoplasm to make it work. Even before my parents opened the ghost portal there were plenty of naturally occurring hotspots of ecto-energy, usually from natural forming portals.” Jazz explained.

Shouta nodded, he didn’t really understand but he felt like he got the gist of it. “Well if you really want to do this I can try to see if I can talk to Nedzu and Powerloader to see if you can use some of the equipment in the support department.”

“Really? That’d be great!”

“On one condition.” Shouta said, raising a finger.

Jazz looked him up and down. “What?”

“Get out of your room more, you’re practically a hermit at this point. I’m sure you’re homesick and desperate to get back home but holing up in your room won't help. I’ll even talk to Hizashi and discuss finally letting you guys have some roaming privileges so you can leave the apartment without us. Within reason of course.” 

Jazz seemed to think about it for a minute. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.”

“Good, I should be able to talk to both of them tomorrow for you about getting access to the labs.” He turned to leave before stooping. “Oh I almost forgot, Hizashi’s picking up takeout on his way home. Are you going to want some?”

“Yeah, that sounds nice. Thank you.” She said. Shouta gave her a small nod before leaving the room. 

Soon enough Hizashi got home, Shouta was right, he quickly ate his food and practically collapsed into their bed. He should pick up some flowers for him on his way home from patrol, Hizashi was always fond of romantic gestures like that. After a lesson in using knives in a more close combat situation with Danny and a bit of watching the news to cool down, in which Danny definitely didn’t avoid eye contact when the news anchor started talking about a certain vigilante that had appeared recently, it was time for him to leave for his patrol. 

Snipe was already waiting for him outside of the apartment building. Shouta raised a brow, the past two weeks they met up at a rendezvous spots to start their patrols. 

“Eraserhead.” Snipe greeted as he tilted his hat.

“Snipe.” Shouta responded. “Why are you outside my apartment?”

“I have a good feeling about tonight.” 

“And you couldn’t wait the fifteen minutes it would take for me to get to our meetup spot?” He was planning on stopping for coffee on his way over. So much for that plan. 

“Time is of the essence, and it would benefit us to go over the plan again to ensure the villain does not escape once we come across him.” Snipe said. The western themed hero then walked over to a nearby bench and grabbed two cups off of it. “I also brought coffee.”

Okay, he could forgive his coworker just this once he figured as he took the coffee. In all honesty the plan was pretty simple. It just had to be executed properly so the villain didn’t have time to escape. Snipe was given the rare permission to shoot to kill by the Hero Commission for this case, otherwise the plan wouldn’t work. Since the villain had a danger detecting quirk they would be using it to their advantage. So Snipe would attack first once they spotted the villain, and while the villain was focused on avoiding the biggest threat Shouta would come in and erase his quirk and capture him with his scarf before he could escape. So ideally even with the permission to shoot to kill they’d bring him in relatively unharmed for questioning. If Snipe managed to land a hit it would still stop the villain, even if it would be a lot more paperwork. 

After about an hour and a half or so into the patrol they got an alert that a high end jewelry store’s intruder alarm was activated a few blocks from their current location. When they arrived there wasn’t anybody in sight but there was a trail of broken glass shards trailing away from the storefront into a nearby alleyway. Shouta put a finger to his lips and pointed to a nearby fire escape leading up to the roof of a building. After making their way up to the roof Shouta couldn’t help but feel like something was off. 

The man in the alleyway definitely matched the description of the man, but he was just standing there alone in the middle of the alley. Only a bit of the light from the streetlamps reached inside the alley so it was pretty dark, but Shouta could have sworn it looked like there was something around the villains feet, he couldn’t make out exactly what though. Beside him he heard Snipe take a deep breath and ready his gun. But he still couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was wrong. 

He tried shaking off the feeling as he readied his capture weapon, they’d only have one shot at this. Right as Snipe was pulling the trigger the air behind the villain seemed to shimmer before revealing a person behind him. 

“Wait! Snipe no, STOP!” Shouta yelled out, he watched the villain drop to the ground with a swear avoiding the bullets, but it was too late. In only a matter of seconds Snipe had already fired his gun three times, each bullet hitting the figure with intent to kill. It only took a few more seconds for Shouta to realize with mounting horror that he recognized the person who just took one bullet to the head and two to the chest. 

He practically jumped off the side of the building making his way to the ground where Danny was lying. Where his body was lying the small voice in the back of his mind corrected. Suddenly the situation felt painfully familiar, Danny was just a few years younger than Oboro was afterall, except this time Aizawa was no longer a kid.  Out of the corner of his eye he saw the villain on the ground start to stand up, and suddenly all Shouta saw was red.

It wasn’t logical to let your emotions take over in the field, it led to mistakes and people getting hurt. That’s what he’d tell every new batch of hero students he taught. But someone already got hurt, and he’d now have to explain to Jazz her brother wouldn’t be home in the morning. So honestly Shouta felt like he deserved to take his emotions out on someone this once, because he knew he would be consumed by guilt and haunted by ‘what if’s’ once he had the chance to breathe. 

So who could blame him  if he enjoyed the look on the villain's face when he realized his quirk was no longer alerting him of incoming attacks as Shouta punched him in the face just a ‘little’ harder than normal.  After wrapping him up in his capture scarf he added a kick just for good measure. 

“Talk about kicking a man when he’s down. Literally.” A voice to his left groaned. “Ow.”

But Snipe was just now making it to the ground and was on the other side of him. The only person who was to Shouta’s left was- “Danny?”

“Oh hey Aizawa don’t get mad, I can explain.” Danny, who clearly was not dead, said. Or more dead than usual he supposed. Danny lifted his head off the ground looking at the two heroes. “First though, can I ask why this hurts more than usual when it comes to bullets?”

Shouta was pretty sure if he was able to see Snipe’s face behind his mask  it would be very pale right now, possibly green with how the man's hands were shaking.  He doubted he looked much better though. But he could feel relief course through his body when he saw Danny was okay enough to move. 

“Oh lord it’s a ghost.” Snipe breathed out. Well he wasn’t exactly wrong. 

“Snipe, what kind of bullets did you use?” Shouta would have to explain things later to him, now wasn’t really the time though.

“How is he still moving about? Eraser, how are you not freaking out? How does he know your name? Do you know a ghost?” 

Oh Shouta was freaking out all right, but he prided himself on his compartmentalization skills, the freak out could wait until Danny wasn’t full of holes. “I’ll tell you later, right now though we have a teenager on the ground who was just shot three times by you . Now. What kind of bullets did you use?”

“Expanding bullets. The point was to pose as much danger in an attack as I could.”

Danny lifted an arm in the air, still laying on his back. “Isn’t using those a war crime?”

“Only in war.” Snipe replied. “Oh my god I just talked to a dead kid.” 

“Technically he’s not fully dead, or something like that. But we really should get him to a hospital.”

“I’m fine, really. I just have to wait out until the pain subsides enough. I can take out the bullet pieces and give myself stitches back home, or Jazz can. It’s fine really.” Danny said, wincing as he sat up.

“No.” Shouta said.

“It’s fine, I had to do it like once a month back home.” 

“We are taking you to a hospital, no arguments. You were just shot in the head.” He said picking Danny up, who was a lot lighter than Shouta was expecting. “Snipe call the cops and tell them where the villain is. Let’s go.”

“Shouldn’t I wait here so he doesn’t escape?” Snipe asked, clearly eyeing Danny apprehensively.

Shouta gave the man a glare, currently wishing he picked a less superstitious hero to work the case with . “Then you can pick him up and drop him off at the police station nearby on our way. You aren’t getting away from me after shooting my kid.” Oh he didn’t mean to call Danny that. He really hoped the kid didn’t remember any of this.  

“Your kid?” Snipe sputtered. Well now Shouta really wanted to see what the other hero’s face looked like at the moment. Maybe it would lessen the embarrassment he felt calling a kid he only met a month ago his child. 

“Let’s. Go.” He wasn’t going to dignify Snipe with an answer. Better to let him suffer in silence.  

 After a walk that consisted of Snipe silently freaking out next to him and Danny insisting he was ‘totally fine’ they made it to the hospital. Thankfully the hospital staff recognized the severity of being shot more than the one who actually got shot did, and they got brought back almost instantly. The nurse wrapped Danny’s wounds before leaving to get the needed supplies to treat bullet wounds. 

“You should probably turn back into a human Danny.” Shouta suggested after they were brought back into the room.

Danny frowned from his bed. “But then I'll get blood everywhere. Ectoplasm doesn't bleed as much. ” 

Shouta looked down at his own clothes, which were currently covered in said ectoplasm. He hoped it didn’t stain too much. “We’re in a hospital they’re used to seeing blood. I doubt they can get an I.V in you if you don’t even have veins.” 

“Fine but I’m getting the bullet shards out of me myself first. I don’t want a bunch of people digging through my brain to get a bullet out.” 

Shouta had never, and doubted he ever would again, met someone who seemed more annoyed than worried after getting shot in multiple vital organs. He watched as Danny turned his hand intangible and started to dig through his body. It was actually pretty unnerving to watch him pull out pieces of metal from his body so casually, at that moment he remembered that Danny said this wasn’t a super rare occurrence for him. 

God, he was going to have to call Hizashi and tell him what happened. He had half the mind to make Snipe, who was currently doing a coffee run so he didn’t have to be near an angry Shouta, do it. But Hizashi already had a bad day today, or well yesterday now, and Shouta would be able to soften the blow enough that they wouldn’t have to pay for new windows. 

Danny finished fishing out the bullet pieces and transformed just as a nurse came into the room. She looked at the ectoplasm covered metal next to Danny then at Shouta as if it was his fault the kid decided to perform the extraction himself.  

They gave Danny enough pain meds to sedate a large horse and stitched him up. They did want to keep him for the night, which was standard practice even for those with advanced healing quirks. 

After a very stressful phone call, and Hizashi ignoring him when he told him he really didn’t have to come to the hospital he had it covered, there were now four people piled into the hospital room. Snipe was in the waiting room mentally recovering from facing a worried, tired, and angry Hizashi. Served him right if you asked Shouta.  

Jazz seemed the least worried about her brother being shot and more worried about being in a hospital. She’d tense up anytime someone came in to check on Danny and glared at them when she thought no one was looking. She was very adamant about not leaving Danny, despite the two adults in the room that also wouldn’t let anything happen to him. Though Shouta could understand if he lost her trust since Danny was shot by the man he was working with. 

One of the nurses seemed to realize that none of them would be leaving for the night and brought in extra chairs for them. Hizashi brought Shouta’s sleeping bag for him, father reaffirming why he married the man, so he just laid on the floor. Danny high on pain meds seemed to make it his solemn duty to tell them all a bunch of facts about space and space programs. Shouta never thought someone could talk about a single rover for ten minutes let alone almost an hour. Eventually Danny fell asleep midway through telling them about the formation requirements of supernovas. To his surprise Hizashi was still awake listening to every word the boy said with a fond look on his face, and if later when everyone was back home Hizashi mentioned a similar look on Shouta’s face he’d deny it vehemently . 

When morning came Shouta woke up with a stiff neck from lying on the floor all night. Looking around it seemed it was only him and Danny in the room once more. On the table next to the hospital bed there was a note in Hizashi’s handwriting saying he took Jazz to do some errands and that he called off work for the both of them. 

Great, Nedzu would definitely have some questions for them once they got back. Shouta wasn’t sure if introducing Danny to him would be a great idea or the beginning of the end of the world. Thinking about it, Jazz would produce the same effect as well.   

Speaking of which he was pretty surprised Jazz left Danny alone with him. Hizashi must have done some serious convincing to get her to leave with him. Eventually Danny stirred awake blinking groggily at his surroundings. 

“Good morning. How are you feeling” Shouta greeted.

“Morning.” Danny yawned. “A bit sore, and a headache but I should be completely healed in a few days by the end of the week at the very most, maybe just a few scars if I’m unlucky.” 

“Good, that means we can start your training a week from now.” 

“Sounds good.” Danny nodded. “Wait, what?” 

“Well,” He started to explain, “I can’t exactly ground you effectively. You can still sneak out if you really wanted to so it would be pretty ineffective. So instead you’ll be training  for U.A’s entrance exam with me.”

“Do you really think I’ll be here long enough to take it? It’s still two months away.”

Shouta shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. You’ll take it if you’re still here, you’ll have at least finally learned proper combat skills if you aren’t.” 

“I know how to fight!” Danny protested.

Shouta frowned. “Yes, but that’s all you know. You don’t have enough situational awareness, which is what led you to being shot at in the first place. Not to mention despite literally being able to turn invisible and untouchable you’re awful at stealth. You didn’t even think to leave your phone behind when you left the apartment at night, and you let the villains you captured see you long enough to give police an accurate report of your appearance. You’re just lucky most people don’t believe in crime fighting ghosts.” Aizawa looked Danny in the eye. “You’re also lucky I was working with Snipe who is a lot more lax when it comes to vigilantes due to his time in the States, and not some other hero who might view vigilantes on the same level as the villains we fight.” 

Honestly this was less of a punishment and more of a chance for Danny to improve himself. Not that the training was going to be easy, quite the opposite in fact. Shouta knew Danny could easily pass the physical portion of the entrance exam with ease, but Danny didn’t actually seem to know how strong he was compared to some of the top heroes. Even now he’d probably give All Might a run for his money at the very least. “Of course you have to be able to pass the written part of the exam as well. But we can start that sooner than next week since it doesn’t require any physical activity.” Shouta smiled as Danny groaned.

It was well into midday when Danny was cleared to be discharged. Shouta was surprised he had yet to hear anything from Hizashi since he usually never went more than a few hours without sending Shouta some sort of text. Even if it was just letting him know he was safe after a fight or sending him a picture or video he found funny. 

He found out why when the two of them got home. The living room was a mess. Not in a breaking and entering way, more in a ‘you definitely just spent too much money at the store’ sort of way. There were a few big boxes leaning against the couch, and as well as smaller ones scattered about, he found Arson curled up in one of the smaller ones. Looking over at Danny revealed that he was just as confused as Shouta. 

The two made their way to Danny’s room where Hizashi and Jazz seemed to be discussing something. Shouta opened the door to find the room completely changed. Instead of the air mattress Danny had been sleeping on the past month there was now a twin sized bed with a blanket that had a star pattern over it. There was now an end table, dresser, and a desk in the room as well. There was a lamp placed on the bedside table that looked like the moon and looking up to the ceiling revealed what the two were discussing before Shouta and Danny walked in, a bunch of those glow in the dark stars were placed on half the ceiling. Shouta assumed they were trying to figure out constellations since he could see where they made the big dipper and Orion's belt. 

All three of them looked over to Danny to see his reaction. “You guys didn’t have to do this.” Danny said rubbing at his neck. 

Hizashi got down from the chair he was standing on and bent down to be face to face with Danny. “You’re right we didn’t have to.” He smiled. “But we definitely wanted to.”

Shouta wasn’t sure if it was just because Danny still had some lingering effects of the pain medications or not, but he started tearing up before he wrapped Hizashi into a hug. “Can I help with putting up the constellations?” 

Hizashi laughed. “Of course you can. Honestly your sister and I were running out of the ones we knew.” 

Shouta supposed he could keep his comment on how the desk would be getting a lot of use in the next few weeks quiet for now as he watched Danny instruct Hizashi and Jazz on where to place stars. Explaining the meaning behind each consolation while he flew up to adjust ones that were already placed. 

Notes:

Aizawa really just forgot Danny mentioning the fact he got shot a few times when they first met and went full on berserk because of it.

Danny gets a kind gesture from an adult in his life: Oh so this is how it's supposed to be. :')

 

Also I'll be posting screenshot references of the EraserMic apartment I made in the Sims because I can't draw for my life on my tumbr @going-dead you can find it under the tag named after the fic it's just '#Danny Fenton is an Invasive Species' You can also feel free to ask me questions about the story over there!

Chapter 7: Meeting Principals and 2nd Years

Summary:

The kids finally meet Nezu much to the fear of Aizawa and Yamada. Danny has a friendly fight with some second year students,

Notes:

Unlike Danny this story isn't dead! I do have all the major plot points planned out now though, I have a lot of exiting things planned for the future.

Danny groaned, pulling a pillow over his face trying to hide from the light that was just turned on interrupting his sleep. “Urgh no more studying please. I think my brain will explode.” 

Aizawa had him on a strict studying regime for the past four days, part of his punishment he claimed since he wouldn’t be cleared for any physical fighting until a week from his hospital discharge. Which was stupid if you aked him, he was perfictly fine, he was basically fully healed at this point. The only reason it took so long was that he was shot through the head,  which always took longer to heal. He had fought ghosts in far worse conditions. 

But he’d rather fight Pariah Dark again than learn another law about quirks that was overturned over fifty years ago. Or an obscure history fact that only the people who lived through it would care about. At least math and science were identical in this universe to the math and science in his own. Danny didn’t even hate math and science, he actually enjoyed the subjects, you needed them to be an astronaut after all, but he was positive he would have cried on the spot if he found out he had to relearn a bunch of equations.

“No learning right now at least. I told you yesterday that we’re taking you and Jazz to UA to meet Nezu the principal. Unfortunately he seems to have become curious about the kids who have been making us miss so much work lately.” Aizawa grumbled.  “Also Jazz needs to talk  with him and Powerloader to explain why she needs to be able to use the support course workrooms while not a student there.” 

Danny honestly did not remember being told that, his brain was mush by dinner. All he remembered was Aizawa saying something about not wanting them around a rat longer than necessary without giving him enough time to plan for the end of the world. “Oh,” he looked at his phone for the time, “is that why you’re waking me up at six in the morning?”

“Yes. The two of us do have to work today after all, so we have to be there earlier than the students. Doesn’t help that it’s exam season soon. And I don’t trust the two of you to get to the school without getting into some sort of trouble.”

“Hey, I get why you feel that way about me but what has Jazz done?” 

Aizawa stared at him. “She almost set the apartment on fire yesterday trying to see if she could divert power from the sockets into that thermos.”

That must have been where that weird smell came from yesterday. “Yeah okay, that's fair I guess.” Despite her fervent denials of it Jazz definitely exhibited some of their parent’s mad scientist qualities. 

Danny started to get ready once Aizawa left to do his own thing. He really didn’t have any nice clothes here, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem, Aizawa went to work in his hero costume and that was just a baggy black shirt and pants. By the time everyone in the house was ready to leave the sun was starting to appear in the sky. 

During the drive Danny took the chance to look at his phone, he had to get a new one after his old one got hit in the crossfire of Snipe shooting him, and hadn’t had the chance to really use it once he got it between all the studying Aizawa had him doing. At least the number was still the same. It looked like Midoriya had been trying to text him. 

 

5 days ago

Midoriya: Home safe haha

Midoriya: Let me know when you get home?

4 days ago

Midoriya: You got home okay?

Midoriya: I heard Eraserhead and Snipe captured that villain they were after, wish I could have seen them in action though.

2 days ago

Midoriya: You haven’t been to the beach in a bit, everything okay?

1 day ago

Midoriya: Sorry, you probably just don’t want to talk. I understand sorry to be a bother. 

 

Now Danny felt bad he shot him a quick text. He didn’t want Midoriya to feel bad texting him after he told him he could text him for any reason.

 

You: You’re not a bother! My phone broke a bit after I left the beach, and I couldn't get the chance to use my phone until now.

Midoriya: Oh no, what happened, are you okay??? 

       You: Yeah lol, just got shot. My guardians also found out about the whole vigilante thing so i’m grounded.

Midoriya: What

Midoriya:You got shot??!!?!

Midoriya: Are you okay?????

You: Yeah I’m fine, I told you before, I have really quick healing

You:g2g rn, I’ll text you later.

They were pulling into the school parking lot. There weren’t many people on the school grounds when they got there, just teachers making their way to work and the occasional student who would come early to get help with something. “Are you sure it was a good idea to bring Laika?” Yamada asked as they approached the building.

Danny shrugged, “I don’t see why it wouldn’t be. Laika hasn’t been away from me for more than just a few hours since we got here. I don’t know how long I can stay away from them before they start to destabilize, so I don’t want to be away from them the whole day just in case.”

“Alright, just make sure they don’t get into any trouble, The Queen of Arson will be very mad if her friend ends up hurt because they accidentally scared a bunch of heroes in training.” Yamada pointed out.

Before anyone could do or say anything else a figure was jogging up to the group. “Hizashi! Shouta! I swear to god!” A woman with dark hair, and a very tight outfit, was quickly approaching with a look on her face that showed she was less than happy. 

“Use hero names at work Midnight. At least use our last names.” Aizawa grumbled.

The woman, Midnight apparently, put a hand to her hip. “Well this isn’t a work issue, it’s personal. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you two avoiding me outside of work. I can expect that at least a bit from you Shouta but even you Hizashi? Not to mention you both have missed work multiple days this month, neither of you ever miss work!” She huffed. 

“Sho told you we’re fostering, didn’t he? You’re a teacher, you know how much work kids can be.” Yamada said, pointing a thumb over to Danny and Jazz.

Midnight looked over to where he was pointing just now seeming to realize there were kids with them. “You meant human kids? I thought you were just fostering cats or something! You said you found them in an alley.”

Danny wondered how Aizawa described them to the point she thought he was talking about cats. Troublesome probably. She walked over towards him and Jazz before leaning down to be closer to eye level. “Well since these two idiots never decided to introduce me I suppose I’ll just have to do it myself. I’m Nemuri Kayama, better known as the R-Rated hero: Midnight. But you two can call me Auntie Nemuri.”

“Nemuri.” Aizawa sighed.

“What?” 

“They don’t even call us by our first names. Why would they call you aunt anything?” 

“Well why not, they live with you after all. Surely they can call you by your names.” She said, turning towards Aizawa.

“Because they probably don’t feel comfortable doing so, it’s not that big of an issue. It’s not like they wouldn’t be allowed to if they wanted to.” 

Danny honestly never really thought about it after the first few days of living with them. “I mean it doesn’t really make a difference either way right? As long as they know who we are talking to, does it matter what we call them by?” He felt like it would be weird calling them something else at this point.

“No, it doesn’t matter. You can call either of us whatever you want.” Aizawa shook his head. “But like I just said, while we’re in our hero uniforms we really should go by our hero names or last names. It’s unprofessional otherwise.” 

Danny decided not to mention how Aizawa had called Nemuri by her first name just a minute ago. She turned back to him and Jazz with a roll of her eyes, apparently ignoring what Aizawa just said. “Now that I introduced myself, what are the names of my new niece and nephew?”

Jazz seemed a bit put off at being integrated into a family system with no say on her part, but honestly Danny was used to ghosts just randomly adding him to their family unit so he wasn’t that bothered. Between Clockwork, Pandora, Frostbite, and Dorathea he stopped arguing against whatever familiar role he was given. He had a collection at this point. “I’m Danny.”

“Jazz Fenton.” Jazz said, holding her hand out.

Nemuri took her hand to shake it. “What a polite pair you two are.” She cooed. “I expect the full story of how you met these two. And don’t think I’m not telling Tensei about this either.” She said looking back towards Aizawa and Yamada. 

“He was just stationed in Hosu, no need to bother him with trivial things while he’s getting settled in.” Aizawa said.

“Nonsense, he’d love to hear about it.” She waved him off. “Anyway I do have to get going, I promised a few students I’d help go over some of their designs with them. It was nice to meet you two, we all will have to do something together so I can get to know you two more!” She waved goodbye before disappearing into the building. 

“Sorry about that, she can be overly friendly at times.” Aizawa said.

Danny couldn’t help but wonder how a man who seemed so quiet and reserved at times as Aizawa seemed to attract so many extroverted people to him.  They made their way through the school to Nezu’s office. Aizawa raised his hand to knock on the door but it opened before he made contact with it. He seemed more resigned than surprised as he led the group through the door. 

Danny wasn’t sure what he expected the principle of UA to look like but he wasn’t going to lie, what met them inside the office sitting behind the desk was not it. He wasn’t actually sure even what Nezu was but he was pretty positive he wasn’t human. 

“Greetings! It is wonderful to finally meet you two! I am Nezu, the principal here at UA.” Nezu said, jumping down from his chair and stepping in front of them. 

“It is nice to meet you as well, I am Jasmine Fenton, but you may call me Jazz if you prefer.” Jazz said, tilting her head in a greeting.

“Uh hi I’m Danny.” Danny said. He felt Jazz elbow him. “Danny Fenton, it is nice to meet you also.”  Danny was never good at interacting with authority figures. 

It was decided they would talk with Nezu one at a time, with Danny going first since Jazz would take longer since she had to meet with both Nezu and Powerloader. Both Yamada and Aizawa seemed reluctant to leave him alone with Nezu. Danny couldn’t really see why, they told him before he wouldn’t be in any physical danger around the principal. 

Nezu motioned for him to sit on one of the couches before he pulled himself up on the other one. Then he just sat there not saying anything, staring at Danny. Smiling. Waiting. For what though Danny wasn’t sure. Maybe he wanted him to speak first. Danny took a moment to also just stare at the creature across from him.

“You don’t have to keep smiling.” Danny said, breaking the silence. It was clear the smile was learned. “If you’re doing it for my benefit I mean, it doesn’t really seem like it’s something that comes too naturally to whatever you are. I doubt it’s comfortable to keep up.”

Nezu kept smiling. “What is it that you think I am then?” 

Danny shrugged. “Does it matter? Would me guessing what you are make any difference? It wouldn’t change anything.” For all Danny would know he could be some sort of creature who didn’t exist naturally, like the yetis in the Far Frozen, Nezu was a bit too small to be a yeti though.

“I suppose it wouldn’t, it is a fun game to play with you humans though. You all tend to like to categorize things you are unsure of, ostracizing that in which you can not make sense of.” He took a drink of the tea in front of him. “Or not stopping until you find a way to make sense of the unknown.” 

Danny could sympathize with that sentiment. “I guess that’s where you’re wrong then. I’m not human.” Not anymore.

Nezu looked intrigued. “Aizawa mentioned you had a peculiar quirk but didn’t say much more than that about it. But just because you have a strange quirk doesn’t mean you’re not human, I don’t know how it was in your universe but if someone is telling you otherwise I am sure Present Mic or Eraserhead would prefer to know.” 

“No, quirks don’t actually exist in my universe. I literally am not human, not fully at least. It has nothing to do with a quirk, I just can’t call myself fully human.” 

Nezu paused. “Oh?”

“I mean, I can tell you know there’s something off about me.” When it came to animals it was either a hit or miss with their reactions to him, they never really tended to be neutral about him. It even varied between animals of the same species, but he could never really figure out why. Nezu happened to be smart enough to be able to push past whatever his instincts were telling him, but Danny was sure if he wasn’t he would have fallen on the miss side of things.

“Whatever do you mean?” To Nezu’s record he was hiding it well. He was no Jazz when it came to reading people, and if Danny hadn’t had past experiences with intelligent animal life he probably wouldn't have noticed. But there were plenty of animal and animal-like ghosts that had the same intelligence as humans he could compare Nezu's reaction to.

“Your clothes hide it pretty well but it’s still slightly visible, the fur along your spine is just a bit raised.” It was a threat display, Wulf would often do the same whenever Walker was mentioned around him. 

“Astute observation. May I ask then, if you don’t mind sharing, what exactly are you if not fully human?” 

“Only if you promise not to experiment and torture me.” Danny said only half joking, Aizawa did warn him Nezu could fall on the more sadistic side of things at times. He never did say why though. “I’m a halfa, half ghost, half human. Happened in a lab accident.”

Nezu tilted his head and for just a brief moment frowned. “Experiment on?”

That wasn’t the thing Danny thought he’d fixate on. He felt like the existence of ghosts was a bit more of a shocking revelation than the fact that he’d rather not be tortured. “That is what I said, yes.” 

“Is that something you have to worry about often?” 

Danny really didn’t know why he was so fixated on the whole experimentation thing, he really hoped it didn’t mean Nezu wanted to experiment on him. “I mean you can only hear your parents talk about wanting to dissect you so many times before you start getting nightmares. Also getting cloned without consent then watching all but one clone die in front of you also does not help in the nightmare department. Ten out of ten would not recommended.” He finished with a chuckle.

Nezu seemed to choose his next words carefully. “Your parents?” 

“Oh don’t worry they’re not the one who cloned me.” Danny reassured him, it would be messed up if they were the ones who did. 

“Is that-” Nezu stopped, took a deep breath, and started over. “I assure you, due to personal experiences, you will never have to worry about that from me.” 

Personal experiences? It took Danny a second to realize what he meant. Oh, maybe that scar on his face wasn’t from hero work like he first assumed. “I see. Sorry.” 

“Let’s change to a happier subject shall we?” Nezu said, clapping his paws together. “I heard you will be taking on our entrance exam in a few months? I must warn you it is no easy task.” 

“So I’ve heard. I’m pretty sure my brain will melt before it remembers all this book stuff.”

“Are you not worried about the fighting portion of the exam?”

“I mean yeah, Aizawa want’s to make sure I’m fully healed first before taking on any physical training though. Even then he doesn’t seem to be concerned with that part of the exam.”

“Ah, yes. I did overhear your unfortunate experience with Snipe. As his employer I apologize that that was your first experience with him.” 

Danny shrugged. “Eh no big deal, I heal quickly. Aizawa and Yamada are just overly cautious. I’m practically fully healed.” 

“That is good to hear. I do have to admit that meeting with you was more for my curiosity than anything else, and I do not have any more questions for you at this time. But something tells me we will be seeing more of eachother soon enough. Before I start your sister's interview, do you have any questions for me?”

Danny shook his head, he and Jazz talked beforehand and decided she would be the one to ask if he would be able to help them get back to their universe in any way. “I can’t say I do. It was nice talking with you.”

“It was nice talking to you as well, feel free to take a look around campus while I talk to your sister. I have a feeling I will be having a much longer discussion with her.” Nezu said before opening the door for him and beckoning Jazz inside.

Once the door closed behind him Aizawa and Yamada practically pounced on him. “Did he mention anything about the end of the world or forming an alliance against mankind?” Yamada asked.

“What? No? We really didn’t talk about much, he did say he thought we would be seeing more of each other after bringing up the entrance exam. Also that I could talk around the school's campus while he talked to Jazz. But that’s really it.” Laika flew over to him settling in his hair,, they were waiting outside with the others since Danny figured having them in there might unsettle Nezu.

They both seemed to sag with relief. “Thank god.” Aizawa said.

“There’s still a chance he takes an interest in Jazz, they do have similar ways of psychoanalyzing. We’re not safe yet.” Yamada reminded him.

“All we can do is hope. And if that doesn’t work, accept our doom.” Aizawa concluded.

Danny was positive the two of them were over reacting. “So is it okay If I explore a bit?”

Yamada nodded. “Go ahead little listener, just make sure you stay within campus limits, the security system will flag you if you try coming back in without an escort. Make sure you’re back for lunch, you don’t want to miss Lunch Rush’s cooking.”

Danny gave a nod. “Can I fly around or is this a no quirk in public thing  still?” The school grounds were huge, he’d be able to see more if he flew around.

“You can, UA is considered private property. Just remember to take it easy, you’re still healing.” Yamada reminded him.

Danny smiled. “Yeah of course.”

---

To his credit it wasn’t like he went out looking to fight students. It just…sort of happened.

He was phased halfway into a building that was labeled ‘Gym Gamma’. It was a huge building with cement floors, but really not much else inside. He was about to leave to look somewhere else when he felt a tap on his side from the half of him not in the building. He pulled his head out of the building and was met with two teenagers dressed in blue track suits, what he assumed was UA’s gym uniform.

“ You’re not Mirio.” The dark haired boy with pointed ears said so quietly Danny could hardly hear him.

“I didn’t know there was someone else with the same quirk as Mirio at UA!” The blue haired girl said. “Do you think Mirio knows?”

The boy shook his head. “He would have said something I’m sure.” 

“Hmm yeah you’re right. We should introduce them! Maybe they’re related and never knew, they could be long lost brothers!” 

“But they don’t even look like each other.”

“That’s true, what do you think that floaty green thing is next to him? It’s super cute, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that before. Do you think it’s related to some sort of quirk?”

Danny was very confused, and a bit uncomfortable, the two were just talking about him like he wasn’t even there. They were interrupted though by a blond boy running up to them with a smile. “Sorry I’m late guys!” He then seemed to notice Danny. “Who’s this?”

Danny couldn’t help but liken the blonde boy to a real life video game character. The blue haired girl spoke up. “Oh this is-” She looked over to Danny. “We never got his name actually. But! He has the same quirk as you, isn’t that so cool? Go on, show us again!” 

“Umm…” Danny looked at the three who were now just staring at him. He slowly lifted his hand and phased it through the building next to him again. “That’s what you meant right?” 

The girl was nodding her head and bouncing up and down on her feet. The blond boy, Mirio, whistled. “Wow that is cool but can you do this?” He took his hand and did the finger and thumb magic trick where you pretend to take your thumb off. 

“Ummm…” Danny really didn’t know what to say to that.

Mirio started laughing. “I’m kidding. Well no, I’m Mirio, it’s nice to meet you. It does look like we have pretty similar quirks though how crazy!” 

Were these really students training to be this world's future heroes? If so, no wonder there were so many villains around. The dark haired one wouldn’t even look him in the eye.  

“We’re second years here, I’m assuming you’re a first year? I can’t say I recognize you though.” Mirio said.

“Uh, I’m Danny. I don’t go here, not yet at least, I’ll be taking the entrance exam soon though. I’m just here because Nezu wanted to meet with me and my sister.”

“I’m Nejire, and this shy kitten of the group is Tamaki! You must be pretty promising as a hero if principle Nezu wanted to meet with you personally before you even took the entrance exams right? Also what is that little slimy thing?” She asked, pointing towards Laika. 

“I guess.” Danny didn’t really want to tell them it was actually because he was from a different dimension and was the cause of two of Nezu’s staff missing a bunch of work. “Uh the ‘slimy thing’ is Laika, they just follow me around, completely harmless though.”

“Oh I know.” Mirio clapped his hands together. “What if you train with us today? I should be able to help with your quirk since it’s so similar to mine, and we all took the entrance exam so we can give you a few pointers of what to look out for and what to work on. We’re just sparring together today, no harm in one more person.”

“Are you sure?” Danny couldn’t remember the last time he fought with someone for fun, it had to have been with Frostbite or Pandora. “If you don’t mind I guess.”

“Awesome, just don’t expect us to go easy on you.” Mirio said.

Danny smiled. “Don’t expect me to do the same then.”

Which is how he ended up getting teamed up on three against one. They realized very quickly his quirk wasn’t the same as Mirio’s permeation when he  put up a shield to block the first attack. They came to a quick silent agreement to take him down after he landed his own first hit and accidentally sent Mirio flying into the wall. Danny decided he would keep it somewhat fair and stayed in his human form, somewhat limiting his own power output. He was certainly surprised that all three of them were able to follow him up in the air in their own way. Even more surprised by Mirio becoming completely nude after launching out of the ground. 

It was easy to figure out Mirio’s quirk had its own limitations, one of them similar to Danny’s ability to become intangible, while unable to be hit while intangible, you also couldn't make contact to hit your opponent. So attacking would leave you vulnerable for a moment before you could activate it again. But Danny had plenty of experience fighting enemies that could go intangible, from the way Mirio was attacking it was clear he didn’t. He was the first to go down. 

Next was Neijre, her quirk was harder to handle; it seemed to be pretty versatile with how it could be used. Her everywhere attitude also applied to her fighting, she never seemed to stick with one specific style or rhythm with her attacks making her hard to predict. But her close combat attacks were faster than her ranged ones, he just had to stick to his own ranged attacks and out of her reach long enough to take her down. 

Danny wasn’t expecting Tamaki to be the last one standing, with his meek attitude from before. But he was giving him the most trouble, having to constantly dodge his attacks while he was taking out the other two before he could focus fully on Tamaki. If Nejire’s quirk was versatile, Tamaki’s was basically universal, able to be used offensively and defensively with long and close range uses. It was impressive Danny could admit, but he’d taken on worse enemies before and he’d probably take on worse in the future as well. In the end he had to keep Tamaki off the ground, using ice to make it too slippery to fight on. He wasn’t as confident in the air as Danny was, not even close, and the fight was over quickly after that. 

Danny helped him, and the other two, up off the ground after he melted the ice. “That was fun, you guys made me really think outside the box!”

Mirio laughed while rubbing his side. “Ouch! You really are something else. I have a feeling you don’t actually have a permeation quirk though.”

 “What gave you that idea, the shield, the ice, or maybe the glowing green stuff he threw at us?” Tamaki said.

“Oooh.” Nejire smiled. “The kitten has claws.”

Tamaki put his face in his hands. “Please stop.”

“Oh come on we know you love us!” Mirio said, slapping him on the back right where Danny hit him to take him down, causing Tamaki to wince . “Oops sorry!”

“That was quite a show you four. Though I do think I remember telling one of you to take it easy.” A voice came from the corner of the gym. 

The four teens looked over towards the voice. “Present Mic, what are you doing here? You’re not here to discuss my paper are  you?” Mirio asked.

Yamada shook his head. “No, should I be?”

“No sir, in fact I think it’s some of my best work.”

“Good to hear, glad those work studies of you three seem to be working out well.” Yamada said, approaching the group. Laika had left their spot on the other side of the gym watching, to circle around Yamada.

“I don’t know about that, Danny here isn’t even a student here yet and took us down scary quick.”

“Oh I’m aware of what Danny can do.” He crossed his arms. “But what he should do is different.” 

Danny shrunk under Yamada’s gaze. In his defense he was not the one who suggested they fought, he just went along with it. “So what’s work studies?” He asked, trying to change topics.

“It’s like on the job training with a pro hero.” Mirio supplied. “You won't be doing them in your first year though since you usually don’t get your provisional license until your second year at UA. But you will have internships your first year where you shadow a hero.” 

“That’s cool, who are you doing yours with?” Danny was glad he took the topic change bait.

“Sir Nighteye, he’s the best. He really has helped me hone my quirk.”

Danny had no idea who that was, he’d have to ask Midoriya next time he saw him. Or text him to ask.

“So Present Mic,” Nejire started, “how do you know Danny?”

Oh no, topic change failed. Was it too late to just knock her out as a distraction? Probably. Maybe he could knock himself out instead.

“He’s my ward, my ward who isn’t supposed to strain himself because he was shot four days ago and doesn’t seem to realize that straining himself isn’t just bad for him but makes those who care for him worry.” He put a hand to his heart. “I’m not as young as I used to be Danny, I’m practically ancient, worry is not good for my heart.”

Danny knew that was bullshit, he was thirty. “What are you doing here anyway?”

Yamada pouted. “What, you don’t want to see me? I can’t want to spend time with you? Not cool.”

“Don’t you have class to teach?” 

“No, it’s lunch time. That’s why I’ve come to find you. Which wasn’t easy by the way. Come on. You three should get lunch too, then maybe see Recovery Girl. Those bruises do not look like they feel good.”

“Yesir.” Mirio nodded. “Oh but first!.” He rummaged through his backpack before writing something down on a piece of scrap paper and handing it to Danny. “Here, let me know if you ever want to spar again once you get into UA.”

Looking down at the paper revealed to be Mirio’s phone number. “You sound sure I’ll make it in?”

“With fighting skills like that, If you don’t I’ll eat my left shoe!” 

That was a weird way to tell him he was a good fighter. “Well okay then, thank you.” 

With that Yamada led Danny back to the main building. “Where’s Aizawa?”

“Trying to make sure Nezu and Jazz don’t try to take over the world together.” 

“How’s that working out for him?”

Yamada gave a defeated sigh. “Not well, Nezu wants to make her his protégé once the new school year starts.” 

That must mean they decided to let Jazz use the support course’s workshop, good. It’ll be good for her to have something to focus on. 

“Don’t think our impending doom will save you though. If you’re well enough to take those three on all at once you’re well enough to start training with Eraser.” 

God damn it, the studying was bad enough. He didn’t want to imagine what Aizawa would have in store for him combat wise. He dejectedly took Laika into his arms, at least they could provide him some comfort before he was slaughtered by Aizawa’s training regime. 

Chapter 8: The Entrance Exam

Summary:

The day of the entrance exam is here.

Notes:

No we will not mention how close this chapter was posted to the last one, and no we will not mention how early in the morning it was posted.

The next two months somehow went by excruciatingly slow and much too fast.  Slow as in the two month training crunch was hell. Between physical training and academic training it felt like Danny never had the chance to breathe.

Aizawa and Yamada each would work with him in different areas. Aizawa worked with him in hand to hand combat. With a strict no power use rule at the start.

“My quirk may not work on you but who knows if there is something else out there that does. If that happens you have to be prepared, you can’t risk having any weak points.” Aizawa told him when they began. It was a fair rule, Danny had been in situations where his powers didn’t work or where he couldn’t use them. Slowly they also incorporated other things into the training. He’d have Jazz sit off to the side as she attempted to hit him with projectiles. To ‘keep him aware of his surroundings at all times’ even when getting pelted by beanbags apparently. 

Yamada helped him hone his more destructive powers. Testing both his powers' upper limits and fine tuning them on a smaller scale. He was actually able to improve his ghostly wail the most, it made sense since it was most similar to Yamada’s quirk. He was now able to use it at full power twice before it made him revert back to his human form, and could even use it at half strength in human form with little pushback. 

But even with all the strenuous training the entrance exam seemed to sneak up on him out of nowhere. Next thing he knew he was standing in front of the gates of UA, not as a visitor tagging along with two of the school's teachers, but as a student hopeful. 

He was walking in with Yamada, much earlier than any of the other applicants would get there since Yamada was running the hero exam orientation. Aizawa was there too but he took Jazz off aside somewhere to talk about something, before he went to the observation room and she went off to the support workshop to assist Powerloader in running the support applicant orientation. Jazz had gotten close to the support course teacher, apparently he was intrigued by the concept of ecto-energy and was working with her to find a similar energy source. Whatever Aizawa had to talk to her about probably wasn’t that important though. It was probably just a last ditch attempt to convince her not to accept Nezu’s offer before the school year started.

“You really can’t tell me anything about the exam?” Danny asked as he helped Yamada finish setting everything up before the rest of the applicants started to show up.

“No can do little man. It’s also the day of, a bit too late to do any more preparations if you ask me.”

“No harm in trying right?”
“You’ll be getting the whole spiel with the rest of the applicants in just about an hour. Not like you have anything to worry about, you were trained by two pro-heroes! And I guess you were pretty skilled beforehand too.” 

“Gee thanks.” Danny rolled his eyes, tossing the end of some wires over to him. 

“Don’t sweat it kiddo, seriously. You’ll do great, you’ve been more than prepared for both parts of the exam. Now, head over to your seat, the kids should be piling in soon and I have to keep up my reputation as a cool, hip, untouchable hero.” Yamada said, handing Danny his applicant card.

Danny scoffed, “Yeah, cool and untouchable. Sure.” He saw a video of him just the other day cooing over a baby he saw on patrol who was wearing his merch. 

“Ouch.”

Danny grinned before making his way to his seat. He was sitting in the front row so didn’t really have good access to see who was coming in and out. Which was a shame since he wanted to keep an eye out for when Midoryia came in, he never did tell the other teen that he was taking the exam. He didn’t want to get his hopes up in case they found a way home before the exam was held. So it would be fun to surprise him, and maybe help calm the boy down. Danny had only been able to meet him in person at the beach a few times after they got permission to leave the apartment alone since he was focused on his own training, but they did make sure to text each other when either of them had the chance between both of their vigorous training schedules.  

Maybe they could train together if they both got in. Danny had no worry for Midoryia getting in, he was super smart when he didn’t let his nerves take over him. And he doubted being quirkless would put him at too much of a disadvantage in the physical part of the exam, Aizawa went through the UA hero course, and even taught it, after all and he had a support quirk not a combat one. 

Yamada was right about the combat portion, he was able to defend a whole city against ghosts by himself after all. Not even factoring in all the combat lessons he’d had in the past two months. Even with Yamada’s encouragement though he was unsure about how he did on the written exam. He wasn’t the smart one of the family, literally anyone else in his family could fit that title better than him. Even his dad being as airheaded as he could be at times could be considered a genius when it came to inventing new technology. While he could barely pass his classes with a C.

Other applicants started making their way into the auditorium, eventually it got too crowded to actually make out individual people. Suddenly UA’s low acceptance rate both made a lot more sense and became a lot more terrifying. Did he really have to out compete the majority of them to get in?  Hopefully it wasn’t some sort of free for all where they all had to fight each other, who knew what sort of quirks they had. 

Danny scanned the room one last time before the lights dimmed to no avail. Oh well, he’d have to make sure to text Midoriya afterwards to talk to him if he didn’t see him before the exam was over. Yamada greeted the teens gathered with a call and response, no one else really seemed all that into responding so Danny did alone, causing a few people to give half hearted responses in turn. Wow, at least he wasn’t met with complete silence. Maybe it was just the nerves everyone was sure to have.

 Yamada gave the rundown on the exam, describing the fake enemies and their point values. It seemed easy enough to understand.  Halfway through a boy seated in the middle interrupted demanding an explanation for the fourth robot on the handout. Danny couldn’t help but roll his eyes, maybe if he waited until the explanation was finished they would have gotten to it. The boy then called out another applicant who was seated towards the back for muttering. Danny twisted around to see who he was talking about, he personally couldn’t hear anything but he probably was just too far away. To Danny’s surprise the applicant in question was Midoriya, he should have guessed, he did tend to mutter a lot. Still it was rude to both interrupt while someone was explaining, and to call someone out so publicly. It was a shame the room was too dark to get Midoryia’s attention though.

Yamada took the interruption in stride though, segwaying into his explanation of the zero pointers. Enemies designed to be an obstacle rather than a target. They’d be doing the exam in UA’s urban simulation areas, the same area Recovery Girl had him do his quirk assessment, they were split in groups each assigned to a different walled off sector. 

Danny was a little disappointed when he realized he wasn’t in the same group as Midoryia when he arrived at his group's sector. He transformed into his ghost form while waiting for the rest of the applicants to make it over. Once all the groups were gathered in front of their respective doors Yamada shouted out the command to go. Well that was certainly abrupt, no time to think though. 

Some of the applicants were already on the move, one of them using explosions to move himself faster. He wasn’t the only one who could fly though, Danny shot through the air quickly surpassing the boy and his explosions. He did notice a snarl on the boy's face as he passed, whatever. 

Danny came across his first robot pretty quickly, and took it down even quicker. It didn’t seem he would be having much trouble after all in this portion of the exam. He did worry about Midoryia though. These enemies were more of a test of strength than anything else, not giving too much room to show off intellect. Applicants with speed on their side could go after the lower point bots going for quantity over the robots with larger points, while people with strength could just focus on crushing anything in their path. Someone with stealth might be able to sneak up on the robots as well, but Midoryia didn’t really have any of that compared to his superpowered peers.

But Danny couldn’t worry about that now. He had to believe Midoryia knew what he was doing. Danny shook himself out of his musings as he absentmindedly destroyed another robot. Looking around he actually wreaked more than he thought he did, he probably should have been paying attention to how many points he had. He knew he had at least ten from the amount of scrap around him but he couldn’t make out the numbers that were once on the now ruined machines. He’d just have to find more robots.

Easier said than done though it seemed. There were plenty of robots around, but every one he destroyed Danny felt like he had to keep three contestants from getting themselves hurt one way or the other. He stopped one particularly annoying applicant from getting smashed underneath a one pointer, and he wouldn’t stop clinging to until Danny had to phase off of him. Leaving the short purple boy alone on one of the building's roofs. 

Though not all the people he helped were helpless. There was a dark haired boy that seemed to have a similar problem as Danny. He’d take down one robot then rush to help someone who needed it. His quirk looked useful for defense, hardening his skin protecting him from attacks. Pretty cool looking if you asked Danny. But the boy didn’t seem to notice the three pointer approaching him as he had his back turned helping someone else who had fallen down. Danny flew down kicking the robot as he did making it crumble beneath his foot. 

“Woah thanks man! Totally didn’t see it coming for me.” The boy said, looking over at Danny as he helped the other applicant off the ground.

“No problem, good luck!” Danny waved before shooting off again. He heard Yamada’s voice ring out announcing they had two minutes left, right before a loud rumbling could be heard and the ground shook. Looking towards the noise revealed a giant robot with a large zero painted on it.

That was the zero pointer?! It was the size of a skyscraper. Danny was sure there were cameras all around the arena so he looked in a random direction and hoped there was one in the general vicinity. “That seems a bit extreme don’t you think?” He yelled out. “You’re really putting a bunch of kids up against that?” He really doubted most of the people here had much fighting experience like he did. Even if it was supposed to be an obstacle it would be way too distracting to have to keep an eye on it in the last few minutes while trying to get  some last second points. Honestly it would probably just be more convenient to take it out now so he could focus on other things. He’d be able to get more points if he took a few seconds to fight it so he wasn’t distracted by it than if he spent those seconds fighting robots worth points but still having to keep an eye on that thing.

Everyone was running away from it so that meant he thankfully didn’t have to worry about it crushing anyone as it fell, and it meant he could use an attack that caused area damage since there was no one in the way. He silently thanked Yamada for helping him with his wail during their training. Before he might not have been in a good enough shape to keep fighting after using it after how much he used his powers already today. Especially since the sound of it still made both Yamada and Aizawa uneasy, apparently it wasn’t one of those things you couldn’t get used to.

He landed in front of the zero pointer and looked up at it. Dang it looked so much bigger from the ground. Well might as well make this quick so everyone can focus on the smaller robots again. He took a deep breath as he felt the energy gather in his core. He could hear someone behind yelling for him to run. But instead of turning tail and running he screamed.

The force of the wail almost made him take a step back, almost . It did however make the zero pointer crumple like aluminum foil. That was easy enough. He turned around and was met with what seemed like the majority of the applicants in the sector staring at him for some reason. The silence was broken by Yamada’s voice informing them there was one minute left. “Well, go on. Go find some more robots to fight.” Danny said with a shooing motion. 

That seemed to shake them out of their trances as they scattered to get as many last second points as they could. Danny joined in on the scatter, even if taking down the zero pointer was seen as impressive it wasn’t worth anything points wise. He was able to take down a few more robots before they were notified that the exam was over. 

All the applicants gathered at the same gate where they were let into the secor. Recovery Girl soon entered, passing out gummies and kisses to those who needed them. “You put on quite a show, young man.” She said when she reached him. “I can’t remember the last time we had two applicants take out a zero pointer in one attack in the same year.” 

Danny shrugged and accepted the gummies handed to him. “I just didn’t want to have to worry about it. Not like I was trying to show off.” 

She just hummed before going to the next applicant. He wondered who the other person who took down a zero pointer was, Midoryia would probably love to meet them if they weren’t in the same sector he was. He’d freak out over a quirk that strong for sure. 

Danny de-transformed before eating the gummies he was given. The applicants all made their way back towards the gates of UA with the promise they would receive their results soon in the mail. Danny spotted Midoryia in the crowd and waved to him, the boy looked absolutely frazzled. Danny hoped he didn’t have too rough of a time. Midoriya seemed to have noticed him waving but only gave Danny a confused look before the crowd of people hid him from view again. 

Danny wasn’t going the same direction as the rest though, he made his way to the main building and up to the teachers lounge. The teachers were pretty used to seeing him and Jazz every once in a while at this point from whenever Aizawa or Yamada decided they should come with them. Mainly it was when Jazz wanted to work in the workshop and they didn’t want to leave Danny alone all day. He didn’t see why that was such a big problem personally, his parents would leave him and Jazz alone all the time when Jazz was younger than he was now. 

Danny sneezed when he entered the lounge, meaning Ectoplasm was inside as well. It was an interesting thing to discover, the hero apparently had an organ that produced ectoplasm that let him create duplicates of himself. It wasn’t enough to set off his ghost sense but it did make him sneeze instead. At first they just thought he was allergic to something in the school, but eventually figured out it was just a side effect of his ghost sense detecting the ectoplasm the hero produced. “Good afternoon Ectoplasm.” He waived. 

“Good afternoon to you too Danny.” The hero looked him up and down. “Were you and Eraserhead training together again? You seem a bit tired.” 

Danny shook his head as he poured himself some water. “No, it's the entrance exams today, remember?”

Ectoplasm raised a brow. “Oh I assumed you would be going through the recommendation process. Since you have two pros and Nezu to vouch for you after all.”

Danny shrugged. “I wanted to get in on my own ability.” It wasn’t a total lie, he didn’t want to feel like he was getting any special favors. It also was part of his punishment for his stint as a vigilante to take the entrance exam, but the less people who knew that the better.

“That is quite honorable of you, but don’t be mistaken. Recommendation students are often the best of the best. That’s not to say the students who get in normally are any less of course.” He added.

“Fair enough.”

“Either way, I’m sure you did great. With Eraserhead and Present Mic helping to train you there’s no doubt that you excelled with flying colors.” He said. “Well I must be off, things to do and all that. Have a good day Danny.”

Danny waved goodbye before flopping down on the couch, the nerves from the past two months finally unraveling now that what he had been training for was finally over. Now he just had to wait until the results were sent out. He knew Aizawa or Yamada wouldn’t tell him early, no matter how much he asked. 

Danny wasn’t expecting Aizawa and Yamada to be done for quite a while, they had to help finish reviewing the footage from the exams with the rest of the chairmen after all. So when they walked into the lounge thirty minutes after Danny with Jazz trailing behind them he certainly was confused. Aizawa looked around making sure there was no one else in the room before shutting the door. That wasn’t concerning at all. 

“I already discussed this with Jazz this morning but I felt like waiting until after the exam would be beneficial to you so you wouldn’t worry.” Aizawa started.

“Are you guys getting a divorce?” Danny really hoped not. He liked both of them and wasn’t sure who they’d stay with if they did divorce. How did split custody work if it's a foster situation? He couldn’t think of anything else that would cause him to worry to the point it would jeopardize his thinking during the exam.

“What? No. We’re not getting a divorce. Why would you think we are?” Aizawa asked before waving him off. “Never mind, don’t answer that. What we wanted to discuss with you is that we finally got a lead on who sent you here.”

A lead? Did that mean they would be going home soon? “Really?”

“Yes. From the description you gave it sounds like an American vigilante. That’s why we were having so much trouble before. We were only looking through Japan’s records. Nezu was able to widen the search though. The vigilante calls herself ‘Isekai’ quirk: wormhole. From what we can gather it gives her the ability to transport herself into different dimensions. Though the records do not mention any ability to transport others along with it. Which makes me think either she just never reported the ability, or it’s a result of how…odd your own world seems to be.” He explained. “The main problem now is actually tracking her down. Due to the nature of her quirk we don’t know when or where she’ll pop back up, not to mention her status of a vigilante moost likely means she is not too trustful of law enforcement and pro heroes. So it is just a lead for now, we still don’t have a way to get you back home, or an estimated time for when we can.” 

Danny supposed that was fair, but one lead was better than what they had before. Though the heroes and vigilantes of this world could work on their names. What kind of name is Isekai? He was pretty sure it was some sort of anime thing Tucker would talk about sometimes. He missed his friends and family, ghost and human ones. He really did. He had so much to tell Sam and Tucker, they’d never believe him.  What didn’t seem to make sense to him though was why he felt relieved that he wasn’t going back home yet. 

“That’s it. I wanted to make sure you stayed updated on the situation.” Aizawa said.

“Now do you know what we should do?” Yamada said, punching the air. “Go out for lunch to celebrate Danny and Jazz becoming UA students!” 

“The fact Powerloader and Nezu are working together with her is not something to be celebrated.” Aizawa grumbled. “And we don’t know if Danny got in yet, the points haven’t even been tallied yet.”

“Come on, of course he did! You saw the way he was kicking ass back there! Had me scared for the robots sake!” Yamada started to make karate motions in front of him. 

“...Maybe we should get a divorce.” Aizawa said deadpan.

“Aw Sho I know you don’t mean that.” He said, falling to his knees and grabbing onto his husband's arm.

“Fine. We won’t get a divorce. Only if we go to the cat café for lunch.”

“Deal!” Yamada said, jumping up. “Let’s go kids, we have to save my marriage with cute cats.”

Danny laughed seeing Aizawa roll his eyes with a small smile on his face, and followed as Yamada lead the way out of the building. He’d worry about returning home another time.

Chapter 9: Acceptance

Summary:

The entrance exam results are in! Danny has a small crisis.

The week leading up to receiving the results Danny was a bundle of nerves. No matter how much reassurance he was given he still was worried about not making it in. A one in three hundred acceptance rate were not promising odds. He tried to rationalize, telling himself he might not even be in this world long enough to attend the school. 

 He did text Midoriya asking how his exam went and was met with two full paragraphs on how he was a disgrace and brought shame to his mentor’s name and legacy. Danny wasn’t too sure how he would even  be able to do that since the other boy was still very adamant not to say who helped train him. Danny did his best to reassure him, but he could tell, even over text, that it didn’t help calm him down all that much. 

Seven days passed quickly though and Yamada was yelling for him to come to the living room. He was standing next to Aizawa who was holding an envelope addressed to Danny with the seal of U.A on it. “Is that my results?” Danny said, grabbing the letter from Aizawa.

“Yes, it is.” Aizawa nodded. 

Danny took the envelope from Yamada. It felt like there was something else than just paper in it though, weird. 

“Come on, open it!” Yamada yelled.

“Hizashi stop yelling, the neighbors will complain.” 

Danny tore open the envelope pulling out a paper and some sort of disk. He turned over the disk in his hand trying to figure out what it was. He almost dropped it when it turned on and started projecting a video. On the video was a tall muscular blond man Danny recognized as the number one hero All Might. He was Midoriya’s, and most other’s, favorite hero. He was a bit confused why he was in the video sent by UA though. 

All Might was talking to someone off screen when the video started to play. “This is the last one? Okay, good.” They couldn’t have edited that part out? The hero turned to the camera. “I am here! As a projection and the newest U.A faculty member! To tell you, welcome to U.A’s hero course!” Oh so that was why he was in the video, he was going to be a teacher there. Aizawa probably wasn’t too excited about that.

 A screen filled with numbers popped up behind him. “Here are the scores from your practical exam, as you can see combat was not the only thing you and the rest of the applicants were being judged on. You could also get points through what we call rescue points. Because fighting is not the only thing that makes a hero, saving lives should always be a hero's top priority! Let’s see you  scored-” All might turned to the screen showing the points before he started coughing into his fist. Was that a bit of blood?

He leaned offscreen again “Hey are you sure you put the numbers in correctly?” Pause. “You did?” Another pause. “Well then.” 

He cleared his throat before coming back into frame again. “-One hundred forty one rescue points, and one hundred twenty three combat points! For a total of two hundred sixty four points in total! Beating my own previously set record by one hundred thirty eight points! I know at I for one am looking forward to seeing what you, and the rest of your soon to be classmates, are capable of! Welcome to U.A and remember to always go PLUS ULTRA!” 

The projection shut off, leaving Danny to process what it just told him. “I got in!” He grinned looking towards where Yamada and Aizawa were standing. 

“ You were a formidable fighter even before we trained you. You could have easily passed with your combat points alone. The rescue points you got were just a further testament to your large skill set.” Aizawa said, placing a hand on Danny’s shoulder.

“Yeah, forget about your score being overkill, it was a massacre. It’s the highest score in U.A history, super badass of you.” Yamada punched the air.

Danny’s eyes went wide. “The highest ?”

“All Might was the previous holder of the record, no one had beaten it since his own entrance exam. Until you.” Aizawa said. 

“Woah no way, I can’t wait to tell-” Danny's voice cracked, causing him to stop mid sentence in surprise. He cleared his throat. “Oh wow.”

He could tell by the looks on both their faces Yamada and Aizawa were trying not to laugh. Yamada had his lips tightly pressed together, but his eyes gave away his mirth. Aizawa seemed to have decided to look anywhere but Danny. 

“Don’t laugh at me.” It wasn’t his fault his voice decided now would be the best time to crack for the first time.

“We’re not laughing.” Yamada said, clearly still struggling. “I’m not laughing, are you laughing Shouta? See neither of us are laughing. Your voice cracking is a normal part of growing up as your voice gets deeper and your body changes. Everyone goes through it. You’ll start to notice-”

“I do not need the puberty talk again.” Danny interrupted. He already got the talk from his parents when he was younger. As well as from his doctor when they switched him from puberty blockers to testosterone. He really didn’t need it for the third time. 

Danny took the paper that was still in the envelope and read through it. It had all the supplies he’d need as well as his class assignment. 

“What class are you in?” Aizawa asked, trying to read the paper upside down from where he was standing.

“Don’t tell him Danny!” Yamada shouted before Danny could reply.

“What why?” Danny asked.

Aizawa rolled his eyes. “I just want to know if you’re in my homeroom.  Since I didn’t have any students last year I’ll be a homeroom teacher for this year's first year instead of going up a year. If this year’s student’s do not disappoint at least.”

Oh yeah, Aizawa had kicked out all of his students from his class the previous school year. Whoever was in his class this year would definitely be pushed to their limits if they showed enough potential to stay in Aizawa’s good graces. He would  know, Aizawa had high expectations during training, but he certainly could say he was better for it now. 

“Okay, so why shouldn’t I tell him?” Danny asked Yamada.

“Hear me out; it’ll be very funny to see his reaction the first day of class if it is or isn’t his.” 

“Is that it?” He asked. Yamada confirmed with a nod. Danny shrugged. “Yeah sure okay.” It could be payback for making him study so much. Half the stuff Aizawa made him study wasn’t even stuff he needed on the written entrance exam. 

“You both are impossible.” Aizawa grumbled.

“Oh you love us.” Yamada grinned. “I’m gonna go check on Jazz. She took her own letter into her room.” 

“Jazz got a letter too?” Danny asked as he watched Yamada disappear into Jazz’s room.

“A formality more than anything, seeing how Powerloader and Nezu are practically fighting over which one of them gets to be her primary mentor.” Aizawa said.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Danny was sitting on the fire escape, his legs dangling off the edge, watching the sun as it sunk below the skyline. He had debated back and forth earlier about telling Midoriya that he got in after Midoriya called him excitedly telling Danny that he was accepted into U.A. Danny had decided in the end not to tell him. The start of the school year was still a month away, and now that they knew who sent them here they could be going back home any day. Even if Danny was excited at the thought of attending the hero school, he didn’t want to get Midoriya's, or his own, hopes up at the idea of going to the school together. 

Danny’s head turned as he heard the window leading to the escape open. Aizawa climbed out onto the escape next to him. “There you are. I didn’t think to look for you out here, the window was still closed.”
Danny turned his sight back to the city. “I phased through it.”

“Yes. I figured that out in the end.” Aizawa sat down at the other end of the platform. “What are you doing out here?”

“Thinking.”

“Anything insightful?” 

“Not really.” Danny sighed.

“Anything you want to talk about?”

Danny looked up at the darkening sky. The light pollution here was too bad to see most stars, Amity was pretty bad too with that but the telescopes of the OPs Center were advanced enough that it wasn’t too much of a problem. “It’s not really that important.”

“Maybe not. But that doesn’t mean whatever it is  isn’t bothering you.”

Danny wondered if he was that obvious or if Aizawa was just more observant than others. Maybe it was a bit of both. “It’s just- my voice is going to be getting deeper y’know? And that's not a bad thing, it’s a great thing, I’m excited about it. But my dad would also be super excited about it. He always made sure to do all the stereotypical father son bonding things after I told him and mom that I felt more like a boy than a girl. He even takes me on fishing trips, I don’t even like fishing, but I know he takes me because it’s a father-son thing in his eyes so I can’t complain about it, not really. I think he was almost more excited than me when the doctor finally gave the okay to start T, ‘his son would be a man soon’ is what he said. And now by the time we get back home, whenever that may be, he’ll have missed some of it. Like I said, it’s stupid.”

“Hmm, I’ve heard some pretty stupid things in my life. Between hero work, teaching, and the friends I keep, I feel like I’ve heard every stupid thing a person could say. That wasn’t one of them. It’s a milestone for you right? I know it was for Hizashi. He’d probably handle all this better than me.” Aizawa said shifting over to be closer to where Danny was sitting. “But I’m here now so we’ll have to make due. It’s a perfectly normal response to feel homesick and miss your family. You and your sister have been away from everyone and everything you know except each other for three months. Wanting to go home isn’t stupid.”

“That’s the thing though!” Danny could tell his eyes flashed green for a second. He thought he had that under control, he had to have it under control . He couldn’t keep claiming it as a trick of the light when his emotions got out of control around his parents. Anything that could tip them off was a danger. “I’m not even sure I want to go home!”

Aizawa furrowed his brow and gave Danny a questioning look but didn’t say anything, waiting for Danny to clarify. Danny flopped onto his back, ignoring the jolt of his head hitting the metal grating. “Not yet at least? I really want to go to U.A and just be a normalish student, not having to worry about a secret identity or if I’ll be able to get all my basic needs, not even schoolwork or chores, out of the way before the next ghost attack, or if the next ghost who comes along will be the one to finish what the portal failed to. Or if not the ghost, my parents. Don’t get me wrong I love my mom and dad I really do, and I know they love me, but I’ve only been here for three months but I’ve felt like I can be me here more than I could ever be back home.” 

“Danny-”

“I know it’s ridiculous to even consider. You and Yamada have already done so much for both me and Jazz, staying any longer than absolutely needed would just be making an even bigger burden for you. Especially since you didn't want to be stuck with us in the first place back at the police station with detective Tsukauchi .” 

“Danny!” Aizawa said again, slightly raising his voice. 

That stopped Danny in his tracks, he sat up and looked at Aizawa. Danny didn’t think he ever heard Aizawa actually raise his voice, talking sternly was really all the man had to do to get others to listen to him. Yamada was the loud one of the two. Well he supposed he did yell something back when Danny was shot, but Danny was more focused on the pain at first to pay much attention to what anyone was saying. 

“First off you are not a burden, remember that. Staying in a space where you feel accepted and don’t have to be on constant guard isn't an outrageous thing to want. It is not something to be ashamed of wanting. Last and certainly not least; do you really think Hizashi and I are simply tolerating you?”

“Well I-”

“No. I won’t even let you finish whatever you are thinking because it is wrong. Do you think Hizashi decorated your room while you were in the hospital because he tolerates you? I don’t think I’d take anyone I only tolerate to my favorite café, multiple times.” Aizawa put his hands on Danny’s shoulders. “I would not have risked the end of the world as we know it by introducing Jazz to Powerloader and Nezu just so she can have some more peace of mind if I just tolerated her. I would not have used the limited free time I have everyday to train you for two months if I only tolerated you. I need you to understand this. If we only tolerated you we would have placed you with one of the foster families Tsukauchi suggested two months ago.”

“You turned down his suggestion?” 

“Yes. Because we care about you two.” Aizawa said, still gripping Danny’s shoulders, enunciating each word slowly as if it would get through to Danny better that way. “For now, don’t worry about going back home. When we find a way back for you you can decide then. Understood?”

Danny nodded as he hastily wiped at the tears forming in his eyes, there was no reason for them to be there in the first place. That thought didn’t keep them from coming though. 

“Good. Now I am going to let go of you and open my arms to offer a hug. I am not usually the one initiating physical contact unless it’s a fight, so if it’s awkward that is why and not because I don’t want to.” Aizawa said before taking his hands off of Danny and opening his arms.

Danny took him up on the offer, leaning into the embrace. Despite Aizawa’s warning of potential awkwardness, to Danny the hug made him feel safe. Aizawa patted the back of his head, and for a moment Danny  wished the hug could go on forever.

Notes:

Dad hugs dad hugs dad hugs!

 

Next chapter is the first day of U.A1

Chapter 10: First Day of U.A

Summary:

The first day of U.A!

Danny woke up to his alarm going off, he slapped at the source of the offending noise until it shut off. He could sleep for a few more minutes, he was tired. He had trouble going to sleep the night before, too excited for the first day of U.A… the first day of U.A!

Danny scrambled out of bed, phasing his legs out of the sheets he was tangled in. He  quickly got dressed, only slightly struggling with the tie. Aizawa was already in the kitchen nursing a cup of coffee. He gave Danny a nod of acknowledgement. Danny was pretty sure he just didn’t sleep at all last night since he had a late night patrol. Danny quickly learned Aizawa would just not sleep if he got home late and had an early morning shift, preferring to take small catnaps during the day to make up for it. Maybe Danny would follow suit on days he didn’t get the chance for much sleep once he got back home. 

Aizawa had already set out two mugs ready to be filled by the coffee he had made, for Yamada and Jazz next to the coffee pot. The two shared the habit of barely giving themselves enough time to get ready in the morning more often than not. As well as not functioning properly until they had a cup of coffee in their hands. Though Danny was pretty sure he was the only one in the house without a caffeine addiction, seeing how Aizawa had poured himself at least his second cup of coffee at this point before sitting down at the table.

Danny made himself a bowl of cereal and sat down across from Aizawa. “Are you going to tell me which class you’re in now?” Aizawa finally spoke.

Danny shook his head. “Nope. You’re not finding out until the first bell rings.”

“You’re a menace.”
“So I’ve been told. Don’t you have a class list for attendance or something anyway?” 

Danny could see what little light that was in Aizawa’s eyes dim. “Yes I do. But you’re not on it, you’re not on Vlad’s either. His list and mine are both missing one student each so I can’t just see which one of us is just missing a student from the roster. Nezu’s doing most likely. The fact you all have turned against me is disheartening to say the least.” 

Danny almost choked on his cereal before remembering Vlad was just the hero name of one of the other heroic teachers at UA. He had really only talked to the man in passing so it was hard to disconnect the name from the Vlad back in his own universe. As long as the vampire themed hero didn’t try to kill Yamada and marry Aizawa, or the reverse, and forcefully adopt him he’d win the title of the better Vlad. Vlad Masters may have lightened up in his sabotage attempts in the month or so leading up to Danny and Jazz coming to this world, which he appreciated, but you can only get thrown face first through buildings by someone before you develop a permanent sense of distaste for them. 

“Lighten up a bit, it’s just a few more hours before you find out which class I’m in.” Danny said. 

“I suppose.” Aizawa hummed before setting his coffee cup down, which was never a good sign. “I do need to talk to you about something though before you have your first day.” 

Oh no. Danny’s mind raced to think of what he needed to talk to him about. He didn’t do anything that would warrant a talk. Or at least he didn’t think he did. “Oh?’

“No matter what class you are in, 1-A and 1-B will both be filled with protégés and students with high ambitions and powerful skill sets. You know U.A’s acceptance rate after all, we do not accept just anyone.” Aizawa stared at Danny. 

“Yeah it’s pretty intimidating to be honest.” Of course Danny already knew that, it was one of the reasons he was so excited to go to the school. He’ll no longer be the odd one out, all his classmates will also be heroes, or at least on the track to be one. While Danny already had experience under his belt all his classmates would have had their quirks since they were young, while Danny had only gotten his own recently in comparison. Almost a year at this point, it was sort of hard to keep track of stuff like that though since the time of year here didn’t line back up to the time of year back home. According to Jazz he should have had his birthday this coming Wednesday. Making him officially fifteen and exactly one week after would be the anniversary of him becoming a halfa. It certainly was one hell of a belated birthday present. So compared to his almost twelve months of having powers all his classmates would have years on top of him to master their own. 

“Even so,” Aizawa continued, “you have to hold back on them during situations when you fight them during trainings.”

“I mean obviously? I’m not going to try to land a killing blow on my classmates?”

“Well I would hope not. But even then, you have a lot more experience in fighting than most of your classmates will, save maybe the recommendation students and a few outliers. You know the difference between fighting in a spar and fighting someone who is simply out to hurt as many people as possible. What I’m trying to say is even in a sparing sense you’ll have to hold back.” 

“What, why?”

“I know you’re confused. That’s why I’m telling you this point blank and why I’m telling you it now. With your skill set I have confidence you could easily be on or around the same level of power as All Might when he was in his prime.”

That couldn’t be true. He knew enough about All Might that he was easily the most powerful hero to probably ever exist. Even if he did have a questionable fashion sense. Wait- “What do you mean by when he was in his prime? Is he not in his prime anymore?” To be fair the hero had been around for a while, according to Midoriya he was in his late forties so it made sense if he was slowly starting to age out of heroics. Maybe that was why he decided to be a teacher. “Is it because he’s sorta old?”

“Yes, let's go with that. That’s not the topic of discussion now though. I just need you to realize the scope of your power compared to those around you. You took down three second years at the same time, who are top of their class and will easily surpass most pros the moment they graduate, with no issue. If you aren’t told this now you might severely hurt someone, and I know you don’t want that.”

“Well this certainly wasn’t the ‘don’t get in trouble at school’ talk I was expecting to have.” Danny said processing the information he was given. He knew he had to be at least somewhat powerful in the terms of this universe just by how quickly he took down some of the villains he fought and more recently by his entrance exam score. But there was a difference between being a powerful fighter and being the powerful fighter. 

“I can always have Hizashi give you one. If you want.” Aizawa said, breaking Danny away from an existential spiral. Which Danny was grateful for. 

“What can I give?” Yamada asked stepping in the kitchen and pouring himself a coffee barely awake.

“Oh just letting him know that since he’s in my class I can expel him if he gets too annoying.” 

Yamada looked up from his coffee with squinted eyes. “Nice try, I know he didn’t tell you what class he’s in yet. You can’t trick me just because I’m not awake yet.”

“It was worth a try.” Aizawa shrugged. He got up from his chair giving Yamada a kiss before he started preparing his stuff to leave. Mainly just shoving fruit jelly  pouches into his sleeping bag and putting his scarf and goggles back around his neck, still in the rest of his hero costume from patrol.

“It’s too early for you two to be so sweet.” Jazz said as she finally emerged from her own room. 

“Sho made us coffee so it’s forgivable right?” Yamada asked.

“Nice for you to finally be awake.” Danny said.

“I’ll allow it this time.” Jazz nodded, grabbing her own cup before glancing at the time and opting for a travel mug instead. “I don’t want to hear anything from you Danny. Not everyone can feel fine after four hours of sleep.” 

In what seemed like no time at all they were at UA. It felt weird being there as a student this time. Jazz headed off to the support course classrooms while Danny followed Aizawa and Yamada to the teachers lounge. 

All the teachers, except Powerloader and Thirteen, were in the lounge. Powerloader was still readying his stuff for orientation. All the support course students had a bunch of lab safety  stuff they had to go over on the first day, and according to Jazz he was particularly worried about an incoming first year girl who’s creative process included a lot of explosions if the demo she built during the support exam was anything to go by. Thirteen was called out for an emergent rescue mission, which was a shame. Despite his frequent trips to UA Danny had yet to actually meet the space themed hero much to his disappointment. 

“Hello young man!” All Might walked up to Danny. “Are you lost? This is the teachers lounge. If you want I can gladly lead you to your class!” 

“Don’t sweat it All might he’s with Eraser and Mic.” Snipe said from the corner. Danny was pretty sure he was still avoiding looking straight at Danny. 

“Oh aren’t you the cutest in the school uniform!” Midnight said pushing in front of All Might. 

Danny definitely felt out of place now that all the eyes in the room were on him. “Thanks auntie Nemuri.” He saw confusion cross All Might's face, whether it be about his relationship either to Aizawa and Yamada or Nemuri, before he seemed to decide it wouldn’t be worth it to ask. Danny couldn’t blame the man. 

“When you’re a student use hero names or mr. and ms. or both.” Aizawa reminded him. 

Danny nodded, it would be weird calling Aizawa mr. he’d probably forget at some point, it would be even weirder to call Yamada by his hero name. He’d get used to it eventually. 

Once Aizawa got everything around Danny followed him to the first year hero course classrooms. The two classes were next to each other just separated by a hallway, each door was as tall as the ceiling which was tall in its own right. “Are you going to enter your class? The bell will ring soon enough.” Aizawa asked.

“Nope. Like I said, you figure it out when the bell rings. So you’re stuck with me at least until then.” 

Aizawa just gave a defeated sigh. “Then I’m taking a nap, have fun standing there alone.” He climbed into his sleeping bag and slumped against the wall, instantly falling asleep. Honestly it scared Danny at times how fast he fell asleep. At least they were around the corner so no students would accidentally step on the sleeping teacher. 

From the sound coming from around the corner there was some commotion going on from class 1-A. Aizawa opened his eyes with a sigh and sort of just rolled around the corner not even bothering  to stand up. Danny followed from behind. They stopped in front of the door where there were three students standing in the doorway. He’d recognize that green head of hair anywhere! It was Midoryia. Wasn’t that the kid who interrupted Yamada’s speech during the entrance exams next to him? Danny didn’t recognize the girl though. 

“If you’re just here to make friends you can pack up your stuff now.” Aizawa said, still on the floor. “Welcome to U.A’s hero course.” He unzipped his sleeping bag slightly and pulled out a fruit pouch before drinking it all at once.

Danny stepped over Aizawa and into the classroom. He heard Aizawa give a small dejected sigh once he realized Danny was in his class. He stood up and unzipped himself fully from his bag. “It took eight seconds before you all shut up. That’s not going to work. Time is precious, rational students would understand that.”

The whole class was staring at Aizawa with confused looks. Danny didn’t blame them, he thought the man was homeless when he first met him. “Hello I’m Shota Aizawa, your teacher. Right let’s get to it, put these on and head outside.” He said pulling a gym uniform from his bag. Danny didn’t even remember him putting that in his sleeping bag at all.

The uniforms were quickly passed out. Everyone was scrambling so quickly to get changed that Danny didn’t even get the chance to talk to Midoriya. He was happy they were in the same class though. The class met out on one of the training fields, all lined up in front of Aizawa.

Aizawa explained how they would be taking a quirk assessment test, much to the disappointment of the students who wanted to go to the orientation. A disappointment that  Aizawa shot down quickly explaining how they shouldn’t be wasting time if they wanted to be heroes. Yep he was in full teacher mode now. He even went off on a small tangent  about the ministry of education, Danny had heard a much longer rant about the ministry from the man before. “ you had one of the top scores in the entrance exam, what was your farthest distance throw with a softball when you were in junior high?” Aizawa asked, turning to a boy with spiky hair, Danny felt like he had seen him before somewhere. Was he in the same entrance exam group maybe?

“Sixty seven meters I think.” Bakugo responded. 

Aizawa tossed him a ball before instructing him to use his quirk this time to see how far he could throw it. The boy stretched his arms before throwing the ball, blasting it away with an explosion. Oh he was that one kid who could make explosions, Danny remembered now. He managed to throw it seven hundred and five meters, dang.

The class started to get worked up, excited about the idea of being able to use their quirks. “This looks fun to you? You all have three years to become heroes. If you think it’s all going to be fun and games you can leave now. You’ll be taking these tests to gauge your potential, whoever comes in last has none and therefore will be expelled. Immediately.”

At least he was only threatening to throw one kid out. Danny was aware of Aizawa’s track record for expulsions. The rest of the class on the other hand spoke up in outrage. “But we just got here, that's not fair!” The brown haired girl next to Midoryia said.

“Nothing in hero work is fair. Natural disasters, villains hurting people for power and fun, accidents that wipe out the lives of whole cities, do those sound fair to you? A hero’s job is to combat that unfairness, if you want to be a pro you have to push yourself past your limits. So go beyond plus ultra style. Show me there was no mistake in you all being here.” Aizawa said. 

The first test was a fifty meter dash. Danny watched as his classmates took turns running. He was debating if he should transform or not. In the end he decided not to. He remembered what Aizawa said this morning and what he told him before meeting with Recovery Girl all those months ago about holding a few things to his chest. He wouldn’t hold himself back while in his human form, he could use most of his powers as a human anyway they just weren’t as effective. Not like he would be using things like his ghostly wail or having to pick up entire city buses during tests that reminded him of track and field day. 

When it was his turn he readied himself, once he was given the signal to start he shot off. He stopped a bit farther than needed but it was hard to go top speed then just stop, he didn’t even hear what score the machine gave him. He circled back to  where the rest of his classmates were, and they just sorta stared at him. “What?” 

“Your score was crazy!” A blond kid with a streak of black in his hair said. 

“Really what was it?”

“Two point one seconds.” Aizawa said, not looking up from the screen in his hands. 

Oh that was fast, he wondered what it would have been if he had gone ghost for it. Danny glanced over at Midoryia who seemed to be having a minor freak out. He was probably worried because he didn’t have a quirk like the rest of the class. But there was no reason to worry, there were a few other students in the class who’s quirks weren’t physical based, like the girl who was invisible for example. Danny saw Midoryia lug a fridge by himself across the beach, so if he stayed calm he should be fine. But Midoryia seemed to not be staying calm, and when that happens his performance dwindles. 

“You got this Midoriya, don’t let others worry you!” Danny said during the grip strength test.

“Uh, thank you? I don’t think I got your name.” Midoriya responded. 

Danny then realized he was very stupid. Of course Mioryia didn’t recognize him. He was only in his ghost form whenever he went to the beach to talk to Midoriya and all other times it was just over the phone. “Oh geez one second.” Danny closed his fist around the grip tester and squeezed, but stopped when it started to creak, he didn’t want to have to pay for damages to school property. He took a quick glance at the screen, it read 6803kg. Danny honestly didn’t know if that was good or not for him. “Do your test real quick so we can talk after.” 

“Oh I already did.” He said with a frown lifting up his device that read 56kg.

Danny was pretty sure that was a good score for someone without a strength quirk. Especially since it was just grip strength. “Wow, that's good!”

Midoryia glanced down at Danny’s own reader and his face fell. “Please don’t make fun of me.”

“What? No! I’m not, I promise. I just know since you don’t have a quirk-”

“What” Midoriya interrupted. “What makes you say that?”

“Midoriya it’s me Phantom.” 

“You look nothing like Phantom, how do you even know that name?” 

Danny was under the full force of Midoriya’s analytical gaze. “I have a human and a ghost form, it still me though.”

“Prove it.”

Danny thought for a second. “When you got your acceptance letter you called me to let me know and it eventually dissolved into a two hour ramble on All Might's time in America and how it set the new standard for all heroes in the States.” 

“It really is you! Wait What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t going to apply?” 

Danny rubbed the side of his neck. “I wasn’t originally but a few things popped up, so here I am.” 

“Woah this is so cool, I can’t believe we’re in the same class too!” Midoriya smiled before he looked down at his grip score and his face fell again. “At least we will be for a day.” 

“You’ll be fine, I believe in you.” Danny said, patting him on the back.

Aizawa called the class to continue onto the next tests. Standing long jumps, then side steps, and next the ball throw. Danny blinked watching the brown haired girl, who he found out was named Uraraka, throw her ball into the stratosphere. Wow. Midoriya was next looking down at his ball. 

Beside him he overheard a conversation about Midoriya. “If Midoryia doesn’t shape up soon, he’s the one going home.” The blue haired kid with glasses, Iida, said.

“Of course he is. He’s a quirkless loser.” Bakugo snarled. That was a bit of a harsh way to put it. So what if he was quirkless, Midoriya was extremely smart and dedicated to becoming a hero. 

“He has a quirk. Did you not hear what he did in the entrance exam?” Iida asked.

Wait what? What happened during his entrance exam? Danny turned back towards Midoriya who was about to throw the ball before Aizawa used his own quirk on him.  Midoriya looked at the ball in confusion then looked behind him only to be met face to face with an irritated Aizawa. A spot Danny wouldn’t wish anyone to be in.

“I erased your quirk. The judges for this exam were not rational enough. Someone like you should never be allowed in this school.” Danny knew first hand that Aizawa’s methods could be harsh. If he didn’t think someone would make it out alive as a hero, he’d make sure they didn’t become one. Danny still couldn’t help but feel bad though.

“Those goggles I know you. You can look at someone and cancel out their powers! The erasure hero: Eraserhead!” Midoria said in shock.

Danny watched as the two talked. Stepping back when Aizawa grabbed Midoriya with his scarf. He was so confused at this point, both Aizawa and Iida had now talked about Midoriya having a quirk when Danny remembered when Midoriya himself told him that he was quirkless. 

Aizawa seemed to have said everything he wanted to and stepped back from Midoriya, giving him the go to try and throw the ball now. Danny watched Midoriya in suspense, would he use this quirk everyone was talking about? Midoriya wound up his arm to throw and the ball shot from his hand at immense speed and distance. 

…What?

Danny looked back and forth between Midoriya and Aizawa. Wait, was Mioriya’s finder broken? Danny started to make his way towards Midoriya to check on him just as Bakugo started for the boy as well, yelling as explosions popped off his palm. 

Both boys were stopped though when Aizawa caught both of them in his scarf. “Stand down. It would be wise to avoid making me use my quirk so much. It gives me serious dry eye.”

“I’m trying to make sure he’s okay.” Danny grumbled phasing out of the scarf. 

Aizawa released Bakugo. “You can wait until he’s off to the side and out of the way. We’re waiting time now, whoever’s next can step up.” Midoriya hurried off to the side, Danny followed after him, both Uraraka and him trying to make sure he was alright. 

The rest of the tests went by quickly. The class was gathered together as Aizawa put up the scores on the screen. There was Danny’s name on top, followed by Yaoyorozu and Todoroki, Bakugo was in fourth place. From what Danny could tell by his limited interactions with him that must be infuriating to the boy. Danny read down the list looking for Midoriya’s name, growing increasingly worried as he went farther down the list without seeing it. Until he got to the very bottom where Midoriya’s name sat. 

Danny looked over to Midoriya who was looking down at the ground with his fist clenched.  But before he could try to comfort him Aizawa shut off the screen and spoke. “And I was lying. No one’s going home.” He smiled. “That was just a logical ruse  to make sure you gave it your all in the tests.”

The class reacted with shock, including Danny. “I’m surprised the rest of you didn’t figure that out. I’m sorry I guess I should have said something.”

Danny shook his head, not bothering to let them know it was definitely not just a ruse. Aizawa expelled his entire class last year. It wouldn’t be surprising if he did decide to expel someone the first day. 

“That’s it, we're done for the day. Pick up the syllabus in the classroom, read it before tomorrow.” Aizawa walked over to Midoriya and handed him a slip of paper. “Take this and go have the old lady fix you up. Things will be harder tomorrow when your actual training begins, be prepared. Danny make sure he doesn’t get lost trying to find her  office.”

“Sure thing.” Danny said. Aizawa walked off to who knew where, probably to take another nap. “I’ll show you where Recovery Girl’s office is.” 

He led the other boy through the halls. “So Phantom, you’re probably wondering about the whole having a quirk thing.”
Danny shrugged. “You can call me Danny. Yeah I am a bit curious, I won’t lie about that.”

“Well,” Midoriya stammered, “It actually came in the same day as the entrance exam.”
“Oh that makes sense.” Danny didn’t know too much about how quirks work but he knew he had a lot of trouble with his own powers the first few months of having them. No wonder Midoriya’s body had such a bad backlash when he used it, he wasn’t used to all the power. 

“Good, I didn’t want you to think I was tricking you or something before.”

“That would be a weird thing to try and trick me over. I assumed you had some explanation. But since it’s so new you’ll probably have to work on training it outside of class too so you don’t fall behind.”

“What do you mean?”
“Well all our other classmates have had years to get used to their quirks. You haven’t had that chance. I’m sure Aizawa- oh sorry- Mr. Aizawa would be up to helping you. He is our teacher after all.” 

“I don’t know I don’t really want to bother him, I can try and work it out on my own.”
Danny scoffed. “Don’t be worried about that, I’ll ask him for you if you don’t want to.”

“Really, you’d do that for me? Why?” Midoryia asked him, confused.

Danny remembered that Midoriya really didn’t have friends before him, or if he did they sucked. “Because I can and I want to, and we’re friends.”

They arrived at Recovery Girl’s office. Danny waited outside for Midoriya after he went in. Midoriya came out looking exhausted. “Oh man you look rough. Do you want to lean on me while we walk?”

Midoriya shook his head.  “I’ll be fine, thanks.”

They made their way outside where they were stopped by Iida. “How is your finger doing?”

“It’s doing fine thanks to Recovery girl. Her quirk is so cool!” Midoriya responded. 

The now group of three only took a few steps before being stopped again by Uraraka calling out to them. “Hey you three wait up! Are you going to the station? I’ll join you guys.”

“Oh you’re the infinity girl.” Iida said.

“My name is Ochaco Uraraka. Let’s see you are Tenya Iida, you’re Daniel Fenton, and you’re Deku right, Midoriya?” She introduced herself.

“Deku?!” Midoria asked.

“Yeah isn’t that what Bakugo called you?” She asked

“Well you see my name is actually Izuku, Deku is just what Kaachan calls me to make fun of me.” 

Why was it always blond athletic kids who were the bullies? Between Dash back home and now this Bakugo kid. Back home may be a different story but Danny would not tolerate bullies here. 

“Oh I’m sorry. But you know what I like Deku, it could be a great hero name. Plus I think it sounds kinda cute.” Uraraka smiled.

“Deku it is!” Midoria said.

Wow way to overcome years of insult for a girl Midoriya. “Weren’t you just saying it was an insult?” Iida asked.

“My whole world is upside down.” Midoriya said, placing his face in his hands. 

“Wait what?” Uraraka asked.

“Don’t mind him, he’s tired from Recovery Girl’s quirk.” Danny waved them off. “You can just call me Danny by the way.”

“Are you sure? That is quite informal.” Iida said.

“Yeah no worries, I’m from America originally so I don’t really get the whole going by your last name thing. Plus the Fenton’s are my parents, I'm just Danny.”

“Well if you say so I won’t argue.” Uraraka chimed in. “Especially from someone who had such a crazy score on the quirk field tests!” 

“Yes indeed, your scores were extremely impressive. I look forward to being your peer.” Iida said.

Man with the way they were hyping him up Danny would start to get a big head. His powers really weren’t anything special, most of the things he could do were things every ghost could do with a few exceptions.  “I’m not actually going to the station so I’ll see you guys tomorrow okay?” 

The three gave some noise of protest before each giving him a goodbye. Danny really hoped he’d become friends with them, they seemed nice enough. Even if Iida seemed a bit uptight at times.

After they departed he made his way back up to the teachers lounge. Aizawa was already in the lounge napping on the couch. “Hey Mr. Aizawa.”

Aizawa cracked open an eye. “Hello menace.”

“Are you really going to keep calling me that?” Danny asked, sitting next to him. 

“I’ll keep calling you that as long as you keep being a menace.” Aizawa replied.

“Fair, I have a question.” 

“Will it make me think of you as more of a menace?”

“Probably.” Danny shrugged.

“What’s the question?”

“Can you help Midoriya with his quirk?”

Aizawa opened his other eye. “Why?”

“Well he’s only had his quirk since the entrance exam-”
“He’s only had his quirk since when?” Aizawa sat fully up.

“Since the entrance exam, apparently it came in late.”

Aizawa shook his head, fully awake now. “Quirks don’t just come in that late.”
“I don’t know. I didn’t want to push! He seemed nervous talking about it. I just wanted to ask if you could help him with it. He hasn’t had the chance to figure out his quirk like the rest of our classmates have.”

Aizawa sat in silence for a few minutes. “That would explain why his body reacts to his quirk like it does at least. We can get into how his quirk came in that late another time.”

“So you’ll help?”

“I am his teacher, it wouldn't make sense for me not to help him use his abilities to the fullest.” 

“Yes! Thank you!” Danny cheered.

“And this is why you’re a menace. Now leave me alone. Mic and Jazz should both be here soon and I want to nap before we leave.” He grumbled before closing his eyes again and sinking back into the couch. 

That was fine with Danny. He felt like overall today was a good first day and couldn’t wait to see what tomorrow had in store as the first full day of school.  

 

Notes:

Danny: That doesn't sound right but I don't know enough about quirks to dispute it
Aizawa fully knowledgeable about quirks: It came in when?

fun fact this was originally going to be part of the last chapter but it turned out too long to be a single chapter

Chapter 11: Haunted Battles

Summary:

The first full day of U.A is here, class 1A gets their first taste of hero basics,

 

The first full day of U.A went like a normal school day for the first half of it. Normal subject matters and all. It would definitely take time to get used to having Yamada and Aizawa as teachers though, and to a lesser extent all the other teachers Danny got to know whenever he visited U.A before becoming a student. They were good at not signaling him out at all during class though. Especially Aizawa, if you didn't know better you'd think they had never met before the first day of school. 

Danny sat with Midoriya, Iida, and Uraraka during lunch. He didn’t think he’d ever taste cooking as good as Lunch Rush’s, he was pretty sure he almost cried when he tried it for the first time. And the taste had not lessened since then. No food should be allowed to taste that good, especially school food. 

“So what even is your quirk Danny? I mean it seemed like you could do everything and anything yesterday during our test.” Uraraka asked in between bites.

“Oh, it's called ghost. It gives me all the stereotypical ghost stuff you’d see in a movie or something.” Danny replied.

“That is rather vague.” Iida said. “Is it similar to our teacher Ectoplasm’s quirk perhaps?”

Danny could feel Midoriya practically vibrating beside him as the topic changed to quirks. “Only in the sense they’re both ectoplasm based I suppose. But the ectoplasm he produces is different than the ectoplasm I make.” Jazz even did tests on both, after asking the pro-hero if she could take a sample. “That’s really where any similarities end. His is produced from an extra organ apparently, mine is more linked to my cells and DNA sequence. By ghost stuff I mean like flying, intangibility, invisibility, I can create ice, uhh enhanced strength and healing. Let’s see oh yeah and ectoblasts. I think that’s most of the things I can do?”

“Woah, that's crazy!  You must have been super popular when you were younger with a quirk like that!” Uraraka said.

“Most of the things? Are you saying there are more things you are capable of?” Iida asked at the same time.

“I actually wasn’t popular at all when I was younger Uraraka, sort of the opposite. Yeah there are more things I can do but there’s quite a lot and I tend to forget sometimes so I just stuck with the basic stuff.”  Danny answered.

“While that is most definitely an impressive list, forgetting what you are capable of can be extremely dangerous in hero work. I feel it is imperative for you to create a system to help you remember, have you thought of making a list perhaps?” Iida suggested.

Danny could not say he had thought of making a list. Or if he did it was quickly shot down, what if his parents accidently came across it? Though that wouldn’t really be an issue now. “You’re right, maybe I will make a list. Midoriya, would you mind helping with that?” He asked, turning to said boy.

Midoriya looked at him in confusion. “You want my help, why?”

“Because you’re super knowledgeable about quirks and stuff, you’ll probably find more uses for my quirk than I would ever even think of.” Hell Danny once listened to him talk for ages about Mount Lady’s quirk and how it might be possible for her to shrink down as well as growing large, all while dragging pounds and pounds of trash across the beach. 

“But wouldn’t it be creepy? Me trying to pry into your quirk so much and all? You already told me so much about it before U.A and if I ask too much you’ll get weirded out.” Midoriya said.

Danny shook his head. “What would make you think that? I asked you to help so why would I think it’s creepy?” Danny turned to the two sitting across from them. “You guys should see his notebook, he has more heroes than I knew existed in it. As well as in depth theories on how their quirks operate.”

“It’s not really that interesting.” Midoriya said as his face turned red and he buried his face in his hands. 

“Are you interested in analysis Midoriya? It’s a very useful skill for a hero to have, being knowledgeable on your allies' quirks as well as being able to quickly figure out the quirk of a villain you may come across.” Iida pointed out.

“Yeah Iida’s right. You should show us some time! Maybe you could help us with our quirks too! If that isn’t too much trouble that is.” Uraraka nodded, pulling her hands to her chest.

“Speaking of help with quirks.” Danny turned back to Midoriya. “I talked with Aizawa and he said he’ll help you with your quirk.”

“You mean Mr. Aizawa, we must always respect our teachers if we want to learn from them.” Iida corrected Danny. Danny knew he’d slip up on that eventually, at least it wasn’t in front of Aizawa during class.

“I don’t know how you could just go up to him and ask him something, he seems kinda scary doesn’t he?” Uraraka said.

Could Aizawa be scary? Yes he could, Danny vaguely remembered seeing it first hand when he beating up that villain after Danny was shot. He wouldn’t even call it fighting, fighting implied the two parties were at least on somewhat even ground during it. He could be scary in a different sense when he ran Danny through the wringer while he trained him for the entrance exam. But asking him to help a friend? Not scary. Especially after he’d seen the man asleep on the couch with Laika and The Queen of Arson curled on top of him with a case report laid on top of his face. Multiple times. “He can be a bit intimidating I guess? But he is a teacher, he’s here to help us improve. The fact he hasn’t expelled any of us is a good sign to be honest.”

“Wait, I thought him expelling us was just a ruse?” Uraraka asked.

Danny laughed. “Ha….no, he expelled his whole class last year actually.”

The bell signaling the end of lunch stopped the group of four from discussing the topic any longer. Everyone in class sat quietly waiting for the class to start, it was their first hero basic training class after all. 

The door slammed open and a booming voice rang through the room. “I AM HERE! Coming through the door like a hero!” It was All Might. Danny looked around the room as various students voiced their excitement. “Welcome to the most important class at U.A High. Think of it as heroing 101. You’ll learn the basics of being a pro and what it means to fight in the name of good! Now let’s get into it. Today’s lesson we’ll pull no punches!” 

So they’d be fighting each other from the sounds of it. Danny had to remember that most of his classmates had limited fighting experience if any. He doubted Recovery Girl would be too happy if he ended up sending someone to her office.

All Might continued his presentation. “But one of the keys of being a hero is looking good!” Briefcases came out from the wall each numbered one through twenty with an empty slot where nineteen would have been. They were their hero costumes. “Get yourself suited up and meet me at training ground Beta!” 

Everyone rushed to grab their costumes. Even Bakugo had a hint of excitement on his face. Danny didn’t have a hero costume, his came free with dying. A sort of buy one get one free deal. So he headed down to ground Beta.

“Do you not have a costume young Aizawa? We will need to get that fixed right away if not, every hero needs one. It’s a form of expression every hero deserves to have! From bleak and dreary to bright and flashy, all styles have their uses!” All Might said when Danny arrived alone still in his school uniform.

“Young Aizawa? Oh, no I’m- Aizawa isn’t my dad.” Danny explained.

“Of course my mistake, I figured with the dark hair and all! My apologies young Yamada.” All Might corrected himself.

Did-did All Might not know Aizawa and Yamada were married? They weren’t exactly public with their relationship with Aizawa being an underground hero and Yamada being a spotlight hero and all, but Danny figured at least he’d know since they were co-workers. “Uh no, again sorry. He’s also not my dad. I mean they’re my foster dads but my last name is Fenton, you can just call me Danny though.” 

All Might blinked once but seemed to recover from the shock of the new information in less than a second. “My apologies once again young Danny! But that still leaves the question of your hero costume?”

“No worries about that, it’s part of my quirk.” Danny transformed into his ghost form then did jazz hands. “See, great for impromptu hero work.”

For some reason it seemed the sight of his ghost form shocked the number one hero more than the information about Aizawa and Yamada, he even started to have a small coughing fit. He looked Danny up and down once he recomposed himself, specifically returning to his face and hair often, Danny wondered if black sclera were common in this universe as he watched the man's eyes examine him. All Might and one of his classmates, the pink one, both had them. “You said Eraserhead and Present Mic were your foster parents? Do you know if you resemble your biological parents at all?”

That certainly was a weird question. “Uh I take after my dad a lot I guess?” All Might looked like he was about to have another coughing fit or maybe a stroke. “We both have blue eyes and black hair, but I definitely take after my mom in stature seeing how my dad is built like a brick house.”

“Your father, black hair not white? His eyes are blue? You are certain?” 

“Yeah? I mean he’s starting to gray at the side but that’s really it. Why?” Danny honestly was confused at this point in the conversation.

“Never mind, and though it may seem like I am repeating myself I once again apologize. You just remind me of- '' All Might paused, “- an old foe. But he has been long vanquished so you have no need to worry!” His boisterous attitude returned just as quick as it left. 

“Oh okay then. No problem, I get that I look a bit on the spooky side at times.” Danny kept forgetting ghosts were not a common sight in this world, or really a sight at all.

“Maybe so! But you can always use that to your advantage against villains, give them a good enough scare and the fight can be over before a single punch is thrown!” 

Danny wondered if All Might himself used that method. His reputation as the symbol of peace itself probably would send villains running if they heard he was even in the area. Unfortunately it’d be hard to scare ghosts with his looks, he just looked like a normal ghost. Maybe if he managed to get strong enough he could scare them with his reputation like All Might. 

Soon enough the rest of the class arrived at the training grounds in their own hero costumes. Danny had to say some of them definitely could be improved, like ice covering an entire half of your body? That had to be at least a bit uncomfortable, he had ice powers but he wasn’t covering his body in ice, honestly it would probably just get in the way. And no matter how much he liked Midoriya, that suit wasn’t a great look on him, he looked like an unhinged green rabbit. But when Danny looked back up at All Might he connected the dots. Of course he’d model his costume after his favorite hero, he probably got his fashion sense from him too. It still needed some redesign though in his opinion. 

“Aw they made my costume a bit tight for my tastes.” Uraraka said to Midoriya.

“You can always get the support students to alter it to an extent.” Danny offered up floating over to the two.

Uraraka squeaked after he approached. “Uh not to be rude, but who are you?”

How many times would he have to explain this to people? “It’s me Danny, this is my ghost form. It’s part of my quirk.” 

“Oh I see now, it’s kinda creepy.” She said.

Danny nodded. “Yeah it kinda is. You should take your costume to the support course workshops after class if you want it altered though. My sister is in the course actually.” 

“The one who’s quirkless?” Midoriya asked

“Yep. Well she’s a support course student as well as Nezu’s student  to be more specific.” Danny added.

“I’ll have to see what they can do then.” Uraraka said, pulling at the fabric of her costume. 

“Woah no way!” The student with red hair, it was ‘K’ something he couldn't remember his name, came running over. “Danny right? I’m Eijiro Kirishima! You helped me out during the entrance exam!” 

Danny couldn’t remember helping anyone with spiky red hair during the entrance exam. “I did?”

Kirishima rubbed the back of his head. “Well I looked a bit different then, new hair style and all. I had darker hair and you helped me out when I was trying to shield someone else from a robot! I don’t blame you if you don’t remember though, you were everywhere helping everyone taking down bots left and right. Man I was so disappointed I didn’t see you in class, especially after how you took down that zero pointer like it was nothing. I’m glad I just didn’t recognize you at first.” 

Oh Danny remembered now! “I remember you! You weren’t too bad yourself, you were helping as many people as you could too.”

All Might called all of their attention and explained the battle scenarios. They’d be grouped up in pairs of two and face off against another group, one as a hero team and one playing as the villain. The villains had to protect the fake bomb and either capture the heroes or successfully protect the bomb, while the heroes had to either capture the villains or get their hands on the bomb. Both the groups and who they'd be up against were random. Danny was paired up with Yaoyorozu, if he remembered correctly she had a creation quirk.

The first pair up was Midoriya and Uraraka vs. Iida and Bakugo. Danny couldn’t say he was looking forward to how that fight would play out. He didn’t know exactly what Bakugo and Midoriya’ history was but he knew it didn’t seem pleasant. Not to mention Bakugo seemed to have some violent tendencies. 

By the middle of the fight he was proven right. Iida was certainly entertaining to watch playing the role of the villain, but that was overshadowed by the fact that Midoriya and Bakugo were absolutely not holding back. Danny had certainly taken worse beatings, but by the reactions of his classmates he could safely say the fight had gone too far. By the time All Might told the two to stand down it was too late and they didn’t stop, Midoriya had broken his arm with his quirk and got a face full of an explosion along with it. Danny watched the screen as Midoriya was taken away on a stretcher before the class minus Midoriya discussed the battle .

Yaoyorozu made good points during the discussion and Danny was very glad she was on his team, she seemed super smart. They watched and discussed each battle until Danny’s team was pulled. Danny and Yaoyorozu as the villains and Jiro and Kaminari as the heroes. Danny knew the basics of their quirks, Jiro had some sort of hearing quirk and Kaminari had an electricity one. 

Once their five minute timer started to prepare he turned to Yaoyorozu. “How do you want to do this?”

“What do you mean?” She asked examining the room the fake bomb was in.

“Well we could go the route Todoroki did and just wipe them out immediately, but that's no fun. For us or for them. We all should have a chance to show off what we can do. So, any plans?” 

“Well I was thinking of setting up some traps and barricading the doors, wait for them to come to us. But I am willing to hear any ideas you have.” She explained. 

Danny nodded his head. “I do like the trap idea. Actually something All Might told me earlier gives me an idea too.” 

Danny explained his idea to her as quickly as he could, they’d have to work quickly for it to actually work. 

“I see so instead of going for the two options given to win, we go for a third. Even if that option doesn’t count specifically the time will run out making us win by default as long as it works. I’ll get started on making the traps then, I’ll need you to set most of them up since you can access all the levels quicker. Put these cameras around as well so I can track their progress and feed you information.” She said creating multiple small cameras along with the first few traps. He’d have to go back and forth to collect more as she made them. 

Soon the five minutes of prep time were up and their traps were set. Danny floated near the ceiling above the door the heroes would enter, invisible. He used his ice powers to lower the temperature around them, just enough for them to slightly see their own breath. A bit farther down the hall was a smoke machine filling the hall with a cloud of fog, impeding their vision. 

“Aw man,it’s cold and I can hardly see anything!” Kaminari complained, batting at the fog to try and disperse it, quickly losing the confident attitude he walked in with.

“It’s fine I can just use my quirk to hear where they are in the building.” Jiro said.

That was Danny’s cue to fly up to Yaoyorozu as quick as he could and turn her and the bomb intangible to minimize any sound. The two watched the cameras they set up, as Jiro stuck her earphone jack into the wall. A confused look passed her face and shook her head over at Kaminari. They shrugged at each other and continued down the hall. 

The two continued up two more levels of the building. Running into various traps meant to make them feel uneasy. A slight breeze on the back of their necks, the doors triggered to slam shut behind them, the lights flickering and eventually shutting off completely. Kaminari had resorted to generating a small amount of electricity in his hand to light up the area around them. Once they reached the fourth floor, the second floor from the top, was when the final part of the plan was put into action now that they were uneasy.

It was actually Yaoyorozu’s idea. Danny originally suggested she was the one to put the metaphorical final nail in the coffin in the plan since she thought of it but she shot it down. Apparently it would be more believable if it was him. He wasn’t too sure about that, last time he tried to be scary was when he tried to make a haunted house for Mr. Lancer and that didn’t end well at all. He supposed he would just have to channel all the ghosts from the horror movies Sam would have the three binge during sleepovers. 

“Wait Kaminari, I hear something.” Jiro said, holding her hand up. Kaminari tilted his head trying to hear. Not like it was hard to hear, the whole time they were in the building it had been eerily quiet except for themselves.. It was the sound of pounding footsteps running down the hall towards them. 

Kaminari and Jiro both entered fighting stances, waiting for whatever incoming assault may be approaching.  It was Yaoyorozu running straight at them. It was almost comical how easy it was to wrap the capture tape around her, she just ran right into it. It was comical at least until they noticed how the side of her face seemed to be covered in blood. 

Instead of reacting how a normal person would to losing a simulation, especially a recommendation student, she looked at the two with a mixture of fear and relief. “Oh thank goodness I found you two. We have to go now!” She said panting.

“What are you talking about? Is that blood? What’s going on?” Jiro asked. It was hard to see with all the lights off but Kaminari was producing enough light to see the red splattered across their classmates face and running down her arm.

“I don’t-we have to- It’s Danny he-” Yaoyorozu started before fog started rolling from around the corner she had just ran from. “It’s too late.”

Danny slowly walked from around the corner once the fog had collected enough, making sure to stare straight ahead not really focusing on any of the three. Yaoyorozu said he looked creepier when he walked compared to flying, something about him not moving right. He was the only other source of light, other than Kaminari’s electricity, illuminating the fog around him.  

He took another step towards the group. He learned a while ago he could make himself look glitched out if he turned various body parts invisible rapidly enough, it took a lot of concentration but it was paying off now. Yaoyorozu was really playing it up, she fell and scrambled backwards away from him. 

One more step forward. He started lowering the temperature in the hall more, frost started to build up on the floor in front of him. Step again. He licked his top lip, refraining from reacting to the taste of red food dye and corn syrup that covered his mouth, revealing the sharp red stained teeth that hid behind. 

Step. “ Did you really think you could run? ” Danny’s distorted voice rang from all directions, courtesy of the speakers they set up prior. The slight feedback that came through the speakers was courtesy of his powers messing with the electronics. An annoying side effect of using too many of them at once. 

One final step. He was within arms reach of them now. He really hoped this final effort worked enough to scare them, they hadn’t moved an inch since he turned the corner. He let his ghostly aura extend past his person. It was something he always had to keep a hold on, often garnering worse reactions from his friends than his ghostly wail. Sam described it once as feeling like ‘the very concept of death and pain solidified and wrapped around your very soul and being, and not in a good goth way’. 

But she did always have a sense for the dramatic when it came to stuff like that. He didn’t let it extend far though, he didn’t need to. He leaned forward, finally looking at Jiro and Kaminari for the first time since his act started. Kaminari had stopped producing his electricity at that point, leaving the glow of Danny’s body and eyes all that remained of light. Danny gave them a sharp toothed smile, and whispered, “Boo.” 

That, finally, was what seemed to break them. Danny had to give them props for grabbing Yaoyorozu before booking it out of the building, trying to unwrap the capture tape binding her hands as they ran. Danny sank through the floor, landing behind the group as they ran from the door.  “Going somewhere?” 

They were right by the door now. “Jiro, go get help from All Might and the others, I’ll hold him off.” Kaminari said as he charged at Danny. Electricity started to surround him after the two girls were out the door. “My quirk may not be too helpful when allies are nearby but now they’re out of range. Take this!” Electricity shot out from his body in all directions, hitting Danny and everything else in a twenty foot radius.

Danny wouldn’t lie and say it felt great. But he had plenty of experience with being electrocuted, from Skulker, Technus, Valerie that one time she attacked him with a cattle prod. Not to mention how nothing even could come close to the amount of electricity he was hit with when he turned on the portal. And that had the not so fun bonus of every single one of his cells simultaneously being torn apart and mending back together by the amount of ectoplasm he was exposed to. It wasn’t nearly concentrated enough for him to react to. So he gritted his teeth and stalked forward towards the other boy. 

“AND THAT’S TIME! THE VILLAIN TEAM WON!” All Might’s voice rang through their earpieces. Danny’s was still slightly crackling due to his powers but it was still audible. 

“Oh sweet really? That went by fast.” Danny said, reining in his powers. 

When they met back with the class to discuss the simulation Yaoyorozu tossed him a washcloth to clean the fake blood off his mouth, she was already wiping the fake blood off of herself. “Thanks.” Looking up at his classmates after he wiped his own face revealed them all staring at the pair. “What?”

“Dude what the hell was that?” Kaminari asked, his arms wrapped around himself. 

Danny chuckled. “Sorry I tried my best, I know I’m not super good at being scary.”

“What are you talking about?” Jiro asked. “We were terrified the moment you turned that corner.”

“But you didn’t even move until I was right in front of you?” Danny asked.

“Yeah, because I physically couldn’t. I don’t know about Kaminari but I was frozen in fear. My body refused to move.” Jiro said.

“Yeah no, hard same, honestly thought that building would be my grave.” Kaminari shook his head.

“It was scary enough to watch on screen!” Uraraka said. “I couldn’t imagine being right in front of you. Especially with whatever you did at the end, I think it even scared All Might a bit.” 

Danny looked over to All Might who was looking at him like he was earlier when Danny went ghost in front of him. “Oh you guys felt that? Sorry, I thought I was keeping a better hold of it.” 

All Might cleared his throat, still clearly a bit put off. “Do not apologize young man. I never specified you had to beat the other team in a physical fight, a psychological battle can be just as effective, if not more!” 

Danny knew that well enough just by living with Jazz. Though he didn’t know psychological warfare could be so fun, usually he only used it against Vlad since publicly beating up his dad’s one sided best friend wouldn’t go down well. Jazz would be so proud once he tells her about today. 

All Might started asking the other students about their battle. Danny looked over at Bakugo, he seemed to be staring through the wall not listening to what was being said. Danny sighed, he may not like the impression he’d had so far of the boy, but he’d feel bad if he didn’t make sure he was at least somewhat okay. Jazz would say something about how he had to give others a chance especially since they’re all still kids growing and developing. “Hey Bakugo, you okay?”

Bakugo’s focus turned to him, he almost looked like he was about to swing at Danny. But instead he just tsked at him and looked the other way. “Fuck off Casper.”

Danny’s brow raised, he blinked once, then decided anything he could reasonably say or do wasn’t worth it and turned to watch as the next two teams went up against each other. He crossed his legs in the air as he watched the final match next to Uraraka and Iida.  

Once the class finished All Might made a quick exit, saying something about checking up on Midoriya. Danny wanted to do the same but he had classes to attend. He should make sure to copy the notes for the classes Midoriya would be missing, or ask Iida to do it. He seemed like someone who took good notes. 

The rest of the day went by quickly and fairly uneventfully. At the end of the day a few students left right when class let out, but most of them were still hanging out in the classroom. Danny was one of them , he didn’t go home until the teachers did after all. He was talking with Kaminari, who thankfully didn’t seem to stay scared of him, when the classroom door opened revealing Midoriya in bandages and a sling. 

Most of the class started to crowd around him, gushing about his performance during his battle. A few mentioned Danny’s own and how he should have seen it. Danny was sure they could find a tape of it somewhere, maybe he could have Jazz ask Nezu. Danny pushed his way to the front of the crowd. “Midoriya, Mr. Aizawa wanted me to give these to you.” 

Danny handed him the notes from the lessons he missed as well as a note telling him that they’d start Midoriya’s quirk training Wednesday before school. It originally was going to start tomorrow morning but Midoriya needed a day to recover enough stamina for Recovery Girl’s quirk to work properly. 

“Oh thanks!” Midoriya looked around the classroom. “But where’s Kaachan?” 

“You just missed him. We tried to stop him from leaving but he wouldn’t listen.” Uraraka told him.

Midoriya turned around and ran straight back out the door. Danny watched him as he ran down the hall. He knew whatever was going on between those two was something they would have to work out themselves. But Danny wasn’t below confronting Bakugo if whatever it was hurt Midoriya in the long run. 

But for now he’d leave them to it. Danny had other things to think about. Mainly the fact that Wednesday was going to be a great day from the sounds of it. Midoriya would start training with him and Aizawa. Aizawa was hinting about meeting someone during hero training he’d love to meet and talk to. And Danny would be turning fifteen.  Honestly he doubted there was anything that could ruin his excitement. 

Notes:

Poor All Might, he didn't sign up for war flashbacks when he became a teacher.

Chapter 12: A Day Before Disaster

Summary:

A perfectly normal day

“I still can’t believe you told All Might we’re married. I had five thousand yen riding on that bet!” Yamada moaned in dismay. 

“How was I supposed to know that? Neither of you told me it was supposed to be a secret. He was calling me by your guys’ names, I just corrected him letting him know you’re not my biological dads.” Danny defended himself. Deciding not to mention how the number one hero had a small freak out over Danny.

“Still,” Yamada sniffed dramatically, “we had to call off the betting pool since it was let slipped so soon. At least the one with students is still running.”

“You have a betting pool on when students find out you two are married?” Danny asked.

“Yep. Multiple categories too, one for when someone finds out Shouta is married to someone extra points if they find out it’s a man he’s married to, and one for when someone finds out we’re married to each other. The teachers start a yearly betting pool after day one to gauge the observational skills of the first year students. Of course anyone who might know beforehand like you are excluded. So no letting the cat out of the bag on those ones.”

 “Why is there one for Aizawa being married but not you?”

“Because I talk about Shouta on my radio show all the time I just don’t say his name. Also I wear my ring on my finger, Sho doesn’t.” He said, wiggling his ring finger.

Danny supposed that made sense. Aizawa wore his around his neck on a necklace that was tucked into his shirt when out in public more often than not. He also never talked about his life outside of work while at school. So it would be a lot harder to discover he was married, or even gay. While Yamada was very open with certain things about his personal life. Though he was somehow very skilled at telling people a lot about himself but not giving any pertinent personal information away.

“Doesn’t that seem unprofessional? Having a betting pool surrounding your students?” Jazz asked from the other side of the teachers lounge. 

Yamada just shrugged. “Probably is.  But you have to break up the monotony of being a teacher somehow.”
Jazz seemed to accept that answer. But being a hero, radio host, and a teacher didn’t seem like it left much room for monotony in Danny’s opinion. But if you do anything long enough it can start to feel boring at times he supposed. 

Yamada looked down at his watch and put his glasses back on. “You kids should probably start heading to class, I need to do the same.” 

Danny was the second one in the classroom, Iida beat him by only a few seconds. “Iida you’re usually earlier than this everything okay?”

Iida nodded. “Yes everything is well, no need to worry yourself. The reporters at the front gates just delayed me getting here.”

Ah, the reporters had been staking out the gates of the school trying to get statements from students and teachers about All Might the past two days. Luckily since they always got to the school earlier than most Danny had managed to avoid them for the most part. “Hopefully they give up soon, it’s already started to get annoying having them there.”

“Indeed, but we must remember dealing with the press is a vital skill for a hero to have.” Iida said. Danny was aware of that, he’d had his fair share of smear campaigns against him back in Amity. “I do hope they disperse soon as well though. My older brother is coming home to visit for the week today, and I do not want to waste time having to navigate around reporters more than what is necessary.”

Danny could understand that, he’d definitely miss Jazz once she went off to college in a few years. He always comforted himself with the fact he’d only have one year after she graduates until he did. The one good thing about being the youngest in his grade, barely making the age cutoff, was that he’d spend less time alone with his parents without Jazz. 

Other students started to trickle into class. Danny slid into his own seat, waving at Midoriya once he walked in. He seemed to heal up well enough, but he did look slightly frazzled. “Did the reporters get to you?” Danny asked.

Midoriya nodded. “Mr. Aizawa even came out to try and get them to disperse, but they didn’t let up.” 

Danny winced, Aizawa didn’t like the press at all, he was pretty decent dealing with them. At least it wasn’t Yamada, he had more of a violent train of thought towards the press if they got on his nerves. Danny knew he never actually would act on his thoughts but Aizawa definitely was more level headed when it came to reporters.  

Class started and Aizawa fell asleep right after he told them to pick class representatives. A commotion broke out amongst the students each wanting to be elected. Iida came up with the idea to hold an election which most of the class seemed to agree with. 

Danny raised his hand and spoke. “Can we opt out of being a candidate?” He severely doubted he’d be here for three years, and if he by some chance was elected they’d just have to choose again once he left. Not like they’d really have a reason to vote for him in the first place, but still.

“Are you sure Danny? Being the class rep during your time at U.A is a great opportunity to show potential agencies that you have the potential to become a great leader.” Midoriya said.

Danny just shrugged. “Yeah, it’s really not my speed.” 

Surprisingly there was some protest from his classmates.

“Aw I totally would have voted for you!”

“Yeah same dude, you’re super powerful!”

“I think you would be able to find even ground between the light and dark that all leaders will need to find in time.”

Danny shook his head, he wasn’t sure why they thought he’d be a good leader. Surely anyone else in class could do better. Iida handed out paper to write names on and the totals were tallied up.

Midoriya had three, and Yaoyorozu had two. Danny was surprised Iida only had one, that must mean the boy voted for someone else since Danny wrote his name down. Most likely Midoriya from the looks of it. Midoriya and Yaoyorozu would make great reps though, as long as Midoriya could get past his nerves. 

He ate lunch with Jazz in the support course lab. Well he scarfed it down right outside of it before going in, food wasn’t allowed inside the lab. Jazz had an idea but needed some ecto-energy for it to work. And since Danny was the only source of it around-other than Laika but that would almost certainly destabilize the blob ghost- he was stuck helping during their lunch hour since it was the only time he’d be able to help out. Too busy with classes during the rest of the day.

“Is that a gun?” Danny asked, looking over Jazz’s shoulder as she worked. It was off to the side on her workbench set aside while she worked on her current project.

“Yeah, we had a project assigned yesterday to try and come up with a new support weapon for a teacher of our choice.” Jazz said.

“And you chose Snipe? Also guns already exist? I’m positive Snipe has a collection of them. How is that new?” Danny asked. It didn’t even look like an ecto-gun or anything. It was just a basic looking pistol.

“I needed it as a base to work off of. It's a multi week project that we work on alongside our day to day ones. I’m planning on making it into a laser gun, that way Snipe doesn’t have to worry about running out of bullets. Can you believe they don’t have laser weapons here? Or if they do, they're clearly not widespread. Even without ecto-energy they’re pretty easy to make once you understand how it works. Hell it doesn’t even have to be a large weapon, mom made one in the shape of lipstick so she could sneak into places.” 

“They probably don’t have it since most people seem to rely on their quirks for combat. Why Snipe anyway?”

“Oh I figured I can convince him to give me shooting lessons if I guilt trip him with the fact he shot my poor baby brother. ” Jazz said, making a pouting face. 

Clearly her lessons with Nezu were already paying off. Danny frowned. “You don’t need shooting lessons.” She’d handled ecto guns long enough that she knew what she was doing. She might not be a perfect shot but she was no novice either.

“There’s always room for improvement.” Jazz said.

“I guess-” Danny was cut off by an alarm blaring announcing a security breach and to evacuate the building.

Jazz’s hands flew to cover her ears and Danny stuck his head through the wall to see if he could see anything outside. There were no windows in the lab since they were prone to breaking if an invention went haywire. He ended up having to fly to another side of the building to see what was going on.

He went back to the lab and rolled his eyes when Jazz gave him a look to explain. “It looks like it’s just reporters who got past the gate.”

Jazz seemed to share in his annoyance of being interrupted by reporters of all people and got back to working on her project.

“What are you working on anyway?” Danny asked. He was providing the energy for whatever it was after all.

“It’s a secret.” Jazz smiled.

“Oh I see, so I can provide the stuff you need for whatever it is to work but Ancients forbid I know what it is.” 

“Stop being so dramatic, It’s for tomorrow. I actually have everything I need from you, so you will have to go before I work on any more of it or you’ll ruin your surprise.” Jazz said, pointing a screwdriver at him in a vaguely threatening manner.  

Damn Danny really wanted to know what it was now, but he knew Jazz wouldn’t let him know what it was before she gave it to him. “Fine, I guess.” 

Once class started the whole class was in commotion surrounding Iida. Apparently he managed to let a bunch of panicking students know that the threat from the alarm was minor, and basically stopped a stampede of students. Midoriya even decided to give up his seat as class president for Iida. 

Though seeing Yaoyorozu stand beside Iida made Danny feel a twinge of guilt. “Excuse me,” Danny raised his hand.

“Yes, what is it Danny?” Iida asked, chopping his hand.

“Shouldn’t Yaoyorozu be president, and you vice president? Don’t get me wrong I voted for you originally Iida, but she did get more votes.” Danny said. He would feel bad if he didn’t speak out for her. She was the mastermind of the battle trial yesterday after all, making sure they secured their win. He at least owed her his voice in this.

Iida seemed to think for a second before turning and bowing at the waist to Yaoyorozu. “Of course! My sincerest apologies Yaoyorozu, it was me who suggested we vote democratically after all. That means if the top most voted person steps down the second most voted should get the seat. I would be humbled if you allow me to be your vice president.”

“Thank you Iida. I appreciate that. I would gladly have you as my vice president.” Yaoyorozu said, before turning to Danny and giving him a small smile. 

The rest of the school day thankfully went smoothly. Soon enough Danny found himself in the kitchen with Yamada as he tried to teach him how to make homemade noodles for soba. The ones Danny were making kept turning out uneven in thickness, while Yamada’s were basically restaurant quality. 

Danny looked at his with a frown. He eventually gave up trying to reroll out the dough and settled for what he figured was good enough and started cutting the dough into strips. 

“Those are looking great!” Yamada said, looking over at his progress. 

Danny’s face scrunched up. “But they’re all uneven. They look so messy next to yours.”

Yamada laughed. “Well I’ve done this a bunch of times, this is your first time. It’s okay not to be perfect at things right away, in fact it’s normal not to be. It’s how you learn.” 

He couldn’t really argue with that. As they finished up with the cooking process Danny listened to a conversation Aizawa was having on his phone in the living room.

“I told you we don't have the spare room anymore, you can’t just come and crash here since you’re in town. It’s not like your parents are lacking in rooms.” Silence as the person on the other side talked. “Your brother makes the trip daily to get to school, it’s just a few more minutes farther than that. You also are a hero, you can use your quirk.” Aizawa sighed. “No you can’t just sleep on the couch. Spend time with your family, not mine.” Danny could almost hear his eye twitch. “If you even think of doing that I’ll tell your mother what you did at graduation.” He could hear muffled protests from the phone. “Try me.”

“Who’s he talking to?” Danny asked Yamada.

“Tensei from the sound of it. He’s in town for the week since he can’t make it to the sports festival this year. He usually attends to scout out potential sidekicks, he is known to have a wide network of them underneath him. But he’s covering patrol for one of them who’s starting maternity leave a few days before the festival.” Yamada explained as he moved the noodles from the boiling pot into a bowl of ice water. 

“The same Tensei who’s shirt caught fire?” 

He could see Yamada’s eyes light up with glee. “The one in the same. Make sure you remind him of that when you meet him. We’re bound to meet up sometime this week.”

“Why would he want to stay with you guys?”

“His family runs a prestigious hero agency, whenever he stays with them he tends to get mobbed by reporters more often than normal. While we keep a low profile of where we live so we don’t have that problem.”

Danny nodded, that made sense. “Speaking of reporters, what was the deal with all those reporters today at lunch?”

Yamada scoffed. “Bunch of vultures you mean. It was no biggy, no need to worry about it kiddo. Just a shame we had to wait for the police to deal with them.”

“If you dealt with them they wouldn’t be able to hear anymore.” Danny pointed out.

“Well maybe they wouldn’t be so nosy then.” 

“I don’t know,” Danny smirked, “I mean you’re sorta like a reporter aren’t you?”

Yamada scoffed “You take that back right now. What would even make you think that?”

“I mean you interview people on your radio show right? It’s basically the same thing.” 

Yamada turned around slowly to face Danny, one of Danny’s deformed noodles in hand and tossed it at Danny, landing in his hair. “I can’t believe this betrayal!” He said, placing a hand to his chest. “By my own son nonetheless, wherever did I go wrong?”

Danny rolled his eyes with a smile at the man's dramatics. “Alright, alright I concede, just don’t throw any more noodles at me. You’re nothing like a reporter.”  

“Good, I was about to start flicking the ice water at you next.” Yamada said.

“Wouldn’t that just make your hand cold? It wouldn’t affect me at all. Ice powers, remember?” 

“Yes but it’s the idea behind it.” Yamada shook his finger. 

Danny started to set the table while Yamada plated the food. He never thought he’d enjoy and find peace in such simple activities. Yamada never even got frustrated and took over what Danny was doing if he felt like Danny wasn’t learning fast enough, unless Danny asked him to help.Somehow learning to cook with Yamada, and even something as small as setting a table for dinner, made him feel a weird sense of belonging. 

Thankfully even if they were uneven the noodles Danny made still tasted pretty good. Once everyone was finished with dinner Danny gave half of an egg he had left to Laika, while Aizawa and Jazz did the dishes. Laika didn’t need food to survive, being a ghost and all, but Danny would infuse some ectoplasm into his leftovers every once in a while and feed some to the blob ghost. It was more effective at times than just having them feed off the natural ectoplasm he gave off since he wasn’t home as often. He could just give them a quick bite before leaving for school and they’d be set for the day. 

Danny also could infuse some of his own food with ectoplasm. It was a decent way to store excess energy to use in the near future. He could produce his own ecto-energy well enough, not having to rely on ectoplasm in his environment. But it was nice to have some he could consume if he used too much energy during training or something. In theory he could use the thermos for the same purpose for more long term energy storage but Jazz was still in possession of it for now and it wasn’t like he was using loads of ecto-energy anyway. The closest he’d gotten to using up too much in this world was when he first showed off his ghostly wail, and even then it was only enough to make him detransform. 

He did have to be careful about labeling the food though. Ectoplasm wasn’t healthy when consumed in large enough quantities by a human. Jazz would be fine, the two of them both built up some immunity to consuming ectoplasm from growing up around it, and their parents accidentally cross-contaminating the food on occasion. But he wasn’t too sure about how Yamada and Aizawa would react coming from a world with little to no ectoplasm. 

“So Danny, any ideas on what you want to do tomorrow for your birthday after school?” Yamada asked. “We have some ideas but if you have anything in mind we’d rather listen to yours.”

Laika took their place on top of Danny’s head. “I sorta figured you’d both be busy with work and all?” His parents were too busy putting the last finishes on the portal to really do much to celebrate last year. Usually they drove out to a place with no light pollution to watch the stars, but they just celebrated at home and had cake before they went back down into the lab for his fourteenth birthday.

“Of course we’re not too busy! We made sure to not schedule any patrols tomorrow or the day after, and Nezu said we can leave when our last class ends instead of staying after to work on course work tomorrow.” Yamada said as if the idea they wouldn’t make time for him was incredulous. 

“Oh, well I’m not really sure then?” Danny hadn't really traveled all that much here.

“No worries at all kiddo! Sho has been looking at a local observatory just outside the city that we can go to if that sounds cool to you.” 

“He has?” Danny looked over to Aizawa who was handing off dishes  to Jazz to dry after he washed them. He hadn’t been able to really see the stars much at all since he got here with the light pollution of the city, the best view he got was at the beach he met Midoriya. Even then it was less than optimal conditions. The fact that Aizawa and Yamada even had the idea to take him to an observatory made him smile. “I’d like that.”

“Well then,” Yamada ruffled Danny’s hair, or at least the area of hair not occupied by Laika, much to Danny’s dismay, “we all better turn in a bit earlier than normal then, huh? We have an exciting long day tomorrow, going to need all the shut eye we can get if we’re going to be staying up super late tomorrow right?”

Danny nodded and headed off to his room trying to pat down his air that was now sticking up everywhere. It was only when he was laying in bed about to fall asleep looking up at the plastic glow stars that he realized Yamada had called him his son earlier. He fell asleep with a smile that night. 

Notes:

Am I churning out chapters so fast because I'm exited for the USJ Incident? Maybe but you can't prove that.

Chapter 13: USJ Part 1: Jazz

Notes:

Warning for gun use in this chapter via Jazz.

Jazz woke up to the smell of food. She groped around for her phone to check the time, squinting at the light once she found it. It was way too early. She should have at least another thirty minutes before she even should be waking up, nevermind eating. But lo and behold just as her brain was trying to catch up on the memo that she was awake there was a small knock on her door. She kicked off her covers and had half a mind to assault whoever was at the door with a pillow. She opened the door revealing Hizashi, who was surprisingly awake for what time it was. “Whassit? Too early.”

“I know I know, but it’s for your brother.” He at least was smart enough to hand her a cup already filled with coffee.

What did Danny have to do with anything? “Did he get shot again?” She grumbled. If he did she was going to shove him in that god forsaken thermos for a week. She’d have to put it back together first though, and she was too tired for that. But Hizashi seemed calm so it probably wasn’t that, last time Danny was shot he barged into her room in a panic telling her that Danny was in the hospital. It was the mention of the hospital that made her wake up quickly then.

“Thankfully no, Danny is all in one piece at the moment. Ideally he stays that way too. He is one year older though, and since he and Shouta are leaving early to help Midoriya with his quirk issues we have to have birthday breakfast early.” 

So that’s why he was already awake. Hizashi wasn’t the type to wake up early just for the hell of it, Jazz could relate. Everyone tended to fend for themselves for breakfast, which was fine, they were all old enough to make their own food. He didn’t cook breakfast often, usually only when he was worried about something, or when she or Danny mentioned something offhandedly that made him or Shouta look at them with concern. Of course they were quite good at masking those looks, but Jazz was better. It was a form of stress or guilt baking probably. It was nice of him to wake up early just because it was  Danny’s birthday though, if only she didn’t need to be up so early for it. Oh well, what she did for her brother. If waking up earlier would make him a bit happier so be it. Especially after last year's birthday. Their parents didn’t even tell him until the day before that they wouldn’t be doing their annual star gazing, too focused on completing the portal. Not like it worked until Danny’s incident anyway, hell maybe if they took the day off Danny wouldn’t have become a halfa. Taking a picture in an almost finished portal that wasn’t powered up yet instead of a complete one. 

Jazz followed Hizashi out into the kitchen, taking a sip of coffee as she walked so it didn’t spill. She sighed into the cup, it was made just how she liked it. Danny greeted her from the table with a smile. She patted his shoulder with her free hand. “Happy birthday Danny.” 

She yawned and slid into the chair next to him. The table had a spread of breakfast food, french toast, bacon, sausage, various fruits, it seemed like Hizashi went a bit overboard.

Jazz listened to the three discuss the plans for after school. They’d go to a restaurant on their way to the observatory and by the time they got there it would be dark enough to actually see things. Apparently they rented the place out until midnight. Jazz saw the brochure Shouta was looking through the other day for the observatory. It was a very high tech place, renting the place out for a night was not cheap. 

Breakfast was soon finished and Danny and Shouta left for U.A. Shouta mumbling something about late quirks. Jazz and Hizashi both went their separate ways to get ready. Jazz was still amazed at how quick Hizashi managed to get into his hero apparel, just the hair alone seemed like it should take ages. Eventually it was time for them to leave. 

Morning classes were fairly normal in terms of school work, with an added mandatory ethics in inventing course for all support course students regardless of year. Jazz’s first class after lunch was actually shared by the entire support course. It was a general workshop period for the students to work on their own personal inventions, mainly so they could workshop amongst each other. New ideas weren't age specific after all, nor were thoughts on how to improve an invention. It only took a small amount of time to finish up the gift she was working on for Danny. It was simple in the scheme of things, the hardest part was to get ecto-energy to work with technology from scratch. It was good practice for when she started on the ghost portal gun. She knew it would take ages to get up and running though, but getting Danny’s gift to work properly was a good first step.

It was a pair of earbuds that should, in theory, work without static or shorting out when Danny used his powers too much. She based the internal design loosely off of the Fenton Phone design, they were just normal earbuds though not communication devices. Maybe in the future she could upgrade them if needed though.

She decided to spend the rest of the period helping out one of the first year students with her design. Unfortunately Hatsume’s inventions tended to explode, she claimed it was part of her creative process. “Hatsume have you ever considered making something meant to explode?” 

Hatsume wiped most of the soot off of her face, handing Jazz another cloth so she could clean her own face. “Whatcha mean? Like a bomb?”

Jazz shrugged. “I mean if you want to make a bomb, do what you want. You’re smart enough to figure something out if you don’t want a bomb though. It is just a suggestion after all.” 

Mei tapped her chin, causing more soot to be smeared on her face. “Hmm…a baby that explodes on purpose. Let’s see… a cannon? No. TNT? No, that's boring. A flash grenade? Maybe but how would I make it mine? Oh!” She grabbed a stack of blank blueprint paper and started sketching. 

“What’d you think of?” Jazz asked, looking over her shoulder.

Hatsume turned to Jazz with a slightly maniacal grin. “Thank you so much Jazzy! This is going to be my brightest baby yet. Think about it. Flash grenades, right? They’re great to use for non-lethal combat, their problem? You have to carry a bunch of them, so cumbersome, especially if you have to be able to move around quickly like heroes do. But if I find out how to make a reusable one! Companies everywhere will be vying for it. It has to be able to be effective without having to rely on chemicals that can only be used once though, electricity maybe? OH this is going to be great!”

Powerloader must have sensed his life was about to get more difficult because he made his way over to the two. “What are you two doing…together?” 

“Oh Jazz gave me the best idea for a new baby! It’s going to explode! On purpose this time!” Hatsume explained.

Powerloader turned to Jazz, and only said one word. “Why?”

Jazz just shrugged. “It’s important to encourage youth in their interests and praise them for what they’re good at.”

“Just…just make sure once she starts building it to go into the weapon testing room. The reinforced one. The extra reinforced once, the moment she picks up a piece of scrap for it.” Powerloader said, eyeing Hatsume as she continued sketching.

The door to the workshop opened revealing Hizashi. He walked over to Jazz and handed her a small blue bag and tissue paper. “Here’s that stuff you asked for. I managed to sneak out of class to get this to you, don’t go telling too many people.”

“Didn’t you have to go to the store for this?” Jazz asked. She grabbed the box she put Dany’s gift in and set it in the bottom of the bag.

Hizashi waved her off. “Nah don’t worry about it, I just asked Midnight if she had anything to put a gift in, it’s your lucky day since it fits in the bag. It was either the bag or wrapping paper with bad drawings of Eraser's goggles and scarf on it that she used last year for his gift. She had it custom made and everything.” 

Jazz stifled a laugh. “It would be funny to see his face if I did give Danny his gift wrapped in it. I think the bag works perfectly fine though.”

“Jazz you know Present Mic?” Hatsume asked from her stool.

“You also know Present Mic, he’s the English teacher.” Jazz pointed out.

“I know that! Do you think he’d let me make him a new speaker?” She turned to the voice hero. “Can I make you a new speaker? What about one with rockets?”

Hizashi looked like he was about to, politely with a bit of fear, decline but both he and Jazz were tackled to the ground. Hizashi, the trained hero he was, managed to quickly grab Jazz as they fell and took the brunt of the fall. It still didn’t feel nice though. 

Jazz rolled off Hizashi, or more so he pushed her to the side and flipped up to his feet in a fighting stance. Jazz followed suit soon after, the lessons she got from her mom when she was younger paying off. In front of them was…Danny? 

He looked extremely panicked. His usual hold on his ghost form slipping, causing his hair to float more and the air around him have a slight chill. She couldn’t even slightly feel his ghostly aura though, which in the very few times he was this freaked out was at least somewhat out of control which only meant one thing. “What percent are you?”

“Twenty five. I don’t- we- there’s no time the USJ there’s villains. Here for All Might. Dozens at least.  There’s a thing. Two? I don’t know they’re wrong. One of them already got Thirteen. They feel-” Danny paused, eyes going wide, “They got dad- I-they- just. Bring help, I can’t stay. I need my full power.” he snarled before his form dissolved down into a puddle of ectoplasm.

“Jazz? Did- did he just die?” Hizashi whispered.

Jazz tore her eyes from the puddle of ectoplasm. “No. It was a duplicate. He was just using twenty five percent of Danny’s power, which means Danny thinks he can’t spare any more than what was absolutely necessary to get help. We have to go. Now.” 

Jazz started towards the door but was stopped by Hizashi’s arm. “You’re not going anywhere. Leave it to the pros. I’ll alert the rest of the staff. Stay. Here.” He looked her in the eye before running out the door, followed by Powerloader.

Only a few seconds later Nezu’s voice came on the intercom. “U.A. Is now in a level one lockdown. Remain in your classrooms and do not move. I repeat do not evacuate. All teachers to the front gates immediately.”

‘Stay where you are’ yeah right. Jazz turned to Hatsume. “Do you still have that jetpack prototype?”

 

Jazz thanked any powers above that the jetpack didn’t explode with her midair. She made it to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint before the teachers did, the air noticeably dropping by a few degrees as she approached. She was able to head to the building in a straight line while the teachers would have to take the road. She landed a few yards away from the building, chucking the jetpack to the side once her feet hit the ground.

She looked to the building, and for just a moment felt bad for the villains inside. Only for a moment though. She remembered how panicked Danny was as he explained the situation. From the looks of it Danny wasn’t holding back inside. The glass dome ceiling, that was bound to be reinforced, was absolutely shattered. If even the air outside was chilled he wasn’t just mad at this point, he was enraged. 

Jazz could only think of a few times Danny had let himself fully feel anger, even for just a few minutes. His powers tended to get out of hand with his emotions, so he tried his best to hold them in. Even if it wasn’t healthy. But if people were in trouble, if people he cared deeply for were in trouble, it was a guarantee that whoever was on the other side of Danny’s wrath would not be making it out unscathed, mentally or physically.

Her going inside the building would just cause Danny more unneeded worry. Making him focus on protecting one more person. Jazz knew she wasn’t built for the front lines, that didn’t mean she didn’t know her way around a fight. She may not do any good inside but she certainly could make a difference from outside. Villains were starting to flee  from the building, through holes in the wall she was almost certain Danny had made most of them. 

Danny was focused on whatever was strong enough to take down two pro’s and saving his classmates, Jazz could deal with the fleeing small fry. Two of the first fleeing villains slowed down as they approached her. “Huh? What’s a tiny little girl doing out here?”

“Careful you don’t know her quirk. That thing inside looked small too.” The other one said warily. 

“Oh,” Jazz smiled, “I don’t have a quirk.” The villains looked at each other then turned to her with matching grins. They probably thought she just stumbled across them by accident. 

“So just some kid wanting to play at being a hero then?”

But Jazz wasn’t a hero, that was her brother’s job. She also didn’t have her brother's sense of heroism and justice, he was still young enough to believe almost anyone could be better. Jazz wasn’t as hopeful towards people, everyone should be treated with caution until you knew their true intentions. And once the intentions were showed; well they would be dealt with one way or the other. 

“I’m no hero. Never have been and never will be.” Jazz’s hand reached for her waist. “What I am is a very protective older sister. What I am is someone who doesn’t care to get her hands a bit dirty to deal with scum like you.” She unholstered her gun and aimed.

Six shots rang out, temporarily drowning out the sounds of fighting coming from the inside of the building. Three villains fell two the ground, the two in front of her and one that was coming for her from the side. “How pitiful having to attack a poor quirkless girl by sneaking up on her.”

The rest of the fleeing villains seemed to take two different approaches to her. Some scrambling away from the building and her, and some deciding to approach her head on all at once. None of them would be getting away if she had anything to say about it. They may be scared of the carnage Danny wrought inside. But she would teach them to fear her just as much. She didn’t need superpowers to take down some cheap second rate crooks. She had plenty of experience fighting people and ghosts who easily outmatched her in terms of raw strength.  She didn’t need brute strength as long as she could outmaneuver them. A flashy strong power was worthless against being shot point blank.

She aimed for the ones fleeing first. The gun may look like a normal pistol, but she was a good enough inventor to make it able to be shot from a close or far distance.  Of course the villains wouldn’t make it easy on her, they didn’t just wait to attack while she shot at the ones that fled. So she fell into a rhythm. Shoot. Duck. Shoot. Kick. Dodge. Shoot. Hit them with the heel of the gun. Reload. Shoot. Duck. Shoot, etc.

It was almost disappointing how easy they all went down, they were obviously untrained in even basic martial combat. She took out GIW agents that were harder to fight than them, and these ones had literal super powers on their side. She was only hit a few times despite how outnumbered she was. It hurt, she wouldn’t lie about that. But she made sure they hurt even more. 

One final shot and one more splatter of blood and that was the last of the fleeing villains. She looked down at her clothes, they were covered in blood, she doubted she'd ever be able to wash it out no matter how much they soaked. It would be so much cleaner once she developed the gun into a laser gun, and she wouldn’t have to worry about reload times. The sound of tires squealing to a stop behind her broke her from her thoughts. The teachers piled out of the vehicle in a rush, only a few sparing her a passing glance, all of them more focused on the sound of battle still coming from inside. All but one that is.

“Jazz what are you doing? Are you hurt?” Hizashi screeched to a stop. Looking her up and down. Then his gaze slid to the fallen bodies around her. “Did you-. Are they-?” 

Jazz shook her head. “I know better than that. All wounds inflicted are nonfatal, arms and mainly legs, plenty of broken bones. Not fatal but they’re sure to hurt. There’s more down by the tree line for when they start to round them up.” She was at least a good enough shot to make sure she didn't kill someone on accident. Killing would just make things complicated, not to mention the effects it would have on her psyche having to live with the guilt of that. Even if she wasn’t afraid to cause more pain than what was strictly necessary, she still had her morals. 

Hizashi looked to her then to the building, conflicted. “I told you to stay put for a reason. We’re so talking about this later. When everyone is safe.” He took off quickly catching up with his fellow teachers. 

Jazz could easily out-talk the law in this situation. Hizashi and Shouta will be a different story. That was fine with Jazz, she would miss the close, not quite yet parental, relationship she had formed with the two. And she couldn't say she didn't care what they thought of her, but if it was what had to be done so be it. She grabbed the jetpack from where it laid on the ground and made her way back towards the school on foot, she wasn’t risking mid-flight explosion a second time. It wouldn’t do her any good to stick around while the teachers finished up whatever fight might be left, it would do her even less good to stick around for the cleanup. So she walked back towards the school, with only a slight limp, she’d have to stop by Recovery Girl’s office to get a quick patch up. Just basic first aid, no need to waste her quirk on Jazz when she was bound to have to use it on a lot of people soon.

Jazz just hoped no one was too seriously injured, or worse. If not for their own sake then for Danny’s. He always tended to put the blame on himself when those around him got hurt, even if it wasn’t anything he could prevent. 

Notes:

It's a two parter baby!
Part two will take longer to be published. Danny's part of the USJ is going to be fun. (For me, not for him or the villains or literally any of the rest of the characters)

Chapter 14: USJ Part 2: Danny

Summary:

Danny's pov of the USJ incident

Notes:

Yeah so my D&D DM made our last session so angsty that I went home and finished writing this quicker than I thought I was going to to cope. It also turned out a lot longer that I thought it was going to. Enjoy Danny going feral I guess.

Danny’s fifteenth birthday started out great. Yamada even made them breakfast before he and Aizawa left early for U.A. Danny watched as Aizawa drilled the basics over and over with Midoriya. One slip up and they started again from the beginning. Danny realistically didn’t even need to be there. But being alone with Aizawa would probably make Midoriya nervous until he got used to his particular training style. He’d only been in his class for a few days after all. 

After a while Aizawa called it for the physical portion of the training. Next they would work on Midoriya’s quirk. The problem was Aizawa had to stop Midoriya at the last second before he broke a bone. Which was every time he tried to use his quirk. “You’re not used to your quirk. You need to get a good idea on how it feels when you use it. Memorize how it feels right before it gets to be too much power.” Aizawa instructed.

Despite the almost twenty minutes they had been working on it there didn’t seem to be any progress. “Can I give a suggestion?” Danny asked, jumping up off the ground.

Aizawa shrugged. “Have at it, as long as it’s not stupid.”

Danny stuck his tongue out at the man before speaking. “You only got your quirk a month ago or so right? You’re probably just visualizing it wrong. How do you imagine it?”

“It sounds stupid. But this quirk is so strong, I imagine it like I’m an egg and this power is like a microwave heating me up until bam! I explode from its sheer power.” Midoriya explained.

Danny wouldn’t say it didn’t sound stupid, be he didn’t need to voice that. “That’s your first problem right there. You’re thinking of it as something separate than you when it’s not. It might have come in late but it’s not a quirk you just happen to have, it’s part of you. Just as much as your hair or skin is.” It was the main problem Danny had when he first was trying to get ahold of his own powers. “Also an egg in a microwave isn’t the best analogy. That destructive power isn’t coming from an outside source, it’s coming from you. Try to visualize it that way, like a body of water slowly branching out into rivers that flow through your body.” That’s how Frostbite tried to explain his core to him, it might not be the same thing. But it was probably similar. Probably.

Midoriya seemed to mull the idea in his head for a bit before nodding, a look of determination crossing his face. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Sparks of energy started to run across his body, getting stronger and stronger as the seconds ticked by. His face started to twist into a grimace but the sparks did not stop. 

“Enough.” Aizawa’s eyes went red and his hair started to float as he activated his quirk.”

The energy around Midoriya dissipated, he started to gasp for breath from the strain of holding onto so much energy. “I think I did it? It definitely felt different from the previous times I used this quirk- I mean my quirk.” 

“You managed to hold onto it for a few seconds longer than before, that might not seem like much but you essentially doubled your time from before. You did good kid.” Aizawa nodded. “Now both of you go change back into your school uniforms, training does not excuse being late to class.” Aizawa said before walking off. Probably to take a nap before class started in fifteen minutes. 

The warning was heeded well by the two boys as they hurried to the locker rooms to change out of their track suits. He quickly phased into his school uniform. 

“Is that easier to do than just changing normally?” Midoriya asked, his face then turned red. “Sorry! Weird question, forget I asked!”

“To be fair, I did tell you you could ask me anything you wanted to about my quirk. But to answer; no not really,  kinda hard to do in one seamless movement actually, I just have had a lot of practice. Just something I got used to doing after a while I guess.” He tended to just quickly phase in or out of his gym clothes inside a toilet stall when at school. Especially back in Amity. He might have an impressive healing factor but he still had a few scars that would be pretty hard to explain. Kwan had gotten a glimpse of a particularly large one on his side once and refused to meet his eye for the entire following week, Danny ended up having to lie and say it was from top surgery. Danny never even had top surgery, he started puberty blockers at a young enough age to avoid having to. He at least took solace in the fact that the scars he got from the portal incident were only in his ghost form, and hidden by his high collared jumpsuit, otherwise he’d be stuck living his life in turtlenecks. “I guess I really don’t need to keep up the habit here though.”

Danny and Midoriya made their way to class, taking their seats with barely a minute to spare before class started. As he went through the school day he pondered asking Jazz to stop by after class let out to meet Midoriya, he felt like the two would hit it off. Not today of course since they were leaving right when school ended for Danny’s birthday. 

After lunch Danny got even more excited, Aizawa had been hinting at something since  Monday morning about today’s hero lesson but never elaborated enough for Danny to actually make any guesses. But it was finally here. And there were only a few hours left until they got to go out for dinner. And then to an observatory! The sky was supposed to be clear all night, not a single cloud. Perfect for observing the celestial bodies. He should have done research on if there were any different constellations  in this universe. He was able to spot some of Orion through the light of the city, so the positions of the stars were at least somewhat comparable. But the idea of possible new constellations exited Danny. Even if the star positions were the same there was bound to be different constellations the people of this world came up with compared to his own. He wondered if any of them were quirk based? 

He was drawn from his musings when class started and Aizawa entered the classroom. He stood behind the podium staring silently  until the class had their attention on him. They had gotten much better at quickly falling into line since the first day of school. “Today’s training will be a little different. You’ll have three instructors. Me, All Might, and another faculty member will be keeping tabs on you.”

Three teachers seemed a bit excessive. Maybe they’d be spread out into groups, each assigned to a hero? Who was the third teacher though? 

Sero raised his hand and spoke up. “Sir, what kind of training is this?” 

Aizawa pulled out a card with bold letters written out on it. “Rescue. You’ll be dealing with natural disasters, shipwrecks, things like that.”

Wait rescue work? The rescue teacher of U.A was Thirteen! The space themed hero! The rest of the class voiced their excitement as Danny’s leg started to bounce and he rubbed the side of his neck in excitement. 

Aizawa interrupted the class, going into more detail about the exercise and letting them know that they should only opt for their hero costumes if they felt comfortable enough in them. Since they weren’t used to wearing them all that much yet. Danny didn’t have to worry about that thankfully and transformed as everyone else grabbed their costumes.

Class 1-A made their way to the front of the school in front of the bus. Quite a few of them chose to only wear parts of their costumes. Most students opting out of any cumbersome headgear. Midoriya was down to only the basics of his, since his was ruined in the battle trials the other day. 

“I see you managed to get your costume altered a bit, Uraraka.” Danny said. While it definitely wasn’t baggy, since that would interfere with her gravity quirk when she used it on herself, it was a lot less form fitting and seemed to have slight padding incase of a rough landing. 

Uraraka nodded her head. “Yeah, thanks so much for the suggestion. It’s not nearly as tight anymore and they were able to alter it quickly since it’s just a minor change. I’m a lot more comfortable in it now” 

“That’s good.” Danny said. The sound of a whistle blaring made them turn their heads towards Iida. Who was instructing the class to form by their seat number to board the bus. Yaoyorozu was beside him doing a headcount making sure all students were present.

“Iida’s really taking his role as vice representative seriously.” Midoriya said from beside them. Danny could only nod his head in agreement. 

Unfortunately for Iida the bus had an open layout. So most of them were facing each other. The conversation quickly started up, the first topic; Midoriya. Asui or Tsu as she liked to be called pointed out how similar Midoriya’s quirk was to All Might’s.

Danny supposed he could see it. But he couldn’t say he’d seen the number one hero in action all that much, and only on TV when he did. Most information he knew about him was through Midoriya. Midoriya started to have a small freakout, more likely than not because he was just compared to his favorite hero. The boy could seriously fanboy. 

“Hold on Tsu.” Kirishima spoke up. “You’re forgetting All Might doesn’t hurt himself. Still though, I bet it’s cool to have an augmenting type quirk. You can do a lot of flashy stuff with that. My hardening is super strong and stuff but it doesn’t look all that impressive.”

“No way.” Midoriya spoke up. “That looks awesome! That’s definitely a pro hero quirk!” 

“You think so? I feel like it would be easy if I had a flashier quirk.” Kirishima said. “But if anyone in our class has pro quirks it’s Todoroki and Bakugo.”
“What about Danny? His quirk is- well it’s strange. But definitely powerful enough to be a pro.” Tsu said.

Kirishima nodded his head. “I felt like that one was just stating the obvious, he could be a pro right now if we were actually old enough. Todoroki and Bakugo have the best potential out of those of us who didn’t absolutely ruin any future students chances of breaking the entrance exam record. You should have seen him during the exam, it was crazy.”

“Sure but Bakugo’s always so angry, so he’ll never be popular.” Tsu pointed out.

Danny stifled a laugh while the class started to make Bakugo prove their point as he started yelling empty threats at them. “Hey! We’re here, stop messing around and let’s go.” Aizawa said as the bus pulled to a stop.

Inside the building they were met by Thirteen! “Hello everyone, I’ve been waiting for you!” 

“It’s Thirteen, they’ve rescued hundreds of people around the world!” Midoriya said, putting his hand to his mouth in awe.

“Whoo! Thirteen is one of my favorite heroes!” Uraraka cheered.

“Wait yours too?” Danny turned to Uraraka. “Aren’t they so cool?!”

Uraraka nodded her head. “Yeah! I based some of my costume after their space theme!” Danny was a little jealous, he definitely would have  made his costume space themed if he was actually able to.

“So be quiet so they can talk then.” Aizawa said, crossing his arms.

The two snapped their mouths closed and turned back to Thirteen. Who started enthusiastically explaining the layout and purpose of the building they were in, called the Unforeseen Simulation Joint or USJ for short. It turned out they designed the entire building themself! 

Aizawa walked up to Thirteen and asked them something that Danny couldn't really hear, but saw them hold up three fingers. Aizawa sighed and rolled his eyes. “Whatever, clock’s ticking. We should get started.”

“First let me just say one thing!” Thirteen spoke. “Or well maybe two things. Possibly three, or four, or five. Listen carefully.” Danny leaned forward, standing on the ground still. “I’m sure you’re aware I have a powerful quirk, called black hole.”
“Yeah you’ve used it to save loads of people, haven't you?” Midoriya said. Uraraka was enthusiastically nodding beside him.

“While that’s true, my quirk could also be used to kill.” They said. The class gasped around Danny. “Some of you also have powers that can be dangerous. Quirks are certified and strongly regulated, so how unsafe they can really be is often overlooked. Please, do not forget, if you lose focus or make the wrong move it could be deadly. Even if you’re trying to do good and rescue someone.” 

Surely this couldn’t be news to his classmates? Each of them could easily use their quirks to seriously injure or kill someone. In various ways even. Danny knew what he was capable of well. It kept him up at night some days, the potential to harm people around him without a second thought. And that was even before Clockwork got involved in his life and Danny saw an alternate future where he took that potential and ran with it. Of course, Danny didn’t have any plans of having his ghost half merge with Vlad’s anytime soon, or at all. Not like he could here anyway, but he knew that potential timeline wasn’t the only possible way for him to snap one day. So he always had to be aware of his powers and their capacity to harm.

“Today you are going to learn how to use your quirks to save people’s lives. You won’t be using your powers to attack enemies or each  other, only to help. Afterall that’s what being a hero is all about. Ensuring the safety of others. That’s all I have to say, thank you for listening.” Thirteen concluded. The class cheered as they finished up their speech, Danny included.

“Right, now that that’s over-” Aizawa started.

Danny froze, feeling a wisp of fog travel up his throat and out his mouth for the first time since he arrived to this world. He tensed up just as the lights around the dome ceiling flickered out. A swirling vortex of black and purple appeared in the middle of the USJ’s plaza, a person slowly emerging out of it.

Aizawa turned around toward the vortex. “Stay together and don’t move!” He looked straight at Danny as he said that. “Thirteen, protect the students!” 

“Has the training started already? What’s going on, I thought we were rescuing people?” Kirishima asked. 

Midoriya started forward. “Stay back!” Aizawa shouted, moving his goggles over his eyes. “This is real. Those are villains.”

Danny watched as a swarm of people emerged from the vortex. Portal? It had to be dozens at the very least. The mist around the vortex seemd to take a humanish form after the last of the people came through. But Danny was positive, whatever it was, was not human, or at least not anymore. Nor was the last thing that came from it. 

Both of them felt so wrong. Like someone took a collection of shattered ghost cores and mixed them up before hastily gluing them back together with no regard of even attempting to get a cohesive shape out of them. A poor bastardization of a soul. It made his own core twist in discomfort, Danny was sure if he had a stomach in his ghost form it would have emptied itself by now.  

Danny could only stare at the two abominations, as that was the only thing they could truly be called, in horror as his classmates talked with the two heroes. Danny wasn’t even registering what was being said around him. The next thing he was aware of was Aizawa fighting the group of villains by himself as Iida pulled Danny along towards the exit.

The thing made out of mist materialized in front of the fleeing students. Bakugo and Kirishima charged at it before they were all enveloped in the black mist. Danny truly only was knocked out of his shock when he found himself plunging into a pool of water. He let out a breathless gasp as he came back to his senses. He was underwater. How’d he get underwater? 

He looked around, trying to examine his surroundings only to be met with a villain swimming straight for him. Before he could react he felt himself being grabbed by his jumpsuit collar and pulled above the surface. It was Tsu, her long tongue already wrapped around Midoriya as she brought them both up on top of the ship. They were still in the USJ, just in the shipwreck zone then. 

“You saved my life Asui.” Midoriya said as he stood up.

“I told you to call me Tsu.” She croaked. 

“Right of course Tsu. Tsu, Tsu.” Midoriya apologized. He then turned to Danny. “Are you doing okay? You sort of just froze up back there?”
Danny nodded and took a deep breath. He didn’t even need to breathe as a ghost, but it was a comforting action. “Yeah I’m good now. Sorry.” If those two things weren’t actively attacking the school Danny would pity them, he honestly did even so. Whatever was going on with their frankenstein souls it was bound to not be pleasant, even if they weren’t themselves aware of it. The mist ones seemed to at least be stitched together with some caution, but the other one with its brain exposed was clearly not made for anything other than whatever its sole purpose may be. Danny would be surprised if the thing was even able to think straight. 

Danny looked over the side of the boat, the water based villains had surrounded them at this point. He tried looking to where Aizawa was fighting but couldn't make out much from how far away he was. Either way he was bound to need help eventually, he was one man afterall and taking on that many people at once would take a toll on him, even with how skilled he was at fighting. 

They’d have to get rid of the villains around them first before he could go and help. He could fly himself and the two away from the villains surrounding them with ease, but the villains would just be able to follow them and cause more problems. It shouldn’t be too hard. He went back over to where Tsu and Midoriya were discussing how to get past the villains. “Guys I can just freeze the whole pond over.”

Tsu shook her head. “Sorry, but that won’t be such a good idea. That much ice would make it too cold and will make me go into hibernation. I don’t feel comfortable sleeping in the middle of a villain attack.” 

Danny groaned. She was right but taking them on one by one would waste too much time. He didn’t want to use his wail just yet, not with how many villains would be left after in the surrounding areas. 

“I have an idea.” Midoriya said. “Follow my lead.” He jumped from the boat bracing his arm before using his quirk with a flick of his finger aimed down at the water. 

The water started to swirl, sucking the villains into a whirlpool. “Danny, freeze them now!”

Danny and Tsu both jumped from the boat. Tsu grabbed hold of Midoriya, while Danny flew down close to where the villains were still grouped inside the swirling water. Danny froze the mass of villains, using much less ice than he would have had to before, before flying to catch up with Tsu and Midoriya. 

Right when he landed down next to them there was a scream from where the students were before they got warped away. It was Ashido. “THIRTEEN!” 

Danny looked up towards where the yelling was coming from. The mist thing was up there still, it looked like some of the students avoided being warped away. Then he saw it. Thirteen collapsing to the ground, their hero suit completely wrecked from the back. 

Danny looked back to Aizawa who was still, for the moment, holding his own. He couldn’t leave him alone though, but he couldn’t leave his classmates up there alone either. His mind was racing, if only he could be in two places at once. 

Wait. He could be at two places at once. He quickly formed a duplicate, hopefully twenty five percent of his power was enough to deal with whatever the thing up by Ashido and the rest was. There were too many villains down here to part with a full fifty percent of it. He and his duplicate shared a look before his double took off.

Only a few seconds later his duplicate left the building following after Iida. Apparently the other students had taken care of the mist creature for now. What was important was getting reinforcements. He and Iida were the fastest in the class after all.  He didn’t waste any more energy trying to keep tabs on his duplicate, just enough to keep him stable until he could alert the school. His duplicate would be able to tell if any part of the situation changed. They were the same person after all, and Danny was able to communicate with the other him from relatively far distances. 

Danny, Midoriya, and Tsu watched on as Aizawa fought who seemed to be the ringleader of the villains. A man with detached hands all over his body. Danny didn’t want to leave the two alone quite yet, they hadn’t dealt with villains before he had to make sure they were safe first. “The two of you, go up with the rest of our classmates. You’ll be safer with them.”

“What?” Midoriya whispered. “You have to come with us too!” 

“No, I’m staying to fight. You guys haven’t been in a real fight before. You’ll get in the way.” Danny didn’t have time to argue, he glanced over at Aizawa who was starting to struggle. 

“Just because you had a month-long stint as a vigilante doesn’t compare to an army of villains Danny. These aren’t just some purse muggers off the streets. You were also shot while fighting someone.” Midoriya argued. 

Danny’s clone alerted him that he had reached the school. “No Snipe shot me. On accident. And I’ve had plenty of experience fighting groups of people outside of vigilantism. But until you get out of the way I can’t-” Danny stopped at the sound of a crunch. And then another. And another.

Danny looked over to the source… it was the other thing. It got a hold of Aizawa. And it was strong. He faintly heard his two classmates gasp in horror. Danny watched in an almost numb detachment as blood pooled around Aizawa’s head before what had just happened sank in. 

“DAD!” He yelled out rushing the creature. 

He didn’t make it too far before being stopped by the villain's ring leader. “It’s bad enough the final boss didn’t show. Useless NPC’s don’t get to interfere. When they do they just get hurt. Just be glad it’s me and not my Nomu, this way it won’t hurt as much .” The man grabbed Danny by the shoulder. 

Danny had felt a lot of pain in his life in the past year. His shoulder disintegrating at the man's touch was up there in the rating of pain. His body was healing just as fast as it was deteriorating. Just add some electricity and it would be a decent imitation of when he died. 

For a second the pain stopped, despite the man still holding Danny in his grip. Which meant- Danny looked past the villain, where Aizawa had managed to force his head up staring down the villain. “Run.” He managed to say before his head was quickly slammed back down, the Nomu used its other hand to snap Aizawa’s arm causing him to cry out in pain.

That was the final straw for Danny. 

Danny had been happy. Truly happy for the first time in almost a year. Enjoying his life here. Feeling truly cared for, for the first time in forever. Today was going to be a good day. It was supposed to be a good day. And they thought they could just waltz in here? Try to kill his classmates? His friends? His teachers? His family ? 

No.

Not while his heart still beat or while his core still had energy.

Despite his ice powers, Danny felt a hot burning rage build within him. He dispelled his duplicate, he had done his job. The air around him dropped in temperature. His form started to change slightly, hair becoming more mist like and wispy, teeth growing sharper. He wasn’t trying to hold back his aura anymore. Let them feel fear, let them cower at the thought of him for the rest of their miserable lives. 

Danny grabbed the villain's arm, that was still gripping his shoulder, and looked him in the eye past the hand covering his face. “You wanted the final boss right? You must have mistaken who the real threat is. Because I’m. Right. Here.” Danny snarled.

The villain tried to pull away, but Danny wouldn’t budge. “What the-” He rasped, eyes wide with fear.

“Game over.” Danny’s voice echoed, layered on top of itself. He tightened his grip and threw him to the side as if he was no heavier than a doll. The mist villain caught him before he flew too far. Danny would deal with both of them later.

The Nomu was still standing atop of Aizawa. Danny rushed the creature once more, nothing in his way this time as he plowed into its body, pushing it off of Aizawa and to the edge of the center plaza. It didn’t seem the least bit injured even then though. 

It made its own move to attack, punching Danny in the center of his chest. The force of it caused Danny to be flung back, all the way into the water. He’d had worse. He stood up, turning to where Midoriya and Tsu were, for some reason they had yet to move like he told them to. “Leave. Now.” He growled. “Quickly. Take Aizawa with you. He needs help.” 

He flew back towards the Nomu. Tossing ectoblasts as he approached, they didn’t seem to affect the thing. Or if they did, it healed too quickly to notice. He kicked it in its beak, dodging as it tried to swipe at him. That hit from it hurt, he may not have bones but he wasn’t sure how many of those hits his form could take. No matter what he threw at it it didn’t seem to make a difference.

It managed to grab onto him and slam him into the ground. Danny grunted as he made impact with the ground. It jumped into the air, high into the air, above him and was barreling down towards him. Danny met it halfway. Grabbing it at its neck. Pushing it back up high. High. And higher. 

He reached the top of the building and kept going, smashing through the glass, forming ice around his hands as he went up and up. He twisted in the air slamming the Nomu down. He followed its descent, landing blow after blow as it flailed in the air, unable to twist itself around to land its own hits on Danny.

As they approached the building once more he gathered his power and released his ghostly wail. Shattering all the glass dome and causing the Nomu that was already falling quickly to slam even harder to the ground. 

Danny landed on the ground next to it. It was more reminiscent of a pancake now than a living being. Though living being was a stretch even before it got embedded into concrete. He looked around, his chest moving up and down as if actually needed to breathe, that was probably the hardest he’d fought since he came here. But it wasn’t over yet, there were still all the other villains.

There was a loud noise from the USJ entrance, drawing Danny’s attention. More villains? No, it was All Might. The hero looked almost as mad as Danny felt, his signature smile gone from his face. They were bound to be okay now, he was the number one hero for a reason. Danny watched as he effortly took down the low level villains in his way as he made his way towards where Danny was. 

Danny felt himself sigh in relief, before All Might started to run at him at an insane speed. Danny turned his head behind him to be met with the villain’s leader hand coming towards his face. Danny dodged out of the way of his hand, giving room for All Might to attack. But his punch didn’t land. At least not on its intended target.

There the Nomu was standing in front of its leader blocking the blow. How was it still able to move, let alone fast and strong enough to block an attack from All Might? 

It didn’t matter, All Might was sure to be able to handle the creature. Danny would go for their leader. He flew towards the hand covered man, only to almost fly through a warp gate made by the mist villain. When did it get down here? He wouldn’t have been able to stop in time. But thankfully Bakugo had managed to get ahold of the villain, slamming it to the ground with an explosion causing the warp gate to close. He was followed closely by Kirishima and Todoroki. The former helped Bakugo pin the villain down while the latter froze the legs of the Nomu All Might was fighting.  “Well what the hell are you waiting for? Go.” Bakugo shouted.

Danny resumed his pursuit of the ringleader. He could almost feel the fear from the man as he approached. Good. Danny could  admit he took a bit of pleasure in punching the man across the face sending him flying. He wouldn’t kill the man, not because he couldn’t, but because Danny wouldn’t let him have the satisfaction of being the person to make Danny push aside his morals. A few hard hits wouldn’t kill the man. Jazz would probably say something about how he was using this opportunity to let out all his pent up frustrations on people. 

He didn’t give the villain time to stand before attacking again, kicking him back over to where the others were. It would be better to keep them corralled together to keep an eye on them. The man landed with a gasp, the air knocking out of his lungs for the second time.
Danny heard the man ranting about how they were all using violence. And how Midoriya had attempted to attack him at full force, and probably would have killed him if Kurogiri didn’t stop him with a warp gate. So that must be the name of the mist villain. Has Midoriya done that? It must have been when he was fighting the Nomu. “Bold words from someone getting the shit beat out of them by a fifteen year old, but you can’t really be serious can you?” Danny asked, walking up and standing up over the man. “You can’t be angry that we’re defending ourselves. You and your little goons had no qualms about trying to kill children. Just because we met you with an equal amount of force doesn’t make it unfair. Just so you know; Midoriya just doesn’t have the greatest hold on his quirk, feel lucky about that because if he did I doubt you’d have stood a chance. Feel even luckier that I don’t use lethal force. Because if I did, well there wouldn’t be enough of you or your little gang to even try to identify.” Danny snarled. 

The man gulped before tearing his eyes from Danny, looking over to where All Might was before letting out a laugh. “Maybe you could defeat most of us, but not even All Might can defeat my Nomu. Look.”  Danny saw All Might struggling, blood seeping into the side of his white shirt, as he fought the abomination. “Nomu has shock absorption and advanced accelerated healing. The only way to defeat him would be tearing his flesh apart bit by bit before he can heal. Difficult to do if you can’t even get through his skin. Even if your pro’s are on their way, All Might won’t survive by then. You can try and fight anyone here, but once the Symbol of Peace dies there’ll be no hope for society.”

“Oh.” Danny set his jaw. “I can manage that just fine.” Honestly villains should learn to stop monologuing. He gave the man one last kick, feeling one of his ribs crack under his foot before flying to aid his teacher.

“Danny, get out of here, it’s not safe for any of you kids!” All Might gritted out once Danny entered his line of sight. 

“No, I got this. Help take down all the other villains. You’re hurt and won't last much longer against this thing. I have a way to take it down, just punching it won’t help. Trust me.” Or at least he really hoped he had a way to. “The other students need your help though, I don’t know where the rest of them are and they could be in trouble.” 

It was clear All Might didn’t want to leave him to fight the Nomu alone. If Danny wasn’t so angry he wouldn’t blame him, but Danny was angry. He didn’t have time for this. “ Go. Now. ” Danny felt whatever hold he had left on his aura leave him as he turned back towards the Nomu and All Might seemed to feel it too, he looked taken aback for a moment but steeled himself, nodded, and took off.

The Nomu went to chase after him but Danny wouldn’t allow it. He had a plan but he had to wear this thing down first. There had to be some limit on what it could absorb or heal from. Both he and the creature went to hit the other, their fists meeting in the middle, forming a shockwave and cracking the ground below them. It sent Nomu a few steps back, Danny held his ground. Perfect.

Danny charged at the Nomu once more. He kept moving once he made contact, smashing the Nomu through trees and through the wall of the building. Stopping just for a moment to turn around and punch it back through the wall once more back into the building. And then he repeated the process, plowing the thing across the various areas.

He was moving fast but he got glimpses when he passed some of his fellow classmates fighting their own battles. He did his best to try and bowl the villains they were fighting as he passed through, the Nomu might be his top priority at the moment but if he was able to knock out some of the other villains as he wore it down he would. Two birds, one stone and all. Out of the corner of his eye he saw some villains fleeing through the holes  in the side of the building he made. Nothing he could do about it at the moment unfortunately. 

The Nomu took advantage of his moment of distraction and grabbed him before throwing him across the building. He landed after hitting the wall of concrete at the entrance, almost the complete opposite of where he just was. He pulled himself up and out of the now broken concrete and saw all of his teachers staring at him. They must have just gotten here. He looked back to where he was thrown from then back at the pro heroes. “Take down the villains, help the other students. But do not get in my way. ” He didn’t need more people to watch out for while he fought the Nomu.

He sped back towards the Nomu who was already on its way towards him. He kept going, phasing past its attacks and his hands straight into the things chest. It felt absolutely repulsive, being that close to the thing's soul. But Danny wouldn’t let go. He once more flew up with the thing in his grip, flying even higher than last time. 

He didn’t let go on the descent this time though, flying downwards with his hands still phased into the thing underneath him, flying faster and faster. They landed only a few feet where they did last time, the impact jarring Danny. The Nomu had stopped moving once more, but he knew now that it would only be temporary. 

So he took the ringleader's suggestion and started tearing the thing apart piece by piece from the inside. Phasing his hands into the thing's body over and over ripping it apart. Freezing it from the inside as he went. The ice was creeping up to the things head and brain at this point. He kept going. Tearing flesh, muscle, and organs out quicker than they could regenerate past the ice. 

Then the final blow. He reached towards the things head and pulled it apart, adding his ghostly wail once more for good measure. He almost collapsed from exhaustion as he stepped away from the creature's mangled body. 

Detransforming in exhaustion just in time to watch as Kurogiri and the leader disappeared in a swirl of mist through a warp gate. “NO!” He stumbled towards where they just were but felt someone grab the collar of his shirt. 

He twisted around with a punch ready for another fight but his wrist was caught by the person. It was Yamada. He was looking at Danny with worry and concern. “It’s done kiddo, you’re fine. Everyone is fine. You did a good job. You’re safe now.” 

If watching the Nomu break Aizawa was the last straw for Danny’s anger, Yamda’s words were the final straw to make it change from anger to despair. He grabbed onto Yamada with a sob. “Don’t leave, please. Dad, please, please don’t leave.”

He felt Yamada grab him close, holding Danny’s head to his chest. “I’m not going anywhere. I promise.” 

Notes:

On a lighter note Danny needs to figure out what to call Aizawa and Yamada. They can't both be called 'Dad' Danny, it'll get confusing.
Also to all the people commenting on each chapter or even at all: You are all the reasons I get up in the morning and I would do anything for you.

Chapter 15: Aftermath

Summary:

The villains may have been defeated, but there are still things that need to be sorted out.

Hizashi pulled the hospital room door shut behind him with a sigh. It took him almost twenty minutes to convince Danny that he was just grabbing them all food from the hospital’s cafeteria and wasn’t  going to be gone for long. He’d refused to leave any of them alone since they gathered together. They’d been in the hospital for almost four hours now and he was pretty sure there were a total of ten entire words spoken between the three of them. At this point he just considered himself lucky he was able to convince them both to wash up in the student showers and that there was a spare uniform on hand for Jazz. He was pretty sure Danny had more injuries than he was letting on as well.

He knew he’d have to talk to both the kids sooner than later though. He couldn’t fault Jazz for her decision to disregard his orders for her to stay put, he probably would have done similar if he was in her position. But just because he could see where she was coming from didn’t change the fact she put herself in danger when she knew there was already help on its way. As well as the fact that if the police find out she was involved it would get messy. He just hoped they assumed the bullets were sourced from Snipe. Danny on the other hand needed a different talk. The boy had been on edge since they got all the students out of the building. His eyes had yet to turn back to their normal blue since they came to the hospital. Hizashi wasn’t sure what entirely happened during the villain attack, but it was something that seemed to shake him up even more than the other students. And that was saying something. No one may have died but even then your first villain attack changes you, and these kids didn’t even have their internships yet.

He just leaned against the door for a moment. It didn’t happen too often where one of them was injured enough to have to seek medical attention. Hizashi knew the dangers of their job. It was one of the reasons he and Shouta decided never to have kids, adoption or otherwise, they didn’t want to run the risk of something happening in the field and subject a child to the trauma of losing one or both parents.  Of course they seemed to have picked up a pair of kids regardless. Even being used to injuries, it still never made it any easier on Hizashi anytime Shouta was the injured one of the two. He knew Shouta felt the same way when the roles were reversed. They had to remind each other that at least they were able to make it to a hospital. At least it wasn’t a missing body and an empty grave. 

Hizashi just supposed they should count themselves lucky that there weren’t any injuries too serious among the teachers either. Thirteen’s back was sure to have some scars but other than that they’d heal up just fine. Shouta had a skull fracture and some serious facial lacerations, and a nasty break in his arm but it could have been a lot worse. It probably would have been if Danny didn’t manage to overpower that massive villain. From what he’d heard so far All Might had been the least injured in the attack, but with that injury he already had that was definitely a good thing. Who knew what would be the final straw for that man's body to finally call it quits. 

Subpar hospital food acquired, he made his way back to Shouta’s room. He should be waking up soon, apparently he woke up briefly in the ambulance but was given pain killers and promptly passed out once more. There was a nurse outside the door who seemed to be arguing with two men who had their backs turned to him. Surely they weren’t fans that somehow found out they were here and got in, this hospital was specifically for heroes and their families to avoid situations like that. So the security was pretty tight. Getting closer he saw it was just detective Tsukauchi and All Might in his depowered form. 

It wasn’t possible to get into the room without them seeing him, but he really didn’t want to deal with whatever they were here for. Was it too much to ask to be able to be alone with his kids while his husband was hospitalized if nothing else? He resigned himself to whatever was in store and walked up to the two. “Is there something I can help you two with?” 

“I’m sorry Yamada sir, I tried explaining that all visitors had to be approved by you first. But they insisted they knew you.” The nurse bowed towards him in apology. The two turned to him, taking a second to realize it was him outside of his hero costume. Nemuri was kind enough to bring them all a change of clothes so they weren’t stuck in their school uniforms or hero costumes. She even grabbed one for Shouta for when he was discharged. 

Hizashi waved his hand in dismissal. “It’s fine, I do know them. Tsukauchi, Yagi.” Hizashi greeted with a nod. “I’m sure whatever they need to discuss is important. Especially since I have my hands quite full at the moment dealing with two distraught children while my husband is hospitalized.” 

The two men at least had the decency to look apologetic. “This should only take a few minutes. After that we’ll be out of your way.” Tsukauchi reassured him. “Is there a more private place we could have this conversation than the hallway?” He asked the nurse.

The nurse led them to an empty hospital room just a few doors down before leaving them alone to talk. “I wasn’t joking by the way. You better have a good reason to be here. I have enough connections to start smear campaigns against both of you.” It was more of an empty threat than anything else. He seriously doubted there was much Yagi could do to turn the public against him. It seemed to work well enough though, causing the two men to gulp. 

“It is important.” Yagi assured him. “But first I want to apologize.” He bent down bowing at an almost ninety degree angle. 

Hizashi could stand to learn more about medicine, but he was positive bending like that with the injuries he got today wasn’t healthy. “For what?” Other than the fact Hizashi really didn’t feel like talking to people right now, he couldn’t think of anything the other teacher would be apologizing for.

“For what happened back at the USJ. I should have been more careful with using my time since I knew I would be teaching, instead of thinking I could still perform like I did in my prime. In doing so it led to hurt for your family. If I had been there, Aizawa might not have gotten injured. I also should have never left young Daniel alone to fight that villain. While it shames me to admit it, I let fear and memories of my past cloud my judgment, interfering with my duties as both a teacher and a hero.” Yagi finished, his face still pointing at the ground.

Hizashi didn’t know how to respond. Even in his depowered form Yagi was still the number one hero in Japan, it was weird hearing him apologize. Especially since Hizashi was pretty sure he didn’t really need to apologize. “Stand up straight please. No use in dwelling on what-if’s, you saved people this morning because it’s what heroes do. I’ve been late to class before stopping an early morning villain attack before, I think most of us teachers have. It’s not your fault that you happened to do it on a really unfortunate day. Shouta will heal, that’s all that matters there. He should be healed enough in two weeks for Recovery Girl to do the rest. As for that villain and Danny-” 

Well Hizashi was a bit angry at that, Danny was still a kid despite how powerful he was. But he also knew that if Yagi had continued fighting it he might not be standing in front of him now. The man was practically just a pile of skin and bones most of the time nowadays. Not to mention the fact that he himself was a bit more than unsettled once he entered the USJ and felt the full force of Danny’s anger and powers, and it wasn’t even aimed at him. He was pretty sure the image of Danny practically ripping that villain apart from the inside would play a starring role in his nightmares for a while. Still, the love he felt for Danny was stronger than any fear he might hold. The fact that none of the students turned tail and ran in the face of that for so long was a true testament to this year's batch of hero students. He also knew there was no way Danny would let Yagi keep fighting if he saw him struggling and he could help. One way or the other Yagi would have been removed from the fight to a safer task. The kid was strong enough to make sure of that. “While he shouldn’t have had to fight that villain, none of the students should have had to fight any of the villains there. The fact you got out of his way is probably a good thing. No offense Yagi but we both know you’re not capable of what you used to be. There’s nothing wrong with that. But from what I know about Danny,  you’d probably have just gotten in his way. The thing we need to focus on now is to make sure those kids never have to deal with something like that again while they’re still students.”

Yagi looked like he wanted to protest for a second, before he too seemed to remember Danny’s fight against the Nomu. “I suppose you make some fair points. I would still like to thank Danny if you don’t mind. You’re right that if I continued to fight that villian if anything else it would have severely impacted my time in my power form. I’m lucky enough that I only lost thirty minutes.” 

Hizashi shrugged. “I have to be able to make good points every once in a while. Can’t be the fun radio man all the time.” 

“Speaking of that villain, I have something to discuss with Danny that I believe will give him some peace of mind.” Tsukauchi said. “That’s actually the main reason we’re here. Well why I’m here, Yagi took the chance to tag along.”

Hizashi looked at Yagi unsure. “Surely you can’t go into your power form anymore today after all that has happened? Wouldn’t you rather wait until you can to speak with him? Neither Shouta nor I have told him about your predicament.” 

Yagi gave a single nod. “Yes. If not my life, he certainly saved me from lots of grief in the future. Also, Tsukauchi told me about his and his sisters' own predicament. It is only fair I feel to tell them my own.”

“You told him?” Hizashi stared at the detective.

Tsukauchi held his hands up in a placating manner. “Trust me. It was the only way I was able to get him to stop freaking out over Danny once everything was settled down enough for him to think over what happened. I wouldn’t have without permission if I could have helped it.”

Hizashi remembered Danny offhandedly telling them how Yagi had a more severe reaction than normal to his ghost form. But what in the world could Danny have done, or at least done to remind him of something that scared the symbol of peace so much? Could it have something to do with the injury that caused him to have limited time to use his quirk perhaps? “Fine. You can talk to the kids. As long as they are okay with talking to you. Any sign that they don’t and you both are out.”

The two nodded in agreement to his terms before they made their way back to Shouta’s room. Hizashi knocked on the door before coming in. “I picked up some strays along with the food.” He announced letting the other two inside the room. It was starting to feel crowded. 

It was Jazz who spoke first. “Tsukauchi,” She nodded in a greeting, “-and?”

Yagi tore his eyes away from where Danny seemed to be staring into the poor man's soul, eyes still a toxic shade of glowing green. “Toshinori Yagi, better known though as All Might. You must be Jazz? Nezu has spoken highly of you.” 

“All Might?” Danny straightened up. “Is everyone else okay?Are you? We left before I could make sure.” It was clear how Danny was looking the thin man up and down; he didn't think he was doing all that okay. 

“No need to worry young man. All your classmates came out mostly unscathed unless you count a few scratches. Young Midoriya had some injuries from his quirk but nothing too severe, a bruised and badly sprained arm and leg but thankfully breaks. Which is practically healthy for him at this point. I can say the same for myself, other than an old wound acting up I am just fine. When not using my power this is what I look like due to a particularly difficult villain fight.” Yagi reassured. “I came here to apologize and thank you. You should not have had to fight that villain on your own, or at all in fact. But everyone who was there is now safe because of you, a task I shamefully failed to do. So I give you my deepest thanks.” 

“That villain is why we’re here Danny.” Tsukauchi said.

Danny shook himself out of the awkward feeling of being apologized to by All Might, a feeling Hizashi could relate to. His eyes dimmed, literally, the bright glow was now hardly noticeable. “Do you need me to kill it?”

Hizashi was almost positive that he was already dead. He saw with his own two eyes how he was ripped apart. Tsukauchi however shook his head. “No, I actually came to tell you he was still alive, so you didn’t have to needlessly deal with the guilt of killing someone. How did you know he was still alive?”

“He’s still alive!? How?” Hizashi would have shouted if they weren’t in a hospital. 

Danny’s face scrunched up as if remembering a foul taste. “It’s soul is all wrong. Misshapen and stitched together. Easy to notice it was still alive since it didn’t dissipate, I just kept going until I noticed its form wavering enough that it would take quite a bit of time before it could heal enough to do more damage to anyone.” 

“You can feel souls?” That was certainly news to Hizashi. So was the definite proof souls existed.

“I mean sorta?” Danny started. “I can’t really differentiate between them If you lined up everyone in this room's soul and asked me to tell you who’s whose I wouldn't be able to. It would be like asking me to tell apart two different colored balls by the feel of them. It’s hard to really sense them at all. It’s just that that soul was so misshapen and wrong it was hard to miss. You could tell by just looking at its body that something was wrong with it, even if you couldn't sense its soul. That warp villain Kurogiri was similar but not nearly to the same extent.”

“Do you have a soul still?” The question left Hizashi’s mouth before he even thought it. “Don’t answer that, I’m so sorry.” He slapped his hand to his mouth.

“It’s cool, It’s a valid question, I had the same one at first. I do. Really the only difference between a ghost’s soul and a human soul is that a ghost is just a soul that absorbed enough ectoplasm at their death to make a semi-corporeal form around it. There’s more to it than that but like basically.” Actually talking for the first time in hours seemed to help him calm down. Hizashi watched as his eyes faded from green back to blue. 

It was at this time Shouta finally seemed to decide to wake up. He didn’t wake up calmly either. He practically bolted upright grabbing at his neck where his scarf would have been if it wasn’t removed. At least he reached for it with his good arm and not the one currently in a cast. He was breathing heavily looking around the room for an enemy that was no longer there. It made sense. Last thing Shouta was really aware of was being in the middle of a villain attack where they were trying to kill his students. 

He seemed to at least realize they were safe now. “Hizashi the students? Are they-?”
“They’re all fine. So is everyone else. Midoriya and Danny seemed to get the most injured and even then nothing major.” Hizashi looked over to the boy who still refused to elaborate on any injuries he might have. 

Tsukauchi and Yagi excused themselves, saying something about letting a nurse know Shouta was awake. Shouta collapsed back into the hospital bed. He looked down at his broken arm and then lifted a hand to his face that was currently covered in various patches of gauze and an eyepatch covering his right eye. 

“You should be healed enough for Recovery Girl’s quirk by the sports festival, if Nezu decides to still hold it after today that is. I’ll be surprised if you don’t have a scar under your eye though. It was a nasty gash. They don’t think you have any brain damage, but they’ll have to run some more tests now that you’re awake of course. You saved those kids' lives, Sho.”

“It wasn’t enough though was it?” Shouta’s hand dropped to his chest. “I got incapacitated, and had to be saved by Danny. Who I’m supposed to protect.”

“If it makes you feel any better, so did All Might.” The look he gave Hizashi revealed it in fact did not make him feel better. It was so like him to dwell on these things. “If that doesn’t make you feel better than I’m sure watching Jazz take down at least ten full grown adults with a mix of martial arts and a gun will. I’m sure if we ask Nezu will pull up the camera feeds, I don’t think they were linked to the USJ power grid.”

“You did what?” Danny asked, turning to his sister. 

“A gun?” Shouta’s visible eye went wide at the thought. Though Hizashi couldn’t tell if it was from being impressed or afraid, maybe both. 

Jazz shrugged. “I happened to be in the area testing out some equipment for myself and another student, and saw the villains leaving the building. They attacked first, I was within my rights.” 

Was that the story she was going with then? “We’re still having a discussion about that when we get home, young lady. Nezu gave the police permission to search the entire campus for the investigation, they’re bound to review the security footage of the area. Not to mention you ignored my orders to stay put.” 

“I can talk my way out of an interrogation if needed.” She said.

“Never mind that terrifying thought, we’re still having a talk. You’re capable I won’t say you aren’t, but you are still a kid Jazz. It doesn’t matter what you can do, it's about what you no longer need to do.”

“Those villains would have gotten away if I didn’t. You and the other teachers took longer than I did to get there. I stopped them before they could cause any more havoc to the surrounding areas. I did what I had to and left, no more engagement than what was necessary. Also Danny seemed to have the rest handled. I’d just worry him if I went into the building, plus you and the other teachers were already in there.” 

Hizashi hated that she made decent points, damn Nezu. Though he was certain she could talk circles around people prior to their introduction. His heart went out to whoever would surely discuss her role in today's events with her. He hoped for their sake that Nezu didn’t decide to sit in on it with her. She still was getting some sort of punishment for disobeying his orders though.  She put herself in danger and he cared too much about her to let that slide.

After they ran a variety of tests on Shouta he was released from the hospital, no brain damage reported. Other than whatever brain damage he needed to have to marry Hizashi. But when Hizashi said that to his husband he had to face Shouta’s ‘I love you’ glare. A special glare that only appeared when Hizashi joked about things like that. It was a mix of scary and cute. 

It was well past sunset when they arrived back home. Hizashi was grateful that Nezu decided to close the school tomorrow, there was no way any of them would be able to realistically make it. They were greeted at the door by Arson who had for the time being set aside her cranky mood. Hizashi gave her a quick scratch after kicking his shoes off. Once again silently thanking Nemuri for feeding her dinner when she grabbed them clothes. He’d have to do something nice for her. Tensei was in town, maybe they could all go out sometime this week. Maybe. They’d have to figure out a new day to celebrate Danny’s birthday, he thought in dismay as he saw the cake he had bought sitting in its box uneaten on the counter still. That would have to be a problem for tomorrow Hizashi though. 

Present Hizashi had a different problem. Danny clearly, and less obviously Jazz, did not want to leave their side. Both slowly made their way to their rooms, glancing over their shoulders as if the two adults would disappear if they looked away for too long. Hizashi thought back to the fact the two of them didn’t exactly have the best adult presences when they were younger growing up, or before they came here. “Wait.” He stopped them as they reluctantly went to their rooms. “We can all sleep in the living room if you want. The sleeper sofa is practically big enough to fit half of Japan.” They could thank the fact Tensei and Nemuri would stay over so often when they first moved into the apartment for that. They’d argue over who got to sleep where until Shouta snapped and decided they both would just get the couch if they couldn’t agree. And of course they managed to convince him that all four of them had to sleep on the couch ‘like a sleepover’. 

Danny immediately lit up at the idea, quickly shooting into his room to change into his pajamas. Shouta left as well to get changed, Hizashi hoped he managed okay with one arm. Jazz was still standing outside her door though. “That offer is for you too Jazz. Only if you want.” It was hard to read her sometimes, he hoped he wasn’t overreaching.

She pursed her lips, crossing her arms and looking to the side. “I’m not a little kid. I don’t need to sleep with my parents just because I had a bad day or a nightmare.” 

“I never said you were a little kid. I just know we all had a pretty rough day today to say the very least. And I know I always sleep better when I’m surrounded by the people I care about, knowing they’re safe beside me. You can even ask Nemuri when we get back to U.A. She’s a  total blanket hog, just so you know.” Hizashi fake whispered the last part. 

“I’ll lay on the edge, but once Danny falls asleep I’m going back to my room. I’m only doing this because I know it’ll make him feel better. He won't be able to fall asleep otherwise.” 

“That’s fine. It’s cool if you change your mind, and if it’s cool if you don’t. No biggie.” Hizashi smiled before leaving to get ready for bed himself. 

When he emerged from his room, Shouta did end up needing some help getting dressed, Jazz and Danny were already trying to figure out how to get the sofa to extend into a bed shape. Hizashi showed them how to do it, putting the linen sheets on it as he went. Jazz took one edge of the bed, while Shouta was on the other, his bad arm facing towards the outside. Hizashi laid down next to his husband, not wanting to crowd Jazz, leaving Danny in between him and Jazz. 

Despite her insistence, Jazz fell asleep soon after her brother. “Shouta?” Hizashi asked, testing to see if he was still awake.

A grunt from beside him confirmed he was. “What?”

“I really care for them.” Hizashi said. “Even after today, they still seem so much happier? Content? With us than they seem when they talk about their parents back in their own world. I know we can’t prevent them from going home if they want that. But I keep finding myself hoping they don’t end up wanting that. Y’know?” 

He could see the dark outline of Shouta’s body turn towards him. “I understand.” Shouta paused. “Did he tell you, he called me dad? After the Nomu got me, he shouted dad.” 

“No he didn’t tell me.” Hizashi whispered, not wanting to wake the two. “He called me dad too if you believe it. After those two villains got away. I think he thought I was about to attack him, but he was so tired at that point it was easy to stop him. He asked me not to leave. Of course I wouldn’t leave. I promised. At that moment I would have done anything to keep that promise, even if it meant fighting All Might in his prime and winning, I’d have found a way. It’s only been what, four months? But I already see them as my own kids, isn’t that something? I love them, both of them.” 

“No, I get it. I do too.” He yawned.

“Goodnight Sho, get some sleep. I love you.”

“Only if you get some sleep too. I love you too ‘Zashi”

In the morning they would all wake up piled on each other, holding each other close. As if even in their sleep, they didn’t want to be separated from each other, not yet.

Notes:

You know there are quite a few scenes I'd love to commission someone to draw from this fic, the ending scene from this chapter is by far at the top. Family snuggles.

Chapter 16: A Vague Return to Normal

Summary:

The students return to U.A. Danny meets back up with someone. And the sports festival is announced.

Notes:

Sorry about that small break I took. After writing so much I forced myself to take a small break as to avoid writers fatigue.

Honestly Danny didn’t despise the thought of going back to school, he was hopeful for it in fact. He’d be able to see all his classmates safe in person, and hopefully return to what was quickly becoming a normal routine. He knew they were all alright of course, he didn’t think the adults around him would lie about something like that. But he would feel a lot better seeing them all in one place. They didn’t have school yesterday.  Danny, Yamada, Jazz, and Aizawa all stayed home all day, staying in the communal space of the living room or kitchen for most of it. Yamada had told him they'd have to figure out something new to do for his birthday soon.

Danny opened the door to class 1-A. Surprisingly he wasn’t the first one there. It was usually him or Iida there first depending on if he hung around Aizawa or Yamada before class started or if Iida decided to get an early start. It was Todoroki sitting at his desk frowning at the wall.

Danny couldn’t say he talked to the boy all that much. Todoroki seemed to be more of the quiet type, he seemed nice enough though if a bit serious. That didn’t stop a shiver running down his spine as the boy’s dual colored eyes locked onto his own. “Hey Todoroki, you’re pretty early. Everything good?”

Todoroki stood from his desk and walked up to Danny. “Fenton,  I need to ask you something.”

“I’ve said this before but you can just call me Danny.” Danny said.

“Fenton.” Todoroki stared at him.

“Whatever. What’s up?” 

“While I appreciate what you did during the USJ incident, you most likely saved a few lives, I must ask; are you secretly a Nomu?” He deadpanned.

Well…that was blunt to say the least. “Um what?”

“Your quirk doesn’t make sense. Not even mentioning how powerful it is. Not unless you factor in the possibility of having multiple quirks. Which the Nomu did.”

“Todoroki, did you really come to school this early to ask if I’m some weird quirk monster?”

“Yes.”

Danny opened his mouth to speak before closing it multiple times, making him feel like he was imitating a fish. “No I’m not. Thankfully so.  My quirk is just weird I guess.”

Todoroki squinted at him with a hum. “Well you’re not like Midoriya with All Might. You’re strong but the rest of your powers are too different. A different pro-hero? You don’t seem to be in a similar situation as me though. I’ll have to think about this more. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.” 

Danny wasn’t sure he wanted to know what any of that meant. So he just decided not to press the boy for answers. Sometimes not knowing was better. He practically forgot about the interaction soon enough as he was slowly swarmed by his classmates as they came in. Mostly them inquiring if he was okay since he left the USJ quickly after their teachers showed up. 

“Man, and I thought you were terrifying back in the battle trials! I think I would have fled with the villains if I didn’t know any better.” Kaminari laughed.

“Sorry about that.” Danny looked away grabbing at his neck.

“What no, don’t apologize, it was badass! I didn’t fully believe Kirishima about the entrance exam but there’s no doubt that you’re stupid strong.” He waved Danny off. “You missed being on the news though! They showed up soon after you left. Though I guess we should all be happy no one was really all that hurt.”

Danny shrugged, choosing not to disclose the vaguely hand shaped scar he now had on his shoulder, or his ribs that still ached when he moved wrong. He wasn’t sad he missed the press, he was in no state afterwards to talk to anyone.

“I mean Mr. Aizawa and Thirteen both got pretty hurt. Who do you think will be teaching while mr. Aizawa heals?” Uraraka asked.

Danny knew full well who was teaching class. Much to his own protest. Ashido slammed her hands on Danny’s desk, where most of the students were currently gathered. “Who cares about who’s teaching us! Do you know what I saw helping Tsu bring Mr. Aizawa to safety?” She had the students' attention. She leaned down as if she was going to whisper causing them to lean in towards her before she yelled at full volume. “He has a necklace under his scarf!

“Okay?” Jiro said. “He doesn’t really seem like a jewelry person but it’s just a necklace. I have one right now, they’re very common believe it or not.”

Ashido rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t finished. It’s what was on the necklace.” She paused. “There was a wedding ring! He’s married.”

Yamada would be happy he won that part of the bet. Nemuri had her money on Yaoyorozu so she’d be disappointed. No one had yet to make the connection as to who yet though. “Forget being a jewelry person. He doesn’t seem like a marriage person.” Jiro said. 

“Oh who do you think he’s married to?” Uraraka asked.

“Do you think it’s one of the teachers?” Midoriya asked. Danny didn’t even notice him walk up. It was good to see he was alright though. 

“That’d make sense. But who?” Ashido tapped her chin. “Midnight? I see her around Mr. Aizawa a lot. What do you guys think?” Swing and a miss. 

“I think this is a stupid conversation. What you should be focusing on is that you all were too weak during the attack and had to have the teachers come save you. Focus on getting stronger, not stupid gossip.” Bakugo crossed his arms.

Midoriya spoke up again, ignoring Bakugo. “No, she always jokes about how she’s single during class. If we’re assuming it’s another teacher we have to narrow it down. First by who we know is married or single for sure and then who’s unknown. Then probably factoring in personality but then there’s the fact he’s an underground hero so he wouldn’t want it to be public knowledge he’s married. Age of course is a factor. Nezu is definitely out for numerous reasons, same with Recovery Girl and Midnight, Thirteen has gone on record on how they’re not interested in romance. That leaves Hound Dog, Vlad King, Ectoplasm, Cementoss, Powerloader, Present Mic, All Might, and Snipe. Snipe seems to avoid being in the same room alone with Mr. Aizawa, so he's out. I know All Might is single so he’s out too. Vlad King seems like a decent option; they're around the same age, but so are most the other teachers. We know Present Mic is married but despite that and being the same age I’m not sure I see their personalities fitting in a romantic sense. But we have only actually known them all for a short time, relying mainly on their public images to form opinions”
Midoriya was in full analysis mode now. It took everything within Danny not to blurt out the answer, letting his classmates theorize. Midoriya’s mumbling was interrupted by Iida coming in through the door telling them to take their seats before he stopped and looked at the group of students. “What are you doing? Take your seats.”
The class made their way to their seats while Ashido answered. “We’re trying to figure out who Mr. Aizawa is married to. Guys what if he’s not even married to a teacher. What if he’s married to a normal civilian like a barista or something?” 

“That is highly inappropriate! We as students should not be speculating on who our teachers are in relationships with.” Iida said, sliding in his own seat. He didn’t seem surprised to find out Aizawa was married. 

“It’s fine. Not like Mr. Aizawa will be here to hear it anyway.” Ashido said.

“Not here to hear what?” Aizawa asked, walking into the room as the bell rang. His arm was still in a cast and his face still had bandages covering various cuts and an eyepatch covering his eye while it healed. The man refused to stay home.

“Nothing!” Ashido smiled. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Do I look alright?” Aizawa looked at her.

“I mean not really. But I’m glad you’re well enough to teach!” She responded.

“I’d be teaching even if I was in a full body cast.” Danny didn’t doubt it. Aizawa was stubborn to say the least. Aizawa looked around the class before speaking. “Anyway, I have an announcement so listen up. The U.A Sports Festival is about to start.”

“Let’s kick some ass!” Kirishima shouted out standing up.

“Wait a second.” Kaminari interrupted the other boy, an unsure look on his face.

“Yeah,” Jiro spoke, “is it really a good idea to hold the sports festival so soon after a villain attack?”

Kaminari nodded. “They could attack all at once when we’re all in the same place.”

Aizawa started speaking about the precautions that would be in place and how it was a big opportunity for U.A students to show their worth to pro-heroes and they couldn't afford to miss it. Apparently it was a very important event. Danny didn’t see what the big deal was with holding it still. Ghosts would attack Amity all the time and then they’d return to their normal activities just as fast. Unless something happened like the football field, or an entire wing of the school got wrecked the students pretty much continued as normal. Simply working around any damage that might have occurred. Not like Danny would have to worry about getting scouted by a pro either way. If he was still here by graduation he’d probably have a lot more problems by that point.

As the day went on his classmates continued to talk about how excited they were for the sports festival throughout the day. When Cementoss let them out for lunch Danny slipped out the door while the others were talking. 

There weren’t too many students in the hall yet, but he couldn’t help feeling like people were staring at him. He walked to the teachers lounge but the people he was looking for weren’t in there. Nemuri was though. “Hey aunt Nemuri, have you seen my dads-I mean Aizawa and Yamada? I wanted to ask them something but I couldn't find either of them.” Dang it was bad enough he slipped up during the USJ attack, but ever since then he kept having to catch himself from calling the two dad. Now he’d gone and said it in front of Nemuri, maybe she didn’t notice. 

The squeal coming from her dashed that hope away. “That is just too precious. They’re probably on the roof though hun, they tend to go up there when they want to be alone. Ever since we were students. I’ll probably join them in a bit to check up on them.” She smiled. 

“You didn’t hear that.” Danny said, pointing at her.

“Oh but I did. But my lips are sealed for now. That’s a discussion you three should have together on your own terms. I’ll stay out of it unless you decide you don’t want me to.”
Danny nodded his head but he could feel the blush on his cheeks from embarrassment. “I’ll get going then. Have a good lunch, and thanks.” 

Nemuri waved him off as he entered the hallway. He could probably wait until after school to ask his question, it wasn’t important. He’d let the two have their peace and quiet for now. He only took a few steps into the now crowded hall as students were making their way downstairs to the lunch room, before an arm was thrown around his neck and he was pulled down, he phased through the floor on instinct following along with the person who had grabbed him.

Reaching the first floor he was pulled through the wall into a classroom. “Whew I’m glad you went along with me. It would be really awkward if I just pulled you and you fell onto the ground!”

Danny finally looked at the person who grabbed him, meeting two blue oval eyes. “Mirio?”

“The one and only. Geeze I haven’t seen you in a while, I think you grew a bit.” Mirio said.

“Uh yeah, what’s up? I see you kept your clothes on this time, glad you figured that out.” Danny greeted. 

Mirio laughed. “Yeah I still slip up sometimes though. Anyway, how’s everything going? You never texted me. I know you took me down easy but I didn’t think I was bad enough to warrant no contact.”

Oh yeah Mirio gave him his number back when they met. He totally forgot about that, Aizawa’s training distracted him. “Sorry about that, I was busy training for the entrance exam. I forgot. Everything's fine other than that villain attack, but everyone is fine for the most part now so it’s no big deal.” He didn’t need to talk about how he probably went a little overboard against the villains during it. 

“Yes I heard about that.” Mirio’s smile didn’t vanish but it did seem to lessen. “Are you okay? The other students aren’t giving you trouble are they? I’ll talk to them if you need me to.”

“No, all my classmates seem to like me well enough. Bakugo is a bit aggressive but he’s aggressive with everyone so I can’t exactly take that personally.” Danny shrugged. 

“What about people outside of your class?”

“I don’t know? I don’t really talk to people outside of class 1-A, except my sister of course but like why?” 

“No reason. But remember if someone gives you trouble let me know. Or Tamaki and Nejire even. Though I’d go to Tamaki last, he’s not too good with confrontation. But if someone is messing with our first year I’m sure he’d get over it if he had to.” 

“Thanks I guess? Since when am I your guys first year?”

“Since you kicked our butts in a fight obviously. Just had to wait until you were actually a first year to make it official. You’re now officially under the wings of the big three of U.A! It can even be literally in Tamaki’s case.” Mirio’s smile was back at full force. 

“Obviously.” How many people here were going to just decide Danny was part of their family or friend group equivalent in one way or the other? He thought Miro and his friends were a pretty cool group though so he wouldn’t complain. Yet. 

“How about we all eat lunch together?” Miro suggested.

“Actually I was planning on eating it with my friends. They’re probably wondering where I went off to at this point actually. Maybe another day?” Danny smiled apologetically. 

“No problem! How ‘bout I walk you there instead then?” Mirio said.

Danny shrugged he had no reason to deny the request. Plus the cafeteria wasn’t too far away anyway so he wouldn’t be keeping Mirio from his own lunch for long anyway. The two walked down the hallway, there seemed to be less stares this time. Weird. 

“You guys will be starting internships after the sports festival. Are you excited? Are you hoping any specific hero scouts you?” Miro asked as they walked.

Were they? Danny didn’t know that. “Oh that sounds fun. I think I’d be happy if any hero would want to take me on as an intern I guess. Apparently I tend to unsettle people.”

“Don’t worry about that. That’s a good trait to have to scare off villains. I can always put in a good word to Sir Nighteye and see if he’ll offer you an internship after the festival. You two would so get along. He has a great sense of humor.”

Danny knew who Sir Nighteye was now, he had asked Midoriya sometime after meeting Mirio. He was All Might’s former sidekick who started up his own agency. Apparently he could see into the future which was super cool. The sense of humor comment made him wonder if he would be similar to Clockwork. They both even had time powers. “That would be nice.”

“Plus we would be working together, wouldn’t that be super cool? We could make a team name! The wall walk throughers, or the permeation pals!” Miro paused. “We’ll have to work on the name. Of course keep your hopes up. I'm sure some high ranking hero will also take interest in you. Don’t let my excited ramblings keep you from choosing a hero who would suit your improvement best.”

They arrived at the cafeteria, each grabbed their food, and walked up to where Uraraka, Tsu, and Iida were sitting. Midoriya was missing. “Thanks for walking with me, Mirio. Here take my number so you can put it in the phone so I can’t say I forgot again. You can give it to Nejire and Tamaki too if they want.”

“Sure thing! Remember what I told you if anyone gives you trouble.” Mirio said with a wave before walking away. 

His friends were staring at him as he sat down next to Tsu. “What?”

“That was Mirio Togata. One of the three top students of U.A.” Iida said watching the third year walk off.

The top three students? Probably why he called him and the other two the big three. “Yeah sorry I’m late, he wanted to talk.”

“He didn’t say anything mean to you right?” Tsu croaked.

“Nah, he’s a nice dude. We’ve met before and he wanted to catch up, and check in on me after hearing about the USJ attack. Where’s Midoriya?” Danny shook his head as he started to eat.

“Apparently he is eating lunch with All Might. Actually you know Danny, speaking of the USJ.” Tsu started. “Did you guys know Danny called mr. Aizawa dad during it?” She laughed.

Danny put his head in his hands, food forgotten. “You heard that?”

“Yep.” Tsu patted his back. “It’s okay, I used to call my middle school homeroom teacher mom a lot on accident, it happens. Just funny that we’ve only really known him for a week now.” 

Danny groaned, he didn’t know if going with what Tsu thought the situation was would be better than actually telling them. They’d ask so many questions that he really didn’t feel like answering at the moment.  His dilemma was put on pause however as he watched Ashido practically body check a second year student approaching the group out of the way before making her own way over to the table. “You mind if I sit here?” She sat her tray down not bothering with a response.

Not long after that all of class 1-A seemed to have converged around Danny’s table. If not sitting at the same table, they were at the tables surrounding it. It was certainly odd to say the least. Maybe they were more shaken up from the USJ than they let on and wanted to stick together. Even Bakugo was nearby practically growling at any student not from their class that got within a certain radius of them. 

It wasn’t until the end of the day when class let out that he got his answer. There was a crowd of first year students from various other classes and courses around the classroom door, blocking their exit. 

“They’re scouting out the competition.” Bakugo growled, approaching the group of students. Much to the fear of his classmates who were panicking as they watched the explosive boy walk to the room's entrance.

Danny stood a few steps behind Bakugo, unsure how this would go down. That’s when he started hearing whispers and felt stares from the crowd of students. 

“Did you hear-?”

“Wreaked the whole facility.” 

“Went crazy.”

“-yeah to shreds they say.”

“I can’t believe they even let someone like that into the school.”

“Sounds more like a villain to me.”

“Are they really going to put someone like that against other first years?”
“Seems unsafe to me.”

Oh. So that’s why Mirio was asking if he was okay, and why his classmates weren’t leaving him alone during lunch. He could feel his classmates' eyes on him, trying to see how he would react. The words hurt, but he’d dealt with worse things said about him before. Maybe he’d just phase his class down a floor to avoid the crowd. 

“Tch. If you extras are here to scout out your opponents just know it’s useless. I’m beating all of you. If you’re here for any other stupid reason, fuck off. You’re annoying and in my way.” Bakugo snarled.

“Class 1-A? I heard you guys were impressed. But honestly you kinda just sound like an ass. Is everyone in this course delusional or just you?” A purple haired student who had eyebags that rivaled Aizawa’s pushed his way through the crowd to the front. “I wanted to be in the hero course, but I was forced to choose a different track. It is what it is. But I have another chance. Perform well in the sports festival and teachers can decide to transfer us to the hero course, but they’ll have to transfer people out to do so. I’m not here to scout the competition, I’m here to let you know that if you don’t bring your best I’ll steal your spot from right under you. Consider this a declaration of war.”

The purple haired student and Bakugo stared at each other before being interrupted by a silver haired student yelling about who knew what at this point. Bakugo started to push past the crowd.

“Dude, where are you going? You gotta say something!” Kirishima said.

Bakugo rolled his eyes. “These people don’t matter. The only thing that matters is that I beat them.” He finished before walking through the rest of the crowd.

Looking around it seemed like Danny’s classmates took Bakugo’s words to heart. The next two weeks would be filled with intense training from all students, determined to do their best in the festival. Danny was determined to do the same. With a bit of a caveat on his end, as long as he could get permission of course. 

Notes:

The sports festival approaches. But Danny seems to have some ideas of his own planned.

Chapter 17: Hizashi Yamada's Much Needed Stress Relief

Summary:

Hizashi has had a stressful past few days. At least he got to watch Jazz emotionally ruin a cop and he even has a day off after!

Notes:

Fun Fact: The bad part about hyperfixating on your own fic is sometimes you forget it's not cannon and you react to the source material like "Oh gee, can't wait to see how Danny reacts to that" Then you remember no actually, that's not how it works.

no spoilers in the comments for those who know what I'm talking about

Saying Hizashi had a stressful week was an understatement, saying he had a stressful month was also an understatement. He understood working three jobs and taking care of two teens would entail a lot of time on his end. But he’d been having to give most of his hero work assignments to his sidekicks at his agency, even then he still felt swamped with hero work on top of grading papers and other general teacher things. It didn’t help that said two teens were such a handful.  He wouldn’t deny being a workaholic but what he wouldn’t give for one day of no work. 

It definitely didn’t help that rumors of what happened at the USJ were spreading around the school like wildfire. He overheard some of what was going around from his students talking about it in between classes. Most of it was about Danny, none of it was pleasant. Worse than that when he approached the boy at home he shrugged it off, something about dealing with much worse back in his old universe. Hizashi swore he’d be gray by the time the year was over at this point with how often the two kids wave off very concerning statements as if they were normal things. At least Danny’s classmates seemed to have his back.  

But things were starting to look up with Nezu calling him to his office. Or at least it was going to be extremely funny to watch. Hizashi ran through the halls, Shouta trailing slowly behind him refusing to run, busting through the cafeteria doors weaving past students where Danny was sitting with his classmates. “DANNY! Come on, it’s Jazz.” 

Danny stood up in his seat immediately. “What’s wrong? Is she okay?”

Hizashi could have opened better than that, he could admit. “She’s great. The newbie officer about to interview her is another story.” 

Realization dawned on Danny’s face as grabbed the sandwich on his lunch tray before quickly following after Hizashi. Shouta was standing outside Nezu’s office by the time the two got there. “So what’s the situation anyway?” Danny asked.

“Well.” Shouta said. “Technically detective Tsukauchi should be the one leading the interview. But he found out Jazz is Nezu’s student, and claimed he had a conflict of interest since he knows her. According to Tsukauchi, the cop doing her interview has only been on the detective force for a few months. Too green to really know what he’s getting into.”

“Wow, I feel bad for him.” Danny said. “Are we even allowed to be in the room when this is happening?”
Hizashi snorted. “Don't be, I’ve met him before the dude is a total dick. As Jazz’s legal guardians we get to be in the room. He can deal with you being in there, if he has a problem we can always stick Nezu on him.”

“Watch your language Mic, we’re still in school.” Shouta chided.

“What, It’s true! He wasn’t taking one of my sidekicks seriously the other day when she was trying to just do her job. I’m positive it’s because that bastard discriminates against mutant type quirks.”

“Probably why he was put on this part of the case, punishment.” Shouta said before opening the door to the office

“Is quirk discrimination common?” Danny asked, leaning over to Hizashi. 

Hizashi nodded his head with a sigh. “Unfortunately. Mutant type quirks tend to get the brunt of it, due to a lot of people seeing them as more ‘inhuman’. There’s more to it but now’s not really the time.”

Walking into the office Nezu and Jazz were sitting on one couch while the officer was on the opposite one. From his reaction, the officer wasn’t expecting the three of them. “Excuse me, I am going to have to request you leave. If you need the principal he should be available in an hour or so. He has refused to leave this young woman alone until the interrogation is over. Police business and all that, I’m afraid.”

“Good thing we’re not here for him then. Eraserhead here and I are Jazz's guardians.” Hizashi said with a smile. “What was your name again? I feel like we’ve met.”

The man’s face briefly drained of color before he shook himself out of it. “Yes of course. I’m detective Tanaka, I believe we met briefly a few days ago. I was working with one of your sidekicks, that mouse one?”

Hizashi felt his eye twitch. “Oh yes, Mademoiselle Mouse. She is very skilled for being so new to the field.” He’d have to buy her a nice lunch when he got back to the agency. She was a very sweet woman, who still had a bit of trouble standing up for herself at times. 

Tanaka was still eyeing Shouta up and down. Hizashi knew why, most of the interactions the police force had with Eraserhead was him dropping off villains in the middle of the night without saying a word to anyone. He was quite intimidating to those who didn’t know him. It probably didn’t help that he was still bandaged up. “Are we going to get started or are you just going to stand there and waste all of our time?” Shouta rolled his eyes standing behind the couch where Jazz was sitting.

“Should there really be a student here for this?” Tanaka looked over to where Danny was looking through Nezu’s tea collection. 

“He has my permission to be here for this, as well as Jazz’s.” Nezu said. The man at least had enough sense to him to not outright argue with Nezu. For now at least.

“Okay, let’s get started then. Jazz Fenton, you are here for questioning about the events that happened this past Wednesday. What is currently being dubbed the USJ Incident. You are currently under investigation for suspected vigilantism, and unlawful handling of a firearm. Do you have anything to say for yourself?” Tanaka said, folding his hands together.

Jazz’s face remained neutral. “Sir, I believe you are mistaken. I can not be charged with vigilantism.” 

“Could you tell me why you believe that?” Tanaka had a small smirk on his face. Hizashi would revel in that smirk being wiped off in the next few minutes. 

“Of course, I’d be happy to. First and foremost, and I am paraphrasing here to save some time, the Anti-Vigilante Act says that vigilantism is defined as a person or persons who uses their quirk without a license to enact some form of perceived justice, revenge, or law enforcement. I do not have a quirk, a good detective would already know that. No quirk means I can not fall into the requirements set by the AVA. No matter how hard I tried to.” Jazz’s expression did not change, but Hizashi could see a glimmer of delight in her eyes. 

The officer was going to be torn to shreds. Hizashi tried to subtly look around the room, Nezu was bound to have cameras set up to record this hidden somewhere. Found one, hidden in the lamp on his desk.

“Well if not vigilantism, it can still be charged as assault. Since you actively went out after being alerted about the attack. ” Tanaka pointed out.

“Oh, can you prove that? And that it wasn’t in self defense?” Jazz asked. “Because if you can I’d love to see it, since if my memory serves correctly I was helping one of my underclassmen test out her new invention when the attack happened.” 

“Principal Nezu gave us access to the security footage around the time of the attack.” Tanaka said. “Nezu could you please pull up the camera recording of the support course workshop a few minutes before the attack started?” 

Hizashi had to keep himself from visibly worrying as Nezu pulled up the footage on a hologram. There was no way Jazz could manage to out-talk something as concrete as video footage. Except, looking at her she had a look in her eye that made him almost afraid. She looked extremely confident in what she was doing.

The footage of the support room appeared. Danny walked over from where he was standing to watch the footage as well. It showed Jazz at first working on two different projects, the first was the gun she was working on for Snipe before holstering it to her side. She then started working on what looked like the gift she gave Danny for his birthday. She didn’t actually give it to him until the day after though. When she finished she went over to Mei Hatsume’s workbench and started to talk. 

Around that point was when Hizashi met up with her if his memory served correctly. Except for the fact that that never showed up in the video. Instead the video got increasingly more and more corrupted until it just showed stadic. Once the static went away the workroom was completely empty, presumingly from the students taking shelter.

What the hell? Did Nezu corrupt the footage to help protect his student? That left the chance of them scanning the recording and possibly finding foul play though. Hizashi doubted Nezu would risk that.

“Oh shit I was really out of hand wasn’t I?” Danny said, making Hizashi jump. “That’s my bad sorry. My quirk tends to make recording devices and stuff go haywire if I use it a lot. I didn’t think it was bad enough that early on in the attack though. No wonder all the other students are uneasy around me now.”

Tanaka turned to Nezu. “Who even is the kid?”

Danny looked up from the recording that was playing again. “The ‘kid’ can speak for himself. Danny Fenton, Jazz’s brother.”

“Also the one who took down the Nomu during the attack. A very promising student.” Nezu said. Hizashi did not like how Nezu was fond of both of his kids. He had left Danny alone for the most part, focusing mainly on Jazz’s studies. If Hizashi had his way, it would stay that way.

“That was you?” Tanaka asked, now looking even more unsure about where he stood in terms of authority in the room. 

Danny shrugged. “I mean it wasn’t super hard. Biggest issue was making sure no one else got hurt in the fight and making sure I didn’t kill anyone by accident. It’s not the hardest fight I’ve had.”

Hizashi turned to Danny, then to Shouta. A silent agreement forming between the two to talk to the kids about that later. If that villian wasn’t the hardest fight Danny had, Hizashi would hate to meet the person who was. No in fact he’d love to meet them, and beat the living hell out of them for attacking a child.

“So, detective,” The way Jazz said it made it sound like an insult not a title, “do you have anything else against me? Or am I free to go? I would hate for this to go past the lunch period. I’m not sure about you but everyone else here has actual important things to attend to once classes start.”

“Excuse me?” Tanaka moved to stand up.

“I feel it pertinent to remind you before you make another move Tanaka, that you are in the room with three pro-heroes.  And that making an aggressive move towards one of my students would not be simply brushed aside due to your position in the police force.” Nezu said. His smile no longer a nicety, but a threat display.

“Of course, I would never do such a thing.” Tanaka shifted in his seat. His eyes kept flickering back to where Danny was standing.

Looking over at Danny showed the boy staring at the man, as if waiting for him to make just one wrong move. Though from the look Jazz was giving the officer, she was the one he should be worried about. Hizashi wouldn’t put it past her to be planning to end the man’s career. He wouldn’t put it past Nezu to make it part of her final exam. 

“Back to the discussion at hand.” Tanaka said, redirecting the conversation. “There still is the issue of unlawfully owning a firearm, without a license.”

“I don’t own it actually.” Jazz said

Tanaka paused. “You made it though, correct? It is your design.”
“Yes I invented it.” Jazz was talking as if she was explaining something to a small child. “But all inventions made by U.A support course students are owned by the school until acquisition of a support license and graduation. I would own the patent for anything I invent during my time here, but all of the actual inventions are U.A property as to avoid the students running into any legal trouble that comes with owning weapons or other things that may cause trouble before they receive the proper support licenses.” 

“You handled it though.” Tanaka pointed out.

Jazz nodded. “Yes, on U.A property. Where most quirk and weapon laws are actually exempt due to the nature of the school. Or are you going to tell that kid with the explosion quirk in class 1-A he can’t sweat due to his sweat being a regulated chemical? Or my classmates in the support course to stop building their inventions because they’re weapons? You’ll have some angry pro’s to deal with if so, since U.A is one of the top contributors to support gear research. So regardless of how stupid the law about firearms is when someone walking down the street could have a quirk ten times as deadly, it doesn’t matter because I didn’t leave U.A property with it.”

Hizashi stifled a laugh at Tanaka’s face. Serves him right. Maybe he’d show the video of this to Mademoiselle Mouse, she’d get a laugh out of it, or at least she’d be happy to see the man getting verbally decimated by a teenager.  

“Now. Do you have another accusation that will be debunked the moment any research is done? Or will that be all?” Jazz asked, placing her hands in her lap. 

Hizashi could see Tanaka bite his cheek. “That will be all, for now. Thank you for your time Nezu, apologies for interrupting your lunch Jasmine.” He stood up, gathered his papers and walked out the door, closing it behind him more forceful than what was necessary. 

Jazz let out a hum. “That was much easier than expected, I didn’t even need to lie. Of course I wasn’t expecting to be able to, I figured detective Tsukauchi would be the one interrogating me. Honestly it was a bit disappointing.” 

There was no way she told the truth the whole time. Except she did. She omitted a few details but she never outright lied. With easy accessible loopholes for the other two, she only actually had to argue against the assault charge. She was helping her underclassman at the time the attack started, and technically she was helping test out a prototype when she was using the jetpack. 

It was nearing the end of lunch now, time for them all to get back to their respective classes. “Oh before we all scatter to the wind, we’re going out for lunch with Tensei tomorrow since we all have this Sunday off. Not sure if Nemuri will be there yet but she might come.” Hizashi told them before they all went their separate ways. “Oh and remember you two will have to walk home today. Since Shouta is helping to interrogate some of those villains that were captured now that they’re healed enough and I couldn’t wiggle my way out of patrol. Do you remember the route? I can see if I can push patrol back a bit?” He really didn’t want them to have to walk home. Sure it wasn’t even that far away, but he still would worry.

“We’ll be fine, if anything happens Jazz can just totally definitely follow the law and land a few more villains in the hospital.” Danny grinned.

Jazz elbowed her brother. “Shut up. We’ll be safe. I’ll text you both when we get home. See you later.”

“Present Mic, before you go.” Nezu called him back into the office after the rest of them left. “I have the paperwork you requested.”

Hizashi pivitied back towards his boss. “Already? I asked if you could get the required documents together two days ago.”

“I may be poor at showing it, but I care for the students under our care just as much as you or Eraserhead, I too wish for their safety. Especially when one of them is my personal student.” Nezu smiled. “And if the two of them make my own plans easier to achieve, well all the better, yes?”

Hizashi frowned and paused his reach for the papers in Nezu’s paws.. “You’re not planning on using them are you?”
Nezu let out a laugh that made Hizashi highly uncomfortable. “No more than I use anyone else. Though given what I know of them, they’d most likely be more than willing to assist. Plus, is it not better than the alternative that could come without going through with this?”

“You’re right, unfortunately.” Hizashi sighed, grabbing the papers. “Thank you.”

“It was my pleasure. Now you better hurry, no need to worry your students as to why you are late.” Nezu said, waiving him off.

At least Hizashi was confident in saying he wasn’t going to be on the receiving end of Nezu’s grand overarching scheme. Probably. Or better to say he wouldn’t end up erased from history or locked up somewhere or something similar. No doubt whatever Nezu’s plan was it would have a far reaching impact. Whatever, he had a lunch to plan and students to teach.

---

In retrospect Hizashi should have expected the lunch outing would be hectic. It was all on him thinking having Nemuri, Tensei, and Danny all together in close proximity to Shouta was a good idea. 

Tensei picked the restaurant since he’d only be in the area for a few more days before going back to Hosu. Thankfully it wasn’t anyplace fancy. Hizashi didn’t know how comfortable the kids would feel in a place that was super expensive. Not to mention how Tensei always tried to foot the bill when the rest of them weren’t paying attention, as if they weren’t all successful heroes. All of them, with the exception of Shouta, had their own merch lines and everything. They could afford the food they decided to order.

Regardless, the restaurant was a small hole in the wall. Which meant they were less likely to run into any fans, or worse other heroes who wanted to talk about work or asking if they could do an interview with him on Put Your Hands Up Radio. Thankfully out of the four pro-heroes only Nemuri was easily recognized out of costume. 

Tensei stood up and excitedly waved the four of them over when he spotted them. The table was in the corner but had a view of most of the restaurant from where it was located. It looked like Nemuri wasn’t there yet. “Shouta, Hizashi! How’s it been?” Tensei asked, slinging an arm around Hizashi and Shouta.

“Extremely busy, you know how it rolls. How's everything for you?” Hizashi said.

“Don’t touch me.” Shouta said, lifting Tensei’s arm off of him. He couldn’t fool Hizashi though, he could see the small smile on his face. 

“You love it, come on.” Tensei smiled.

The group took their seats, Hizashi had his back to the door while Shouta sat where he had a clear view of the restaurant, while Jazz and Danny sat in between the two of them. 

“You two must be the kids I’ve been hearing so much about, from Nemuri mainly. Nice to finally meet you! You probably already know but I’m Tensei, pro-hero Ingenium.” Tensei introduced himself. 

“You’re who The Queen of Arson is named after!” Danny said after staring at Tensei for a few seconds too long. “I’m Danny.”

“Jazz Fenton. A pleasure to meet such an esteemed hero.” Jazz said.

Tensei chuckled rubbing at the sleeve of his shirt remembering the incident that gave Arson her name. “Oh they told you about that? Well I’ll just have to tell you a bunch of embarrassing stories about them then. Did you know that after they graduated and were still pretending they both weren’t into each other Shouta came to my place after a patrol and wouldn’t stop talking about-”

“That’s enough.” Shouta cut Tensei off. A shame really, Hizashi always found the story endearing. Even if Shouta thought it was embarrassing. 

“Alright, alright I’ll hold off. For now.” Tensei laughed. “Oh there’s Nemuri.” He stood up and waved to get her attention, sitting back down once he was sure she saw them. “I almost forgot, I dragged my brother along. He stepped away for a moment but should be abc any second. I hope you don’t mind. You two know he’s not the best at socializing, he needs more friends around his age.” He said looking at Hizashi and Shouta.

“Actually Danny and-” Hizashi was cut off by Shouta shaking his head at him.

“He’ll find out soon enough. No need to tell.” Shouta said.

So in other words ‘let the poor man look like an idiot and suffer in embarrassment’, truly his husband could be a cruel man. Nemuri was talking to Jazz and Danny as if she didn’t just see them yesterday at school. 

“Don’t act like that Tensei.” Nemuri said as she sat down. Said man was complaining about how Nemuri was taking all of their attention. “You’re just jealous of my aunt privileges.” 

“Aunt?!” Tensei turned to Hizashi so fast that he was surprised he didn’t break his neck. “How come she gets to be their aunt? What about me?”

“Did you want to be their aunt too?” Shouta asked.

“You know what I mean. I want to be the cool uncle!” Tensei said.

“I mean Nemuri sort of just declared it, it wasn’t really a decision we made.” Hizashi pointed out. 

“Well then, you two now have an amazing uncle.” Tensei said with a smile.

“Sweet. Family gatherings will sure be interesting.” Danny said as he looked over the menu. 

“We don’t have a choice in this, do we?” Jazz asked.

Hizashi patted her back as he shook his head. “Nope, best you can do is take advantage of having so many pro-heroes in your family… actually don’t do that”

“Here comes Tenya!” Tensei said, looking past Hizashi’s shoulder. 

This would be interesting. Despite being friends with his brother Hizashi didn’t spend too much time with the younger Iida brother due to the fifteen year age gap between the two. At least not that Tenya would remember much of. Tensei’s mom often wrangled them all into babysitting duties while the Iida parents went off to do hero work. He did see the boy every once in a while if they met up with Tensei when their schedules aligned. And of course he sees him daily now since Tenya is now a U.A student, but that was different. He was sort of like that one cousin you’d only see once a year when the whole family got together. 

“Danny?” Tenya stopped short of the table.

“Iida? What are you doing here?” Danny asked, looking up from the menu in surprise.

Tenya adjusted his glasses. “I suppose I could ask the same thing. I am here because my brother,” he shot a look towards Tensei, “dragged me along. Probably because he got it in his head I need to socialize with my peers more. Despite my protests that I am perfectly capable of making friends on my own.”

“No wonder he looks so familiar, you two look a lot alike! Aizawa and Yamada are my foster dads so here I am. And Jazz’s too, I’ve talked about her a few times. Jazz this is Iida, Iida this is Jazz.” Danny pointed a thumb over to Jazz,

“Ah yes of course, it is wonderful to meet you!” Tenya greeted her.

“Likewise, it’s nice to meet one of Danny’s friends.” Jazz smiled.

Tenya somehow straightened up even more, looking towards Danny. “You consider us friends?”

“Yeah of course. That’s not an issue is it? I just sorta assumed.” Danny said.

“Of course not! It is just that I was unsure if you felt like we had reached that point yet. I am glad you consider us friends.” Tenya explained, his hands making chopping motions through the air as he sat down.

Hizashi was just glad Danny was making friends. He knew the boy missed his friends from his original universe. He’d mention them every once in a while in passing. Not giving much information just a ‘Sam would like this’ or ‘that reminds me of the time Tucker-’. Danny was probably lonely in the time he was living with them leading up to attending U.A. What with just Hizashi, Shouta, and Jazz really as his only constant human company, with the occasional U.A teacher when they brought the kids along to work. Now they just had to work on Jazz making friends. Though from the sounds of it she didn’t have many previously, focused on school and keeping her brother safe. A mentality she clearly was still having trouble with.

As the lunch went on and they received their food the topics shifted a lot. “So are you three exited for the sports festival?” Tensei asked.

“Well I was just excited to watch.” Jazz huffed.

‘Why, what’s wrong?” Tensei asked.

“Nothing. Just that Hizashi and Shouta are unreasonable.” She replied.

Shouta rolled his eyes at the questioning look Tensei shot his way. “She’s mad that we’re making her actually try in the sports festival as punishment for impromptu acts of violence against a group of villains.”

Tensei laughed. “What did you do? Decide to take a shot at vigilantism?” 

Jazz looked him up and down. “Nothing you can prove. Also you can’t even  call it vigilantism.”

Hizashi laughed at the look on Tensei’s face, and Nemuri joined in soon after. “She’s right, she verbally dressed down a cop yesterday over it. No quirk means no vigilantism apparently. I’m assuming Nemuri never told you Jazz here is studying under Nezu along with normal support course stuff?

Tensei almost choked on his drink. “Who thought letting someone interesting enough for Nezu to take them on as a student anywhere near the support course? Are you guys trying to kick start the apocalypse? She’s at least still taking the mandatory ethics class the rest of the support course has to right?” 

“If we could have stopped it we would have.” Shouta grumbled. “But yes, she’s taking the ethics course. But she has a good head on her. I doubt she’d do anything too unethical. Can’t say the same for anything illegal though.” 

Jazz shrugged. “If the law is stupid, why should I have to listen to it? If they were reasonable, that would be another story, like the public quirk usage law? Stupid. If I had a quirk, I’d use it in public if it made my life easier as long as it didn’t hurt anyone. Plus it clearly plays into quirk discrimination issues that seem to be rampant around here, if you just normalized casual quirk usage in public there’d be less stigma around them in general. And those who have quirks that they can’t turn off won’t be as easily targeted by biased heroes or police.”

Tensei blinked twice. “I mean you’re not wrong I won’t argue with that part. But um…” He turned to Hizashi, “your kid is terrifying. Back to the original topic! Tenya! Are you excited for the festival? Hope anyone in particular scouts you?”

“Very much so! All of my classmates are training hard and I strive to do the same. So one day I can be on equal footing with you and other pro-heroes. Ideally I am scouted by a pro who is able to help me work on my strengths and lessen my weaknesses, perhaps one who doesn’t specialize in speed so I am able to get a more well rounded view of heroics outside of the family.I do hope whatever happens I am not paired against Danny right away at least.” Tenya nodded with a determined look on his face.

“You’re not going to intern at your family’s agency?” Danny asked.

Tenya shook his head. “No. I already know how my family does hero work, even if I’ve never been on scene for it. I plan to use this chance to explore different aspects of the job, perhaps rescue work or more covert missions and raids.”

That was quite admirable, Tenya would have an advantage amongst his classmates due to being from a legacy hero family, so reaching out from his comfort zone would be good for him. Tensei turned his attention to Danny. “What about you? Are you really that big of a threat to be paired against that Tenya worries about? Any heroes you want to scout you?”

Yes. Yes he was. Hizashi shook off the memory of Danny during the USJ incident from his head. That was a life or death situation, Danny knew better than to use his full power against classmates. Though he’d easily take first place even then if he wanted to.

Danny just shrugged though. “I think it’ll be fun. I asked Aizawa about an idea I had for it and he said it would be fine, as long as I don’t accidentally stab a student. More than that is allowed, that is. I think Iida is being a bit over dramatic though, sure I have a pretty strong quirk but so does everyone else in the hero course. I’ve been mainly helping others train though. I think Kaminari is finally getting used to the idea his quirk is best used in melee combat, he’s shorting out a lot less not because of it during training. And I’ll just be happy if anyone scouts me.” 

“That's nice of you to help your classmates.” Tensei said. “And hey, I won’t be able to watch it live but I’ll definitely be watching the recordings of the sports festival once my patrol ends that day. Who knows, maybe you’ll get an offer from me. Plus you could always just go to Hizashi’s agency in the worst case scenario.” 

Hizashi never agreed to that. He was right, he’d love to have Danny shadow him for a week during patrols, it’d be fun. But Tensei didn’t have to speak for him. Despite Danny’s worries Hizashi was sure he’d have plenty of offers. Shouta would have to look through them all before Danny accepted one first though. They had to make sure whoever Danny interned with wasn’t going to be bad for the boy. There unfortunately were a lot of heroes who’d just use him for the publicity that could come with his powers. 

Eventually the conversation shifted to Nemuri telling embarrassing stories about all of them. Which made Tensei join in. Which Danny in turn was absolutely living for. Hizashi prided himself in his ability to hide what he was thinking behind a smile and a loud personality, but dear lord he couldn’t take much more of this. And from the looks of it neither could Shouta. Hizashi clapped his hands together. “It’s probably best we leave. Don’t want to overstay our table.”
“Aw come on! Uncle Tensei was just telling me how your voice cracks sounded like bad autotune!” Danny said.

“You don’t get to talk two weeks ago you sounded like a squeaky toy every third sentence.” Hizashi pointed at him.

“Don’t sweat it sweetie. There’s a park we can head to near here and we can talk more there. He’s right though, it’s starting to get more busy in here and we don’t want to hold up the wait times if we’re done with our food.” Nemuri said.

Out voted two against five they moved from the restaurant towards the park. Once they got close Hizashi noticed Danny was lagging slightly behind the group looking up at the sky. “What’s up kiddo everything alright?”

Danny nodded. “Yeah, I just think I saw that same bird yesterday when we were walking home. It followed us for a while.”

Hizashi looked up to where Danny was pointing. He was really wishing he brought his sunglasses as he squinted into the midday sun. He eventually made out what Danny was pointing at though. It was very high up, it was hard to make out. From where they were standing it looked more like a dot with wings. Though it was easy to figure out why Danny could recognize it, the bright red wings were unmistakable. His face dropped into a frown, and he picked up his walking speed. “Let’s go. Hurry up.”

“Huh? Why?” Danny asked practically running to catch up with Hizashi.

“You’re sure it was following you two yesterday?”

“Yeah, practically until we got back to the apartment. Why ?”

Hizashi was suddenly very happy Nezu got him those documents so fast, he was having such a nice day off too. “Because that’s not a bird.”

Notes:

Ooh what does this lever do? *Pulls lever labeled for shadowing* Haha neat.

Also just so everyone knows: I'd die for Iida. That isn't relevant to the story at all but I just wanted it to be known. He's done absolutely nothing wrong.

Chapter 18: Talks and Late Birthday Celebrations

Summary:

Danny causes Yamada and Aizawa more stress by telling them about his life in Amity.

“Here sign these.” A stack of papers were set on the desk in Danny’s room while he was doing homework. He’d gotten home and wanted to finish the homework quickly. Even with his brain mostly occupied with the work in front of him and tired from school, Danny recognized the papers next to his textbook with just a glance. 

“You can’t trick me into signing adoption papers Vlad. I figured you’d learn that after the fifth time.” Danny jotted down the answer to the last equation, not looking up from his homework. There done. Wait. He looked up and saw a confused and concerned looking Aizawa. “You’re not Vlad.”

“No. Last time I checked I didn’t have the habit of bleeding all over villains. Has Kan been trying to adopt you?” Aizawa asked.

“Oh no the Vlad back from my original universe. You know, the one who’s obsessed with marrying my mother and adopting me, also with murdering my father?.” Danny was met with a blank look in response. “Have I not told you guys about him?”

Aizawa shook his head. “No you have not. But I feel like this should be a family discussion. We needed to all talk anyway.” He sighed. Danny could have sworn somehow Aizawa’s eyebags doubled in size at that moment. “Come out to the living room, Hizashi was about to hand Jazz her part of the paperwork so they’re out there already.”

Danny packed up his now finished homework and headed out to the living room where Jazz was looking through some of her schematics. He saw Yamada hand a stack of papers to Jazz who paused. “Adopting me wont make my mom like you.”

“Ha, see I’m not the weird one here.” Danny said as he watched Aizawa facepalm.

Jazz looked up at the three of them. “Oh, it’s just you Hizashi.” She looked back down at the paperwork now in her hands. “These are still adoption papers though. Why?”

Danny wanted to know too. Aizawa and Yamada were already their legal guardians here, why would they adopt them? “I had the same question”

“Because the sports festival is coming up.” Aizawa said. “An event that’s broadcasted to basically the entire world. Any pro-hero in Japan who’s able to be there will be. As I explained in class, it’s where pro’s scout out potential sidekicks and upcoming heroes they have interest in.”

“I still don’t see what that has to do with adopting us?” Danny said, sitting down next to Jazz on the couch.

“At the moment you both are technically in the foster care system still. If someone with enough ties takes interest in you they might be able to have custody switched over.”

“And if someone who just wanted to use Danny for his abilities had legal custody over him-” Jazz seemed to have connected the dots. “They could even pull him out of U.A. Keep him away not just from his friends but us as well.” 

“Exactly.” Aizawa nodded. “It’s a protective measure. It’ll last only as long as you stay in this world.”

Danny rubbed at the side of his neck. “What if… What if we don’t end up going back to our original universe? If we never find a way back? Or don’t want to go back?” He was refusing to meet Jazz’s eyes. He knew she was determined to find a way back to their world. When did he stop referring to it as ‘home’? 

“Then I guess you’d have to deal with being stuck with us at least until you’re eighteen, Or even longer if you’re not sick of us by then.” Yamada said. 

“Really? You’d have to deal with all the trouble I get into. Jazz too, I know you two are worried about her and Nezu ending the world.” Danny pointed out. He wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince them they didn’t want this or himself.

“If we are being honest, and we are because we feel you deserve to know this.” Yamada said. He and Aizawa were standing in front of the two of them now. “We are willing to put up with all of that and more. Because despite only knowing you two for a short time in the scheme of things, you two managed to wiggle your way into our hearts. With your trouble and all. I speak for both of us when I say we’d love it if you wanted to be part of our family. Or, if you don't, that is perfectly understandable. I would still strongly urge you to sign the papers, and it can be a legal thing and nothing more.”

Danny shot a quick glance over to Jazz, thankfully she wasn’t looking at him. She was staring down Yamada and Aizawa in a way that reminded him of the first day they met Aizawa and she argued with the man at the police station. “You know a lot more of what Danny is capable of now than what you did when you first took us in. You know better than I about the potential danger Danny could be in by corrupt heroes wanting to use his abilities. Are you willing to protect him no matter what or who stands in your way?”

“Jazz.” Aizawa said. “We’d both fight the entire group of top ten heroes at once if it meant keeping either of you safe.” 

Well Danny would never allow them to do that. At least not alone. There was no way he’d just sit back and watch them fight. But Jazz seemed satisfied with the answer at least, since she sat back with a nod. She grabbed the papers and signed her name on the necessary lines. She grabbed the stack for Danny and shoved it into his hands. Sure why not. Danny grabbed a pen and signed. 

“Coolio, I’ll get these back to Nezu tomorrow.” Yamada said. “Not the only thing we needed to talk about though. Saturday you mentioned something about how the Nomu wasn’t the hardest fight you had? Nomu as in the villain even All Might was having trouble with?” He turned to Danny. 

He did mention that, didn't he. “Where would you rank the fight?” Jazz asked, turning to Danny.

That was a good question, he had to think about it. “Definitely below Pariah Dark and Dan, probably below Nocturn. Maybe around the same level Undergrowth? The healing was super annoying and its hits were no joke. I doubt I could have taken many more hits before it snapped a rib in half. Only above Vlad for the fact that he rarely uses his full strength against me as to not ‘damage the goods’ and all that.”

“Excuse me?” Yamada asked, eyes wide.

“Vlad Masters, not King.” Danny explained again. “Obsessed with making me his son since he’s also a halfa. Super weird and a stalker. He cloned me a few times.” That was definitely a less than ideal scenario. Jazz would say it was ‘traumatic’. Though watching various iterations of himself melt into goo in front of his eyes was definitely nightmare fuel, especially when one was a complete copy of him. Not even mentioning everything with Danielle. 

“You can clone yourself too though right? You did it during the USJ Incident” Yamada asked.

Danny shook his head. “I can duplicate myself, it’s different. Duplication is literally just making another me. Cloning you can pick and choose and swap some parts, making a more ‘ideal’ version. When a duplicate is dispersed no one is dying. I get all the memories of all the things the duplicate had done. A killed clone is exactly that, dead.” Danny shook himself from the rabbit hole of existential dread that often came with remembering his clones. 

“What about those other people you mentioned, Pariah something and Dan, Nocturnal?” Yamada asked.

“Oh well Pariah Dark is, or well was, the king of the Ghost Zone. He was also a total tyrant so once he awoke from his not so eternal slumber he tried taking over the entire Ghost Zone and Amity. Eventually we managed to put him back into the sarcophagus of forever sleep. Dan is an evil future version of mine and Vlad’s ghost half. He formed after a future version of my friends and family all died in an explosion. He also killed my human half in his timeline. Fighting him is actually how I discovered I could do the ghostly wail. Thankfully I was able to help Clockwork stop that timeline. The third one is Nocturne not Nocturnal, he’s a ghost, basically the god of dreams. He put the world to sleep to feed off of their dreams, I learned how to dreamwalk because of him. Undergrowth is sort of similar to Nocturne, basically the god of nature and stuff. He was angry at pollution and stuff and mind controlled Sam and basically overran the entire city with carnivorous plants. Thankfully my ice powers were able to stop him from regenerating.” Danny explained.

He didn’t know why the two men were staring at him like that. Not like anyone else would have been able to beat them. Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose. “And Clockwork is?”

“God of time. And one of my ghostly mentors. The Dan incident was when I first met him, but after that I went on a bunch of time travel missions for him to chase down rogue ghosts who were messing with the past and stuff. He tends to be super vague though, and also enjoys starting prank wars. Which he cheats at!” Honestly Clockwork abused his time powers when it came to stuff like that. 

“Of course he is.” Aizawa said with a sigh. “Anything else we need to talk about?” He looked around. “This goes for you two too. Anything you’d like to discuss?” 

Danny thought back to what Nemuri said the other day. It was probably something he should talk to Yamada and Aizawa about. Danny took a deep breath. “Actually I do?” 

“Have at it kiddo.” Yamada smiled.

Danny forced his hand away from rubbing at his neck and opted to hold them together to keep them still. “I don’t know how much you remember since it was a very high stress situation and all, especially you Aizawa since you know you were in the process of getting your head smashed in. But Aunt Nemuri said I should talk to you about it, and she’s right I should. Especially with the whole adoption thing now, and you said you would like for us to be part of your family.”
“Danny, you're starting to sound like Midoriya whenever a hero is brought up in class.” Aizawa said. “You can just say whatever you are trying to.”

“Right.” Danny took another breath. “Do you both remember me calling you dad?”

“Yes. Like you said, it was a high stress situation. So we were waiting for you to bring it up or if you wanted it to just drop.” Aizawa said. 

“I do want to talk about it though. I just don’t know how to. I see you both as father figures. But I understand if me calling you two dad feels weird to you. I just wanted to get it out there. We can all forget about it now.” Danny looked anywhere but at the three other people in the room. 

“Look.” Aizawa said softly. “Like I’ve said before, call us whatever you want. If you want to, and feel comfortable doing so, go ahead and call us both dad.”

“What he’s really saying is; we’d be honored if you wanted to call us dad.” Yamada said, leaning against his husband. “Same goes for you Jazz, call us whatever you want.”

Jazz thought for a moment. “Since we’re being truthful, I guess I will tell you that I do also see you two like parents. I’m not calling you dad though. I’ll continue calling you by your first names outside of a school setting.” 

“Hey that is A-okay. I’m proud of both of you for being brave enough to tell us all of this.” Yamada smiled before pulling all of them into a hug. “Oh I almost forgot! Danny! A bit of a belated birthday celebration but we managed to pull some strings and we managed to get tickets to that observatory again this Wednesday. I wasn’t able to book it out for a private night but there’s apparently supposed to be a meteor shower that night, so it totally makes up for it right?”

Danny pulled himself out of the hug. “Really!?” Not only would he get to go to an observatory and star watch with his family, there’d also be a meteor shower to watch? “Don’t worry about it being late either, we can just say it’s my first deathday celebration.” He laughed. He was the only one who laughed. “What?”

“Your what?” Aizawa blinked.

Danny shifted on his feet. “I told you I died. Like the first day we met? Can’t be half ghost without at least half dying.”

“No, I came to terms with that. But are you saying you’ve only had your powers for just about a year now? As in only for eight months when we first met? And all those ghosts you mentioned you fought, was less than that?” Aizawa said slowly, like he was trying to process the information.

Danny nodded. “I mean yeah, it’s not exactly a year, because of the time travel stuff I mentioned earlier. But that gets too complicated to think about. I got them in the beginning of my freshman year of high school and now am going into the beginning of my equivalent of my sophomore year. Your first year though, since you do school progression differently and all.”

“You’ve only had your powers for a year?” Aizawa asked again.

“Yep.”

“You’ve only had your powers for a year and you’re already this strong?” Aizawa ran his hand through his hair. Yamada stared into space for a while before a  very clear look of ‘not dealing with this right now’ crossed his face. 

“Would me saying something else make you feel better?” Danny offered.

“Probably not Danny.” Jazz said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Danny grimaced. “Oh well. What schematics are you working on anyway?” 

“Adding a stun feature to the laser gun. I need it done by the festival next week. It’s apparently frowned upon to straight up shoot a classmate. ” Jazz said with a huff.

“Wow how dare they not let you severely maim your classmates.” Danny said, rolling his eyes. 

“Yeah, ridiculous I know.” Jazz said, fighting back a snort. “For real though, just as a heads up for the festival. Watch out for Mei Hatsume, her inventions are no joke, she’s a first year so she'll be up against you.” 

“Noted.” He looked over to where Yamada had moved to the kitchen to cook his stress away and Aizawa was lying on the floor petting Laika and Arson who were both laying on top of him. He heard the click of a phone taking a photo from beside him. Jazz was pointing her camera at Aizawa. 

“Send that to me?”

“Sure thing.”

 

---

“Oh thank the Ancients we’re not late!” Danny said as they arrived at the observatory. Due to leaving U.A right when school got out Yamada and Aizawa were still in their hero costumes when they went out for an early dinner. Which led to them constantly getting stopped by fans on their way in and out of the restaurant. He managed to change out of the majority of his costume on the car ride. Leaving just his leather jacket and pants from his costume on. His hair was now brushed down, directional speaker in the trunk, and his glasses switched out to his everyday ones. But they made it just in time, thankfully. 

They had a tour of the building before it was time for the meteor shower. Danny was practically bouncing the whole way through the tour. He was surprised that the names and everything of the constellations were an exact copy of his original universe, But that also meant he could tell Yamada and Aizawa about anything the tour guide didn’t mention. 

Thankfully the tour guide didn’t seem to mind his anecdotes from the back of the group. “Does anyone know the name of the meteor shower happening today?”

Did Danny know? It was April so if everything was the same as it seemed to be it should be, “It’s Lyrids right? From the Lyra constellation, radiating from the star Vega.”

“Correct, good job!” She clapped her hands. “But, did you know it’s actually a once in four hundred year occurrence as well? The showers parent comet Thatcher is due to pass earth tonight at its brightest point. You are all in for an experience that only happens about twice a millennium, or one thousand years.”

Danny felt his heart flip. “Psst, kiddo. What is she talking about?”

“The Thatcher comet, technically classified as C/1861 G1, only passes the earth every four hundred seventeen years, since it has an extremely long orbit. It’s a long term period comet. Last recorded passing earth in 1861. It goes out all the way to Eris.  Almost all of the Lyrids showers are just from the earth passing through the debris the comet left behind in its orbit.  Forget the chance of a lifetime, astronomers would kill for a chance to see it pass so close to earth! Not even mentioning how clear of a night it is. Of course the astronomers in my old universe would, the ones here are living their dream tonight.” Danny whispered the last part. “You totally knew about it didn’t you?”

Yamada was looking at Danny with a fond look. “No really, I swear I had no clue. I honestly figured it was a normal meteor shower. I don’t know too much about space stuff. Clearly it’s a big deal though, you’re glowing.”

Danny placed his hands to his cheeks. “I don’t look that excited do I?”

Yamada laughed. “I didn’t mean metaphorically, though that fits too. I mean literally. Your freckles, they’re glowing.”

Danny shifted his hands to cover his freckles. “Sorry, they do that when I get really excited about things, especially space. I’ll try to calm down.”

Yamada moved Danny’s hands away with a shake of his head. “It’s fine Danny. We’re here for you remember, you’re able to be excited.” 

Danny nodded his head, his hands fidgeting at his side. Until the tour guide started explaining something else, capturing Danny’s attention. Soon it was time to actually go into the observatory area of the building instead of the exhibit portion.

Walking into the room Danny looked around in wonder. The telescope was huge! The various groups there took turns looking through the telescope. When it was Yamada’s turn he kept calling for Danny to help him find ‘all the cool stars’. Danny happily obliged explaining each one after he positioned the telescope on a star so Yamada could look. 

After everyone in the room had a turn they all made their way outside, the best way to view the shower. The observatory was pretty far away from any major cities, the light pollution was minimal, making it easy to see constellations with just the naked eye. The group of four took a seat in the grass and looked up to the sky.

“There it is!” Danny pointed towards a bright light moving across the sky. The comet would be visible for a few more days after that night, but not as bright as it was currently. The meteors started to become visible soon after, there were so many! Danny’s eyes darted across the sky, trying to see each one as they burnt up in the earth's atmosphere. It made sense that there were so many, the parent comet passing so close to earth. But seeing it in person was a whole other thing.

They stayed until the peak of the shower had ended, unable to stay until dawn since they did still have school tomorrow unfortunately. It was already two in the morning, but Danny was okay with losing sleep if it meant he could see such a rare event. Not like he needed that much sleep anyway, honestly he was spoiled at this point averaging six entire hours a night. He was tired though. 

Danny climbed into the back of the car with a yawn. Before falling asleep with a smile in the back of the car he made sure to say one last thing. “Thank you dads.” 

Notes:

Adoption time! Family time! Also Danny deserves to see astronomical happenings that he wouldn't be around for in his original universe due to the time/year differences. The Thatcher comet isn't supposed to come back until around 2284, so I'm using a mixture of creative liberty and the fact we don't know the exact year that BNHA is set to help Danny live his dreams.

Chapter 19: Sports Festival Rounds 1 & 2

Summary:

Time to watch the first and second years compete against their classmates for fame and glory!

Notes:

For future reference and ease of clarity: From now on Danny will refer to Aizawa and Yamada as 'dad' while speaking but when not speaking they will be referred to by their names

“You’re not even breaking bones anymore. You’ll be fine!” Danny reassured Midoriya as their class waited for the sports festival to begin. 

“You do realize that’s something that's just expected? Most kids our age don’t break their bones when using their quirk.” Midoriya said, looking down at his clenched fist.

“You’re not most kids our age, you’re Midoriya. So there’s that. You’ve gotta believe in your abilities, you’ve come a long way since we started training with Mr. Aizawa together.” Well, more aptly Midoriya was training with Danny the past two weeks. Aizawa had finally been healed enough for Recovery Girl’s quirk to work properly just a few days ago. So Danny took over the physical parts of helping Midoriya train.

The funny thing was, they only figured out last week that Danny was teaching Midoriya how to handle his powerful quirk wrong. Well maybe not funny. Danny was under the impression that Midoriya’s quirk was like his, something you had to hold back at all times, letting his grip on it loosen when he wanted to use it. Which was one of the reasons he had such difficulty with his powers after the portal accident, he wasn’t used to holding something like that back all hours of the day. Even now sometimes he’d wake up floating a few inches off his bed. Though at this point it was more muscle memory than a conscious thing he had to be aware of. Midoriya’s quirk on the other hand was something he had to consciously activate if he wanted to use it.

So Danny’s analogies tended to fall flat at the beginning, Midoriya’s quirk wasn’t a raging river he had to hold back with a dam, only letting a small manageable stream of water out at a time. It was more like an electric outlet, he could use it when he needed it but otherwise he could generally forget about it. Put too much demand on the outlet and he’d blow a fuse. Or outside of the analogy, he’d blow his limbs to pieces if he used more power than he was currently capable of. 

That realization helped them make a lot of progress in the week leading up to the sports festival though. Midoriya wouldn’t be pulling off All Might strength feats, but he certainly had a boost to his strength and speed now. “Plus we all just need to do our best, push ourselves to be better sure, but in the end it’s not like this is a life or death scenario. Have some fun with it.”

“That’s easy for you to say.” Kaminari said from just a few feet away. “Between you and Todoroki, the rest of us are going to have to fight tooth and nail to get noticed by pro’s.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. We might have some larger scale quirks than the rest of you, but that’s not always a good thing. Sometimes flying under the radar helps in the end. Look at Mr. Aizawa, he couldn’t do most of his hero work if he was in the spotlight.” Danny pointed out. 

“I guess, that’s not really the type of hero I’m aiming to be though.” Kaminari sighed, “That just means I’ll just have to fight even harder today, no holding back!” 

“That’s the spirit! Not just me.” Danny laughed.

Kaminari scratched his head. “What?”

“Y’know since my quirk is called ghost, and- never mind.” Danny sighed.

“Oh yeah. Why aren’t you in your scary form anyway?” Kaminari asked.

“Gee thanks. No one else is allowed to have their hero costumes, I’d feel out of place if I had mine on just because it’s part of my quirk.” Danny shrugged.

Their conversation was interrupted when Yaoyorozu entered, letting them know that they were about to start. Immediately after she finished speaking, Todoroki approached Midoriya and declared that he’d beat him. Clearly none of Danny’s classmates understood what being a good competitor was. Bakugo was in the corner of the room seemingly trying to hype himself up, as well as  threatening anyone who got too close to him with explosions. From the sound of it no one was going to be chill about the sports festival. 

Whatever, Danny just wanted to have fun today. Maybe fight a few of his friends in friendly competition. Class 1-A made their way out into the arena, Yamada announcing their entrance, he was the commentator for the sports festival. Danny watched as all the rest of the first year classes walked out onto the field. He wondered what all of their quirks were, not all of them were hero students but that didn’t mean they didn’t have interesting things they could do. 

Nemuri was the referee for the first year festival, she took to the podium. “Now for the introductory speech.” The crowd of people in the audience and the students all started talking amongst themselves. “Silence, everyone!” She yelled into the microphone. “For the student pledge we have Danny Fenton.”

Danny wanted to shrink into himself with all the eyes he could feel on him. He was approached last week by Nemuri informing him that since he scored highest in the entrance exam he’d be the one giving the opening statement. Worst part was that he wasn’t allowed to turn it down. He knew it was coming but that didn’t mean he liked it. Danny walked up to stand next to Nemuri and took a deep breath. He just had to say something short and simple, not like he was giving an entire speech.  He so shouldn’t have waited until the night before to figure out what he would say. “Everyone should have fun, and more importantly do their best. Show the world what it means to go Plus Ultra!” 

Danny scurried back down to where his classmates were while the audience erupted in applause. He could feel how red his face was. He pointedly ignored the comments made about him from the other first year classes. As long as he wasn’t getting shoved into a locker by them, he really didn’t care what they said. 

“Without further ado, it’s time to get started!” Nemuri announced. She revealed that the first game was an obstacle course and went on to explain the rules. Pretty much anything was fair game as long as they didn’t leave the course.

The group of first years made their way to the entrance to the course, waiting for the countdown. Danny shook out his limbs, mentally preparing himself. He wanted his classmates to be able to take the spotlight, they had more riding on the festival than he did after all. That didn’t mean he’d make it too easy on them.

The crowd of students swarmed forward as the countdown reached zero. Danny was limiting himself to one of his powers for the festival. More so to make it interesting for him than anything else, it would be a challenge. Of course things like his enhanced strength, healing, and agility he couldn’t really turn off, but things like ecto-blasts, and shields were off the table. He was really wishing he opted for intangibility at this point though, the crowd was a pain. 

Danny saw a few of his classmates make it past the swarm of people, Todoroki leading the charge. Well… not like he wasn’t above copying other peoples methods. Danny stopped in his tracks causing the students pushing him from behind to fall over. Oops.

He bent down, creating a pillar of ice that lifted him up above the crowd. He continued forming pillars jumping from each one until he got past the majority of the crowd, he jumped off of the final one rolling as he landed in an open area. Must be the first obstacle. Oh those were giant robots, more specifically the ones from the entrance exam. There was practically a legion of zero pointers in front of him. Looking past them he saw Todoroki had already made his way past. No problem Danny was aiming for twentieth place anyway. 

What was a problem though was the small army of robots. Unlike during the entrance exam Danny could see where the cameras were. He turned to one, hoping they had microphones in them, before yelling. “Are you really putting students who aren’t even trained against these things?”

He dodged an attack from one robot, before forming a knife made of ice in his hand and tossing it through the head of another one. Honestly it is the reason he chose ice as the power to go with during the festival. He originally was going to go with telekinesis simply because he never used it in combat before, and would bring in his own knives that Aizawa gave him once he figured Danny had enough training to have his own. But then he found out they weren’t allowed to bring in any extra gear and he didn’t want to ask Yaoyorozu to make some once they got inside, she needed to save her energy for her own things. So ice knives it was. Plus he couldn’t run out of them if he made them himself. It took him a bit of trial and error the past two weeks to get the shape and weight right for them but he was confident in his abilities now. 

Danny flipped over a robot, stabbing its control panel. “Seriously! At least during the entrance exams it was with kids who were aiming to be heroes. I’m sure at least half these students don’t want to deal with combat!” Another knife thrown and another robot down. He wasn’t going to try to stop the zero pointers, they were there as obstacles and he had to trust that they wouldn’t actually maim a student. 

He slipped past the last robot and continued on to the next obstacle. If his count was right he was in about twenty first place, he had to pass a student to reach his goal of twentieth. Coming up to the second obstacle, passing someone would be easy.

It was basically a canyon with ropes stretching across it. Basically they’d have to tightrope across if their quirk couldn’t propel them long distances. Danny had tightroped before, he was being mind controlled for most of it, but he’d done it. Danny started to make his way across one of the ropes. Another perk of being half ghost; even when he wasn’t flying, gravity tended to act more like a reminder than a rule. He made quick enough work of the second obstacle. 

Too quick it seemed, he had passed too many students and was in a higher place than he wanted to be. But he couldn’t exactly stop and watch as they caught up to him. Hopefully the final obstacle let him fall back a bit. 

The final obstacle was a literal minefield, fun. Danny briefly wondered if Nezu was the one who came up with the games. At least the bombs were more of an annoyance than actually harmful. They would certainly hinder progress if you stepped on one though. 

He could see Todoroki and Bakugo fighting each other as they made their way across the field, they were in first place by a longshot. But that also meant they had to watch out for more mines. Danny hadn’t seen Midoriya since the game started, which caused him to worry for his friend a bit. Iida was already in front of him, his speed being perfectly suited for a course like this. 

Danny carefully made his way through the field, taking a bit slower than absolutely necessary, letting a few students pass him. He probably couldn’t go down to his goal of twentieth place from the looks of it. Oh well.

He was aiming for twentieth, at least for the first round to give his classmates a chance to shine. He figured since there were twenty students in class that would be a fair enough spot for him to stay in. Of course he knew not all of them would be in the top twenty, but  he did want to be able to show off in the beginning at least a little bit. 

Danny was startled from his concentration on the ground stepping around mines by a loud explosion from behind him. Turning around revealed a large pink smoke cloud formed by multiple mines going off at once and-oh Ancients was that Midoriya flying through the air?
Danny watched with almost a sense of horror as Midoriya flew above him riding on a piece of scrap from one of the robots. His horror only grew as he watched Midoriya slam the piece of scrap on the ground in between Todoroki and Bakugo, sending them flying and propelling him even farther. Danny continued his way across the field keeping an eye on the three who were now neck and neck for first place. Or they were until Midoriya activated his quirk again to give himself a speed boost. 

Danny could faintly hear Yamada throwing a jab at Aizawa over the microphone, more focused on not stepping on a landmine. He reached the end of the field going into a sprint to the finish line. He ended up right in front of Tsu as he crossed into the arena. 

He saddled up to Iida who was clearly angry at himself for not placing as high as he was obviously aiming for. Danny patted the boy’s shoulder in reassurance as they announced the rankings.

Midoriya was in first, then Todoroki, and Bakugo in third…Iida was sixth…oh he was thirteenth place, not exactly what he was aiming for but he’d take it. Tsu was fourteenth place, and Uraraka ended up in seventeenth. All things considered his classmates did a pretty good job. 

The top forty two students made it to the next round, which Nemuri explained would be a calverley battle. As she explained further Danny couldn’t help but wince when she announced the person who was in first place during the obstacle course would have ten million points. Which was honestly overkill if you asked Danny. Which clearly no one did. Poor Midoriya would be an instant target. 

They were given the signal to go form teams and strategize. Danny was about to go look for a team when a voice called for him from behind. “Hey, you’re from class 1-A right? Fenton right?”

Danny went to turn to see who was talking to him. “I prefer Danny actual-”

Suddenly Danny no longer had control of his own body. The purple haired kid from general studies stepped into his line of sight with a smirk. “Fair enough, Danny. I’m Shinso. Though all that matters is that you’ll be helping me make it into the next round. You’ll be the front horse, I’ve heard rumors of what you can do around school, that kind of power will be great in that position.” 

Danny felt himself nod his head. His body moved on its own, moving to where Aoyama and Ojiro were already standing. Their eyes seemed to be void of the light they usually held, staring emptily into space. Was that what he looked like? Damn, he was being mind controlled wasn’t he. 

Danny internally sighed, he could probably break out of it. Well actually he should try very hard to break out of it. If this Shinso kid ordered him to just use his powers he wouldn’t know to tell Danny to hold back. It wasn’t even a risk to the other students but the people in the stands too. Time to figure out how to get out of this type of mind control. 

It didn’t seem to be affecting his core like Freakshow’s staff did, which made sense. It seems to be only affecting his brain. So all he had to do was just reach for his core. Transformation rings briefly appeared around Danny’s waist, snapping him out of the mind control the moment his core took over for his brain. He didn’t even actually have to transform, just start to. “Cool trick. Unfortunately I do prefer not to be mind controlled if I can help it.” 

Shinso looked him up in down shock clear on his face. “How did you?”

“You know you could have just actually asked, I would have said yes. No need to hijack my brain.” Danny briefly felt the mind control take over him again once he spoke. So that was how it was, he’d have to keep his core active while speaking to Shinso. “Dude, really?”

“What are you going to lecture me on how my quirk is evil? Trust me I’ve heard it all.” Shinso frowned.

“Wow, way to jump to conclusions.” Danny would be a hypocrite if he judged him for that. It wasn’t too unlike overshadowing and while he hadn't done it in a while, Danny certainly had done it before. “No, it’s a cool quirk actually. But I know my abilities much more than you do, and  I’d rather not kill someone because I’m being mind controlled.” He wouldn’t do it to Sam, or anyone else for that matter. 

Shinso scoffed, “I wouldn’t make you kill someone, what do you take me for.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Not on purpose you wouldn’t. I have no doubt about that, you mentioned you wanted to be in the hero course and killing isn’t super heroic. But trust me, my quirk is safer used by me. Now, do you have a plan on how we’re going to do this?”

“You’re still going to team up with me?”

“I mean yeah, that’s why I’m asking. So what’s the plan?”

It was a relatively simple plan, but it would definitely work. He’d let Shinso take the lead, but Danny was still only going to be using his ice powers. Much to Shinso’s annoyance. 

The battle went relatively quietly for them. They focused on not standing out. If anyone approached them Danny and Shinso would goad them into talking and Shinso would just tell them to turn around and ignore them. The two of them worked surprisingly well in making entire groups of students respond to Shinso’s voice. They’d make one hell of a tag team if they ever needed to be one. 

Danny only felt slightly bad for Ojiro and Aoyama. But quirk usage was not only allowed but encouraged, it didn’t really make a difference to him just because Shinso’s happened to be mental based. Though Danny did have to take care not to let the two of them get hit, since it would prematurely end the mind control. But since no one ever actually attacked them he didn’t have to worry too much about it. 

In the last minute of the battle they cornered a group who had a large number of points and Shinso convinced them to hand over all their points without a fight. On top of the points that Shinso’s group started off with, and never lost, they were guaranteed to be in the top four groups. 

Once the game was called, Shinso jumped down from where the three were holding him up and ended the other two’s mind control. Danny watched in anticipation as the scores were revealed. He was too focused on his own group to really pay attention to the chaos all the others were causing so he didn’t even know where anyone else stood in terms of points. Todoroki’s team got first place, Bakugo’s team got second, Shinso’s team got third! And in fourth place was Midoriya’s team! 

Danny was so glad Midoriya, Iida, and Uraraka all made it in. Danny ran over to Kaminari who was panting heavily, but otherwise was fine. “You got first place, and didn’t short circuit!”  

Kaminari weakly punched the air. “Barely. It was so rough after I discharged one million volts to reach a large number of people all at once. But! I took your advice and after that stuck strictly to the taser method so I didn’t fry my brain.”

“Hell yeah, good job!” Danny raised his hand for a high five.

“Hell yeah!”Kaminari enthusiastically slapped his hand against Danny’s. A bit too enthusiastically as Danny got a small electric shock as their hands met.

“Ah!” Danny yelped in shock, shaking his hand.

“Oh my bad dude, you good?” Kaminari asked.

Danny waved him off. “Don’t worry, it was just from surprise.” It didn’t help that most of the time he’d trained with Kaminari he was in his ghost form. Ectoplasm was much less conductive to electricity than flesh and stuff.  

“Oh okay. You participating in any of the games they set up outside of the arena?” Kaminari asked.

Danny shook his head. “No, it’s the second year's turn for their first two rounds. My sister is in the support course, and I want to watch her terrorize the rest of the second year students.” 

“What, does she have like a scary strong quirk like you?”

“Nope, different type of scary. She’s super smart, and has a gun.”

“Wait, is that even allowed?” 

“According to principal Nezu? Yep.” Danny shrugged. “Anyway, I’ll probably see you after the second years are done.” Danny waved goodbye to his classmates and made his way up to the announcer booth where Aizawa and Yamada were. 

He passed Jazz coming down from the booth where she was watching the first year tournaments. It was sort of weird seeing her in U.A’s gym uniform. “You did a great job Danny! I am a bit surprised you didn’t try to place higher.”

Danny shrugged. “Well I’m not the one in trouble for going out of their way to shoot ten full grown adults who were out for blood.”

“No,” Jazz rolled her eyes with a smile, “you decided to go that route the first month we were here.”

“Hey, I’m the one who was shot, I didn’t do any shooting.” Danny pointed out.

“Of course my mistake, my dearest little brother .”

“No need to be sarcastic.” Danny said. “For real though, good luck! Do your best!”

“Not like I have much of a choice.” Jazz huffed.

“Come on, it’s not like having to actually try during the sports festival is a bad thing. Aren’t you the one always telling people to leave their comfort zones?”

“I suppose. I better get going though. I’ll see you after.” Jazz continued her path down the stadium steps while Danny made his way farther up.

He slipped through the door to the announcement booth where Yamada was holding a one sided conversation while Aizawa napped. “Obviously Jazz is going to take first place, she is our kid after all. Maybe she’ll follow in your footsteps and be the first non-hero student to win since our sports festival! Wouldn’t that be rad? Though I’m also looking forward to seeing how everyone else does, second year students really get to start showing off for real during the festival. They’ve had more chances to train and hone their quirks than the first years. Of course they won’t hold a candle to Jazz.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be impartial as the announcer?” Aizawa cracked an eye open, apparently not actually asleep.

“Only when I’m announcing!” Yamada seemed just to notice Danny. “Hey kiddo! Those knife skills were no joke, you did crazy down there!”

“Thanks dad. Are you sure I’m allowed to be in here?” Danny asked, taking a seat.

“As long as you don’t say anything the mic can pick up you’ll be fine.” Yamada reassured him.

“In other words, not really but no one knows so it’s fine.” Aizawa said, straightening up in his seat as the second year students made their way onto the field. Danny held in his commentary as Yamada started his announcements. Honestly Jazz was the only second year Danny knew. So he wasn’t exactly invested in anyone's results other than hers. 

Nezu was the referee for the second years this year. An honor usually only the third years had as it was their final sports festival. Danny had a feeling it was due to Jazz being in the second year class. He knew Nezu wouldn’t throw the game or anything like that, but he would certainly enjoy being close up to the havoc.

The first round was announced to be a maze. More specifically one with three floors to it, with a glass ceiling on top to deter any students trying to get above the walls. The rules were pretty similar to Danny’s own first round, stay in the maze and pretty much anything else within reason goes. 

He watched as the mob of students pushed into the maze, scattering in all different directions. Some were clearly taking turns at random while others were taking a more methodical approach sticking to a wall. Jazz was doing the latter, though while most other students who were doing the same method were sticking to the right wall, Jazz was one of the few who went left first. Every few turns she would shoot at the wall leaving laser burns in her wake.

Soon enough students started appearing on the top floor of the maze. Of course that didn’t guarantee them the exit, there were almost as many stairs leading to dead ends than there were students. Watching them run around using their quirks as much as they could to their advantage made Danny think of rats inside a maze. Knowing Nezu that was probably intentional.

Things started getting interesting when the first trap was sprung. Because apparently a maze wasn’t enough, it had to have pit falls too. Jazz was still going steady, though she did trigger a trap that shot paintballs at her. The thing Danny couldn’t understand was why she was going so slow. While almost all the other students were at least jogging through the maze Jazz was moseying along at a slow pace. 

That was until Yamada  announced that the first student had made it out of the maze.  She backtracked to where the last mark she left on the wall was and started to run, not in panic but determination almost as if she knew exactly where to go. She was hardly even paying attention to where she was going, she also never went up to the third floor. But she didn’t have to, she made it to the end of the maze in third place. 

Danny leaned over to Aizawa. “Wait what just happened?” He whispered.

Aizawa held up a finger telling him to wait. Once the tenth student made it through the maze a countdown appeared on the stadium screen counting down from five minutes. 

“As you all can see, the remaining students have five minutes left to make it through the maze. Otherwise they will be out! of! here! Can our aspiring students make it through in time? Only one way to find out! What do you think Eraserhead?” Yamada yelled into his microphone. 

“That you don’t need to yell when you’re using a microphone.” Aizawa muttered. “This isn’t a test of speed or even luck, it’s one of observation and awareness. In hero work raw power can only get you so far. A true hero needs to be constantly vigilant.”

Danny didn’t know what that was supposed to be about, but clearly Jazz did when she was making her way through the maze. Thirty six more students made it through before the timer ran out a loud buzzing sound signaling the end of the first round. Danny watched as the many students left in the maze slumped in defeat. 

Nezu clapped his paws together once. “Now, will all students remaining in the maze please look up. You will discover arrows pointing towards the exit, they have been there the whole time. Ignore the final arrow, that one is pointing in the wrong direction. Students on the third level, you will find newly appeared arrows on the floor that will guide you to the nearest set of stairs that have a path to the exit.”

So all they needed to do was look up? Only forty six students thought to look up out of the entire second year class? Didn’t they know that was basic ghost safety, ghost attacks are more likely to come from above than anywhere else. Even preschoolers knew to keep an eye out for things in the air. Or well, preschoolers in Amity Park did, the humans here didn’t have to worry about daily ghost attacks. Surely Jazz noticed the guide arrows almost right away. Why did she wait until the first student made it through to make her way to the exit?

He didn’t have long to ponder his questions, the second round was going to start soon. The second round was almost like a reverse capture the flag. Each student was given a velcro belt with a certain number of flags attached to it, the higher a student placed the less flags they had. The goal was to get rid of your flags while avoiding other students putting them on your belt. The main problem would be that you could only have one of your flags in your hand at a time, to avoid a student shoving a fistful of flags onto a passing student. Unlike the first year's second round, the second year’s wouldn’t be in teams, it would be a free for all. The field was also less flat. Pillars of cement were raised providing cover to hide behind or a high vantage point. 

Danny watched as the forty six students positioned themselves on the edge of the arena lunging into the middle as the round started. Quite a few students, including Jazz, avoided the beginning frenzy of the round and instead worked on making their way across to various parts of the arena. Some hiding behind pillars and others climbing them. Jazz climbed her way up one of the taller pillars, clearly the gymnastic and martial arts classes their mom enrolled her in for mother daughter bonding were paying off.

Not only was Jazz getting the high ground early on an advantage to her, it was the equivalent to a death sentence to anyone who would try and come after her. Since she came in third place she only started off with two flags, and from the looks of it she would be ending with zero. She let the first person who tried climbing up the pillar she was on make it up all of the way before they were met face to face with the barrel of her gun. 

Danny winced as the student was hit point blank with a stun, causing them to almost fall off the pillar if Jazz didn’t catch them by the collar of their shirt with one hand, she used her other hand to detach one flag off of her belt and put it on the student before doing the same with the other flag. She then promptly let the student fall once the stun started to wear off. It wasn’t a large drop but there would certainly be bruises left behind. 

Now that she didn’t have to worry about getting rid of any of her flags Jazz was focusing on the defense. Shooting down anyone who tried to make their way up the pillar before they got more than three feet off the ground. She wasn’t even alone in her methods. Most of the students who made their way on top of the five pillars on the field only had to focus on warding off other students. Most students gave up on them after realizing others on the ground would be easier prey.

It was almost sad to watch the students on the ground try to reach the ones higher up. Trying their absolute hardest to reach the ones at the top but failing miserably. A few of them had long rage quirks that they were trying to use to knock them off, but were largely unsuccessful since they were also focusing on avoiding people who were trying to get rid of their own flags as well. 

Honestly the moment they made it above the rest they were practically secured a spot in the next round. That didn’t mean Jazz was just watching though. She would pick out the people on the ground who had the least amount of flags and stun them, leaving them open prey for the ones with more flags to descend upon them. It made a good distraction away from them trying to reach her too. 

By the end of the round, Jazz was tied for first place with one other student. Danny didn’t recognize him, but he was positive he was in the hero course. Mainly because Yamada announced that he was in class 2-B when commentating. The student was also one of the ones who were on top of the pillars of cement. He had an interesting quirk from what Danny could tell. It seemed like he was able to create a spectral deck of cards and each card he pulled had a different ability attached to it. Whether it be a weapon or a gust of wind. Downside was that from the looks of it, it was random. Still Danny wouldn't want to be up against that sort of power. Regardless, the second year didn’t seem happy to be tied for first going into the final round.

“And that is all for the first half of the day folks! We’ll be having an hour lunch break and then some fun side activities before we go into the final rounds for our first and second year students. And don’t forget! After the first two years duke it out against their classmates, it’s the third year's turn in the spotlight! All three of their rounds are back to back to back in their last chance to blow you away before graduating. So set your alarms, because you do not want to miss anything when it’s time to come back and press play!” 

Notes:

Also! @papiliomame on tumblr made fanart for this fic! It's from the last chapter! check it out here

Check it out, I'd die for them now.

Chapter 20: As the First Domino Falls

Summary:

The conclusion of the sports festival

Danny made his way through the stadium looking for Midoryia. He didn’t get a chance to talk to him after the cavalry battle since he went straight up to watch Jazz’s rounds. He doubted Midoriya had his phone on him, none of the students did. They were too likely to break during one of the rounds. 

He was just about to give up and head back to the stands, he was nervous for whatever the final round would bring anyway,  when he felt a hand grab his right shoulder. Danny tensed up, the memory of his shoulder being disintegrated by Shigaraki while he watched Aizawa getting slammed into the ground flashing to the front of his mind. Danny twisted around knocking the arm away from him.

“Tch, watch it Casper.” Bakugo frowned. 

“Bakugo?” Danny couldn’t say he was expecting the other boy to seek him out. Even more so, he didn't know Bakugo could be so quiet when approaching someone. “Sorry, you startled me. Good reflexes though.” 

“Well duh, you can’t have slow reflexes as a hero. Especially if I’m going to be number one.” Bakugo rolled his eyes. “It’s stupid I have to tell two people this. Bad enough that icy hot bastard was busy talking to Deku about his family drama.”

So that’s where Midoriya was. “Todoroki has family drama?”

“Not the point. The point is you and him both need to stop holding back in these damn battles. I’ve seen what you can do when you’re not holding back. You’re not even trying. When I win, and I will win, it’ll be because I’m the best. Not because you’re too scared of what some extras think about you.”

That was certainly the meanest way Danny had ever been told that he was better than what people thought of him. He could see where Bakugo was coming from, even if he had a bit of a twisted perception of things. If he was giving his all and the only people he really saw as competition were just half-assing it, he’d be annoyed too. Sort of like when Pandora decided to teach him how to fight with weapons, and would let him win. “First of all let’s get one thing clear, you haven’t seen me not holding back. You’ve seen me go as far as I reasonably could without hurting any of our classmates by collateral. Second of all, I’m not doing this because a few people have some ignorant things to say. Trust me, I’ve heard much worse and probably will hear worse in the future. I’m trying to challenge myself, we can’t always just rely on our quirks. Plus I’m kinda hoping to get scouted by someone more focused in a martial area than raw power so this is the best way to do that. Thirdly, if you want I can hold back less if I end up fighting you in this next round. I’ll use as much power as I can that won't end up maiming you if you do the same. I don’t want to end up having to change my quirk to ghost 2.0.” 

“What do you take me for, huh? Some idiot who can’t control his own quirk?” Bakugo yelled.

“No, just trying to lighten the mood a bit. Everyone is way too tense. You have two years after this to try again, if you don’t get the right win for this one make sure you do the next time. You don’t have to settle, but don’t let something so trivial get you so worked up. Trust me, it’ll end up working against you. Now do you have any other problems with my performance so far? If not, I think they’re announcing the next round soon so we should head back soon.” Danny said.

Instead of gracing Danny with an answer Bakugo just pushed past him towards the stadium. Danny sighed and followed a few feet behind, Bakugo’s quirk was almost as explosive as his personality. Leaving the dark and mostly quiet tunnel back into the bright and loud stadium caused Danny to blink a few times.

Yamada announced the next round, a 1v1 fight in a tournament style. The third round was a 1v1 every year, according to Sero last year was a foam sword fighting match. Danny wasn’t sure how that would work but he’d have to try and find a video of it online that coming weekend. They had two whole days off after the sports festival after all, instead of just the normal one. 

Danny put a hand to the side of his neck and looked anywhere else when Ojiro declared he was dropping out of the final round. Clearly being under the effect of Shinso’s quirk shook him a bit, or at least hurt his pride. Aoyama didn’t seem to have that problem. That did mean they had to find someone else to fill his spot. After a bit of discussion they landed on one of the class 1-B students, the one with plants for hair. 

They drew lots for who would go against who. Danny drew Ibara Shiozaki. He had no clue who that was. But looking up at the roster now on display, even without pictures he could easily figure it out. There were only three people not from class 1-A who made it to the third round. He knew Shinso, he could figure out who Hatsume was through what Jazz told him about her, and the fact she was the only one decked out in support gear, and that left the girl with vines for hair as the only one left. He didn’t see much of her quirk in action so he wasn’t quite sure what it even was, obviously something plant related. 

Before the tournament started there were games the students could participate in so the competitors had a chance to prepare if necessary. Midoriya was once more nowhere to be found, but Danny ended up doing the scavenger hunt with Kaminari and Uraraka. Since he wasn’t currently competing he was able to use his powers as he pleased. It was also a good way to get rid of some pent up energy. He flew above the crowds looking for each item he was tasked to find. 

He actually sorta wanted to win the scavenger hunt. The winning group would get free Present Mic merch. Not like Danny would actually have trouble getting some if he just asked Yamada, but he was a bit too embarrassed to ask. The three got a hold of the final item and raced over where Nemuri was. 

“Well well well, aren’t you three eager? Shouldn’t you all be saving your energy for combat?” Nemuri asked, a hand on her hip.

Uraraka shook her head. “No way! I’m too nervous to just sit around doing nothing. Not to mention I’m the last round anyway, I have plenty of time to recover.”

“Yeah,” Kaminari agreed, “no way I can sit around and do nothing. I’m charged up and ready to go!”

Danny nodded his head in agreement. Just waiting around for the battles to start would drive him crazy. Nemuri just laughed before leaning into her microphone. “I’m never one to crush the ambitions of the youth. Since you three were the first ones finished you get first public access to our very own Present Mic’s limited edition leather jacket line! Which will also be available in a booth outside the stadium before the third year events begin.” 

Nemuri passed a jacket out to each  of them. It was a similar style to the jackets Yamada would wear outside of his hero costume, but it had an image of his sunglasses in front of his speaker on the back. Danny pointedly ignored the look Nemuri gave him when he took the jacket with a smile. She was lucky she was on the job and not just hanging around as family, otherwise he’d just ask for more embarrassing stories about her.

After the small games it was time for the 1v1 battles. Danny sat next to Iida and Uraraka in the stands as they watched Midoriya and Shinso step into the ring. “WOOO Go Midoriya!” Danny yelled, his friends following suit cheering Midoriya on. 

Danny watched as the two contenders just stood there for a moment. Shinso was saying something but the stands were too far away for anyone to hear. He could safely assume he was trying to edge Midoriya on to get him to talk. Danny could tell the moment Midoriya responded. The confident stance he had dropped and he turned towards the outside of the ring before slowly walking to the edge.

Danny held his breath as he watched Midoriya get closer and closer to the edge of the ring. Midoriya was smart enough to break out of the mind control. Though the first time Danny was mind controlled it took him a while to break it. Danny’s breath was forced from his lungs though, a puff of frost leaving his lips the same time Midoriya froze in place. 

For a moment. Just a small fraction of time. In a place where there should only be one soul, there were seven. Danny stood up, panicked. The last time his ghost sense truly went off they were attacked by villains. But just as soon as the feeling appeared, it vanished once more. Causing Danny to sit back down confused. He watched as Midoriya turned around and knocked Shinso out of the ring.

“What just happened?” Iida asked, his brow furrowed.

“I’m-I’m not sure?” Danny responded.

Midoriya joined them in the stands to watch the next fight. Sero vs. Todoroki, a fight that was over before it even began. Danny watched uncomfortably as Sero was encased in what was basically a glacier larger than the stadium. Not even mentioning the fact that the group of them in the stands were almost kebabbed by the ice. The close proximity to the ice didn’t bother him, as it did the others. But it did remind him of the damage he could do with just one of his abilities if he wanted to.

Danny glanced over at his friends and the other students sitting in their row, all who were as far back in their seats as possible. Danny couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Once he heard Yamada confirm over the announcements that Sero was out of the ice, he placed his hands against the glacier in front of them. He took a deep breath before using a combination of his ice powers and strength to shift the ice far enough back that they could actually leave their seats if needed. Honestly, Todorki could easily match Danny in raw strength when it came to ice, but he seriously lacked refinement and control. Though that might be because Todoroki didn’t seem like he could fully control ice, just create it. 

“Woah, did you just move that?” Midoriya asked, looking over at Danny, who was removing his hands from the ice.

“Nope. Not me. Probably just shifted from Todorki melting Sero out.” Danny lied. “My fight is after this next one so I I should head down. Let me know how Aoyama’s and Kaminari’s fight goes!”

Danny barely avoided running into a literal flaming man, who’s size rivaled Jack Fenton, on his way down. He looked angrier than Bakugo did on a bad day. The man didn’t even react to running into someone like three times smaller than him. Rude.

Danny was informed it was his turn to enter the arena sooner than expected. Though that wasn’t too surprising. Aoyama didn’t seem to do great in close combat situations, and Kaminari was trying to focus more on hand to hand combat. That meant if Danny won this round he’d be up against Kaminari.

As Danny approached the ring he heard Yamada announce the two of them. “Even beautiful flowers have thorns. It’s the assassin from class 1-B, Ibara Shiozaki from the hero course! Versus another crazy powerful ice user. The aspiring hero haunting class 1-A, Danny Fenton!”

There were once again too many eyes on Danny. Frankly it made him feel weird. He was shocked out of his discomfort when Shiozaki spoke up, now facing the announcer booth. “Excuse me! Please pardon the interruption. I’m not sure why you called me an assassin. I’ve come to the festival in search of victory, not to take my opponent's life. That wouldn’t be in line with the values of a hero at all, sir.”
“Er..Right, sorry.” Yamada apologized.

“Gentlemen,” Shiozaki continued, “I didn’t enter U.A for wicked or selfish reasons, but to deliver salvation to others! It is my humble request to spread true good across this world.”

“Listen I said I was sorry, my bad okay?” Yamada said.

“I thank you for your kind understanding.” Shiozaki bowed towards the booth before turning back to the ring. She may not be aiming to kill, but Danny had a weird feeling she was going to try to exorcize him.

Yamada gave the signal to begin. Danny sprung into action only to be met with a wall full of vines. Oh so that’s what her quirk was. He didn’t get much time to process any more information before vines started to wrap around his legs. He was suddenly very glad he chose ice as his power, he’d dealt with this before. Anti-Undergrowth methods it was. 

He wouldn’t be pulling a Todoroki though. Ice started covering the vines wrapped around his legs, shattering them. Danny dodged out of the way of another incoming vine. There was no end to them. It really was like Undergrowth. He really hated remembering his fight with that ghost. Watching Sam do her best to kill him, while he had to avoid hurting her as much as he could because it wasn’t really Sam, just her body. Plant Sam was just one more of the recurring figures in his frequent nightmares.  No time to dwell on the past though, he had a fight to win.

What he had to do was get to the source of the vines. Which would be hard since Shiozaki had blocked herself off with vines, not to mention he kept on having to dodge the vines attacking him. 

A cool idea popped into his head. It wasn’t a great idea. But it was a cool one nonetheless. Danny dodged, sliced, and froze vines as he made his way towards the giant wall of vines. Danny threw one of the two ice knives he had in hand at the wall of vines. It didn’t do much but he wasn’t expecting it to. He grabbed the hilt of the knife as if he was holding a sword not a throwing knife, and soon he was. He really hoped those impromptu sparring matches with Pandora paid off. And that he still remembered enough from them.

He pulled his arm back before slashing down with the sword. Everything the blade touched froze in its wake, shattering the wall of vines. He lunged forward towards Shiozaki, who was clearly surprised at him getting past her wall. 

He abandoned the sword for knives once more, cutting the vines coming for him midair, continuing his approach. Danny threw one knife straight for Shiozaki which she easily parried. But he used that moment of distraction and managed to slip behind her reaching around bringing up another knife to her throat. 

He heard her gulp. “Surrender?”

“That was an underhanded move.” Shiozaki said.

Danny shrugged. “Eh, not really. All’s fair in these fights as they said, could have been a lot more underhanded.”

“Ibara Shiozaki, do you yield this match?” Nemuri asked from her stand.

“Yes.” Shiozaki nodded as much as she could. 

Danny stepped away from her instantly. “Those vines of yours are insane! You really had me going there.”

Shiozaki frowned. “My vines are perfectly sane. I must request you refrain from making such judgements.”

“Woah, not what I meant. I was just trying to say you’re a skilled fighter with your quirk.” Danny said, holding his hands up as they walked out of the ring.

“Even so. I shall use this defeat as a sign from the heavens I am not quite at the level I need to be at, to be a true hero and bring salvation to others.” She said, folding her hands.

“Right…good match. I’m sure we’ll see each other sometime. Maybe.” Danny quickly left the conversation not wanting to deal with whatever that was. He made his way back to where his friends were sitting. 

Midoriya was muttering words a hundred miles per minute once he reached them. Iida had already gone down since his round was next. “Danny! Thank goodness you’re here!” Uraraka turned to him, relieved she wasn't faced with Midoriya's muttering alone anymore.

“Yeah. I am?” Danny shot her a questioning look.

“Danny’s here?” Midoriya was briefly shaken out of his ramblings, right before shoving his notebook in Danny’s face and resuming his rambles.

The pages the notebook was on were clearly about Danny. It even had a drawing of him in his human form and ghost form, with an arrow connecting the two drawings with question marks surrounding it. As well as a ton of notes on general observations and questions. “-so I was wrong, you actually have control over ice, you don’t just produce it like most ice based quirks. Which leads me to believe it’s actually-”

“Midoriya.” Danny cut him off. “Iida is starting.”

Midoriya’s attention turned to the arena once more, his analyzing temporarily on hold. Or at least verbally on hold. Danny almost wished he didn’t stop. It would be better than watching Mei Hatsume use Iida as a living promotion for her inventions. Midoriya started back up soon after, distracting Danny from noticing Uraraka leave once the next match started.

Once the second to last match rolled around, both Danny and Midoriya figured they should go try and find her before her match started. Iida was already in the room when they found her, but it seemed like he also only got there recently. 

Uraraka’s face was set in determination, but the worry also was clear. “I’m next. So this is it. My fight.”

“It’ll be okay!” Iida reassured her. “I don’t think Bakugo would use the full power of his explosions on a girl, right?”

“Yeah, he would.” Midoriya said.

“Why wouldn’t he? She’s a hero student too.” Danny said at the same time.

“Of course! I didn’t mean-. I have great respect for Uraraka.” Iida stammered.

“It’s okay Iida. I know you meant well.” Uraraka said. 

Danny had to commend Uraraka on her resolve. And the fact she turned down Midoriya’s help to devise a plan. Danny was pretty sure he  could beat Bakugo if he really tried, but he also had more powers than he could keep track of. If he ended up against Bakugou in one of the rounds with just his ice powers he wasn’t sure how well that would go. Also the fact that Bakugo seemed dead set on fighting him without Danny holding back his other powers. If he was even somewhat confident he could do that, well with Uraraka going out there with determination maybe he wouldn’t have to worry about that. All she had to do was touch him and the fight would basically be over.

“Everyone’s facing their future.” Uraraka said as she faced the door. “And giving this their best. That means we’re all rivals. Even you and me Deku. So…I guess I’ll see you in the finals.” She turned to Midoriya with a nervous smile and a thumbs up before stepping out the door.

The remaining three rushed up to the stands to watch the fight. Each putting a bit of their quirk into it to get there faster. The fight started and Uraraka rushed towards Bakugo. Danny watched as Bakugo blocked each incoming attack, explosion after explosion.

Danny saw what Uraraka was doing. Clearly most of the crowd didn’t. Some random pro from the stands started an uproar about how Bakugo was being too harsh. Aizawia’s voice came up from the intercom quickly shooting that train of thought down. Not like villains they faced would care if Uraraka was a girl, just that she was a hero. In the end Bakugo won, despite Uraraka causing literal tons of rubble to rain down on him before he exploded it with a single blast. Uraraka gave more than her best, she should be proud.

When she came back up before the second round started it was clear she was…frustrated at losing. Danny patted the seat between him and Iida. Iida and Tokoyami gave her words of encouragement. Danny wasn’t sure how this fight would turn out. Midoriya had better control of his quirk now that he knew how to avoid breaking bones, but Todoroki had his quirk since he was a kid and was extremely skilled with it. Midoriya didn’t have that luxury.  

Danny watched in shock as Midoriya seemed to disregard everything he and Aizawa trained him to do. ‘Don’t go over what your body can handle’ they told him, ‘broken bones lead to dead heroes and civilians’ they warned him. But nooooo. Whatever the hell Midoriya and Todoroki were yelling at each other about was apparently enough to make Midoriya break a finger every second attack from Todoroki. Honestly Danny was just shocked he was able to keep each finger intact for a single attack.

The fight culminated in Todoroki winning by using his fire side in combat, something Danny was pretty sure he’d never seen the boy do. Ending in a giant explosion that Nemuri and Cementoss couldn’t stop in time. Danny quickly raised a shield around his surrounding classmates. Thankfully no debris seemed to hit the crowd, but the burst of wind was certainly enough to blow people back. At this point two rounds in a row had ended in a giant explosion. There better not be a third. Especially since he was up against Kaminari next round, and if they somehow caused an explosion with ice and electricity he’d be impressed and concerned. Especially since both of them were going the hand to hand route. 

From the looks of it he had time to make his way down to the prep room since they had to reform the arena, again. He decided to quickly pop up into the announcer box, easy to do when he could fly and go intangible to enter from the bottom. Yamada was lucky his microphone was off. The moment Danny popped his head through the floor the voice hero lived up to the title and screamed as if he just saw a spider in the kitchen. 

Danny stifled a laugh. “That was an intense fight.”

Aizawa sighed. “Don’t start. Why does your class have to be so troublesome? I’m too young for gray hairs. Between you, Midoriya, Bakugo, and Todoroki we’re not going to have a school left.”

“I have destroyed like zero of the stadium to be fair. Ideally I’m keeping it that way too.” Danny said.

“Please do. God there’s going to be so many internship letters this year. Everyone in the quarter finals is from 1-A.” Aizawa pinched his nose. 

“That sucks. I’m heading back down. See ya.” Danny waved.

“Good luck!” Jazz waved back.

“Don’t cause trouble.” Aizawa called out.

“You got this little dude!” Yamada said.

Danny shook his arms out as he approached the ring, he should go to Recovery Girls office to check on Midoriya after this round. But also Iida’s fight was after his, and he wanted to watch that. He’d go after Iida’s fight, it’d give Midoriya some time to recover his stamina. 

“Finally a chance to really go up against you. Time to make up for my loss in the battle trials!” Kaminari said as he cracked his knuckles.

“Better make it a good fight then. Or is your quirk just good for charging your phone in class and frying your brain?” Danny wasn’t above trash talking his friends when it was all in good fun. 

“Oh it’s on!” Kaminari smiled.

The two circled each other watching for their opponents moves. Danny moved first, dropping low to try and kick Kaminari’s feet from under him. The other boy jumped back before going in for a blow of his own. They continued trading attacks back and forth, each one being parried by the other. 

Danny dodged another punch from Kaminari before forming two knives. Kaminari evaded his first attack, but actually managed to catch Danny by his left wrist on his second  one. 

Before Danny could break out of the hold Kaminari smiled. “Gotcha, I knew if I wanted to actually stand a chance against you I’d have to get in close to use my quirk. One million volts! Taser style!”
Electricity climbed up Danny’s arm in a far too familiar manner. Maybe if he used more energy in the previous rounds. Maybe if he was expecting it more. Maybe if Kaminari used less volts. Maybe if he was in his ghost form like he was most of the time he had to deal with electricity. Maybe if he hadn't already been reminded of so many of his recurring nightmares that day. Maybe if the countless flashes of the cameras from the crowd didn’t remind him so much of the portal starting up. Maybe then he wouldn’t have been so affected. 

Danny was pretty sure he fell to the ground. But now all he could seem to remember was the feeling of electricity coursing through his body tearing it apart. Green the only thing visible even if he closed his eyes, even as he felt his entire body disintegrate before reforming, just green. The energy of an entire dimension flooding not just his body, his soul, his consciousness, his very sense of being. In reality Daniel Fenton’s death only lasted seconds before, somehow, he came out not quite alive but not quite dead. But to him it lasted for eternity.

When he died, he was powerless to do anything else but scream. A scream that did nothing to sway the unfeeling machinery of the portal. But no longer was he powerless, and no longer was his scream. Danny didn’t register transforming into his ghost form any more than he registered the fact that he wasn’t regulating his powers or his core. And he certainly didn't register hearing someone over the microphone yelling at Kaminari to run.

Anyone unfortunate enough to be in the stands felt a wave of pure dread wash over them. Up in the announcers booth Yamada, Aizawa, and Jazz barely managed to pick themselves off the floor, each of them visibly shaking. Jazz pushed past her terror and looked out towards the stadium where her brother was currently laying but floating a few inches in the air. Screaming so loud that even the concrete below him was reduced to rubble. Pieces of concrete were flying through the air and around Danny, mixed in with shards of ice and ectoplasm. 

She had to act fast. She grabbed the microphone and yelled into it. “Midnight sedate him, Cementoss forms a barrier around him and one around the crowd now . Todoroki, if you’re still in the stands, use your ice to encase him like you did in round one.” 

The barrier of cement and ice reached Danny right after Nemuri’s quirk did. Even then the giant encasement had visible cracks on the outside before the feeling of pure fear dissipated. But Jazz was already halfway down the stands at that point rushing onto the field, shortly followed by Aizawa, Yamada, and the rest of the teachers.

It took two minutes before Danny felt like he could safely phase out of his entombment. He was met face to face with his family and the rest of the U.A staff. “Well this is embarrassing.” He managed to croak out before collapsing into what he was pretty sure were Nemuri’s arms.

Danny woke up in Recovery Girl’s office in the stadium. Aizawa sitting next to him, worry etched on his usually neutral face. “What’s wrong? I didn’t hurt anyone did I?”

Aizawa blinked once. “No, an entire stadium of people will probably be having nightmares tonight, but no physical injuries. I’m worried about you though, are you alright?.”

Danny sat up in the cot. “Why?”

“Why? Danny, Kaminari used his quirk and suddenly you collapsed and almost destroyed the entire stadium. What was that?” 

“Oh, don’t worry about it.” Danny waved him off. “I’m fine now, very tired from using so much power. But fine. I was just reminded of when I died. I think I forgot I wasn’t back in the portal for a moment there. Sorry.”
Aizawa’s frown deepened. “You had a flashback? Are you sure you’re okay?”

Danny rolled his eyes. “No, it wasn’t a flashback. It’s not like this has happened before with my powers going out of control. Usually I just have nightmares. No big deal. I’m glad no one’s hurt though.” Danny looked around the room. “How long was I out? Where’s dad and Jazz?”

Aizawa ran his hand through his hair. “About two hours. They decided to continue the festival since it would cause more concern if the festival just ended after that. Hizashi is back to commentating, the second year final 1v1 match is about to start so that’s what Jazz is doing. But that doesn’t really matter. You do realize what you just described was the definition of a flashback? It’s not something to be ashamed of-”

“Jazz made it to the final round? We can’t miss that!” Danny interrupted, not wanting to continue the conversation.

“Danny I understand if you don’t want to talk about it. Trust me I do. But ignoring it won’t help.” Aizawa said.

“I’m not ignoring it. It’s just not a problem, it was a one off thing I promise. Won’t happen again. Now, I need to go watch Jazz kick some butt!” Danny, literally, flew out of the room phasing through the stands and found where Midoriya and Uraraka were sitting.

Midoriya sat up straight when he saw Danny. “Danny! Are you okay?”

Danny nodded his head. “Yeah I’m fine, don’t worry about it.” He noticed one of Midoriya’s arms in a cast. “Are you okay? And where’s Iida?”

“I sorta broke all the bones in my left arm, and some of the fingers on my right hand. Recovery Girl could only do so much with how little stamina I had after the fight so, my left arm is in a cast for now. I'm not supposed to use my left arm at least in fights for a while now though, even after it heals. Iida had to leave.” Midoriya frowned. “Apparently his brother was injured by a villain. It’s a shame, he got third place with Denki and wasn't able to get his metal in person. Todoroki got second, and Bakugo got first. He wasn’t too happy about it though.”

“Uncle Tens- I mean Ingenium got hurt? Is he going to be okay?” Danny asked.

“Iida didn’t say, just that he had to leave… Did you just call the pro-hero Ingenium uncle?” Midoriya squinted.

“...No?” Danny looked out to the repaired center of the arena. “Anyway my sister is in the final round!”
“She’s your sister?” Uraraka asked. “No wonder she’s so good. Her quirk must be pretty strong too right?”

“Oh, I’ve been trying to figure it out the whole time she’s been fighting. I can just ask you! What is it? Is it similar to Snipe? Or maybe it’s more of a not strictly combative quirk, like Sir Nighteye. She seems to strategize well too, maybe an intelligence quirk like Nezu?” Midoriya started to ramble again. Danny was really only half listening to him.

Danny perked up, his worry forgotten, as he watched Jazz enter the field. It looked like her opponent was the student from 2-B she tied with in her second round, the weird card quirk one. 

“The final round we have Jazz Fenton from class 2-G versus Kaito Fukuda from class 2-B!” Danny could hear Yamada announce. It was hard to tell but he sounded less enthusiastic. The main difference between the first and second years 1v1 matches were that the second years didn’t have a boundary line. They had to either win by KO or force the other to yield. 

Jazz attacked first, a scorch mark left behind where Fukuda barely dodged the blast. Fukuda pulled the top card from his deck of cards, which shifted into a glowing spectral bo staff. He looked at the weapon with a frown. He’d have to get close to Jazz to attack, something that would be difficult since he couldn’t wait until her gun needed reloading now that it was a laser gun. 

After a few minutes of Jazz shooting at Fukuda and him dodging while trying to get in close, his staff dissipated. He quickly shuffled his deck of cards before pulling another one, which shifted into a pistol. 

“It looks like we’re about to have a good ol’ western style gunfight! Snipe, are you seeing this from where you are?” Yamada yelled into the microphone. 

The two fighters seemed to come to a silent agreement and each took a few steps back. Each with their weapon pointed at the other. At the same time they both fired, and both dodged. Danny might be tired but he could tell from the way Fukuda fought he was comfortable with a wide range of weapons, but a gun was not in his comfort zone. He clearly knew how to use it, but Jazz had known her way around a gun before she guilted Snipe into giving her lessons after the USJ attack.

It was clear Jazz realized that too, she started running towards Fukuda in a swerving pattern. Shooting at him as she went so he had to focus on dodging more than counter attacking. Once she was close she shot one more time before she elbowed him at full speed, knocking him back a few steps. She continued forward and hit him across the head with the heel of her gun. 

Fukuda abandoned his own gun now that Jazz was in melee range. He twisted around and landed a kick on her with enough force to knock her to the ground briefly. Fukuda was able to pull another card now, a baseball bat appeared in his hand. He took a second to register what he was holding before swinging it down towards Jazz, hitting her once more, this time in the head. 

Danny winced, not at the hit, but the look on Jazz’s face. She was smiling. It wasn’t until it was too late did Fukuda realize Jazz still had her gun in her hand, and he was standing right in front of her. She pointed it at him and shot two blasts at him straight in the stomach. He collapsed on the ground. He’d be like that for at least a minute with how close she was able to shoot him with a stun.

“Kaido Fukuda is unable to fight. The winner of the second year sports festival is Jasmine Fenton.” Nezu announced from his referee stand. The crowd erupted in cheers as Nezu walked out to the middle of the arena where Jazz was. “Now Ms. Fenton, do you have anything to say to our audience as the first person outside the hero course to win in about fifteen years?”

Jazz nodded and leaned down to take the microphone from her teacher. “I would like to thank Fukuda for the good fight. And I’d like to let those who are surely wondering what my quirk is know something. Like you said, principle Nezu, it’s not at all a common occurrence for a non-hero student to win.I’m sure it’s even less common for a quirkless student like me to win. I’m just glad I had the opportunity to compete.”

The crowd went wild. He could hear Yamada cheering from the announcement booth and the mic wasn’t even on.
“What!” Midoriya looked up from his notebook page he was already making for Jazz. The look on his face was that of pure shock and adoration.

“I told you two she was quirkless before? Like the first day I met you Midoriya?” Danny pointed out.

“I didn’t even remember that. A quirkless person who could even make it past the first round would be shocking. A quirkless person beating all the hero students, second year hero students at that… it’s completely unheard of. Especially nowadays with how few people are quirkless in our generation. Hell, I was the only one in my whole school.” Midoriya was fanboy mumbling now. 

“Wait, what? Deku what do you mean, you’re not quirkless?” Uraraka asked.

Midoriya froze. “Oh um, about that. You see it’s really simple actually. It’s a perfectly reasonable thing.”
“His quirk came in at the entrance exam.” Danny said, clearly Midoriya was struggling so he could help a bit. 

Uraraka tilted her head. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a quirk coming in that late though? I thought the oldest on record was like eleven or twelve right? Always before the start of puberty at the very latest and even then those cases are extremely rare.”

“Oh I sort of just figured it was because of the training I did before the exam and all, my body was finally strong enough for it to not completely tear a limb off. Like a self preservation thing, like how you can’t bite your finger off on purpose y’know?” Midoriya stammered out.

“I guess that makes sense. You know more about quirks than I do after all.” Uraraka shrugged.

Was that so? Weird, Midoriya’s quirk was weird though now that he thought about it. And Aizawa did mention how a quirk coming in that late never could happen just like Uraraka did. And there was the fact that earlier during his first fight he broke out of Shinso’s mind control right when seven more souls appeared around Midoriya’s. Danny was starting to think he was missing something big.

Notes:

You know how the creator of One Piece recently said the story was just now starting and the rest was just lead up? Yeah.... I can't blame them now, I understand. I understand a lot.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter of Danny refusing to actually acknowledge he has issues.

Chapter 21: A Little Birdie Told Me...

Summary:

Class 1-A gets their internship offers, Danny talks with a dog and a bird.

Notes:

if you want to yell at me about this chapter or this fic or just in general outside of the comments check me out on my tumblr @going-dead

Danny  grumbled as he walked into school. He successfully avoided a conversation about his second round of the sports festival over the weekend. At the expense of agreeing to see Hound Dog once a week. Danny didn’t have anything against the U.A councilor, just something against therapists in general. No offense to Jazz and all. But in his defense Spectra did try to kill his sister and plunge Casper High into a cesspool of despair and misery. Multiple times.

He wouldn’t have to worry about it until classes were over though, since that was when he would be meeting with Hound Dog. Danny slumped into his seat only looking up when he saw Iida and Midoriya walk into class. “Iida! How’s your brother?”

Iida gave him a small smile. “He’ll pull through, no need to worry yourself.”

“I’m going to worry either way Iida.” Danny said. “What about you? I know if Jazz got hurt that badly I’d be pretty shaken up.”

“Like I said, no need to worry yourself. Everything is fine. Class will be starting soon, better not to waste our time with idle chit-chat.” Iida said, taking his seat.

Even Danny could tell that was a lie, but he wouldn’t push. Iida would talk to them about it if he felt like it. Kaminari came into the classroom at the very last second. Danny tried grabbing his attention but Kaminari wouldn’t even look at him. Danny supposed he couldn’t blame him, since he was at ground zero during Danny’s sports festival freak out, but it did kind of hurt. 

Once class started Aizawa explained how they would be picking hero codenames for their internships. A graph appeared on screen showing how many offers each student got for internships. Danny wasn’t expecting many offers, or any at all to be honest. He did have a freakout on public television afterall. Which is why he was surprised to see his name right between Todoroki and Bakugo’s. That couldn’t be right. All of Japan and then some now knew how weak Danny was. Danny was even more surprised to see Midoriya only got a few offers. Though he did break half the bones in his arms to be fair.

Nemuri walked in, she’d be helping them pick their hero names. Not like Danny needed help with that. He watched as each of his classmates went up, their names either being accepted or rejected by Nemuri. It did look like he needed a descriptor in front of his hero name though, or at least that seemed to be the norm. Danny soon ran out of time to decide as Midoriya, the last student other than Danny, announced his hero name.

“Danny that just leaves you.” Nemuri called him up. Danny sighed and walked up whiteboard in hand. “Please don’t just have your name written down.” She whispered to him.

Danny turned the whiteboard around to show the class. “The Haunting Hero: Phantom.”

“Are you sure? That doesn’t seem too approachable. Phantom seems so spooky. Sorta menacing.” Nemuri asked.

“I’m not changing it.” He had a hero name already, he wasn’t going to go by anything else.

“If you insist, Phantom it is!” Nemuri said.

“That was an option?!” The class shouted out, as Danny went back to his seat. 

“Now, back to internships.” Aizawa started to explain how the internships worked, they’d be a week long, and would stay at the agency the whole time. Students who didn’t get any offers would choose from a list of forty agencies who volunteered to take them on. 

Danny started to look through his offers, it was a lot though. He hardly recognized any of the names, but he didn’t know too many heroes. Just the ones Midoriya talked about really. He did recognize a few, Sir Nighteye, Mirio’s mentor, Yamada sent him one too, though Danny wasn’t sure he would benefit too much from interning with him since he was able to train with him whenever he wanted to. But for the most part most of the names were gibberish to him, Hawks, Death Arms, Ms. Joke, and on and on. 

“Hey Midoriya? Can you help look these over with me?” He asked during lunch. “I really don’t know any of them.”

Midoriya nodded his head grabbing Danny’s list from him, scanning it over. “What are you trying to achieve with the internships?”

“I’m thinking of someone with a more martial focus. I have too many different powers with my quirk that focusing on just one wouldn’t do me much good. Plus I have a pretty good handle on them, but you can always benefit with learning more fighting styles. That or a focus on rescue work.” Danny said.

Midoriya hummed looking over the names. “Mirko would be good for a new fighting style. She has a rabbit mutation quirk.  I don’t see you kicking all too much unless you're in the air. Plus she’s the number seven pro hero. Though speaking of the air, if you want to practice aerial combat as well as a mix of combat and rescue you could go with Hawks, he’s the number three hero. His quirk is Fierce Wings. He uses his feathers as swords so you could also learn from that, since you used an ice sword in the sports festival briefly. You also got an offer from the Wild Wild Pussycats who are a well respected rescue hero team of four, their mix of quirks all work really well together. There’s Sir NIghteye too! He’s All Might’s former sidekick! He’s not as much of a spotlight hero, but he’s no underground hero either. Since his quirk, Foresight, only can be used once per day he’s had to hone other skills to make up for that fact, like analysis and combat.” The rest of lunch was spent with Midoriya going through the pros and cons of a bunch of heroes.

By the end of the day Danny almost forgot about his impending appointment with Hound Dog. Or he would have if Aizawa didn’t tell him to stay after class. Danny waved for Midoriya and Uraraka to continue without him, Iida had already left. 

“Do I really have to do this?” Danny asked, rolling his eyes.

“Yes. You’re going to at least four sessions before you get to decide to drop them or not.” Aizawa said flatly. 

“But that’s a whole month! You want me to stay after school a whole month?”

“One  day a week for a month, stop being dramatic. You won’t even be going next week due to internships, so it’s actually a month and a week.” Aizawa pointed out.

“You’re even making me walk home alone after this. This is child abuse.” Danny crossed his arms. Jazz was doing something with Nezu afterschool. Apparently some sort of field trip, Danny didn’t bother to ask where. Too busy sulking.

“Some of us have hero work after school, would you prefer civilians to be in danger? All of your classmates also walk home alone, you’ll be fine.” Aizawa handed him some cash. “Here’s some money to buy something on your way home, so don’t complain. Also I should have a list of acceptable heroes for you to intern with from your offers by tomorrow. Now get going, you don’t want to keep Hound Dog waiting.” He shooed Danny off.

Danny made his way to Hound Dog’s office and knocked on the door. He heard a muffled growl in response. “Come in.”

Hound Dog gestured to a variety of seats across from the couch he was sitting on. Was this some sort of test? Did the seat he chose say something about him? He certainly couldn’t just stand though. He took the seat closest to the door. “Aren’t you supposed to have a desk?”

Hound Dog shook his head. “I feel like that would just create a barrier in what should be an open environment between me and the students who see me. Now Danny, what brings you into my office?”

“It was either this or have my dads’ and Jazz keep looking at me in concern. And that got old the moment it started.” Danny was staring at the floor.

“Understandable. It can be hard managing others' worries for you. Have you done any sort of counseling or therapy before?” Hound Dog asked.

“Yeah. She tried killing my sister and experimenting on me for eternal youth.” Danny said. 

“I see. Is there anything you wanted to talk about in particular? Eraserhead trusted me enough to fill me in on you and your sister's situation, so don’t feel like you have to hold anything back if you don’t want to.”

“Not really. I don’t think there’s much to talk about.” Danny shrugged.  

“That’s fine. Why don’t you just tell me about your day then?” He suggested.

Danny didn’t see how that had anything to do with ‘getting help’ but if it meant he could avoid talking about other things he’d comply. Better than sitting in silence for half an hour. So he told Hound Dog about his day, picking hero names, getting internship offers and how he didn’t know who to choose, the math test coming up. Just a general play by play about what happened during the day. Towards the end he brought up how Kaminari was avoiding him, seeming to find any reason not to talk to Danny.

“Why do you think he’s avoiding you?” Hound Dog asked.

“What, not going to ask me how it makes me feel?” Danny raised a brow.

Hound Dog shook his head. “I don’t think that’s what the issue is here. So, why do you think he’s avoiding you?”

Danny laid his head back against the back of the chair. “Isn’t it obvious? You were at the sports festival. I wasn’t able to keep a hold of my powers, and Kaminari was right next to me when it happened. Him being scared of me is a completely normal reaction…him just being scared is better than what else could have happened. I’m just glad he’s not hurt.”

“Because he’s your friend? And you don’t like seeing your friends hurt?” Hound Dog supplied.

Danny looked at him. “Of course I don’t like seeing my friends hurt? Who would?” 

Hound Dog took a deep breath. “We don’t have to talk more about it if you don’t want to, just let me tell you this. What I saw at the sports festival wasn’t someone who didn’t have control of their quirk. What I saw was a very scared kid trying to protect himself. I do not know what it was that made you react like that, nor do I expect you to tell me right away, or at all, if you don’t feel comfortable doing so. But you must remember you are fifteen years old, a child still. I’ve seen pro heroes react much worse at remembering traumatic incidents than how you did. Did it ever cross your mind that Kaminari might also not like seeing his friends hurt, that maybe he realized it was his fault you reacted like that?” Hound Dog paused. “I might be wrong. But wouldn’t it be better to ask than assume such things?”

Danny rubbed his neck. “So I should talk to him tomorrow?”

“Only if you want to, but I would suggest it. You’ll have to tell me how it goes during your next session, we are out of time and you’d best be getting home. Of course you are always welcome to stop by whenever.” Hound Dog said getting up to open the door for Danny.

“Right of course.” Danny paused half way through the door. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He smiled, the smile was full of sharp teeth, it reminded Danny of the same way Wulf smiled.

As Danny made the walk home he supposed it wasn’t that bad of an experience. It was nice when his school counselor wasn’t trying to kill him. While it was nice he tried to help Danny with Kaminari, Danny still didn’t think he actually needed therapy. But if the next three sessions went as smoothly as todays  it wouldn’t be as awful as he was expecting. Plus once he was done it’d get his family off his back.

Danny was contemplating on what to buy on his way home, ice cream maybe? It was starting to get warmer out, summer break was just under two months away. He could get a pop and some candy or chips, there was a bakery on the way home he had enough for a cupcake. His internal debate was interrupted by the sound of someone quietly landing behind him. 

Danny’s steps only faltered slightly, that was until he felt the person almost directly behind him. Danny continued for a few more paces turning a corner as he went, maybe he wasn’t actually being followed…He was. Danny turned around aiming to punch whoever decided it would be a good idea to try and stalk him.

His fist was caught by an amused looking man with markings in the corner of his eyes and bright red wings behind him. “Woah there spitfire. Assault isn't too heroic if you ask me. I would know.” His head cocked to the side. “About the hero part, not the assault part. Don’t break the law.”

Danny stared at the man in front of him. He couldn’t be older than his early twenties at most. “Who are you?”

The man laughed. “Good one.” He saw Danny’s blank look. “Oh shit you’re serious. Don’t repeat that word.”

“I’m not five? And you still haven’t answered me. You know, following a teenager into an alley is usually only a thing shady people do.” Danny pointed out.

“Woah no need to jump to conclusions. I’m the Wing Hero: Hawks, y’know the number three hero?” His wings spread out as if to show off.

Hawks? Why did that sound familiar? “Oh! Wait I recognize your name, Midoriya told me about you. You have sword wings right?”

“Sword wings?” Hawks blinked. “I use two of my primaries as swords, but they’re not actual swords. I just can control each feather individually.”

“Dang, wings made out of swords seems like it would be cool. Did you need something from me by the way? Or do you make a habit of accosting random teens on the street?” Danny asked.

“Please stop making me sound like a creep, it’ll be bad for my image.” Hawks said.

“Then stop seeming like one? And you’re avoiding the question.” Danny crossed his arms.

“I mean I guess you got me there.” Hawks smiled. “I’m just making sure everything is alright. It’s a hero's job to help people out, even if it’s little things like making sure a kid gets home safe and sound.”

“Yeah sure. Shouldn’t a high ranking hero have better things to do?”

“Nah I need a break. Patrolling from the sky gets lonely.” Hawks said. 

Danny could relate to that. Back in Amity he really didn’t have a choice but stay high in the sky when patrolling since he had to cover so much ground at once. Though he supposed since this world had tons of heroes they could relax every once in a while in their patrol routes.

“Plus I recognized you from the sports festival. A little birdie told me you got an internship from yours truly! You should accept.” Hawks smiled.

Danny knew there was another reason than just wanting a break. At least he knew he could trust the hero in front of him. He doubted U.A would let someone who’d be a danger to their students offer internships. Plus All Might was a good man from what Danny could tell, he didn’t think someone only two ranks below him would be bad, nor would they make it to the top ranks. “Why?”
“We both can fly so I wouldn’t have to carry you the whole time. I saw you flying during the side games and it was pretty fast, so I doubt you’d slow me down too much which is important when you’re a high speed hero like me. Also your quirk just seems pretty cool and I want to know more. Because I’m the number three hero of all Japan? And I get all the fun strong villains to deal with so you’d have more experience with those right out the gate. Also since internships are a week long you can see the life of a pro who's at the top outside of hero work before you reach the top, and I’d have to buy you meals because I can’t cook well so you can order whatever you want.” Hawks explained.

“I’ll have to think about it.” Danny said. “I got a lot of offers and I want to choose who I can improve the most with. If you want I will take you up on the food offer though.” Danny would have to order food or cook himself anyway since Yamada and Aizawa both had hero duty.

“Sweet. How do you feel about fried chicken?” Hawks asked.

“Eh indifferent.” Danny said with a shrug.

Hawks gasped. “Blasphemy, I tell you, blasphemy. I know a good place just down the road, we’ll get one of those big buckets. You’re a growing kid right, you must eat a lot.”

Danny felt like he just wanted an excuse to get one of the buckets, but if he was paying Danny wouldn’t complain. They got the chicken and Hawks led him up to a rooftop where they sat watching the people below. “You’re not going to arrest me for quirk usage?” Danny asked landing on the roof.

Hawks scoffed. “If I arrested everyone I saw using their quirks I’d have no time for actual villains. Plus I told you to follow me, it’s fine if you’re under the guidance of a pro like me.”

“I see.” Danny watched Hawks take a bite of his food. “Is this cannibalism for you?”
Hawks almost choked on his food. “No?”

Danny hummed. “I suppose not, you give more of a bird of prey vibe than that of a chicken. Though chickens also engage in cannibalism. So it wouldn’t be a bad thing if it was cannibalism. Gotta listen to those instincts and all that.”

“What?” 

“People with animal mutation quirks often inherit instincts from the animal their quirk is based off of, that’s what Midoriya says at least. Anyway, did you offer an internship to anyone else, or were you just really hoping for me?” Danny asked, tossing a chicken bone into the now empty bucket, he was pretty sure Hawks ate more than he did.

“I offered one to that Tokoyami kid, the one with the bird head?” Hawks said.

“Really? Why? Not that I don’t think he’s a good student or powerful fighter but you said you wanted someone in the air right?” Danny asked.

Hawks looked Danny in the eye, and for just a split moment each of them were looking into the eyes of a predator and each of them unknowingly were the prey. Hawks broke eye contact with a laugh. “We’d make a full bird, obviously.”

Danny laughed with him. He looked down at his phone to check the time. “Oh shit!”

“What did I say about not repeating that word? I can’t have people thinking I teach kids swear words.” Hawks frowned.

“I didn’t realize how late it was. I need to get home, I still have homework to do.” Danny stood up.

“Don’t sweat it. Just give me directions I can fly you there. I shouldn't encourage too much public quirk usage after all. Your parents are probably worried you’re not home yet.” Hawks stood up stretching, his wings giving a small flap.

Danny shook his head. “No my dads have hero work today.”

Hawks straightened his posture. “Oh? Your parents are heroes too, what’s their hero names? Is it a legacy family thing?”

“Yeah they are. Present Mic and Eraserhead.” It was nice saying that out loud. Eraserhead and Present Mic, his dads. He couldn’t talk about it with any of his classmates, other than Iida. “Not a legacy thing, just sorta happened this way I guess.”
“I see. Well, hang on tight. We’re off.” Hawks said, grabbing Danny from beneath his arms.

Danny could no longer blame Sam and Tucker for how they freaked out whenever he flew them around at first. Flying when you weren’t in control was terrifying and he knew he could just fly on his own if he was dropped. It didn’t help Hawks decided to do a few loops and dive bombs on the way to the apartment building. Danny had never been happier to touch the ground since he accidentally flew for the first time and couldn’t figure out how to get back down.

“Well then I should be off, a hero's duty never stops after all. Think about that internship offer though, I’m sure we’d both have a lot to learn from each other.” Hawks gave Danny a two finger salute before taking off.

Danny made his way up to their unit, feeding Arson once he got inside and giving some of his leftover ecto-infused food to Laika. He finished his homework as fast as he could. He was looking up more info on Hawks when Jazz and Yamada got home around the same time. From what he could find he was a well respected hero just like he said. Often helping civilians with small things in between villain attacks. A fan favorite among young men and women alike due to not just his look but easy going and open personality according to one article. It seemed to match up to how the bird hero acted earlier so he didn’t have any reason to doubt him. 

That was good to know. But Danny still did want to do some more research before deciding on who to intern with. Not to mention he sorta wanted to intern with Mirio, the older teen seemed very excited about the process when Danny texted him earlier that day. Mirio even mentioned that Sir Nighteye actually chose to offer the internship himself, Mirio didn’t even have to suggest it.  

After today it seemed like he’d probably pick one of those two, they were both recommended by Midoriya as well. Still Danny had to wait until Aizawa vetted the list of offers before he really looked at them. Though he couldn’t see a reason why either of the two heroes would be removed from it.

Notes:

Why are you so interested in Danny Hawks? (¬_¬")

At least the boy has a bit of therapy now

Chapter 22: Discussion

Summary:

Danny has two talks that end very differently.

Danny arrived at U.A and landed next to Midoriya, turning visible as the other boy stretched. Midoriya jumped when he noticed Danny. “Oh hey Danny. You’re here later than usual. You’ve always been here before me when we have training. Mr. Aizawa’s not here yet either actually, so I started warming up early.” 

“I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”  Danny shrugged. He left after Aizawa did, not wanting to walk to school with him. Of course flying was a much faster method than walking, so even with leaving later he got there first. 

“Yeah I suppose so.” Midoriya continued his stretches. They both turned their heads as they heard footsteps, expecting to see Aizawa. And though the student who came into view certainly resembled Aizawa in some ways, he certainly wasn’t their teacher.

“Shinso?” Danny and MIdoriya asked at the same time.

Shinso gave the two a tired wave. “Do you two really get up this early every day?”

“Just twice a week. A small price to pay to improve our quirks!” Midoriya said. Midoriya also cleaned up an entire beach single handedly to train for the entrance exam. So Danny was pretty sure he had a warped perception of normal training.

“Are you here to train with Mr. Aizawa too?” Danny asked.

“He approached me after the sports festival and asked if I wanted help with training. Training with Eraserhead, couldn’t really turn down the offer y’know? Plus no use falling even more behind you guys in the hero course than I already am.” Shinso shrugged.

Aizawa arrived a few minutes later, looking even more tired than usual once he saw Danny already there. Throughout the training Danny only spoke to Aizawa when needed, which clearly frustrated Aizawa. Not much changed with the addition of Shinso to the morning training sessions, all three students in the end were tired with just enough energy to make it through the rest of the day. 

“Danny.” Aizawa’s voice called out to him as the three of them made their way towards the showers before class started. “Stay after class once school lets out.”

Danny suppressed a sigh before responding. The past three days Danny had been walking home to avoid being stuck in a car with Aizawa. “Fine.”

“Do you think you’re in trouble?” Midoriya asked once they left Aizawa’s earshot.

“If you’re expelled can I have your seat?” Shinso said. At the looks the other two gave him he raised his hands in surrender. “I was joking.”

“No, I’m not in trouble.” Danny shook his head. “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”

That didn’t stop Midoriya from shooting him worried looks throughout the whole school day. It was their last day to turn in their internship forms and by that point most of class 1-A had chosen where they were going. Danny had not, not for lack of trying.

During lunch Danny stared at the list of ‘acceptable’ heroes given to him from Aizawa. He only looked through it for a few minutes before getting angry about it again and shoved it back into his bag. Danny was in a poor mood beside that point. Everytime he tried to speak with Kaminari, the boy found a reason to avoid him. It was all so stupid.

“Well well well if it isn’t the banshee of class 1-A. Frankly after the sports festival I’m surprised you didn’t just drop out. Anyone with such a weak grasp on their own quirk would probably be better suited in a different profession, yes?” Speaking of things that were stuipid, Monoma.

Danny turned his head to look up at the boy standing a few steps behind from where he was sitting. “I’m not changing my hero name Monoma.”

Monoma laughed. “This has nothing to do with the fact you clearly copied my hero name.” How he would have done that Danny had no idea, he picked his first. “This has to do with the fact that I’m just shocked there wasn’t any demand from the public for you to be expelled. I mean with how many children were in the crowd, imagine the mental-”

Whatever Monoma was going to say was promptly cut off by him being punched in the face. It wasn’t even Danny who threw the punch. It was Kaminari who was currently looking between his fist and Monoma as if he was just processing what he had just done. He looked over at Danny with wide eyes. “Sorry.”

“I don’t think I’m the one you just punched?” Danny pointed out as he watched Kendo drag Monoma off. “Unless I’ve become a blonde asshole without knowing, and if that’s the case please go ahead and punch me I’d deserve it.” 

Kaminari snorted before freezing up. “I’ll just go now.”

“Kaminari, wait. Sit down.” Danny all but commanded, gesturing to the empty seat across from him.

Kaminari stopped in his tracks, already trying to walk away. He turned slowly around looking like a deer in headlights, before stiffly taking a seat next to where Uraraka was. Danny avoided looking him directly in the eye, if he was scared of Danny like Danny feared, there was no use making this worse for him. “Can we talk about the sports festival? Because I’m not completely sure why you’re avoiding me but I have a few guesses. I want you to know that I would never hurt you, or any of our classmates for that matter, on purpose. I just wanted to say sorry. That’s all.”

Kaminari’s face twisted to be unreadable, the finger he was tapping on the table froze.  “I hurt you. During the sports festival, I hurt you, why are you apologizing? The whole point of us training to be heroes is to help people isn’t it? Not hurt them! I’m bad enough at the coursework, I can’t do any of this right.”

It felt wrong seeing Kaminari, who was usually lighthearted and laid back, so worked up. “The point of the final rounds of the sports festival was literally for us to hurt each other.  It was encouraged. Just use it as an example to be more careful with your quirk as it gets stronger. If you’re getting hung up on this where there were no serious injuries, what will you do when something happens and someone is actually hurt? Take responsibility for your actions but don’t get hung up on them. It’ll drive you crazy otherwise.” Danny would know. He was well aware of the fact his failures affected the people he was supposed to protect. Best thing to do was learn from his mistakes and make sure they couldn’t happen again. 

“Yea, but,” Kaminari lowered his voice and pointed to the side of his neck, “during the match, after you transformed and all, I noticed on your neck-the markings.”

Danny reached up to the side of his own neck, rubbing at the skin there. “That’s nothing to do with you, trust me. Just from when my quirk came in.”

“I’m no expert in quirks coming in, but I recognize those figures dude. I got a nasy looking one when my quirk came in and I couldn’t control it. But it faded after a while. Are they really still there after like ten years? Not to mention I didn’t think your quirk had anything to do with electricity.” Kaminari pointed out.

Of all the times for Kaminari to start paying attention to things, why was it about that? Though Midoriya’s quirk came in super late, so it couldn’t be completely out of the realm of believability for him to tell the truth about when his came in. Not like he really needed to lie anyway, everyone at the table was a friend. “Well it might be because my quirk only came in a year ago. But I don’t think the scars will fade even if I wait a while.” His ghost form tended not to change in appearance, most ghost’s appearances stayed the same once they formed. 

“Only a year ago?” Midoriya interrupted before diving straight into a ramble. “That’s very late for a quirk to come in, in fact it’s almost unheard of. Is it a possibility you always had the quirk and there was just a factor you weren't meeting before? If you don’t have your quirk by the time you reach the age of about ten you get diagnosed as quirkless. Of course usually by then a doctor would have already run the tests to determine that already, usually via an x-ray of the foot for a certain diagnosis. What was happening when your quirk came in Danny? Were you at school, home, somewhere else? Was anyone else with you?”
    Danny was too overwhelmed with questions to point out that Midoriya’s quirk came in even later than his. “It came in at home. I was in an accident in my parents lab and next thing I know boom.”

Midoriya was writing in his notebook. “A quirk awakening most likely then. Very rare, but not unheard of, it usually happens to someone who already has a quirk. A forced evolution of a quirk due to an extreme state of danger or stress. Most likely you already had a quirk but it was so inconsequential that it wasn’t detected until a year ago. Which would make sense since you said you came from a quirkless family that they would just assume you too were quirkless and didn’t look too deeply into it.” 

Yeah sure they could go with that. Danny didn’t really understand what was just said but whatever. “I mean you know more about this stuff than me Midoriya. You could probably teach a quirk science class or something and no one would think you were out of place.” 

“I don’t know, with that lecture you gave me about responsibility you sounded like Mr. Aizawa. Maybe we should put you both in front of a class. You two would make killer hero teachers.” Kaminari laughed.

Danny was glad Kaminari felt comfortable enough to laugh around him again, but the comparison to Aizawa made him frown. He was not looking forward to the talk he’d be having with him, especially with Aizawa being so unreasonable. 

Despite wishing otherwise the end of the day quickly came to pass. Danny tried to walk out of the classroom with the rest of his classmates once they were dismissed, hoping to go unnoticed. “Danny, stay.”

Danny stopped midstep and cursed under his breath before turning back towards the inside of the classroom. Aizawa shut the door once the last student left. “What’s going on Danny?”

“I don’t know, you’re the one who wanted to talk.” Danny said.

Aizawa leaned against the wall. “You’ve walked to and from school by yourself the past three days, and you’re clearly mad at me for some reason. I’m just trying to find out why.”

Danny crossed his arms and sat on top of a desk. “Really? Didn’t cross your mind that it might be because out of the almost four thousand internship offers you gave me twenty to choose from?”

“I don’t see the problem, I looked over the offers and vetted the ones who I was unsure if they were trustworthy enough.” Aizawa said.

“Twenty out of four thousand! Do you not think that’s a bit extreme? None of the top ten heroes who offered me an internship even made the list. They’re literally the top heroes of the country, how are they not trustworthy?” Danny threw his arms up.

“The top ten are in too much of the limelight for my liking. Not to mention that they’re too close to the Hero Commission. I even talked to some of the other teachers to get their input. One of the offers you were thinking over is still in there too, you wanted to intern with Miro didn’t you? I asked All Might about Sir Nighteye and despite my limited interactions with him he seems trustworthy enough. So I do not see the issue.” Aizawa explained.

Danny laughed in disbelief. “Oh so the number one hero is trustworthy but none of the rest of the top heroes are, I see. That makes total sense. And it’s not about who I wanted to intern with, it’s the fact that you are taking away my say in it.” 

Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose and shifted on his feet. “Look. I understand you’re not used to having adults who care about your well being in your life. I get it, but I’m trying to make sure you stay safe.”

“Excuse me?” Danny stood up. “Don’t act like you know anything about my parents.”

“I know enough from what I’ve heard.” Aizawa frowned.

“You don’t know anything.” Danny growled.

“I know that at the very best your parents are considered neglectful.”

“My parents love me.” Danny blinked the green from his eyes. 

“I’m not arguing otherwise. But they failed in their duty to keep you safe. You can love someone and still be harmful to them.” Aizawa cut Danny off before he could get a word in. “Almost everything you’ve mentioned about them proves that they are a danger to you and Jazz. Child endangerment is the nicest way to put it. You do realize that if you fully died in that accident in their lab they would have been tried for negligent manslaughter?”

“The portal accident was all my fault, They had nothing to do with that.” 

“They’re the ones who made the portal, you said they left exposed live wire laying inside, and they left it powered on. They let you in the lab alone, on numerous occasions, and had you clean up hazardous materials and equipment.” Aizawa explained, trying to keep his own anger in check. “You are a child and can not be blamed for your parents inability to keep a safe workplace.”

“Shut up.” Danny said, balling his fists.

“I just don’t want you to get hurt Danny,” Aizawa said, reaching towards Danny.

    “I said shut up!” Danny knocked his arm to the side. “I’ll intern with Sir Nighteye, there happy? At least I won’t have to deal with you for a week once they start!”

    “Daniel.” Aizawa called out as Danny stormed out of the classroom, not bothering with the door. 

Notes:

Bit of a shorter chapter this time. Mainly because it didn't want to be written, at least the next few chapters will be more fun.

Chapter 23: Home to Roost

Summary:

The day before internships start,

    “Danny, I wasn’t aware you were coming to visit?.” Iida asked as Danny opened the door to Tensei’s hospital room. 

    Danny waved with a smile before hoisting up a basket full  of goodies for the older Iida brother. He set the basket down on the stand next to Tensei “I’m assuming you’re also here to see uncle Tensei before internships start? I was tasked with the mission of totally not smuggling in junk food.” It was easy to just turn the basket invisible as he walked into the hospital.

    Tensei immediately started rummaging through the basket of snacks once it was placed by his bed. He waved off his brother’s protests about eating healthy to encourage healing. “I am so sick of hospital food. You are my favorite nephew now. Tell Shouta and Hizashi thanks from me.”

    “I am your only nephew. They wanted to come visit too but they’re busy with internships and exams coming up. They do expect to be able to see you once you’re discharged though.”

    Tensei frowned. “Well I’ll have plenty of free time once I’m out of here, I’ll be stuck in administration for my agency from now on.”
    “Don’t say that!” Iida stood up from where he was sitting, his frown even deeper than Tensei’s.

“Tenya, I’ve accepted it, it’s fine. I can’t be ‘first on the scene’ when I can’t even walk.” Tensei leaned over to try and pat Iida but only made it halfway before he winced and grabbed at his lower back. Iida’s face twisted into multiple emotions at once at the sight.

“I mean yeah, I’m sure the physical therapy will take a while and learning a new fighting style will be difficult but you’ll probably be out of hero work for a year or two at most.” Danny pointed out.

Tensei’s eyes furrowed. “Shouta and Hizashi told you I’m fully paralyzed from the waist down right?”

Danny shrugged, he wasn’t really sure what that had to do with anything. “Yeah? Not even counting the fact you don’t need a quirk to fight people, your quirk is in your arms not your legs. I’m sure you could find a support company or something that can rig out a wheelchair for heroics. You could even have them add like rocket launchers or something. You could probably ask Powerloader to make it a project for the third year students even,” Danny wouldn’t lie and say he didn’t want to see Tensei speeding around in a wheelchair with the aid of his quirk mowing down villains. It would probably need a reinforced front though. That would be an issue for the people designing it though. “I wouldn’t blame you if you just didn’t want to be a hero in the field anymore though. That sort of defeat is hard to shake off after it happens.” Danny absentmindedly rubbed at a large scar on his side from a past fight against a ghost. 

“I never considered that.” Tensei said, leaning back in his bed. He looked down at his hands before balling them into fists with a look of determination on his face. 

The three spent the rest of the visitation time just chatting. Tensei asked them both about their upcoming internships. Danny convinced him to tell more stories about Aizawa and Hizashi when they were younger. 

Once it was time to leave Danny walked out with Iida, who stopped just outside the hospital. “Danny are you doing alright?”

Danny didn’t expect the question, mainly because he really felt like he should be asking Iida the same thing. “Yeah I’m fine, why?”

“You seem to be… intentionally getting on Mr. Aizawa’s nerves lately. As your friend I want to make sure everything is okay at home for you.” He explained stepping off to the side as to not be in the way of people coming in and out of the building.

Danny hummed before answering. “Yeah everything is fine.”
    “I find that difficult to believe. You willingly teamed up against Bakugou and Todoroki when our class was doing 1v1v1 fights during training. You three destroyed gym Gamma.” Iida said, looking at him flatly. 

In Danny’s defense he only gave as much as the other two brought, it’s not his fault two of his strongest classmates both approached him to fight. Danny had made it his goal to inconvenience Aizawa as much as possible, and he wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity to do so when the chance was handed to him on a silver platter. “We had a fight that’s all, but I’m nothing if not powered by spite when angry at someone.”

Iida nodded. “I see. Well I best be going, internships start tomorrow after all and I still need to get ready.” He started walking down the sidewalk.

Now that definitely didn't sound like the Iida Danny knew. Danny followed up behind Iida. “I have a pretty good idea of what you’re planning on doing Iida. I doubt you would choose a hero still making a name for themself just for the hell of it, especially since you mentioned how you wanted to see other sides of hero work before. Except for the fact the hero you chose is working in Hosu.”

Iida stiffened but kept walking. “I have no idea what you could be implying. Manual seems to be a very respectable hero. Focused on helping out in small ways instead of large ones. Hosu also happens to be the closest to this hospital out of all of the offers I received, and I did not want to be too far away from my brother in case something happens.”

Danny couldn’t help but scoff, but pushed on. “So since your brother to me is uncle Tensei, would that make you uncle Tenya?”

Iida stopped in his tracks from the shock of the conversation changing so suddenly. “Pardon me?”

“Personally I think  the title of uncle is weird since we’re the same age and friends.” Danny continued on. “What about cousins? Your cousin Danny and my cousin Tenya. I mean you were even the ring bearer at my dads’ wedding when you were younger. I still can’t believe they didn’t choose me instead.” Danny shook his head.

“I suppose cousins would fit. But Danny you didn’t know them at the time, how could you be the-?” Iida shook himself from that train of thought. “Regardless, where are you going with this?”

“Just that we’re family now, right? And I know that if someone in my family was hurt, I’d want revenge, and there wouldn’t be much anyone could say would stop me.” Danny paused. “So if you end up needing assistance in…anything, during internships you know you have my number.” Danny already saw what the trauma of losing his friends and family did to him, but he also knew there was no stopping Iida fully, the best he could do was make sure he didn't get hurt doing it. “Just remember, quirk use is legal in self defense and assault is easier to get out of than murder.” With that the two parted ways, Danny wasn't sure if he imagined it but he thought he heard Iida whisper a thank you as they walked away from each other. 

Now it was time for Danny’s final act of spite before internships. Aizawa would be free from it for a whole week so he had to make it count. He felt a bit bad that Yamada and Jazz would be dragged into it, but it wasn’t like it would be too bad for them. Not like it would be a total surprise anyway, Danny did ask if he could bring a friend over for dinner today after he stopped by the hospital. They did say he could after all, and it wasn’t his fault they didn’t ask who. 

 “Dad, dad, I’m home!” Danny called out as he entered the apartment a few hours later. “Remember what I told you about taking your shoes off quickly. Otherwise The Queen of Arson will attack you, my sister fell victim to her many times. She’s your natural enemy after all.” He advised his guest. 

“Noted.” He could hear the amusement in the voice from behind him. That sort of attitude was what led to feet being attacked. And attacked the feet were. Danny just shook his head and put his shoes on the rack. 

“Welcome home kiddo, I’m making chicken katsu like you asked. I just hope I made enough for you two as well as the rest of the fam, I know how much you heroes in training tend to-” Yamada emerged from around the corner wearing a ‘kiss the radio host’ apron stopping once he saw the pro-hero behind Danny desperately trying to shake Arson off of his leg as gently as possible. “Hey Sho, can you come here?” Yamada called out.

“If this is about Danny wearing your leather jacket merch again I’m going back to sleep, he wears it almost every time he’s in street clothes since he got it and you freak out each time and I’m tired. Every year at least two heroes decide to give me their internship plans for the students at the very last minute. I swear, hero ranking be damned, if I see Uwabmi or Hawks even on the news I’m going to personally hunt them down and see if Arson feels like eating snake or chicken for dinner.” Aizawa rounded the wall dividing the living room and entryway. “Anyway, thank you for visiting our home Midoriya, do make yourself at home. I’m assuming Danny filled you in before-” Aizawa’s eyes flickered from Danny, to his guest, to Arson who had moved on from the hero’s shoes to batting at his wings. 

“It looks like she wants chicken.” Danny smiled. Which elicited an almost screeching sound from Hawks before the hero covered his own mouth looking down at it as if it betrayed him.

Yamada wiped his hands off on his apron and gave a forced smile. “Hawks, do you mind waiting here while we have a quick family conversation?”

“Sure, no problem. Can you please grab your cat though? I don’t want to have to explain to my sidekicks the reason I have to wait for my feathers to regenerate is because of a cat. I’d never hear the end of it.” Hawks nodded as he tried to push Arson away with his wings which only made the cat more interested in playing with them.

Danny scooped up Arson and followed the two into their bedroom. “What’s wrong, you said I could bring friends over if I wanted to?” He asked as he petted the cat in his arms.

Yamada opened his mouth to speak, closed it, took a deep breath, then started to speak. “It’s generally expected when your teenage son asks to bring a friend over that the friend will also be a fifteen year old, or even one of the third years you hang around. Not a full grown man that by all rights you shouldn’t know.”

“You never asked who I was bringing. I would have told you if you asked. It’s not my fault you thought I was bringing Midoriya for some reason. ” Danny pointed out.

“Because you asked for chicken katsu and during training yesterday Midoriya talked about the katsudon Lunch Rush made the day prior the entire time. We figured you just got the two dishes confused since they sound similar.” Aizawa said, his head in his hand. “How do you even know Hawks? Let alone enough that he’d agree to come to our house for dinner?”

“Oh it was after the sports festival, he was trying to convince me to accept his internship offer. I probably wasn’t going to, but you know it wasn’t like I had a choice in the matter.” Danny looked at Aizawa. “But since I started walking home more often he kept walking with me. He kept saying it was to convince me, but I think he was just sorta lonely since he kept doing it even after I told him I was interning with Sir Nighteye. I know how lonely it gets when patrolling from the sky, and when you have a bunch of pressure on you to be able to save someone at a moment's notice no matter how far away they are. So I didn’t try to get him to leave.”

“I suppose being a top hero would get pretty lonely. Yagi has definitely mentioned how alienating being in the public eye so much can be. Hell, even I can relate to that a bit, you don’t get a prime time radio spot with just a pretty face.” Yamada nodded. “Regardless you should have told us who you were bringing Danny. But we won't kick him out, he is a guest now.”

Aizawa went to protest. “Hizashi he’s-” 

Yamada cut him off. “There’s a difference between him just hanging around Danny every once in a while and being in the public eye with him as a mentor. I trust that Danny is smart enough to notice if something seems off. I’ve worked with Hawks before, and he’s been a guest on my show a few times at this point. He’s a laid back guy who’s dedicated to hero work. I understand you don’t want Danny working with a top ten hero because of the public attention he’ll get from it but this seems pretty harmless. Plus he’s like twenty one, sorry if I’m not worried about someone who’s only been able to drive for three years and drink for a little over one.”

Anything else Aizawa might have wanted to say was interrupted by the sound of commotion from the living room. The three rushed out to the living room where Jazz, Laika, and Hawks seemed to be in a standoff. Jazz was brandishing a penil pointing it at the pro-hero. Laika noticed them enter the room and phased through Hawks to hide behind Danny. 

Jazz seemed to be threatening Hawks, who was trying to get in a word edgewise before the felling of something phasing through him for the first time threw him off. “I don’t care what rank hero you are, if you think you can break into our home and-”

“Jazz calm down, he’s a stray your brother picked up on his way home.” Aizawa said with clear annoyance.

Jazz looked at her improvised weapon a bit sheepishly before lowering it. “Oh, I apologize then.” She turned to Danny. “Why didn’t you say you were bringing someone over?”

“I did!” Danny said throwing his hands up, it really wasn’t his fault they all assumed who he’d be bringing.

Hawks shifted on his feet. “I can go, it’s fine. I’m really not trying to cause trouble.”

Yamada waved the thought off. “I already made too much food, it’ll go to waste if you don’t stay to eat at least some. With how much you move around you probably need to eat more anyway so you’ll be doing me a favor. Go ahead and take a seat in the living room while I finish up dinner, Shouta come on and help me.”

“Thank you, Present Mic, Eraserhead” Hawks smiled.

“We’re all off the clock and out of uniform, call me Yamada and you can feel free to call Eraser Aizawa. Would you be more comfortable going by your name?” Yamada asked after herding Hawks into the living room.

Hawks shook his head. “No, I just go by Hawks.”

“Alright, no problem. Holler if you need anything, or just ask Danny. Food should only take fifteen more minutes or so.” Yamada told him before heading to the kitchen.

Danny watched as Hawks looked around the living room. “You guys sure have a lot of pictures.”

Danny frowned, they really didn't. There were only four photos in the living room. One of Aizawa and Yamada’s wedding day, a photo of Nemuri, Tensei, Yamada, and Aizawa all mid laughter, a picture of Danny and Jazz together taken on their first day of U.A, and the most recent addition of the four of them at the observatory for Danny’s birthday. Even their parents back in Amity had more pictures of each of them individually. “Not really?”

Hawks seemed to want to change the topic. “That’s your metal from the sports festival right? You ever think about becoming a hero?” He asked Jazz.

Jazz snorted. “No.”

Hawks looked up in indignation. “What’s wrong with being a hero? Your whole family are heroes?”

“She’d probably end up trying to rehabilitate all the villains she’d capture.” Danny laughed. 

“Hey, nothing wrong with that. God knows Tartarus is packed as is, maybe villain rehabilitation would be good.” Hawks said.

Jazz shook her head. “It’s really just not my speed. I’m better at more person to person stuff than stuff like combat, that’s Danny’s area of expertise.”

Hawks face twisted for a moment into something unreadable to Danny before returning to its normal laissez faire smile. “After seeing you dominate in the sports festival I’d hate to see you engage in something that is your speed. And from the sound of it I'd hate to ever have to go up against Danny if you consider him the combat expert between the two of you.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t say I’m an expert in anything. I’m still learning new things about my quirk and how to properly fight. I’m still a first year student after all.” Especially if you counted back from when they were in Amity Park. His mom was a master of martial arts and his father was a genius inventor both of them being some of the biggest names in the field of ecto-science. Compared to everyone else Danny was related to he was lucky to be called average.

“Ah don’t be like that, you gotta be more confident in your skills. Key to being a top hero is confidence and a good relationship with the public.” Hawks winked. “Which is why next year when you get your provisional license you should do a work-study with me.”

Danny didn’t have either of those things, nor was he good at achieving those things, so it was great to know his chances of being a top hero were so slim. Made him feel so good about himself. “What’s a provisional license?”

“A way for hero students who are underage to be able to do actual hero work underneath a pro-hero without having to worry about quirk regulation laws or the Anti-Vigilante Act. Basically a hero license with restrictions.” Yamada explained as he walked plates of food to the table. “Dinner’s ready, come eat.”

The five of them sat down at the dining table. Hawks lit up as the food was placed in front of him before glancing up and remembering Aizawa and Yamada were also at the table. “I don’t think I need this much food, you know how we have to watch what we eat to stay in shape.”

It was Aizawa’s turn to look at Hawks with concern. “You also need to make sure you’re eating enough to make up for the calories you burn. It’s not like you're gorging yourself.”

“But you both have less food than I do.” Hawks pointed out.

“Yes.” Aizawa said slowly as if explaining to a child. “Because we both work part time and are not speed based heroes. You’re also barely out of your teens. I’d be hard pressed to believe you don’t still need to eat like one.”

Danny was already eating his own meal but stopped for a moment to add his two cents. “Didn’t you say you didn’t get the chance to eat home cooked meals that often? Just eat.”

“Well now I know what I’m doing if we have leftovers, you have to take them home with you.” Yamada said as he pointed a fork at the winged hero. “You should be able to have the comfort of a home cooked meal when you need it.”

Hawks shook his head. “No it’s fine, you already gave me plenty of food. It’s really just because I can’t cook. It wasn’t deemed important to hero work, y'know?”

Aizawa paused, eating his own meal. “I know you didn’t go to U.A, which hero school did you go to? I don’t think I’ve heard.”

Hawks finished chewing his food. “I didn’t. I was-.” Hawks froze for a second. “I was home schooled, in a private hero program.”

“I see.” Danny could have sworn Aizawa was staring into Hawks soul, for what reason he wasn’t sure.

Danny and Yamada both finished their food first. Yamada grabbed his own plate before circling the table to get to Danny. He moved to quickly reach over Danny to grab his place but stopped when Hawks tensed up his wings flaring out eyes trained on Yamada’s hand. Yamada frowned and slowly moved the rest of the way towards Danny’s plate before stacking it onto his own empty plate. 

Hawks seemed to realize what he just did, because his wings snapped tightly against his back and he became very focused with the food on his plate. Aizawa stood up and followed Yamada into the kitchen bringing his plate to the sink despite not finishing his food. Danny could hear faint whispers from the kitchen. He couldn't see them since his back was turned to them from where he sat but once they came back to the table Aizawa looked similar to how he looked when he and detective Tsukauchi decided Danny and Jazz would be staying with Aizawa. Irritated to say the least now that Danny was better at reading the man's facial expressions.

Yamada softly clapped his hands together. “Hawks, how does joining Danny in his cooking lessons with me every once in a while?”

Hawks looked up from his now empty plate. “What?”

“Cooking lessons, I’ve been teaching Danny recipes and how to cook properly for a while now. And not to toot my own horn I seem to be a pretty good teacher too. Every week or every other week or so depending on your schedule you can come over and have a home cooked meal and learn how to make some yourself.” Yamada grinned widely.

“But why? No offense but I’m aware you really don’t want me here. Why invite me back?” 

“Every adult should at least know how to cook some basic meals if able. And frozen meals don’t count. A good home cooked meal does wonders for your mental health. If you say no, I’ll pester you through my radio show and make sure the press always knows where you’ll be patrolling.” Yamada said, still smiling and pushing a container of leftovers into Hawks’ hands. 

Hawks looked between Yamada, Danny, and Aizawa. Aizawa just gave him a look that clearly said that it was out of his hands. “You should accept!” Danny said. “Not just because of the threat of the press. He’s right, cooking can be really calming. Plus he can teach you how to make your favorite foods so you can eat it whenever you want.”

“I guess I don’t have a choice? I’m not sure when I’ll be able to do it though, free days like I had today are hard enough to come by.” Hawks said with a frown.

“Nope, not an excuse. You’re much too young to be such a workaholic already. You need to learn how to set boundaries at work. You find a sidekick you can trust enough to cover for you at your agency at least one day a week, then work your way up to two if you can. You can’t do your best as a hero when you’re burnt out.” Yamada chastised. 

And if Danny couldn’t relate to that. Back in Amity he’d make so many mistakes since he was stretched so thin. He was just lucky he was the only one who ever really got hurt. Compared to then, even a extremely rough day at school here was a cakewalk, at least he knew he’d be able to get a full night's rest once the day was done. 

    Danny waved goodbye to Hawks as he left and turned to Yamada. “You know dad, you and Jazz are too much alike at times when it comes to convincing people to do what you want.” It was almost unsettling. 

    “What can I say? It’s a skill.” Yamada said and flipped his hair. “Are you all packed for the week yet? Extra clothes? Pajamas? You have all your toiletries ready so you can put them in your bag quickly in the morning?”

    Danny nodded. “Yep, I packed it all this morning before I went to visit uncle Tensei. He says thanks for the food by the way. Iida also says hi.”

    “Hospital food sucks and he’s been eating it since he was injured, it was the best thing we could do for him since exams are coming up. I love my job truly, but if I have to explain the difference between a clause and a phrase once more U.A will need new windows. Good that you’re all packed though, you can always call if you forgot something too. Nighteye agency isn’t too far away, probably one of the reasons Sho agreed to let you go there honestly.” Yamada bent down to whisper to Danny. “He tends to be overprotective and has an issue with letting those he cares for go too far away.” 

    Danny rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I noticed.”
    Yamada stood back up with a laugh. “Don’t take it personally, I know you’re still angry with him but he does really mean the best for you.” 

    “You know when we were all first getting to know each other, I had a hard time understanding what he was thinking about me. I do know he cares now, I just don’t understand why he has to be so overbearing about it.” Danny huffed out.

    A sad look passed Yamada’s face. “When we were around Jazz’s age we lost a close friend while we were training under a hero together. They never did find his body.” Yamada took a second to breathe. “That kind of tragedy sticks with you kiddo. And now you’re being sent off for a week away from us to train. Where if something does happen we probably wouldn’t be able to help.”

    Danny could see how that made sense, he still thought it was unreasonable, but it made more sense now. “Well I’m sure your friend is glad you still miss him.” 

    Yamada straightened. “What do you mean?”

    Danny shrugged. “You’d be surprised by how many ghosts don’t get the privilege of being mourned. I never did. Sentenced to an eternity of not being remembered. Being remembered, it helps keep a ghost sane, it helps them remember their human life. Otherwise they can easily fall into obsession madness.”

    “Well it’s kinda hard to mourn someone who’s talking right in front of you.” Yamada pointed out.

    Danny chuckled. “Yeah I suppose I can’t be forgotten so easily when I’m such a menace right? But regardless, it’s good to remember the people you’ve lost. It’ll keep you sane as much as it keeps them sane.”
    “I can’t argue with our very own resident ghost now can I? Now go on and get ready for bed. You have a big week in front of you.” Yamada shooed him off.

    When Danny left in the morning with Aizawa for the train station to meet up with the rest of his class he almost missed the fifth picture that was now in the living room. A teenager, wearing a bomber jacket with blue hair that seemed like it would wisp off in the wind if the picture could move, smiling into the camera.

Chapter 24: Danny Breaks the Timeline

Summary:

Danny starts his internships and meets Sir Nighteye. Luckily for Danny he already has experience with someone who can see the future, not so lucky for Sir Nighteye.

Notes:

Wow we offically hit 100k words... how'd that happen?

Danny readjusted his grip on the case with his hero costume in it as he watched his classmates all board their respective train lines to get to their internships. Though ‘hero costume’ was a bit of a stretch, it just had the knife belt Aizawa had given him in it.  He still had yet to figure out a way to change his ghost form's appearance permanently without dying again, which wasn’t really an option.  

 “Here comes Mirio.” Aizawa nodded towards the approaching third year student. Mirio had offered to meet up with Danny at the station so they could head to Nighteye agency together. “You have everything you need for the week, correct? Remember you’re there to observe hero work and nothing more. Let the pro’s handle the rest.”

Danny rolled his eyes as he waved at Mirio. “Yeah yeah yeah, I know. You don’t forget to feed Laika when I’m gone, there's enough ectoplasm infused food to last a week and then some. Don’t try to eat it to see what it tastes like, best case scenario you start floating for an hour.”

“Noted. Remember to check in with us throughout the day. Keep your phone charged. Call if anything happens, and I mean anything.” Aizawa said.

Danny just had to keep reminding himself that Aizawa was doing this because he cared. Otherwise he’d absolutely lose it. It was still weird, no matter how much time had passed, to see Aizawa go from teacher mode to dad mode. 

Mirio had finally reached the two of them, having to weave past the heavy morning traffic of people commuting. “Hey Mr. Aizawa, Danny. Still down for that plan right?” 

Danny nodded with a smile. “As long as you’re sure about it.   

“Of course I am! Sir loves jokes, he’s always saying how laughter is a needed aspect of being a hero, can’t reassure people if you’re always frowning after all!” Mirio glanced over to Aizawa. “No offense to you and all.”

“None taken. I’m an underground hero for a reason.” Aizawa responded. “Now get going. Your train is here. It looks bad on all of U.A. if you’re late.” 

Once they arrived in front of the agency Danny was surprised to see it looked like a normal office building. “Are you really sure about this Mirio? Doesn’t pranking the person I’m doing an internship under during our first meeting seem counterproductive?” 

“Don’t worry about it! Sir picked you out specifically after seeing you during the sports festival. So you've already made your first impression, now you just need to solidify it! Now just like we planned, go ahead first.” Mirio said, giving Danny a thumbs up. As they reached Sir Nighteye’s office door. 

Danny took a deep breath and phased through the office door. The man sitting behind the desk looked up, and locked eyes with Danny. Danny felt very unsure, almost like he was pinned under his gaze. No matter, he and Mirio came up with a plan and he’d go through with it.

“Just like Mirio. You must be Daniel Fenton. As you are already aware I am Sir Nighteye. Thank you for accepting my internship offer. Is Mirio on his way up too? ” Sir Nighteye asked from behind his desk.

“Yep, should be here in a few minutes.” Danny said as he approached the desk. “Wanna hear a joke while we wait?”

Sir Nighteye gave Danny an inquisitive look, still frowning. “Go ahead.”

“Why’d the hero cross the road?” Danny asked with a smile.

“To get to the other side?” Sir Nighteye guessed.

Danny shook his head. “No. To fight a villain they’ll lose to. Because the reliance that civilians and heroes alike have on All Might will be the end of this society and it’s way of life. Once he retires or, from where his refusal even now to stop doing hero work seems to be leading him, dies, the villians will no longer have a symbol of peace to be in fear of and the very foundation of this country will crumble.” Danny circled around to the side of the desk, still smiling. “But you knew that already didn’t you?”

Before Sir Nighteye could get in a response Mirio phased half his body through the office door. Which caused Nighteye to break his eye contact with Danny and look away. “Sir, I brought our intern! Come on Danny, say hi.”
    Mirio phased the rest of the way in pulling Danny by the wrist into the room as well. “Hello. Thank you for your internship offer Sir Nighteye.” Danny bowed towards the man.

Sir Nighteye looked at the two students then back to the side of his desk, where there was no longer anyone standing, and back to the students. “Pardon me?”

Danny tilted his head and smiled. “Are you okay Sir Nighteye, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Oh I know what will lift your spirits, a joke. Why’d the hero cross the road?”

Nighteye still looked pretty put off. “What?”

Danny frowned, and crossed his arms. “You’re supposed to say ‘why’ not ‘what’. Basic joke format here.”

“Why’d the hero cross the road Danny?” Mirio asked instead.

“Thank you Mirio, glad someone respects the sacristy of a joke.” Danny smiled and looked back over to Mirio. “Why you ask? To get to the other side of course.”

Sir Nighteye was still just looking between the two of them. Mirio bent down to whisper in Danny’s ear. “What did you tell him, he seems pretty shaken.” 

Danny shrugged “I just said something I overheard Jazz say that made my dads uncomfortable.”

“Your sister Jazz?” Mirio asked.

“Yeah?” Danny replied, unsure as to where Mirio was going with the conversation. 

“The same Jazz that is a student under principal Nedzu and won against all the second year hero students in the sports festival, quirkless?” Mirio was still smiling, but it was more of a smile of discomfort. 

“The one and only, I don’t think I know any other Jazz’s.” Danny said. Nighteye was now in front of the two of them. Danny had to tilt his head up to even look at the man’s face when he was that close. Honestly it wasn’t fair, why couldn’t Danny be that tall? 

“Sir,” Mirio started, “I take full responsibility. It was fully my idea to pull a prank on you. I figured it would be a good way to introduce the two of you.” 

“I thought it was a pretty good icebreaker.” Danny said, quickly forming and then shattering a piece of ice. 

Sir Nighteye must have gotten over his initial shock, Danny heard a small exhale from him. It certainly wasn't a full laugh but he’d take it. “How did you do it, being in two places at once?”

Danny could work with questions about his quirk. “I can duplicate myself. I can only hold one steady for more than an hour, but anything less than an hour I can handle a few more.”

“I see, Ectoplasm?” Nighteye asked.

“Yeah actually. How’d you know?” Danny was surprised that he even knew what ectoplasm was, let alone the fact that it was the source of his quirk.

“I’ve come across someone with your original quirk before. What about the others? Where did you receive those? Would you be willing to give the ones you know the source of back? I’m sure some of them your father must have given you once your quirk came in, or even before then. It wouldn’t surprise me knowing what I know about him.” Nighteye said.

Danny felt like they were having two very different conversations despite talking to each other. “I think you lost me there. I didn’t know Eraserhead or Present Mic when my quirk came in.”
    Nighteye shook his head. “Mirio, do you mind stepping out for a minute?”

“Are you sure Sir?” Mirio asked, looking between Danny and Nighteye clearly not too sure about where the situation was headed.

Danny shrugged. “I’m fine Mirio, you can leave for a bit no problem. I’ll be fine.”

Mirio stuck his tongue to his cheek. “You know what Danny, I don’t think you’re the one I’m worried about.” 

“It will only be a few minutes, go check with Bubble Girl and see if she needs help before patrol.” Nighteye instructed, leaving no room for argument.

“Okie dokie, if you say so.” Mirio said before leaving the room.

Danny turned back towards Sir Nighteye who gestured for him to sit down. Danny sat in the chair in front of his desk, expecting Nighteye to sit behind his desk. But the man stayed between Danny and the door.

“Did I do something wrong already?” Danny asked as he placed a hand to his neck.

“I was not referencing Eraserhead and Present Mic. I was referencing your biological father.” Sir Nighteye said. He was staring at Danny again, as if he was calculating every little move he made.

“No offense truly. But I really, really, doubt you know my bio-dad.” Danny stressed. He unfortunately was remembering the last time someone assumed who his father was. And Nighteye did work with All Might in the past.

“There is no need to hide it. I was able to put the pieces together during your sports festival.” Nighteye started to explain. “I must tell you that whatever quirk you are using to hide your true appearance is quite convincing. It must take a lot of concentration on your end to keep it up for so long during the day, it is very commendable. Do not worry I will not hold the crimes of All For One against you, you were still young when All Might killed him after all. It was smart of them to put you with pro-heroes in case any of his followers came after you.”
    Oh no, not again. Danny wondered what it was about him that made people just assume so much about his family life. “What?”

“Before this internship continues however, I do wish to gauge why you entered U.A. in the first place. Did you know in advance that All Might would be teaching there? Or perhaps this is a way to reject your father’s ideals for you?” Nighteye steepled his hands and placed them in front of his face. 

Danny paused for just a moment before responding, if only to keep his annoyance in check. “First of all, every single assumption you have about my family needs to be thrown out the window. Like now. I want to be a hero because I can’t just watch someone in trouble and not do anything. And your quirk laws make that difficult without a hero license. My biological parents are Jack and Maddie Fenton, both of them are quirkless, American, and not even aware I even have a quirk. Me and my sister were put with two pro-heroes because Aizawa was the first one who found us when we landed in this universe because some self-righteous vigilante had a quirk mishap or something, and he just happened to be married to another  pro-hero. That is literally it. They took us in and decided they liked us so they kept us. Clearly despite your obsession with the man, you don’t talk to him anymore because All Might would tell you the same thing because I had to have this same fucking conversation with him!” 

Danny took a deep breath and waited until it seemed that Sir Nighteye processed all of what he said. “Sorry, that was uncalled for, I understand.”

“Earlier though, you said you got your duplication quirk from Ectoplasm?”

“No. I said my quirk is ectoplasm based. As in the stuff you see ghosts leave behind in movies.But if this was the only reason you offered me an internship I’ll be going.” Danny said and stood up.

“Before you take your leave. This was partially why I offered you an internship but it was not the only reason. You do have the potential of a great hero, and I figured if All For One’s son wanted to be a hero it would not hurt to encourage that. But regardless you have that potential, and if All Might refuses to choose a proper successor the best I can do is make sure the next generation of heroes is prepared to pick up the slack. Please reconsider your departure.” Nighteye said.

Danny sighed. “Fine. Only because it’s too late to change internships, and it’d make Mirio sad.” Mirio sad wasn’t something anyone wanted to see. He was like an excitable puppy. An excitable puppy that could easily beat up most people.

“Very well then, follow me to the training room.” Sir Nighteye said, leading Danny out of the room.

They picked Mirio up from where he was talking to one of Sir Nighteye’s sidekicks. Sir Nighteye led the two of them to a large room that seemed like it would fit better in a gym than in an office building. Even pro-heroes had to stay in shape he supposed. Sir Nighteye took a piece of chalk and drew a circle on the floor in the middle of the room. He reached inside of his pocket and tossed something to Danny.

Danny caught it more from reflex than anything else, it was heavier than he was expecting. He looked down at the object and it was…a stamp? Why was it so heavy? 

“That is one of my hyper-density seals, I use them in combat as support weapons. Heavier than they look.” Sir Nighteye walked up to Danny looking him in the eye as he grabbed it out of his hand. “Your goal will be to take this from me, while I must stay within the circle there on the floor.” He placed the seal back into Danny’s hand.

“Sounds easy enough, why though?” Danny asked.

Sir Nighteye raised a brow. “You are still a first year student, I need to determine what you are capable of. Both physically and mentally. Show me that you are in control of your quirk and are capable of forming strategies, and that you can switch to another plan if your first one falls through. We will do this for ten minutes. If you cannot take the seal from me within the ten minute time frame you will solely be patrolling with Bubble Girl or Centipeder as they take on less high stake assignments.”
    “What? That’s not fair.” Danny protested.

“Hero work is not fair. If we come across a villain and you get into trouble and I have to choose between saving you or saving civilians, I am obligated as the one who offered you the internship to save you. And I will not be responsible for the loss of civilian life simply because my intern can not handle the pressure of being a hero.” Sir Nighteye said as he stepped into the circle. 

“I can handle myself.” Danny said with a frown.

“Then prove it.” Sir Nighteye held the seal up in the air.

That was fine, it was fine. Danny had a whole arsenal of abilities behind him and Sir Nighteye couldn’t even leave the circle. Danny flew towards Nighteye’s hand reaching for the seal, but somehow Nighteye was quick enough to see him coming and step out of the way. Then Danny just had to stop him from moving too much, his movement was already limited, the circle was roughly a yard in diameter, but he could limit even that. Danny shot a burst of ice towards Nighteye’s feet and went invisible before lunging towards the seal once more.

Nighteye tossed the seal up into the air as Danny reached for it, catching it on its way back down and slammed it into the ice causing it to shatter. “You’ll have to try harder than that. Maybe Mirio was wrong about your potential. How disappointing. I thought you’d take this more seriously.”

Danny tried a few more times to simply move faster than Sir Nighteye could process but it was in vain. He only had five minutes left on the timer to figure it out. If Sir Nighteye wanted him to be serious, Danny could do that. 

He realized pretty quickly from the way he was moving that Sir Nighteye was looking into the future. Lucky for Danny head experience with someone else who could do the same, thank you Clockwork, and he knew how to get past it, he’d need more power though. 

Just as Danny went to transform, Sir Nighteye froze up, his eyes going wide, his grip on the seal loosening slightly as his stance changed from one focusing on defense to one ready for a fight. It was pretty easy for Danny to just use telekinesis to pull the seal from Nighteye’s hand just as Sir Nighteye yelled out. “Mirio move!”

It took him a few more seconds for him to seem to realize whatever he was expecting wasn’t going to happen. Danny crossed his legs in the air, head cocked to the side. “I feel like I should be offended you didn’t tell me to take cover like you did Mirio.”

Sir Nighteye blinked as if he wasn’t expecting Danny to be there. “You’re still alive?”

“Eh,” Danny made a so-so motion with his free hand. “Debatable. No less alive than was this morning at least.”

“But foresight, it ended prematurely the same way it ends when a death will happen.” Sir Nighteye put a hand to his head.

Danny could only shrug. “I mean future’s never set in stone, timelines are weird like that. I’m sure you know that already though, with a future sight quirk and all. My quirk is also just weird so I wouldn’t worry about it too much, affects things in weird ways.”

Sir Nighteye looked back up from the ground. “The future does not change. What I see always happens.”

Danny couldn’t help but snort. “I mean you probably see the most likely timeline then? But nothing is absolutely certain. I’d be in so much trouble if that was the case. There’s at least three evil future versions of me that would have to fight for dominance if that were the case.” Danny transformed back into a human. “What do you see me doing in ten minutes?” 

Sir Nighteye seemed taken aback once again. “I can see your future again, but how?” 

Danny clapped his hands together. “Doesn’t matter. What do you see me doing in five minutes?”

“Roughly five minutes from now you’re sparring with Mirio.” Sir Nighteye answered.

“Okay, watch this. Neither of you two move.” Danny said before leaving the room. He waited ten minutes wandering around the halls of the agency before returning to the training room. “Boom, free will in action. And just for good measure, I won’t spar with Mirio all week. I already beat him before anyway. No need to embarrass him again.”

“It’s true Sir, beat me, Tamaki, and Nejire all at once. It was pretty pathetic of us! It was before he was even a student!” Mirio laughed.

“See boom, timeline averted. I’m an expert at that at this point. Anyway I got the seal so I get to patrol with you right?”  Danny placed his hands on his hips. 

Nighteye moved to say something but seemingly thought better of it. “Yes, that was the agreement. You two get into your hero costumes. Unfortunately for you Danny, we just finished up a big assignment so we probably won't get another assigned to us for a week or two. It will mainly just be patrols this week.”

Danny shrugged. “Patrols are still an important part of being a hero. Plus we’re not authorized to fight anyway so I’d only be able to do support if you did have any big cases.” 

“Support is just as important as any other role, don’t think otherwise. Now get ready, we leave in thirty minutes.” Sir Nighteye instructed.

The next three days were pretty normal in the scheme of things. Danny and Mirio would work on skills for the first half of the day and they’d patrol with Sir Nighteye the second half. Danny even got to see the two take down a few villains that they came across. When he wasn’t up against Danny, Mirio was a very skilled fighter. 

They were heading back to the agency after patrol on the third day. The sun had set at that point, the streetlights and Danny were the only lights around. Danny couldn’t wait to see the bed he was given at the agency. He was tired, that morning Sir Nighteye had him practicing his duplication, trying to extend the time limit he had on his duplicates before they went unstable. 

Danny’s phone pinged a message once they entered the building. He looked at it suppressing a yawn, it was from Midoriya. He couldn’t help but wonder how Midoriya was doing with his internships, maybe the text was nerding out about it. Or nerding out about how Danny was interning with All Might's old sidekick. From what Danny's seen the past few days putting Sir Nighteye and Midoriya in a room together would probably cause the universe to implode by shear All Might fanboying. If Mirio reminded Danny of All Might, Izuku took after Nighteye. Like two parents who each took full custody of a kid in the divorce. He unlocked his phone and froze up at the message. Or the lack thereof, all there was was a location. In what looked like some back alleyway in Hosu. 

Ancients above and below, it was the ghosts wasn’t it? Danny knew he should have probed more into it after Midoriya’s weirdness at the sports festival, with Danny’s ghost sense going off and Midoriya briefly hosting seven more souls than the average human. Danny was so distracted from everything else that happened to the sports festival he totally forgot to investigate more and now his friend was probably, he didn’t know possessed? He was the only one who could help if that was the case. Whatever was haunting him probably was waiting until Danny wasn’t around. 

Danny, still in his ghost form, shot out of the agency towards the location Midoriya sent. It would be almost an hour if he traveled normally by train, but Danny wasn’t restricted by a track and he was fast. All he could focus on was reaching Midoriya before it was too late. He made it in under ten minutes. 

Landing in the alleyway he was in fact not met with ghosts. “Todoroki? Iida? Midoriya, what is going on?”

Iida and Midoria were both down on the ground, near who Danny was assuming was another hero. “It’s the hero killer Stain, I wasn’t-I wasn’t strong enough.” Iida said through gritted teeth.

That caught Danny’s interest. “The same one who hurt uncle Tensei?” Danny certainly wasn’t above some ghost given justice.

“Watch out! He can paralyze you if he drinks your blood!” Midoriya called out.

Danny looked over to Midoriya. “Really? That’s disgusting. What about blood borne diseases? Do you think he has the proper shots?”

Danny would have continued if a knife wasn’t shoved through his shoulder interrupting his train of thought. Danny turned around to face who he could only assume was the hero killer. There was no way he was losing to someone dressed like that. Especially someone who dressed like that who hurt his friends and family. 

Unfortunately on Danny’s end apparently Stain was pretty fast and had no respect for personal space as he got up close to Danny and licked the ectoplasm off of the knife blade sticking out of Danny’s shoulder. Honestly Danny was more grossed out than concerned.

The face of the hero killer certainly was that of concern though. Whether it was from the fact that he would probably have a case of ecto-poisoning from ingesting pure ectoplasm, or the more likely case the fact Danny was not paralyzed and what he was bleeding was definitely not blood. 

Danny resisted the urge to gag. Despite how gross the man was, he was definitely a threat. Having killed countless heroes and permanently injured even more. Danny wouldn’t let his friends just be another name on those lists. Not on his watch. 

Danny readied an ecto-blast in his hand before he felt himself being pulled from behind. Suddenly his vision was filled with green and his core felt as if he was breathing pure filtered oxygen. 

“Daniel, finally I was able to find you. I’m sorry it took so long.”

Danny slowly turned around to meet a face he wasn’t even sure he’d ever see again. “Clockwork?”

Notes:

Cliffhanger? I hardly know her!

Chapter 25: Jazz's First Step in World Domination

Summary:

Jazz is spending the week interning with Nezu, surely nothing concerning will arise from the two of them being together.

Notes:

World domination if you ask anyone other than Jazz or Nezu that is....

    Jazz could feel the judgmental eyes on her when she entered the room. “Is that truly necessary?”

    Jazz looked down and stared into two beady black eyes with a frown. “If I’m going to be shadowing you every day all day for a week, I’m going to need as much caffeine as I can get. Plus, this way I won’t have to make trips to the teacher's lounge, or if we go somewhere else outside the school I won’t have to worry.” She said, and held up a large thermos filled with coffee. 

    “I’ve told you before, you are more than welcome to my personal tea collection, as well as the kettle I keep in my office.” Nezu reminded her.

    Jazz raised a finger before taking a drink of coffee, it was still too early. The fact Nezu got up so early every day was terrifying. “Tea is not coffee.”

    “Luckily I was anticipating this!” Nezu hopped down from his chair and walked over to the cabinet where he kept his tea supplies. Or more aptly, he walked to the cabinet right next to it that certainly was not there that past Saturday. “We can’t have you being cranky in front of any important people, after all. Or let you carry around a mug that could probably be considered a weapon by its size alone! So as your mentor I found a solution, ta-da!” 

    He opened the new cabinet with as much flourish as someone who was less than half her height could. Looking inside revealed a large collection of different equipment and supplies for making almost any style of coffee someone could think of. There was even an espresso machine.

“This is sort of excessive, is it not?” Jazz asked as she opened one of the drawers, which was full of different roasts and flavors of coffee grounds and beans. She usually just drank coffee with a splash of creamer, it was quick and didn’t require much hassle in case she was woken up in the middle of the night to help stitch Danny back together after a ghost attack. Of course, she’d help her brother before making a cup of coffee, but she always had trouble going back to sleep whenever that happened. It sort of just kept, even after six months of living with Hizashi and Shouta.

“Not at all, consider it a late birthday gift if you must. I am in no way short in funds. If you are to continue being my student, you must learn to put yourself before others sometimes. It will not be the end of the world to accept a kind gesture.” Nezu smiled.

Jazz resisted the urge to protest more. “My birthday was four months ago.” Just a bit before the entrance exam, in fact. Jazz was still so focused on getting back home then that she only allowed them to take her away from her planning for a hour or two.

 Nezu handed her a much smaller travel mug than the one in her hands. “Indeed it was. Now make yourself a nice cup of coffee, we have things to do and people to talk to.”

The first big item on the agenda for the day was planning the final exams for the hero students. Nezu wanted to take a different approach this year compared to past years. They had to get that out of the way first since internship week was when the teachers planned for the term finals since the students in every course would be doing some sort of internship. The empty halls would take getting used to in the coming week. 

The discussion on which teachers would be up against what students was going well, until a certain someone had to be assigned. It seemed like none of the teachers actually were up for going against Danny.

“What about Eraserhead or Present Mic? They know him best out of all of us.” Ectoplasm suggested.

Hizashi made an ‘x’ shape with his arms. “No way. I’m morally opposed to attempting to fight my son. Not to mention, Eraser’s quirk doesn’t work on him, and the kiddo’s wail is too similar to my quirk. Best case scenario, we end up blowing out the eardrums of everyone on campus.”
    “Midnight? He wouldn’t be able to get close enough to fight her without risking breathing in her somnambulist.” Thirteen suggested. 

It was Jazz’s turn to speak up. “Except he doesn’t need to breathe in the first place.” The teachers all turned towards her.

“He doesn’t need to breathe?” Snipe asked. “Dear Lord, is there anything that can stop him?”

“A bullet to the head and chest will stun him for a minute or two.” Shouta said as he glared at Snipe.

Nemuri straitened up and looked between the two heroes staring match before turning a glare to Snipe. “You shot my nephew?” She said through gritted teeth.

Snipes gulp was audible, despite his face covering hit was clear he was regretting his seat next to Nemuri. “It was an honest mistake. It was five months ago, I have apologized numerous times.”

Jazz cleared her throat, she should end the discussion before it escalated. The two continued going back and forth, not paying her much mind. She clasped her hands together and silently counted to sixty. While she appreciated Nemuri standing up for Danny, it wasn’t exactly needed in this situation. Nemuri didn’t seem like she was going to calm down anytime soon. Jazz stood up and walked around the conference table and placed a gentle hand on Nemuri’s shoulder before bending down and whispering something in her ear before returning to her seat next to Nezu, pointedly ignoring the excited noise that came from Nemuri.

“Now that I have your attention.” Jazz said. “Does anyone else have a suggestion?” 

Thirteen raised their hand. “What if all of us fight him?”

“Not all of our quirks mesh that well together.” All Might reminded them. “Your quirk or Midnight’s for example wouldn’t work well with those of us who are close combat fighters. We’d just get in the way.” 

“What if we have him fight all of his classmates at once? He’d have to focus on multiple attackers at once, and the other students learn how to coordinate group attacks. And to deal with the odd number of students that comes with taking Danny out of the equation as well as to incentivize the students to do their best, we can have whichever student manages to take Danny down automatically passes the practical.” Shouta suggested. 

Jazz listened silently as a few more suggestions were thrown out. It certainly was entertaining to hear people discuss Danny’s skill set. It was nice to hear that even if they were discussing how to fight him, it wasn’t from a place of malice, but of wanting to help him grow. As they continued discussing other students’ groups and who they’d be fighting against, Jazz couldn't help but feel bad for a few of the first years. Each of the teachers were formidable fighters in their own right, but putting two students up against Nezu was almost cruel. 

Jazz might be considered a genius in her own right, but she had no doubt about how poorly she’d fair if put up against Nezu in a battle of wits. Putting two students who had some of the lowest grades in class against someone with an intelligence quirk could only end one way. 

With the plans for the hero students exams  finally decided, after taking up the entire morning, Nezu and Jazz made their way back to Nezu’s office.  “What was it that you told Midnight to get her to leave Snipe alone?” Nezu asked.

“Oh, I just told her that I’d let her style my hair after work sometime this week if she dropped the subject.” Jazz shrugged.

“I see, please tell me why is that what you went with?” Nezu inquired as he pulled some papers out of his desk.

Jazz knew Nezu knew why, and Nezu most likely knew that Jazz knew he knew. It was a silent test. “Getting people to do what you want is much easier if you give them something in return. Even if the value isn’t an equal exchange, they will feel more obligated to help. The law of reciprocity. Not to mention it is much easier and efficient to get people to listen to you by being nice, if you do it through violence or fear eventually people will turn on you. If they’re loyal, you can get away with much more without questions being asked.”

“Very good! Unfortunately, that meeting was really the only entertaining thing happening today. The rest of the day is just going to be me filling out paperwork and preparing for my meeting with the Hero Public Safety Commission Wednesday. If you have any questions, of course I’m always happy to answer them, but you may also work on a personal project if you wish.” Nezu said.

“Actually, I do have one question,” Jazz interjected before Nezu could start on his paperwork, “though it’s not really related to anything we’ve talked about today. What do you know about the pro-hero Hawks?”

Nezu’s head tilted to the side. “That’s certainly an out of the blue question, may I ask why you want to know?”

“From what I could gather, he’s the youngest hero to ever make the top ten. It’s an impressive feat. I need to learn more about hero society in this world, I have only a vague understanding of it outside of U.A. Not to mention he was one of the top ten to offer Danny an internship and even though Danny didn’t accept I’m still curious.” Jazz explained.

Nezu tapped his chin. “Well to be honest I do not know much about the young man. Believe it or not, I am not all knowing. It does not help that he didn’t go to U.A. or to any other hero school for that matter. If I’m not mistaken, he went into a private young hero training program the Hero Commission hosts. Or used to host, I should say they stopped running it a few years ago. Like you said, he’s the youngest to reach the top ten, and is a very popular hero with the public. He’s mainly known amongst his sidekicks as someone who’s too fast to keep up with, often moving onto the next villain, leaving them to deal with the cleanup. Despite his very open seeming personality, his personal life is actually quite the mystery.”

Jazz nodded her head. “Interesting. We’re going to the Hero Public Safety Commission Wednesday, correct?” 

“Correct. Why, do you have something planned?” Nezu looked back down to his papers. 

Jazz took a sip of her now cold coffee. “No, just want to be prepared.”

---

“Nezu, a pleasure to see you once again.” The hero commission president said, shaking Nezu’s paw.

“The pleasure is all mine. This is my personal student Jasmine, she is shadowing me for the week. I do hope that will not be an issue.” Nezu gestured over to Jazz.

“Of course, no issue at all. She’s the one who won the sports festival for the second years in your school, correct? Her being your student clears a lot of things up in that regard.” The president sat down behind her desk. “How are all the hero students doing this year?”

Jazz held her tongue at the president's words. She did not appreciate being talked about like she wasn’t right there. She especially did not appreciate the implication that the only reason she was able to win the sports festival was because of Nezu. But Jazz was smart enough to know in this situation it was best to stay quiet. It would not do well to make an enemy of the Hero Commission. For now at least, who could say what the future would hold. 

It was interesting, despite both Nezu and the president holding very important and influential positions in the hero community, the majority of the conversation was simple pleasantries. Or at the surface it was. The two were basically having an entirely different conversation in passive aggressiveness underneath. The president ‘inquiring’ over safety measures after what happened in the USJ attack. Nezu reassuring her the safety of the students in his care was his top priority. Speaking of safety issues gave him the chance to ask if the heroes she assigned to the Stain case have made any progress, all out of curiosity of course.

Even Jazz got lost about what was actually being said at times. In the middle of them discussing this year's licensing exams for the second year students, Jazz interrupted. “Excuse me, I’m so sorry, is there a restroom nearby?”

The president's eyes flicked towards her. “Out the door and down the hall to the left, take a right at the end of the hall.”

“Thank you.” Jazz smiled before exiting the room. 

Jazz made her way down the hall as instructed to the bathroom. Multiple stalls, all currently empty, good. Was what Jazz about to do illegal? Yes. Was it morally wrong on a few levels? Also yes. Jazz could no longer say Vlad did nothing good for her anymore though, he certainly made her have to learn the best places to hide surveillance devices. 

She used to have to check the entire house every two weeks with Danny to make sure they didn’t miss any of his hidden cameras or microphones. She started to unscrew one of the screws on the vent and replacing it with one she made with a microphone in it. They underestimated her so much, she was able to smuggle in not only a tiny screwdriver but a recording device as well. Perks of being quirkless.

Just as she was finished and about to stand up, the door to the bathroom opened, and an employee walked in. Jazz froze where she was on the ground.

“Oh my! Excuse me? What are you doing on the ground?” Jazz looked up at the woman who walked in. She looked unassuming for the most part, nothing visible gave away what quirk she might have. 

Jazz smiled, a sheepish look crossing her face. “Sorry, my earring fell out, and I’m just trying to find where it went.” She pointed to her ear that was missing a small stud earring. 

“I’ve been there before. I swear, you drop one, and it’s like it grows legs and walks right off. Let me help.” The woman smiled, bending down next to Jazz as she scanned the floor. A minute later, the woman shouted triumphantly. “Aha! Found it! Under the sinks. I’d wash it with some soap and water in the sink before you put it back in, who knows what’s been on these floors.” She said as she handed the earring to Jazz.

“Definitely.” Jazz nodded quickly rinsing it in the sink and putting it back in her ear. “Thank you so much!”

“No problem sweetie.” The woman waved and Jazz made her way back to the president's office. 

She quietly slipped into the office, doing her best to not interrupt the conversation. From the sounds of it, it was a conversation about…tea? Less of a conversation and more of Nezu just talking about tea actually. Nezu’s ears turned at the sound of the door closing behind her. “Ah Jasmine, you’re back, I assume you found the washroom alright. Now miss president I suppose I’ve rambled on a bit too much about tea, your time is precious I'm sure, so back to business. Have any of our aspiring hero students caught your eye after the sports festival? You do always seem to have a good eye for who’ll rise quickly in the ranks.” 

“Nezu you know I’m not supposed to show any favoritism to any current or soon to be heroes.” The president said with a flat face. 

Nezu clapped his paws together with a smile. “Yet you end up telling me every year anywise. Come now, I thought we were friends?”

The president sighed. “Out of the first years, Endeavor's son, Shoto Todoroki, seems quite promising. The winner, Katsuki Bakugo, would be wise to control that anger of his. The foreign student, Daniel Fenton, certainly had a strange quirk, if he is able to avoid losing control like he did, I’ll be quite interested in how he grows. He might end up being the next Hawks.” For some reason, the way she said that sent a chill up Jazz’s spine. “And despite not making it past the first round of the finals, Ochako Uraraka has quite a bit of potential to grow if she learns to utilize her quirk in different ways during combat.”

Nezu hummed. “I can see where you’re coming from with your points, but to defend my students; Bakugo at this very moment is interning with Best Jeanist, I have trust that Jeanist is working with Bakugo to be more approachable as we speak, and Uraraka is interning with Gunhead to work more on combat training, despite wanting to go into rescue work, and Daniel is working with the same hero Lemillion is working under, and we saw his improvement first hand from last years and this year's sports festival results.”

“As long as they can hold their own on the field by the time they graduate, in the end it does not matter what I think.” The president looked down at her watch. “Unfortunately that’s all the time I can spare, I have a meeting I must attend to. Until we meet again, I’ll be off.”

Nezu and Jazz walked to the car waiting for them outside of Hero commission building. Nothing was said until they were a few blocks away. “So, what did you think?” Nezu asked.

Jazz thought a lot of things. She didn’t like the hero commission president. It might be because she was still mad about the way she treated her during the meeting, basically pretending she wasn’t there unless Nezu or Jazz herself outright said something that required a response. She didn’t like about how she spoke about her brother either.

‘ The next Hawks .’

Something about that made her stomach turn. Maybe it was because Jazz only met the hero once and could already tell from his behavior that something was off. She couldn’t pinpoint what it was quite yet, but Hawks’ flags were just as red, and plentiful, as his feathers. Especially after she learned the hero homeschool he mentioned was actually a program with Hero Commission. She’d get more information each time he came over, slowly, of course. She didn’t want to clue him in or scare him off. 

The bug she planted would come in handy as well in that regard. She felt bad about eavesdropping on people in the bathroom, of all places. But that’s exactly why she had to put it there. No one expects to be watched or listened in on in there. People view them as safe places to talk with no worry. It would take a while to get the all information she might need, or any information at all other than idle gossip. But she would get it, she had no doubt. 

“I’m not sure what I think, she gives me some weird vibes, though.” Jazz finally answered after thinking it over. “Do you really consider her a friend?”

Nezu laughed. “No, no, not at all in fact. I agree with your statement. She holds a difficult job, and must make difficult decisions at times. But she reminds me too much of my previous captors. They’d always say what they were doing was for the good of humanity, a breakthrough could help so many people. It makes me wonder, what is she doing for the good of Japan.”

Jazz was certainly surprised to hear him say that. He didn’t talk about when he was experimented on in the past, only that it happened. The rest was up to speculation. Is that how Danny would end up if they found their way back to Amity Park? A taste of freedom, to finally be a normal teenager, just for it to be ripped from him. He was so used to using his quirk freely at home and school now. What happens when he slips up in front of Maddie and Jack. Or even worse, the GIW? Would he too start to harbor a justified hatred for humanity?

“Home sweet home.” Nezu interrupted her thoughts as he peered out the window. “Best get going, it’s been a long day, and it’s starting to get dark out.”

Jazz followed his gaze, oh they were at her home. Jazz had the brief thought of wondering how he knew where she lived, but then remembered he had access to all the student files as well as two of his employees happen to be her parents. Nezu waved her off as she made her way up the steps to her apartment. 

Opening the door, and quickly taking off her shoes, she was met face to face with Nemuri. “Surprise! Hair day! Or well hair night I suppose, hair late afternoon?. No matter!”

Jazz looked past Nemuri to Shouta who was looking at Jazz with a frown. “Why do you two keep inviting pro heroes into our home?”

“In my defense, you do know this one.” Jazz pointed out.

“Nope, never seen that woman in my life.” Shouta huffed.

“Don’t be mean to Aunt Nemuri, she kindly agreed to do my hair.” Jazz pointed a finger at him.

Nemuri gasped. “Shouta she finally did it, she called me aunt! Hizashi! Hizashi guess what! She called me aunt!” She yelled.

Jazz could hear a cheer come from the direction of Hizashi and Shouta’s room. Shouta rubbed at his temple. “So let me rephrase this, why is she doing your hair?”

“Because I told her she could if she stopped harassing Snipe. He owes me another favor now.” Jazz smiled.

“Nemuri you’re aware that that's manipulation, right?” Aizawa said.

“Yep, well aware. And it’s working. I’m okay with a bit of manipulation if I get to do my nieces' hair for her.” Nemuri wiggled a bit in excitement. “Let me go grab my scissors, take a seat on one of the stools at the counter.”

“Scissors?” Jazz did not remember agreeing to a haircut.

Nemuri wrapped a cape around Jazz’s front after she sat down. “Just cutting off the dead ends. When was the last time you had your hair cut?” 

Gosh, she didn’t know, sometime before they even got to this universe. “Seven or eight months, I think? I usually cut my own hair, I guess I’ve been busy.” Between support course work, classes with Nezu, and working on her own stuff, she’d been so busy she never even thought to take the time to trim her hair.

“You used to cut your own hair?” Shouta asked.

Jazz would have nodded if she was able. “Yeah. Especially these past few years, my bio-parents were too busy with their work to take us to a barber. I would have been fine for the most part with my long hair, but it started to get unmanageable for Danny. Not to mention how he got really uncomfortable when his hair started to get past his ears. So I really appreciate you guys helping him with stuff like that.”

Jazz could feel Nemuri pause at the mention of her and Danny’s biological parents. There was no doubt she was curious about it since she met them, Jazz appreciated how she didn’t ask despite that. Jazz could see Shouta look at her like he was conflicted on what he wanted to say. 

“I’m aware that they were neglectful. Emotionally, at the bare minimum. Our basic needs were met, food, water, housing, but I had to remind them when Danny or I grew out of our clothes. It’s much easier to notice when you end up as the one who parents your sibling.” Jazz told him. Danny might still be in denial about it at times, but it was clear he was starting to realize as well. Even when you're older it’s hard to realize something like that, and come to the realization that even if your parents might love you, they aren’t good parents, or good for you.

Nemuri was finishing up braiding a section of Jazz’s hair when Shouta got a call. Jazz couldn’t hear who was speaking or what they were saying, but clearly it wasn’t great.

“He did what?”

 “And you didn’t stop him? 

“I don’t care, he was your responsibility, and you were supposed to keep him safe.”

“Do you know where he is now?”

“Why wasn’t I called before this? Why didn’t the hospital call when he was admitted?”

“What do you mean four of them? What do you mean crying?”

“You better stay right where you are and be very grateful I’m coming over there as a father and a teacher.” Shouta hung up abruptly, a very interesting string of emotions crossed his face. Jazz could pick out anger, worry, fear, exhaustion, before it went back to his blank resting face.

“It’s Danny again, isn’t it?” Jazz asked.

“I’m going to kill your brother, it’s the only way I can prevent gray hairs.” Shouta said as he rushed around, haphazardly throwing his capture weapon around his neck.

“A year too late for that, you’ll also have to stand in line.” Jazz said. Looking at her hair in the mirror Nemuri gave her, it turned out quite nice.

“I hear enough jokes about that from your brother, don’t start. Especially since he’s currently in Hosu with three of his classmates in a hospital.” Shouta grabbed the car keys and ran out the door. “Tell Hizashi where I’ve gone if he wakes up.”

“Make me tell him his son is in the hospital once again, yeah, because last time this happened he took that news so well.” Jazz rolled her eyes. 

Apparently she didn’t have to tell him because he burst out of the bedroom, his phone gripped white knuckled in his hand. “I just got a call from the Hosu hospital, Danny’s there.”

Jazz nodded. “Shouta just left, and took the car. I’m assuming he was talking to Sir Nighteye.” 

Hizashi’s phone pinged with another notification. His eyes somehow widened even more before he scrambled for the TV remote and turned on the news. On the screen, there were at least a dozen Nomu running amok in the streets of Hosu. Fire and broken buildings everywhere. 

Then in big bold letters Breaking news: Hero Killer Stain captured .

Jazz walked up close to Hizashi and put a hand on his shoulder. Only slightly surprised when she was pulled into a hug that she quickly returned. She had no doubt Danny was alright in the physical sense, she knew they would have told her if he wasn’t, but from the sound of the phone call it wasn’t his physical state she was worried about at the moment.

Notes:

Yeah, this chapter didn't exactly help with that cliffhanger from last chapter, did it, oopies.

 

Don’t worry we get the stuff with Clockwork next chapter

Chapter 26: Of Ghosts and Spirits

Summary:

The amount of ghosts Danny has talked to since entering this universe increases greatly.

Notes:

Here's the chapter you were all waiting for. It's a longer one

Danny blinked, his eyes still adjusting to the sudden change from the darkness of the alleyway to the bright neon green of the Ghost Zone. He took a second to calm his senses. He almost felt nauseous, like if he was living off saltine crackers for a year and someone came up and shoved a rich dessert in his mouth. “Clockwork, wait, how am I here?” 

“Lots of used up favors, and even more favors now owed. It took me a while to pinpoint you down after we realized you were no longer in this plane or the mortal one. Thankfully, the dimension you were sent to seems to have very limited chances for timeline deviation, and I was able to at least get a sense from the changes you caused by being there. I’m not sure if I had been able to pinpoint which dimension you were in otherwise, my reach is very limited if I have any at all outside of this dimension.” Clockwork explained, looking at Danny as if he was still processing that he was in front of him.

Danny shifted on his feet, they were standing on a rare piece of solid ground in the zone. “You’ve been looking for me this whole time?”

“Of course. We all have been. Frostbite, Pandora, Princess Dorathea, Wulf, and even Ember, Jonny 13, and Kitty they all joined in the efforts of looking for you as well as your sister. Of course, so have your mortal friends Samantha and Tucker.” Clockwork said it as if it should have been obvious. 

Maybe it should be obvious, Danny realized. He’d do the same if anyone he cared about went missing mysteriously. Of course they’d look for him. How self-centered was he to not even think of the effect his disappearance must have brought on those close to him? There he was living happily, hardly a care in the world, while for all they knew he and Jazz were lying dead in a ditch somewhere. And he was content to stay, or at least content enough not to actively seek out a way back leaving that all to Jazz, not even considering how they felt. 

Pandora, Clockwork, and Frostbite all lost a mentee. Dorathea lost a surrogate little brother. Ember, Jonny 13, Kitty, and all the other ghosts who weren’t actually aiming to kill or harm him lost a fight mate. Sam and Tucker lost a friend they already had to watch die once. And his parents, he’d been so caught up on his newly conflicted feeling towards them he didn’t even think to consider what they were feeling, they lost both of their children in one day. “My parents, are they-?”

Clockwork tightened his grip on his staff, an annoyed look settled onto his face. “Still as shot happy as ever, if not more. They also increased the town's anti-ghost measures. Pandora and I attempted to approach them about a temporary truce until the two of you were found, as both parties were making frequent trips across planes. But that idea was quickly shot down. Literally.” 

Danny froze, his went wide. “You told them about me?”

“Of course not.” Clockwork scoffed. “I would not risk endangering you in such a manner. We were hardly able to get a few sentences in before we had to leave, lest we ended up in a fight.” He shook his head. “But no matter, all that matters is you’re safe now.” 

Clockwork engulfed him in a hug, or he would have been if he didn’t hiss in pain from the knife in his shoulder being jostled. Danny totally forgot he was stabbed. He reached around to grab the handle and pulled, only to stop at the realization the damn things was serrated. Those things were almost as, if not more, painful to remove than the actual act of them stabbing. He rolled his eyes before morphing his body around where the knife was to pull it out with no issue. 

“How did that end up happening, was the dimension you were trapped in that dangerous?” Clockwork inquired.

Danny shook his head. “No, I think I just look stabable. Happened my first day there too, funnily enough.” Danny took a second to look at the knife before realizing something very important. “Clockwork, you have to send me back!”

“Why in all the Infinite Realms would I do that?” Clockwork frowned.

“I left them there alone! They’re in danger!” Danny started looking around. How did Clockwork bring him back? There had to be somewhat to reverse it.

“If this is about Jazz, rest assured I will be able to free her as well, but it will take longer as with her, I’ll just be going from the residual ectoplasm from her. Thankfully even without a core she still has quite a bit from growing up around ectoplasm, so it won’t take too much longer than it took to find you. A week or two longer at most, so about three months if we’re lucky. I was barely able to scrounge up enough resources to create an opening twice, but I managed.” Clockwork reassured him. 

“No you don’t get it, I can not stay here.” Danny tried to reason.

“Look, if this is about not wanting to have to stay with your parents without your sister as a mediator that's fine, you can stay here with me for three months or until we find her. I’d even be happy for you to not go back with them at all if that's what you wish, you’re always welcome to stay with me and I know anyone else would say the same.” Clockwork said. 

“Three months? I can’t wait three minutes! This isn’t about Jazz or my parents. I need to go back. Now. My friends are in trouble!” They could die. No matter how strong the three of them were, they were still first years. Stain had killed countless pro-heroes and injured even more. 

He practically had a death grip on his hair with one hand, and his fingered grabbed the side of his neck with the other as he started to pace back and forth. He couldn’t find anything that would clue him into how to get back. They could be bleeding out in an alleyway for all he knew. What would his dads think if he just disappeared? Would they think Stain got him, and he just wasn’t human enough to leave a body? Would Jazz think that too? What about The Queen of Arson, how would she know why he wasn’t coming home after school and giving her and Laika a treat anymore? Laika would destabilize and dissipate once the food he left for them ran out! Arson wouldn’t have her friend anymore - What if Midoriya was the only one who made it out alive? He’d only have Uraraka and occasionally Tsu at their table for lunch. Or if it was Todoroki, he only just started to warm up to the concept of friendship, and it would all be ripped from him in a night. Or Iida, Iida no doubt would take something like that the hardest, he’d blame himself never risking anything again since the once time he did the people he cared about died.

‘-Danny. Danny!” Clockwork snapped, pulling Danny out of a spiral. “Look at me. Obsession madness doesn’t look good on you. You’re less susceptible to it due to your human side, but you are not immune. Pull yourself together.” 

“Pull myself together?” Danny could have laughed. He was standing back where he was when he was pulled into the Ghost Zone. “My friends could be dying as we speak, and you need me to pull myself together? The only thing I need is to go back. ” Danny’s hand cut through the air on the last word, pointing behind him, as if a dimension had a specific direction he could head towards and reach it. 

The thought would have been laughable if the air didn’t ripple in his finger's wake. The shock of the space appearing to warp until it opened to a hole shook Danny out of his panic for a moment. He looked down at his hand in confusion, it almost reminded him of how Wulf would open portals to and from the Ghost Zone. The hole in space opened up to a brick wall in a darkly lit alleyway. Danny recognized it well enough. “Clockwork, I have to go. I can’t leave them.” He turned to his mentor.

“If you do, I cannot guarantee I will be able to find you again. In fact, it will be decades before I’d be able to gather enough energy and resources to do it once more. Please, stay.” Clockwork pleaded.

“I-I can’t. Clockwork, I can’t.” Danny said.

Clockwork, for just a moment, seemed conflicted. “Then, I’ll go with you, I won’t leave you alone. Not again.”

Danny shook his head. “But you’d have no way back.”

“Then so be it, the Observants get on my nerves too much anyway.”

 “There’s no natural ectoplasm there. You’d destabilize after just a few minutes at most. You may be the most powerful ghost I know and the master of time, but you still need ectoplasm.” Danny did his best to reason. He’d love for Clockwork to come with him. Meet his dads. Hopefully never meet Nezu. One scarred, cryptic, weirdly omniscient mentor per universe allowed. 

Clockwork’s hand flexed as he glanced around, looking for answers not there. He finally came to a decision on whatever he was trying to figure out. He reached down to his belt and unhooked the stopwatch, and it’s chain, from it before handing it to Danny. “If I cannot accompany you, at least let me be with you symbolically. I only wish the others were here to do the same. But ironically, there's no time for that, is there?” The smile on his face was not a happy one.

It wasn’t fair how much this hurt Danny realized. But when was anything in his life? He couldn’t escape from that even in death. He certainly would not take the watch without giving something in return. He would have to do it quickly, though, no time to overthink it. A bouquet of ice flowers formed in his hand, each made of unmelting ice. “One for you, give the rest to the others. Tell them I’d do it in person if I could.”

Clockwork examined the flowers now in his hands. “You appear to be short two flowers. Did you intend for that?”

Danny nodded. “My parents wouldn’t understand. Plus I don’t want you to risk being shot at again. If you could find a way to just let them know me and Jazz are alright? If you can’t, don’t stress on my behalf.”

“Their weapons are more of an inconvenience to me than a threat. I will find a way.” Clockwork said.

Danny glanced at the hole in space before rushing in to hug Clockwork. “I do truly hope you are happy there. Live a long happy life, and an even happier afterlife.” Clockwork whispered as he hugged back.

“I am, and I will. You’re a great mentor, I hope you knew that before now. I love you.” Danny said, breaking the hug.

“And I you, my child. May the ancients of that world watch over you like I once did, if they may exist. And may that world and its people treat you kinder than this one did.” Clockwork watched as Danny vanished through the aether. Only once he recollected himself did he realize each of the flowers were clearly customized for the person it was meant for. 

Danny didn’t get the chance to collect himself. The moment he entered into the alley, he entered a fight. He entered just above the buildings, having to float so he didn’t fall. He saw Midoriya and Iida falling through the air along with Stain, Todoroki readying an attack with fire. No time to think, only to do. He dove down Stain’s own knife in hand, plunging it into the villian’s shoulder, just as he’d done to Danny just a few minutes prior. All four attacks hit at once, rendering Stain prone and captured. 

Todoroki ended up finding some rope in the dumpster to tie him up with. They ended up meeting with a large group of pro heroes outside the alleyway. Apparently, Todoroki had instructed his father to send any hero he came across to their location. Not like any of them got there in time. 

Danny figured he’d finally be able to rest. He lifted his legs up and laid down in the air. That morning felt like it was such a long time ago. He’d have to check in on Iida after they were all brought to the hospital and treated. He clearly was beating himself up for this whole ordeal, and Danny didn’t exactly discourage him from continuing on with it after he figured out what was going on. Though he doubted he’d tell him anything else even now. Danny was a hero, but first and foremost he protected the ones he cared about. Tensei had gotten attacked, and if Iida didn’t do anything about it, Danny was sure he would have instead. Not kill but, severely incapacitate, maybe. They should coordinate next time. 

After he took a few minutes to rest while the pro’s got everything sorted.

Unfortunately, the universe decided Danny interning all day, getting stabbed, having an emotionally and just generally exhausting conversation with no time to process it, before getting thrown back into a fight, wasn’t enough to happen in one day. Danny’ ghost sense went off, and a disturbingly familiar feeling crashed into him before he heard a yelp from Midoriya. Danny shot upward as he watched a flying creature with its brain exposed carrying Midoriya up, and up. 

Before Danny could even make a move to go after it, it froze in the air, falling to the ground with Midoriya. 

“The word ‘hero’ has lost all meaning in society. The world is overrun by fakes and criminals like you. Who chase petty dreams...” Stain said, somehow managing to escape his bounds, shot forward, stabbing the Nomu through the head and grabbing hold of Midoriya. “Everything that I do…Is to create a stronger society.”

A hostage, that was what Midoriya was. A way for Stain to keep leverage despite being vastly outnumbered. No one could move too quickly, or Midoriya was done for.

Danny heard footsteps from behind. Slowly turning his head revealed, Endeavor, the number two hero and Todoroki’s father. The brief memory of Bakugo complaining about Todoroki’s family drama back during the sports festival flashed into Danny’s head. Endeavor and Stain spotted each other at the same time. Endeavor was about to launch an attack, but was stopped by who Danny was pretty sure was the man Midoriya was interning with. Apparently he taught All Might when he was in school or something. 

Stain left Midoriya, walking towards Endeavor, the mask he wore around his eyes and nose falling off, revealing his face underneath. “You false hero. I’ll make this right, these streets will run with the blood of hypocrites. Come on, just try and stop me, you fakes!”

Every person around Danny froze up, even the pro-heroes took a step back from the Stain. But Danny was at his wits end now. In fact, he was past his wits end and was somehow still going. 

Danny took a few steps forward, just enough to be in front of the group of heroes. The Hero Killer’s first mistake was meeting Danny, his second was stepping away from the only thing keeping Danny from attacking. 

Danny formed a knife out of ice, needing the extra control that his cryokinesis gave him, and threw it straight into the villian’s eye. It wasn’t a strong enough throw to kill him, but it was certainly enough to make him crumple like a leaf in the fall. 

Stain might have been sick of ‘tainted’ heroes, but Danny was sick of these self righteous villains who thought committing atrocities was acceptable if it was for a good cause. Talk about someone with black and white thinking. No one could be sorted into categories of purely good or bad, even heroes. The worst of people still would have something that would be considered a good trait, and the best of people would still have some unseemly factors to them. It didn’t mean the bad ones shouldn’t be punished for what they’ve done, or that the goods ones shouldn’t continue to do their best. 

Danny turned back to the group of heroes, pushing past them to the paramedic who was helping Iida and Todoroki. “Can you just take us to the hospital already?”

…The hospital was a bad idea. Once they were all treated, they were put in the same room for the night. No one really felt like talking however. Not after everything that had happened, and especially the knowledge that all four of them were in for a lecture from their respective mentors in the morning. They stopped in earlier to make sure they were okay, clearly waiting until they had some rest before yelling at them. 

Worse that Danny was so tired and generally frustrated from the whole day, he couldn’t prevent having to swipe away tears from his face as Sir Nighteye told him he was worried when Danny randomly took off. Having someone basically saying they cared about what happened to Danny was bad enough, it was just salt to the wound that it was from someone that by his very nature reminded Danny of Clockwork. At least he didn’t bring Mirio along, Danny was pretty sure he would have somehow broken even more if he did.

So the four of them were sitting up in their hospital beds in silence, none of them able to sleep. It has started sinking in what had happened to Danny. None of them asked him where he went when he vanished. Just saying they were glad he was back. 

For just a few minutes he was back in his original universe. He didn’t even have the chance to properly say goodbye to anyone. He was in such a rush due to coming out of a high stakes situation he didn’t have the time to think and process the decision of returning to his friends. He always assumed he’d have plenty of time to decide once they found a way back to their original universe. But once he was presented with the opportunity he didn’t have the privilege to stop and think. Great, he was starting to cry again. 

All four of them turned their heads towards the sound of the door opening, breaking them all from their thoughts. It was probably another nurse making sure they were okay and alive. 

Except it wasn’t.

Somehow, despite their injuries, the other three sat up straighter in their beds, while Danny just wanted to phase into the ground and never return. It was Aizawa. There was no doubt he was here as their teacher, with all four of them being his students, and two of them not knowing about their relation to each other. Somehow that made it worse. Danny expected him to stay where he was by the door. Maybe to lecture them, or expel them. He wouldn’t put it past him. Except for the fact that Aizawa beelined it straight for Danny. 

He gently grabbed Danny’s shoulders as he looked him over. Stopping at the bandage wrapped around his right shoulder where he’d been stabbed. It would be fully healed by mid-morning tomorrow, sooner actually since the hospital insisted he get stitches. In theory he didn’t even need to be there overnight, but he was shot down when he mentioned that to the doctor who looked him over. 

“Are you alright?” Aizawa asked, looking back at Danny’s face.

 He should have been alright, he’d been through worse before. “I’m fine. Not the first time I’ve been stabbed, you know.”

Aizawa sighed. “Yes, it seems you have the unfortunate habit of getting perforated when I’m not looking. But while that is concerning, I wasn’t referring to being okay physically.” 

Danny became quickly aware that he probably had visible tear tracks running down his face still. He was also realizing this was not a conversation he wanted to have in front of his friends. At least Iida was pretending like he couldn’t hear them, his head turned away from them. Iida and Todoroki took the opposite route and were staring at them. Aizawa must have realized the dilemma as well. “Let’s step out into the hall. Unless you’re hiding a leg injury too?”

Danny shook his head and slid out of his hospital bed, following Aizawa out of the room into the hallway. It was empty at this time of night. “Did dad come with you?”

“No, just me. He was asleep by the time Sir Nighteye called so I figured it’d be best not to wake him.” Aizawa answered. “But that’s not why we’re out here in the hall. Last time I saw you even close to this state was when I was in the hospital after the USJ incident. What happened?”

“Why do you care? I’ve been nothing but trouble for you, especially these past two weeks. You call me a menace for a reason after all.” Danny pointed out as he stared at the wall past Aizawa’s shoulder.

“No amount of trouble you could cause would make me not worry about you Danny. Purposeful or otherwise. You being a menace is no more of an insult than me calling Hizashi loud. I was using it as a strange term of endearment, if it came across otherwise, I am sorry.” Aizawa said.

Danny placed his palms to his eyes, fingers griping at his hair. “I can’t do anything right, can I?”

“Why do you say that?” Danny couldn’t see him but he was positive Aizawa was frowning.

“Why wouldn’t I say it? It’s true. How can you care about me when nothing I do is enough. School, my grades, compared to the rest of my family I’m an idiot. The one thing I’m supposed to be good at, saving people, I fail at. Iida, Midoriya, and Todoroki had to fight Stain alone for the most part because I couldn’t get back to them quick enough. I scared people at the sports festival, even if it was an accident. I failed you during the USJ attack, I just watched as the Nomu attacked you. I couldn’t say a proper goodbye. I keep trying to look out for others, but I keep being reminded about how selfish I am, putting my happiness above others. I couldn’t even manage to die correctly!” Danny threw his hands up in the air as the walls shook slightly. “I can’t even control my powers correctly.” He whispered.

“Well, I guess I have to retire from heroics and teaching then. As well as get a divorce, return Arson to the cat café we adopted her from, oh and never leave the house.” Aizawa said with a shrug,

“What?” Danny blinked.

“Well, if the requirement for doing something is perfection, I certainly do not meet it. I make mistakes all the time in work and everyday life, and with other people. And I’m an adult, I’ve been doing this all for a while now, if you’re expected to be perfect at your age there's no hope for me at this point. Not even mentioning all the things you said about yourself were blatantly false. The only classes you’ve been struggling with are history and modern literature, which makes sense because not only are you from another country, but a different dimension as well. When it comes to saving people, all that matters is that they’re alive and mostly intact. No one died, so you’re wrong there as well. There’s nothing wrong with being selfish, if you’re selfish, so be it. You're selfish in a way that helps others more than you hurt them so I don’t see how that’s a problem honestly. You’ve only had your powers for a little over a year, is Midoriya a bad person because he doesn’t have a hold on his powers yet? No, and that’s why we’re working on getting the hang of those powers. And last but certainly not least, you not dying correctly is the best thing that could have happened. I’d never get to meet you or Jazz otherwise.” Aizawa said as he placed a hand on Danny’s shoulder. 

“I-I’m tired.” Danny felt like he was about to collapse where he stood.

“I’m sure you are. Anything else that might need to be said can wait for another time. No need to exhaust you even further. Time for you to get back to bed, I’m sure your friends will have questions for you after this.” Aizawa said as he made his way back towards the room.

“You’re going to stay and explain, right?” Danny asked, following after him.

“Nope. Consider it your punishment.” Danny could almost hear the smirk in his voice.

Once back in the room, Danny turned to Aizawa and gave him a hug. If he was going to leave him alone to explain stuff to Midoriya and Todoroki he’d at least embarrass him a bit. Danny deserved to get to after the day he had. “Bye dad, love you.”

Aizawa let out a silent laugh. “Love you too, you menace. Get some rest.” After Danny climbed back into the bed, Aizawa turned to leave before pausing and looking back at the four students. “The chief of Hosu’s police force will be stopping by tomorrow with a deal for you. I suggest you accept it if you want to continue as heroes.” And then he was gone.

It only took a few seconds before Danny was the center of attention. “Mr. Aizawa is your dad?” Midoriya started looking around. “Oh shoot, I didn’t bring my notebook when we left for patrol. Do you think I could ask a nurse for a notepad and a pen? I’ll have to make due with my left hand until I heal and then I’ll rewrite it.”

“My theory was right. I knew it!” Todoroki said.

“You knew it?” Danny asked, not sure if he actually wanted to know.

Todoroki nodded. “Yes, after my Nomu theory was shot down I started thinking. So basicly; Your eyes flash green when you use your quirk or when you’re angry, just like Mr. Aizawa’s. Your hair is also the same color. I’m pretty sure you’re actually my cousin, I wasn’t allowed to talk to my moms side of the family growing up but I know she has a sister, that must be your mom. Hence, your ice powers. Present Mic is Mr. Aizawa’s brother, that's where you get your voice attack. Hagakure is actually also our cousin, you got your ability to turn invisible from that part of the family. I’m not quite sure where Ectoplasm fits into the family tree but he’s there somewhere. Possibly a cousin of Mr. Aizawa and Present Mic.”

Danny heard Iida stifle a laugh. That bit about his moms side of the family sounded a bit concerning, though. “Todoroki, clearly you put a lot of thought into this. But I’m adopted. My biological parents are American, and Present Mic is not my uncle, adoptive or otherwise.”

Midoriya turned to Iida. “Iida how are you not surprised? I would have never guessed Mr. Aizawa was Danny’s dad. He hides it so well, why do you think Nezu put Danny in his class. Surely he knew.”

“I’m not surprised because I already knew. Danny is my cousin.” Iida said, gesturing towards Danny.

Midoriya gasped. “And you never mentioned that? Wait, you knew who Mr. Aizawa is married to this whole time? You lectured the whole class for wondering about something you already knew?”

“Yes, because it is improper to speculate those things. Gossip does no one good, and no I will not tell you either. If Mr. Aizawa wants to say who he’s married to, he’ll say so himself.” Iida stated. 

“Any more theories while we’re on the topic, Todoroki?” Danny asked. Maybe he should start charging anyone who comes up with baseless theories about who he’s related to. He’d be rich. 

Todoroki perked up. “Yes, I believe I am cursed.”

“What?” 

“Pardon?"

“Why?” Danny, Iida, and Midoriya said at the same time.

“It seems like everyone I become friends with hand gets injured in some way. Midoriya at the sports festival, and now all three of you have a hand or arm injury. I’m like a hand crusher or something.” Todoroki said, looking down at his hands. 

They were all sitting on two beds facing each other now. Iida and Midoriya on one, and Todoroki and Danny on the other. The tiredness of the day leaving temporarily while they talked. The three of them couldn’t help but laugh at what Todoroki said. “Guy’s this is serious. Why are you laughing? I can’t be a hero if I’m cursed.” He said solemnly.

“Nah, I think Wednesday’s are just cursed.” Danny added with a laugh. “I mean, the USJ also happened on a Wednesday.”

“Oh you’re correct. Maybe we should put in precaution measures to prevent the Wednesday curse from taking effect again.” Todoroki nodded.

“He’s joking Todoroki. It is merely a coincidence.” Iida reassured him.

“Ratted out by my own family.” Danny placed a hand on his heart. “Betrayal must be punished!” He grabbed a pillow, readying to throw it, but accidentally hit Todoroki in the face instead with his hand as he winded his arm back. “Oh shoot, my bad Todoroki. Are you okay? You sort of just froze up, why didn’t you try and dodge, I know you’ve avoided worse in training.”

Todoroki looked away and rubbed his nose before looking back at Danny. “But we’re not currently in combat or training.”

“You can still dodge out of the way if you see someone about to hit you. You didn’t even flinch.” Danny pointed out.

Confusion passed Todoroki’s face. “But flinching or attempting to avoid being hit just results in being hit again, harder than you would have been if you didn’t. It’s best to stay completely still so you don’t give a reason to be hit again.”

Danny, Midoriya, and Iida shared a look. Todoroki shifted on the bed back into a lying position. “Anyway, it’s late and I’m tired. I’m going to sleep.”

With that the rest of them didn’t have much of a choice but to follow suit and climb back into their beds. Midoriya was about to turn off the lamp near his bed when Danny remembered why he was worried about Midoriya in the first place when he first got his text. “Wait, Midoriya, you have ghosts!”

Midoriya’s arm paused midair. “What?”

“You have ghosts.” Danny said again.

“No, I heard you the first time. I’m just not sure what that means.” Midoriya said his brows furrowed. 

“Back at the sports festival when you were fighting Shinso, you had seven more souls than the average human.” Danny explained. Possession couldn’t be a foreign concept to Midoriya, he’s seen scary movies in this universe.

“Seven not eight? Wait you can see souls?” Midoryia turned fully towards Danny.

“Why is the fact you have less souls than you thought the part you’re concerned about and not the fact you have more than one in you?” Did Midoriya somehow manage to kill eight people, but only seven stuck around? Maybe it happened when he was training his quirk, he doubted Midoriya would kill someone on purpose. 

Midoriya covered his mouth with his hand. “Gee look at the time, better follow Todoroki’s lead and go to sleep!” He quickly shut off the light and pulled the covers over his head.

Well, that…happened. Sadly, Danny couldn’t seem to find sleep despite being exhausted. He looked down at his hand. Opening and closing his palm. Maybe he could do what he did back in the Ghost Zone again, and open a hole between worlds.

He concentrated as much as he could to remember how he did it before. He cut his hand through the air with as much intent as he could. A hole in space opened up, but it certainly didn’t lead to the Ghost Zone. Instead of the bright green, it was a void of black. He stuck his arm into it, his arm turned into what it looked like in his ghost from the moment it entered the new space. Weird. Suddenly there was a pull on his arm and he was dragged into the void by a black tendril. 

“Hey, First, you never told us you had a kid! I thought Seventh was the only one. Do Second and Third know you cheated on them?” A tall, buff bald man, who had to be the one who pulled Danny through, yelled out.

“That’s because I don’t have a kid Banjo, what are you talking about?” A white haired man appeared from the darkness. If Danny didn’t know any better, he’d also think he was related to him. At lest in comparison to his ghost form.

Wait. A white haired man who people keep thinking Danny is related to?Who’s dead? “Are you One for All?” That's what Sir Nighteye called him, wasn’t it? “Look, I don’t care how powerful you are or how scared All Might and Nighteye are of you, if you don’t stop possessing Midoriya right now I’ll make you regret it.”

A look akin to disgust crossed, Probably All for One’s face. The bald man, Banjo, burst out laughing. Probably All for One elbowed him, which had to hurt since for a ghost he was pretty boney. “I’m not All for One. Depending on how you look at it, you’re both very close to the mark, and very far at the same time. My name is Yoichi. I’m also not possessing Midoriya. Well, not really. I have no control of his actions, think of it more as hitching a ride. He is the ninth user of my quirk. A quirk with the purpose of killing All for One.”

“Midoriya’s quirk is haunted?” Danny didn’t even know quirks could be haunted, or that they could be passed down. He was under the impression people were born with them and they manifested at a young age.

“I suppose you could say it is… we are remnants of the past users of the quirk, vestiges.” Yoichi said.

“So you’re ghosts.” No need to throw fancy words into the mix, a ghost was a ghost. “Who are part of a quirk that’s passed down each generation. So Midoriya’s quirk didn’t actually come in late? He was given it?”

“Correct.” Yoichi nodded.

No wonder Midoriya had been so cagey about who was mentoring him. It had to be the person who gave him his quirk. Someone strong and who Midoriya looked up to and wouldn’t want to put in danger. “Oh my god, it’s All Might, isn’t it? That’s why he has depowered form and how he knows about All for One.”

“Yep, young Toshinori is our eighth user. Finally brought the fight with All for One to an end using the awesome power of One for All. And now Ninth will carry on his legacy in a new era of peace and justice!” Banjo cheered.

“Clever name, truly. Must have taken ages to think of.” Danny said. “I’m glad to figure out Midoriya isn’t haunted by some vengeful ghosts, at least. See ya

“Wait, you’re just going to leave?” Banjo asked.

“I mean yeah, I’m not a soul attached to a quirk, I don’t have a reason to stay. Why?” Danny asked.

“To be honest, we aren’t normally this conscious within the quirk, you being here must have stabilized us for the time being.” Yoichi explained. “It also gets boring when we are aware, only so much you can do after being dead for a few hundred years.”

“Oh well, I can’t really help you there. Sorry. Uh, maybe I’ll try to bring you like a book or something if I ever get a chance. Or like a board game, Monopoly?” Danny offered. “But I gotta go.” He waved before focusing on reopening the portal and falling back into his hospital bed. He fell asleep just a few minutes layer, exhaustion finally getting its claws into him. He really hoped he remembered to tell Midoriya about all that in the morning.

He did not remember to tell Midoriya about all that in the morning. More focused on not tearing the chief of police and this universe’s stupid quirk laws a new one. Todoroki at least had his back. Did they honestly expect them to just stand by and watch people die? 

At least they weren’t getting into trouble with the law for it, and more importantly, neither were their mentors for the week. But for that to happen, they had to give the credit for the capture of Stain to Endeavor. Something that after last night’s conversation with Todoroki made Danny’s stomach churn. 

Danny was able to be discharged from the hospital that day and was picked up by Sir Nighteye. The other three however didn’t have the advantage of advanced healing and would be spending the rest of the week recovering. 

“Are you going to lecture me on breaking the law?” Danny asked as they walked.

“No. It would be idiotic of me to discourage heroic behavior. No hero makes it to the top without bending a few rules here or there. Not even All Might.” Sir Nighteye shook his head. “You will however be spending the rest of the day fine-tuning your quirk instead of going out on patrol, since you were in the hospital this morning and were unable to do so. Bubble Girl can take over patrol while Mirio and I work with you.”

“Aww can’t we skip practice one day?” Danny slumped, patrol was so much more entertaining.

“You want to be the best you can be, correct? To be able to protect as many people as possible.” Nighteye asked, glancing over to him.

“Yeah, of course.” Danny answered. Wouldn’t that be obvious?

“You have the true makings of a hero, Danny. Mirio is still my top protégée, and I do believe he will surpass even All Might one day. But you are not destined to end up as just another dime a dozen hero, I would not have offered you an internship if I thought otherwise. But potential can only get you so far. Practice and discipline must get you the rest of the way.” Sir Nighteye adjusted his glasses.

“I suppose you make some good points.” Danny agreed. 

At the start of the internship, Danny thought the man was hardly tolerating him, it was nice to know he was wrong. Now he just had to find out how to get past the stupid quirk laws here so he could actually start helping people. But for the time being, he’d enjoy the last few days of his internship before returning to school.

Notes:

That was fun!

Surely nothing from this chapter will have repercussions later

Chapter 27: The Path Forward

Summary:

Internships are over, but Danny is still having a hard time.

Danny was walking down the street. Not really sure where he was headed. He was sure he’d know it when he got there though. He kicked a pebble near his foot and watched as it skittered a few feet forward on the sidewalk. He followed where it led. Kick. Follow. Kick. Follow. 

He stopped once the rock hit a larger stone. Looking up from the ground revealed rubble scattered everywhere, broken buildings all around him. What could have caused this level of destruction? Was it a villain attack? Weird that he didn’t hear anything about one. If that was the case he should look to see if there were any civilians left behind. He couldn’t call himself a hero student if he didn’t at least look. Someone might need his help, and he could never leave someone in need if he could help it. He peered into a few ruined buildings but as he was about to leave the last one he couldn’t help but shake a feeling of familiarity. He took one last glance at the red bricks scattered around his feet before turning to leave.

Only to run face-first into someone at least three times his size. “There you are, Danny-boy! We’ve been looking everywhere for you! You’ve been gone for so long.”

Danny would have taken a few steps back if he wasn’t pulled into a bone crushing hug. “Da-, Jac-, What-what are you doing here, what happened here?”

“Come on Danny, I know you struggle in school a lot, but you’re not that dumb. Ghosts attacked Amity. Plain and simple. Those ghastly ghouls got one over on us!” Jack Fenton clapped Danny on the back, sending him forward a few steps. “Luckily the lab is still intact. Why dontcha head down there, your mom will be glad you made it back from visiting your friends safely.”

“My friends?” Danny asked. Jack didn’t know his friends, he was pretty sure it wouldn’t go well if they met any of his classmates in fact. He was pushed towards the staircase surrounded by broken pieces of building he now could clearly recognize as the ruins of Fentonworks. 

“Don’t tell me that ghost bug got you and scrambled your brain too? I knew we should have made you cut contact with them the moment they started protesting our methods of disposing of ghosts. It’s not natural to sympathize with those creatures. I’ll stay up here, you have your mom check you out and make sure Tucker and Sam didn’t infect you. You’ll be staying away from them from now on.” Jack said, closing the basement door behind Danny. 

Danny hardly had a chance to finish processing what happened before he was grabbed by the shoulders. “Sweetie, come help your mother with these uncooperative ghosts.”

“What?” Danny asked as Maddie Fenton pulled him farther into the lab.

“We still haven’t gotten any information about Phantom out of them. But we’ll get it out of them soon enough, ghosts are selfish things after all. They’ll trade their release for information.” Maddie said as she stopped in front of a wall filled with ecto-cages. 

Danny looked at the cages in mounting horror. Any ghost he could even slightly call a friend was there, all looking at Maddie with hatred. The fact they even managed to capture Clockwork and Pandora alone was almost an impossibility. But there they were in glowing green cages. They all seemed to notice him at the same time.

If they looked at Maddie with hatred they looked at Danny with seething and utter loathing. A few of their arms shot out through the bars reaching for him.

“You!”

“You’re why we’re here!”

“Your fault.”

“Your fault.”

“Your fault.” It was almost a chant coming from each cage as they strained to get their hands or claws into him.

Maddie took a Fenton Anti-Creep Stick that was lying on the table and hit it against one of the cages strong enough to make them all rattle. He knew she was strong, but when did she get what seemed like super strength? Danny took an unsure step back pulling her with him. “You said if they gave you information on me- I mean Phantom, you’d let them go back to the Ghost Zone?”

Maddie laughed. “No, sweetie, I said I’d release them.”

Danny wasn’t sure he liked where this conversation was going. “What’s the difference? Why do you need information on Phantom anyway?”

“Ghost attacks have been getting worse and worse since Phantom stopped coming to the normal world. He must have realized the people of Amity park saw through his lies and started sending ghosts to destroy it instead. And he’s succeeding.”  Maddie turned to Danny with a smile. “That brings us back to your first question. We found the source of ghosts' power!”

Danny felt his veins run cold. “What?”

“Believe it or not ghosts aren’t just pure ectoplasm, we found out where the remnant of from when they were alive are housed. Once that is destroyed they are free to move on to whatever happens to people when they die and don’t become ghosts. Of course, it’s no easy task to destroy it, but it’s worth it in the end. We’re working on a way to do it en-mass though.” Maddie clapped her hands. “Now, what I needed your help with. We finally managed to wrangle up those ghosts who kidnapped you and Jazz.”

“More ghosts? Kidnapped me and Jazz?” Danny wasn’t sure what was happening anymore. If he ever did in the first place. He still couldn’t shake the feeling something was off.

Maddie placed a hand to her chest. “Yes, they were surprisingly adept at masquerading as humans. Of course humans can’t destroy our equipment with a yell, nor are their eyes red when you get them riled up enough.” 

Maddie gestured towards the cages once more. Somehow Danny missed them before, despite mentally cataloging each of the cages. But there were two, very human, people in cages next to each other. One with dark black hair who had a blindfold covering his eyes, and the other who’s blond hair was usually so put together was now an absolute mess, had a muzzle fitted to his face. 

Yamada was trying his best to yell something to Danny, tears pooled at the corners of his eyes, but it was muted by the muzzle. Aizawa seemed to get the memo, however. “Danny? Danny is that you? You need to run! Get out of here-!” 

He was cut off by Maddie banging the Anti-Creep Stick against the cages once more. Danny couldn’t take this anymore; he ran up the stairs, barely holding onto his stomach. At the top of the stairs waiting for him were Tucker and Sam. 

They looked at him blankly, barely a hint of recognition in their eyes. They were covered in cuts and bruises. “You left us alone.” Sam said.

“We’re only human, we never stood a chance against those ghosts.” Tucker continued.

“Amity Park has fallen and it’s all your fault.”

“Your fault.” 

“Your fault.”

“Your fault.” They shoved him back causing him to fall backwards down the stairs into an empty void of darkness.

Then he was falling from the air onto the bed, Danny woke up clutching at his chest. He had stopped screaming in his sleep by the second month he had his powers. Yet somehow the nightmares never seemed to stop affecting him no matter how many he had or how repetitive they were. Probably didn’t help he’d had the same nightmare the past three days ever since the Stain incident. At least he was back in his own bed. The fact he was sleep floating again wasn’t a good sign.

He must have scared Laika when he sat up abruptly, they were up in the corner by the ceiling. They were the only thing giving off light in the room other than the slight shine of Danny’s eyes he never seemed to be able to get rid of even as a human. At least he was able to blame that on ecto-exposure back in Amity.

...Back in Amity. 

He was so close to being able to go back. The city needed him, and he abandoned it. What a hero he was. 

He fell back down into his bed before checking the time on his phone. He didn’t even need to think about getting up for another four hours. He was pretty sure he’d only gotten four hours of sleep the past three days combined, including that night. He doubted he’d be able to fall back asleep with how fast his heart was still beating anyway. Plus he’d have to get used to not getting enough sleep at night again. He had to stop being selfish and accept that once they found a way back home he’d be leaving. It wasn’t right for him to be living a happy comfortable life when he could be helping people instead. 

If he couldn’t help the people in Amity Park quite yet he’d find a way to actually help people in this universe. Just learning how to help wouldn’t get him anywhere when he had the knowledge and power to help people now. It’s not like they couldn’t use his help anyway. If four first years could beat a villain that even high ranking heroes were afraid of, they were certainly lacking. Not even mentioning how busy Yamada and Aizawa had been lately with hero work.

He stared at his ceiling for a while before coming to the conclusion that he wouldn’t be sleeping again that night. He pulled himself out of bed and made his way to the living room with his textbooks in hand. He could at least be productive and study a bit. Danny plopped down on the couch and opened up his chemistry textbook. It was by far his best subject but he wasn’t really in the mood to deal with the stress that came from studying this universe’s history when he had no prior knowledge of it growing up.

He kept the lights off, not wanting to disturb anyone else's sleep. It didn’t take long for his eyes to adjust enough to be able to read the book in the dark. He was a few chapters ahead of where the class was at that point when he heard a shout.

Danny shot up, book tumbling from his lap, ready for a fight. Only to come face to face with Yamada who was also in a defensive stance. Yamada quickly realized that it was just Danny and relaxed. “Hey, kiddo, I swear I’ll never get used to your eyes glowing in the dark. Whatcha doing out here so early? You should be asleep, you have school in a few hours. I’m sure your classmates will all be eager to show off what they learned in their internships.” He looked down at the textbooks around him. “I know, as one of your teachers, you didn’t have homework this past week.”

“I woke up and couldn’t fall back to sleep. Why are you up?” Danny knew for a fact Yamada never woke up before he absolutely had to. And even then he tended to cut it close, with few exceptions. 

“Pretty much the same reason, nothing you need to worry too much about though. Anything particular keeping you up?” Yamada asked as he sat down on the couch next to Danny.

Danny thought back to the dream he’d been having on repeat. Amity in ruins, Jack and Maddie becoming even more hateful against ghosts, his human and ghost friends turning on him, Yamada and Aizawa trapped and powerless, telling him to run despite knowing that they’d only get hurt if he did. Danny shook his head. “No, just couldn’t get back to sleep. Probably just because I’ve been getting more sleep than needed, and all that extra energy finally caught up to me.”

Yamada let out a hum. “I see. How about a nice hot cup of tea then? Always make me feel better when I’m having trouble sleeping after a nightmare.”

“I never said I had a nightmare.” Danny pointed out, nonetheless following Yamada into the kitchen.

“No, you didn’t. I said when I had a nightmare.” Yamada said as he filled the kettle with water and turned it on. 

“You have nightmares?” The thought seemed impossible to Danny. Sure he’d seen Yamada on less energetic days after he dropped his public persona when he got home. But even then he tended to be optimistic. Plus he was an adult, and an experienced pro-hero to boot. Danny figured he’d be past having nightmares. What could scare someone like him? 

“Of course I have nightmares kiddo. You’d be hard-pressed to find an established hero who doesn’t. I know you know first-hand heroics isn’t all fame and glory. You unfortunately come to accept that it’s just another part of the job. But that’s why a support system is so important. Family, friends, other heroes who understand.” Yamada told him.

“What if someone doesn’t have that support?” He had a semblance of a support system back in Amity, with Sam, Tucker, and Jazz. They couldn’t ever fully understand, though, even other ghosts didn’t. Danny was truly the only one-person Amity could rely on. Sure his friends, parents, and Valerie could fight ghosts together and probably handle themselves well enough, but alone against any of the stronger ghosts they wouldn't last. He had such a strong one here, he knew that. But once back in Amity he’d lose it.

“I’d feel bad for anyone who doesn’t. Even All Might up until a few years ago had Sir Nighteye to turn to as his sidekick. Though if we’re being honest I wouldn’t put All Might down as a hero who has a healthy work-life balance. Thankfully I have a lot of people I can turn to and so do you, don’t forget that you hear?” Yamada said as he pushed a warm mug into Danny’s hands. It had a bunch of constellations on the design.

Danny nodded his head halfheartedly, staring into his cup. “I didn’t even know you drank tea. You always drink coffee in the morning.”

Yamada made his way back to the couch, his own mug now in hand. “Nezu introduced it to me back when I first started working at U.A. Apparently jasmine tea helps calm you down. I have a stash for when I find myself up late at night. Shouta still refuses to drink it to help him fall asleep, he says it just tastes like leaves. I think Nezu just about had an aneurysm when he heard him say that.” 

 Danny couldn’t help but chuckle along with Yamada. It certainly sounded like something Aizawa would do. Especially if he figured how Nezu would react. He didn’t know if it was from the tea or Yamada’s presence beside him, but Danny soon found his eyes growing heavy. He managed to get in two hours of dreamless sleep before he had to start getting up and around for school. So he was up to six hours of sleep in the past three days, that equaled out to two per night, not bad. 

Once at school, everyone was discussing their internships. Uraraka had interned with a hero specializing in combat. Danny was pretty sure she was barely holding back showing off what she leaned on her classmates, with how pumped up she seemed. Honestly, it was almost scary, he hoped they weren’t put up against each other during training later that day. He didn’t want to learn if her quirk cancelled out his flight by getting tossed into the stratosphere. 

“You were lucky Endeavor showed up and saved you guys.” Sato said, shaking Danny out of his musings.

Wait what were they talking about now? He must have missed the conversation shifting from individual internships to the Stain fight.

“Yeah that’s right… he saved us.” Todorki said looking down at his desk. Danny was pretty sure Todorki was the only one angrier than Danny that Endeavor got the credit for the fight. 

Danny didn’t even care he wasn’t the one getting credit, he had a secret identity back in Amity he was used to getting no credit. It was the fact that they couldn’t take credit even if they wanted to without getting themselves or their mentors in trouble. Also, that from the conversations they had in the hospital together Todoroki’s father was a grade-A ass. At least Iida, Midoriya and Todoroki seemed to heal fairly well. It was infuriating that Iida refused to get his arm fixed, however. If Danny had gotten back to them faster, Iida probably wouldn’t even be injured, or feel guilty enough to willingly stay injured.

“Did you hear they think he was somehow connected to the League of Villains? Can you imagine how frightening it would have been like if he was at the USJ attack?” Ojiro said with a frown.

“Oh yeah he’s scary for sure, but did you see him in the video all over the internet?” Kaminari asked pulling out his phone to show the class the video.

Danny was not aware there was a video. Did that mean they saw him stab Stain in the eye? That would be hard to talk himself out of, maybe Jazz and Nezu could act as his lawyers for Jazz’s final exam. Though that wouldn’t help the impact on the public image of Yamada and Sir Nighteye. Aizawa was at least free from that as an underground hero.

Kaminari held out his phone, so the crowd gathered around him could watch the video. The video even had an intro talking about Stain and his background. Wow, Stain was even more crazy than he thought.  It showed Stain by Midoriya and the fallen nomu as his speech started and as he took a few steps forward. It started to get more and more distorted visually until they couldn’t see what was happening only hear Stain’s words. 

Danny felt Kaminari elbow him in the side. “Of course Danny here made the visual feed practically impossible to see, but the audio is still legible. Can’t say I blame you I’d be pretty scared too if I was face to face with the Hero Killer.”

“Yeah, scared.” Danny said as he watched as the video restarted. Of course, he was scared, but that was mainly residual from when he thought Iida, Todoroki, and Midoriya were going to die. The technology distortion was mainly the effect of a mixture of him being too exhausted and angry that Stain would even try to take Midoriya as a hostage. “His views are absolute shit though.”

“I don’t know, don't get me wrong murder is like totally bad, but he was almost kinda cool.” Kaminari said as he repocketed his phone. He then locked eyes with Iida before he covered his mouth with his hand. “Oh, sorry Iida.”

“No,” Iida shook his head. “He was quite tenacious, I can see why some people may think he’s cool. Regardless instead of helping people he turned to cold-blooded murder, which cannot be condoned.”

“Plus, he’d end up killing most of us in this class if he had his way.” Danny said.

Kaminari looked at him with concern. “What makes you say that?”

“He wanted heroism rooted in saving people through self-sacrifice. Only through self-sacrifice. Pretty much any other motivation? You’re dead. Saving people is good and all, but everyone has a personal or selfish reason to be a hero.” Danny explained. “Money, fame, to make a point, tradition, that good feeling when you save people, feeling like it was the only course put in front of you. Or even a mixture of all the above. A hero is a hero, as long as you don’t let your reason for becoming a hero get in the way of saving people it doesn’t really matter in the end.” Danny did not like the way his classmates were looking at him. He probably said too much again. “Oh, and the way he fought was gross, I did not appreciate being licked.”

“Gross.” Kaminari said, his nose wrinkled. 

After that, the morning went surprisingly fast. Soon the class was standing in front of Field Gamma for hero basics. A mock industrial district with winding pipes and warehouses. They’d be racing in groups of five to the center where All Might would be waiting. Whoever got there first was the winner. It was also the last class of the day, and Danny needed to talk to Nezu sooner than later. 

“Sir?” Danny asked as he approached All Might.

“Yes what is it young Danny?” All Might turned to him with a smile.

“Once I’m done with my part of the exercise could I leave early? I need to talk with Principle Nezu.” Danny said. He hadn’t talked to the teacher all that much outside of class. Mainly in passing or when he was in the teacher's lounge. He was pretty sure All Might still felt bad for letting him fight the nomu alone during the USJ attack. Which was stupid, Danny wasn’t inexperienced like the rest of his classmates, he knew what he was doing.

“Well I don’t see why not. Your group will be going second. So as long as you feel you have a good grasp on the lesson feel free to leave once your group finishes.” All Might nodded before clapping his hands. “Everyone in group one take your places!”

Danny watched as Midoriya, Iida, Ashido, Sero, and Ojiro readied themselves. The rest of their classmates were spouting off their own theories of who’d win the race. He wasn’t paying too much attention to what they were saying, more focused on how he’d approach Nezu after class. He did briefly put his two cents in that he had his money on Iida or Midoriya before returning to his thoughts.

Danny glanced up at the screen as the first group was given the signal to start. Midoriya definitely improved on his quirk during his internship. He had gotten a good grasp on it at a lower power during their training sessions before school but it was clear whatever he was taught during internships helped a lot. He absentmindedly noted how Bakugo was seething as he watched Midoriya. Here Danny thought Bakugo had mellowed out slightly from the beginning of the year. He could see why he was angry though, Midoriya was moving the same way Bakugo did with his explosions. If someone put videos of the two of them moving through the air they’d probably think they learned how to traverse quickly together instead of Midoriya copying Bakugo. 

Danny winced as he watched Midoriya misstep and fall off of a pipe giving Sero the win. Danny wanted to wince even more when he realized he was in the same group of Bakugo. At least he knew the other boy wouldn’t drag out their part of the exercise. Uraraka, Tsu, and Kirishima were the other three in their group. Thankfully all who were pretty good at movement with their quirks, except Kirishima. Even more thankfully that even though he was up against Uraraka technically he wouldn’t actually be fighting her. 

Danny floated at the spot he was instructed to start at, bracing for All Might’s ‘call for help’. It came only a short time later and he shot straight towards it. Not having to bother about the buildings in the way like his classmates did. He reached All Might just a few seconds later, who had his back towards him. 

“I am here!” Danny said with a smile as he crossed his legs midair.

All Might laughed as he turned around. “So you are! You certainly got here quickly. Thanks hero, and congratulations!” He held out a sash that said ‘Thanks for saving me!’ 

It wasn’t like Danny could turn down a sash from the number one hero. Not like he wanted to anyway. He placed it around his torso, its red color contrasting strongly against his monotone suit. 

“By the way young man.” All Might coughed into his fist, seemingly more out of awkwardness than any of the injuries he had. “Is everything alright? You seem a bit worn down?”

It was probably the three hours of sleep he had last night, but All Might didn’t need to worry about that. He was sure to have much more important things than Danny to worry about. Plus that was almost a whole three times more than the sleep he’d gotten the two previous nights. “I’m fine. Just recovering from internships still.” 

“Speaking of your internships-” All Might was cut off by Bakugo landing on the platform they were on with a yell.

“Sorry Bakugo, second place.” Danny shrugged.

“I can see that, I have eyes Casper!” Bakugo shot back.

“Just making sure you know. For all I know those blasts of yours blind you for a moment.” Danny smirked.

“Haaa? Watcha say nerd?” Bakugo snarled stomping up to Danny.

“I think out of the two of us you’re the nerd, your class ranking is higher than mine.” Danny said looking up towards the sky.

“Die!” Bakugo said explosions sparking off of his palms.

“Been there done that, don’t recommend it honestly.” Danny floated a few paces back.

All Might took the newly opened space between the two students to step between them as the rest of the second group made their way to the platform. “Young Bakugo please calm down, Young Danny please stop trying to antagonize him.”

“Someone’s grumpy today.” Kirishima laughed, slapping Bakugo on the back. Danny swore he had no concept of fear, or really shitty self-preservation instincts.

“I’ll kill you!” Bakugo said as he turned towards Kirishima.

Kirishima just laughed. “That’s not too heroic, remember? Plus you’d have to get past my quirk first.”

“Do you think he has a death wish?” Uraraka asked as she saddled up next to Danny.

“Nah, I think that’s just how Bakugo shows affection. Like a feral cat or something.” Danny said.

“Threatening to kill someone doesn’t seem too affectionate.” Uraraka pointed out as Kirishima continued talking to Bakugo.

In Danny’s defense, most of the people he cared for back in Amity had tried to kill him at least once. Ghosts and humans. “It’s plenty affectionate. He’d never actually do anything to kill someone. He wants to be the number one hero, can’t do that from a jail cell. Or if your ratings tank because you have a poor public image.”

“You know, sometimes I don't understand you Danny.” Uraraka shook her head. “That’s not a bad thing! You just seem super aware of some things then completely oblivious to others.”

“I do?” Danny asked as they walked back to the rest of the class. Once they did the debrief he’d be free to leave class early.

“Yep, you do. But like I said, it’s not a bad thing. You have us to make up for what you miss!” Uraraka said with her fists curled into balls. 

“I suppose.” Danny nodded.

“Noooo, you don’t ‘suppose’. You know! Say it. Or else I’ll make you float until you realize it!” Uraraka reached towards him to try and make him float.

Danny barely dodged out of her reach. He knew with that look on her face earlier today she’d try to show off her skills. At least he managed to dodge.

Until she came in with her other hand and tapped his side. It was a feint he realized as he slowly started to float up into the air unwillingly. “Uraraka you know I can fly, right?” It took concentration to stay in place opposed to the subconscious act of flying. It wasn’t a lot of concentration but it was enough to notice.

“Maybe so, but your school supplies can’t so I’ll just float those instead if you don’t acknowledge it!” Uraraka smiled as she dodged out of the way of Danny trying to spray her with a bit of snow in retaliation.

“Fine! I can rely on you and the rest of our friends.” Danny crossed his arms. “There, are you happy?”

Uraraka simply nodded and placed her fingertips together, canceling out her quirk. Danny just shook his head and listened to All Might as he started talking about their group’s race. Once a few students threw out ideas on how they could all improve their mobility it was into the third group's race. Which meant Danny could finally head to Nezu’s office.

The door to Nezu’s office opened before Danny could even reach for it. He was used to it at that point with how many times he’d come into the office looking for Jazz, but he still couldn’t figure out how Nezu managed it. Especially since he was sitting behind his desk and nowhere near the door once Danny walked into the office. “Good afternoon Danny. I do hope you are not skipping class? Jazz is not here if you’re here for her, she’s with Powerloader at the moment.”

Danny closed the door behind him. “No, All Might let me leave early. I actually wanted to ask you something, if that’s okay?”

Nezu’s smile didn’t change. “Of course, I will always make time for my students! How may I help you? Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine. Just a, hopefully, quick question.” Danny sat down in the chair across from the desk. Nezu motioned for him to continue on. “I wanted to know if there was a way to get my provisional license before my second or third year.” 

Nezu tapped his chin before rearranging a few of his papers on his desk. “May I inquire as to why? I am not opposed to it, do not get me wrong. Just curious.” 

“Well, the reason you wait until other students reach their second year is due to them needing experience. I have plenty of experience, I don’t see why I have to wait. Especially when I did the job of all the pros in the area single-handedly. So it would be logical for me to be able to start helping people again.” Danny explained.

“I was inquiring as to why you wanted to, not the logic of why you should” Nezu corrected.

The reason was because he could be doing so much more instead of just sitting around. He didn’t want to have to resort back to vigilantism to do so. Too much at least. It was too likely that he’d be caught doing so again, and he didn’t want to disappoint Aizawa and Yamada. This would be the safer option. Because if something like Stain’s attack happened again there wasn’t much chance of a hero conveniently passing by to take all the credit. He didn’t want to feel helpless, he didn’t want his friends to feel helpless. Not if he could easily do something to fix it. “I just think it makes more sense if I get it out of the way now.”

“I see. I cannot say I didn’t expect this sort of question.” Nezu said. “There is a way to appeal to the Hero Public Safety Commission to apply for a provisional license early. But it is not something done too easily. You still need to meet the minimum hours trained under a pro-hero, which you have already met as Eraserhead and Present Mic were training you even before starting here at U.A. As well as get multiple reference letters from pro-heroes.”

“Reference letters?” Was it just like vouching for him?

“Yes. You’d need four from instructional staff, four from pro-heroes not directly affiliated with U.A., and naturally one from your school's head of staff. Which would be me of course. It’s important to note that you can’t just ask a random pro-hero to put their name on a piece of paper for you. They need to write a convincing argument as to why they believe you should qualify for an early license.”

Danny frowned, that was nine letters that he had to manage to get. The average person didn’t even know one pro-hero personally, even not counting the ones from U.A. staff even four letters would be a tall task. “That’s a pretty big requirement.”

Nezu nodded before he seemed to finally find what he needed. He handed Danny an envelope. “Here’s the reference you’ll be needing from me. I cannot help you with the rest of them of course. But I believe you can do it. This also solves another issue at hand, I’m glad you didn’t wait to ask.”

“Another issue?” Danny asked turning the envelope in his hands.

“Regarding your final exams in a few weeks. This solves the practical portion. You’ll show off your determination to be a hero as well as networking skills heroes need and get your provisional license early. We’ll use this as your final practical portion instead of what all of your classmates are doing. Which of course I cannot inform you of what that will be.” Nezu’s smile seemed to shift to something different, but Danny couldn’t place what. 

Danny looked down at the enveloped with U.A.’s seal in it. Did Nezu really just have that ready to go? How did he even know Danny was going to ask about it? Well, no, that was a simple answer. It was Nezu. Now he had to figure out which teachers could, and were willing to, write a convincing argument in his defense. And even harder, find four pro’s who knew him enough and were willing to do the same. 

But he’d do it. Somehow. He refused to stand by any longer. If he couldn’t protect Amity, he’d do his damnedest to protect anyone else he could. No one else would get hurt due to his inability to act as a protector. 

Notes:

I started writing during my lunch to stop scrolling through social media as much, have a chapter sooner than expected.

Also Danny, it's not a bad thing to actually talk about your feelings. Trust me.

Chapter 28: Teachers Past and Present

Summary:

Danny starts his work towards getting the recommendation letters he needs

Notes:

You may ask what took this chapter so long:

The answer is I've been playing too much Pokémon. Every kid in that game is adoptable shaped. My children now.

“A recommendation letter for a provisional license? Do Hizashi and Shouta know about this?” Nemuri questioned Danny.

“No not yet, I want it to be a surprise. They’ve worked so hard to help train me to get to this point so it’ll be like a way to show their work wasn’t just wasted. Snipe and Thirteen both already said they’d write one for me, so I just need two more from my teachers.” Danny didn’t have any from pro-heroes not working for U.A. but he’d be able to get one after school hopefully. He still had a few weeks until their final exams so while he’d prefer to do this all as quickly as he could, he had time.

Nemuri hummed as she tapped her nails against her desk. “I suppose I can write one, yes.”

Danny perked up. “Thank you!”

“But.” Nemuri held up a finger.

“But?” Danny repeated.

“You have to take some time to relax hun. I mean this in the nicest way I can, but you look awful. Your eye circles are almost as dark as Shouta’s, and that’s saying something.” Nemuri said with a frown. 

“I’m fine though.” Danny insisted. Why so many people felt like they needed to comment on his appearance lately was starting to get annoying. He was perfectly fine. Shinso had eye bags and no one was ragging on him all the time about them. 

“It’s normal to not be okay after what you and the other three went through in Hosu. Even if a hero came across you four in time to save you, that's a pretty scary experience.” Nemuri said, trying to comfort him.

“I’m fine. It wasn’t my first villain, and it certainly won't be my last. I kinda just want people to stop bringing it up.” Danny said. Stain was a threat to others, sure, but he wasn’t much of one to Danny. More of a threat to his peace of mind than anything else. If Clockwork hadn't gotten involved it would have been fine, Danny would have been fine. 

No. Danny was fine. Just because he realized he couldn’t just lie around any longer while people were in danger didn’t mean he wasn’t alright.  Stain was at least good for that realization, even if only by proxy. 

“How’s your sessions with Hound Dog going?” Nemuri asked, a clear move to try and change the subject.

Danny shrugged. “He says I need a hobby.” He used to have a lot of hobbies before the accident. But it was hard to start anything when there was a more than likely chance he’d have to drop it midway though because of a ghost attack. Even single player video games weren’t safe, not with Technus around.

“He’s right. Your whole family needs more hobbies. Every single one of you is a workaholic. Honestly it stresses me out.” Nemuri shook her head. “One of these days I’m going to force you all to come with me to the spa I go to. Full day of spa treatment.”

Danny’s nose wrinkled at the thought causing Nemuri to laugh. “A full day? What are they doing that takes a full day?”

Nemuri just laughed harder much to Danny's indignation. “It’s a whole lot of stuff hun. Facials, massages, saunas, mud baths, manicures, things like that.”

“Mud bath?” Danny had heard of all the other stuff listed, but a bath of mud sounded like the opposite of what most people wanted.

“It’s good for your skin. I have to keep myself looking young somehow. Especially since I have a date coming up.” Nemruri said wiggling her shoulders. 

“You have a date? Who with?” Danny hoped they weren’t a jerk. Not that she couldn’t take care of herself of course. But Danny wouldn’t lie, he could be a bit protective over the people he cared about.

“No one you know. And I won’t tell you either. I don’t need you boys or Jazz giving the shovel talk and scarring off my first date in ages.” Nemuri crossed her arms. “Now go run along, I’ll let you know when I finish that recommendation letter. But for now I have grading to do.” 

Danny did what he was told and made his way back through the schools halls. Three letters from teachers down, one to go. He still had a bit of time left until lunch ended, he wondered if he could find All Might and convince him to write a letter in time. 

Danny had actually put in a lot of thought in which teachers he’d ask for letters of recommendation, he wouldn’t get the chance to be picky when it came to the pro-heroes who weren’t teachers. Snipe was aware of how quick Danny was able to bounce back after being injured, a valuable asset in the field. Thirteen knew he was able to prioritize during a fight, as well as keep an eye out for the people around him so they didn’t get hurt in the crossfire Midnight was able to speak on his personality, on top of his fighting skills. And All Might was the number one hero, it would be stupid to turn down a chance to say that he was backed by the most loved and powerful hero in the country. 

Of course, he still had to actually ask All Might if he was willing. If not Danny could always just ask Hound Dog instead. That did bring the risk of Hound Dog trying to turn it into a therapy exercise. Hence why he was the second choice. 

Danny looked into a few rooms before finding both Midoriya and a depowered All Might sat together discussing something. Their heads both whipped towards him as he opened the door.

“Oh, sorry didn’t mean to interrupt whatever you were talking about. I just needed to ask All Might for something. It can wait until after school lets out.” Danny pointed to the almost skeletal hero.

Midoriya stiffened. “All Might? Who’s All Might? All Might’s not in here!” His arms were waving all over the place as he moved between All Might and Danny as if he could hide the seven-foot man behind him.

All Might put a hand on Midoriya’s shoulder. “It’s alright young Midoriya, he is aware of my er- condition. There’s no need for you to lie to your friend for me.”

Midoriya slumped in relief. Danny still felt like he was interrupting however. “Look if you’re talking about One For All I can leave. Like I said it can wait.”

It was All Might’s turn for shock, as he started to cough blood out. Though Midoriya wasn’t doing too much better minus the blood. “H-how do you know about One For All?”

“Don’t you remember the hospital in Hosu, when I told you about your quirk ghosts?” Danny reminded him. The blank yet concerned stare he was receiving told Danny that he in fact did not remember. Weird, he could have sworn… “Ohhhh no. I forgot to tell you about your quirk ghosts.”

“Quirk ghosts?” Midoriya could only repeat weakly. 

Danny nodded. “My guess is that it’s the closest thing around to what can be considered an afterlife where people go after they die. Hence, why I was able to access it. Of course that’s just a theory, and it can’t be tested, unless you know someone else with quirk ghosts.”
“Young Danny, I don’t think the concept itself is what the concern is here. In the span of a minute you told us you knew about a quirk that only a handful of people knows even exists and that it’s also haunted.” All Might pointed out. 

“Oh,” Danny needed to remember that ghosts weren’t a thing in this universe. Or well apparently not a known thing. “If it makes you feel better it’s just the past users of your quirk, it’s not like a random ghost possession party.” 

All Might suddenly reentered his powered up form. “You talked to the past users? As in had an actual conversation?”

Danny refrained from taking a step back from All Might’s sudden transformation and excitement. “That is what I said.”
“You met Nana then? Could you tell me how she’s doing?” All Might asked. Poor Midoriya had sat back down, sort of just staring into the distance.

“No, just two men. I think their names were Yoichi and Banjo? Longer white hair, green eyes really thin, and then bald, tall, and buff.” Danny explained. 

All Might in palpable disappointment went back into his depowered from with a sigh. Well damn, Danny felt bad now and it wasn’t even his fault. Seeing All Might with anything but a smile felt wrong, like seeing a kicked puppy. If the puppy could easily kill you if it wanted to with a single blow. So like seeing a kicked Cujo. 

“I could try and meet them again and ask for her if you want? You said her name was Nana?” Danny offered.

All Might nodded. “Yes, she was my mentor and predecessor. The most heroic and kindest person I’ve ever met.”

Danny turned to Midoriya. “Midoriya are you okay if I try to talk to your quirk ghosts again?”

Midoriya must have snapped out of his shock while Danny was talking to All Might. He was now writing a bunch of things down in his hero notebook, muttering as he did. He looked up at Danny with wide eyes. “The chance to talk to heroes of past generations! From the emergence of quirks to now! Witnessing the evolution of quirks with each generation, and the changes heroics have gone through!”

“So, yes?” Danny verified. Midoriya nodded his head enthusiastically. “Alright.”

Danny sat across from Midoriya as he tried to remember what it was like to open the portal last time he did it. Just like last time when it opened, he was met with a black void. And, unfortunately, just like last time the black tendrils, which he now at least knew were from Banjo, pulled him through into the void.

But unlike last time he heard a yell of, “Wooo Monopoly!” Before his vision went black. 

As he came to an unfamiliar face hovering over him. A woman with dark hair and eyes, a clear look of concern across her face. “Look what you did! What made you think that was a good idea?” She said looking to the side.

“Come on Seventh. How was I supposed to know it would make the kid pass out? He didn’t last time.” Banjo said with his arms crossed.

“Did you ever consider just not doing it at all?” Yoichi asked from Danny’s other side.

“You’re just biased because he’s like your great-great-great grandson or something.” Banjo huffed.

“You never told us you had a child Yoichi?” The woman above Danny turned once more.

“Because I don’t.” Yoichi said.

“Are you sure? Banjo is right, you do look a lot alike.” The woman nodded.

“Nana, where in my short life would I have had an opportunity to have a kid? When I was locked in a vault? Or maybe when I was helping out a rebellion to save the world from my murderous self-proclaimed demon lord brother?” Yoichi shot back.

“Wow here I thought I had family issues.” Danny groaned out as he slowly sat up. Why was he so tired?

“Oh shit the kid’s awake.” Banjo said.

The woman, Nana apparently, swatted at him. “You can’t swear in front of kids. Sorry about him.”

Danny waved her off, more concerned with the fact he passed out more than anything else. So that was Nana, All Might’s mentor. It was weird to think of All Might as a hero in training like Danny was now. He sort of always imagined All Might just randomly spawning into existence as a hero. He just had trouble imagining All Might as a teen who also didn’t know the first thing about saving people. 

“Aw he didn’t even bring monopoly, or even a deck of cards.” Banjo noted after he circled back around from avoiding Nana’s swats. Nana turned to Banjo her smile somehow growing larger while looking even more threatening. “Never mind. Who likes Monopoly anyway?”

Yoichi shook his head as he helped Danny stand up the rest of the way. “So, you have family issues too, huh?”

Danny shrugged. “Depends on who you ask.”

Yoichi seemed to almost snort. “Heard that one before. What is it, evil older brother who wants to take over the world?”

“No, I only have an older sister. And if she ever decides to take over the world I assume she has a good reason for it.” Jazz could probably tell him that they were overthrowing the government and he’d just ask for directions. 

“Ah I see. I used to be the same way when I was younger. Except my brother was a little more open about his evil ideals so maybe not exactly the same. Hard to come to the realization that the person who practically raised you is a bad person.” 

Danny nodded. “Yeah, Jazz helped me a lot when we were younger when our parents were busy. Not that I think she’s a bad person.” Danny quickly added. 

Yoichi’s brow rose. “Parental family issues then?”

Danny made a so-so motion with his hand. “Like I said, depends on who you ask.”

“Give me some examples then. So I can decide for myself.” Yoichi offered. Nana leaned in a bit closer from the side.

Danny figured it wouldn’t hurt, not like they could talk to anyone else other than him in the living world, a risk-free confessional. “They’re just really absorbed in their work so they forget a lot of things. Or just too busy.”

“Really? Like what?” Nana asked putting her fist to her chin.

“Nothing too big. Just like missing when a haircut was due every once in a while. Or missing school events, not being able to take too much time from an invention for a birthday tradition. The occasional ecto-contaminated food coming to life when my father accidentally left samples in the fridge. Leaving dangerous or unstable inventions lying around, but in their defense I shouldn’t have been touching them in the first place when I was that young. But like, we always had mostly non-contaminated food in the house, and we had heat, and water, and clothes. We even went on family trips, my dad would take me fishing a lot. And they didn’t even know it was me when they did shoot at me or talk about dissecting me for science.”

Nana’s lips pursed before turning to Yoichi. “We need to find out how to revive ourselves. Now. What sort of parent willingly-”

“Wow that’s pretty fucked up. You know it’s bad when I’m saying that.” Yoichi whistled. “Ignore Nana, parents willingly putting their kids in danger, especially when it comes to their work, is a sore subject for her.”

“Yoichi if you’re not claiming him as your son, I’m taking him.” Nana said at the end of her rant.

“It’s really not that bad.” Danny reassured them. “They love me, really.”

Yoichi really did snort that time. “Yeah, All For One said the same thing to me before he literally locked me away. Look, someone can say they love you, fully believe it to be true, and fully believe they're doing what’s in your best interest. Yet still be extremely harmful to your physical and/or mental health.”
Now he just sounded like Aizawa. Worse Danny couldn’t just ignore what Yoichi was saying because he really didn’t have an emotional attachment to Danny like Aizawa did to cloud his judgment. Not only that it was clear the man was speaking from experience. 

“You never said no, he’s my kid now. We need to figure out how to get adoption papers as vestiges.” Nana called out.

“Actually I’m already adopted.” Danny told her.

“Then why are you defending your, assumedly, birth parents?” Yoichi asked.

“Well I can’t go back to my biological-parents due to extenuating circumstances.” He explained. 

“Oh, I’ll be your adopted grandma then! I’m old enough. No reason for you to go back to them anyway.” Nana clapped her hands together.

“Well no. I do need to go back. I’m my city’s only protector.” Danny didn’t have the energy to go over the fact he was from another dimension where he fought ghosts on the daily.

“How old are you kid? Ten?” Banjo asked as he walked back through the misty void of black. Probably since he figured Nana wasn’t going to hit him now.

“I’m fifteen.” Danny frowned.

‘Bah,” Banjo waved his hand, “Still too young for that sort of nonsense. None of us other than Eighth and Ninth even got this quirk when we were kids. And Eighth took to it like a fish to water, and Ninth well clearly not so much but he doesn’t have to worry about All For One anyway so it doesn’t matter. Plus we all knew we couldn’t just rely on ourselves anyway.” 

Danny really didn’t want to continue any part of this conversation. He didn’t want to be thinking about his complicated feelings towards his parents. He purposely packed those away in a box and shoved them to the back of his mind for a reason. Because if they were bad parents then-well what did that make Danny?

“Hey, how about I tell you about Toshinori when he was your age?” Nana offered putting a hand on Danny’s shoulder.

Danny shook his head. “Thanks, but I should get going. I’m not sure how long I was out and I need to get back to class. Plus I’m pretty tired.” 

He wasn’t sure why the last time he opened the portal it didn’t take nearly as much energy. But it certainly took a lot this time. The only difference was…

…the fact he was in the Ghost Zone earlier that night. Access to ectoplasm and ecto-energy he didn’t have to generate himself that he could siphon off of. It was a breeze to do even in his tired state in the hospital, and now he couldn’t even do it without passing out, apparently. Which raised an even scarier question.

He was a lot stronger than he was now than when he first came to this universe due to being properly trained and the freedom to use his quirk without the risk of a secret identity being found out. A lot stronger than when he had constant access to the ambient ectoplasm surrounding Amity Park. If he was able to do something easily with that ectoplasm that without it made his so tired he fainted, how dangerous would his powers be to himself and others once he got back to Amity? Would it be safer for everyone if he did end up staying in this universe like he wanted to?

Danny shook his head. That wasn’t an option. None of that was anything he had to worry about until they found a way back, and who knew how long that would take anyway. Now he just had to focus on getting back to class. No way lunch wasn’t over yet. 

He shook his arms out before trying to reopen the portal. Key word being tried. Apparently he didn’t let his core rest long enough as he stumbled to prevent himself from falling over from the wave of exhaustion that washed over him.

“Nope, I refuse to let my grandson pass out again. Yoichi come help your son.” Nana instructed as she helped Danny steady himself.

“Wouldn’t that make me your son, Nana? I’m older than you, by a few hundred years in fact.” Yoichi rolled his eyes, but still came over to help Danny. “Also, he’s still not my son. That didn’t change in the past few minutes.”

“I died at a later age than you did though, so I’m older than you.” Nana smiled.

“It doesn’t matter my birth year starts with a nineteen Nana I am older.” Yoichi said.

“Well by your logic if we’re going by year born I am also older than her, but by her logic I am younger than all of you having died at fourteen. So you both better come to a decision so I can figure out what sort of jokes to use.” Danny grumbled through a yawn. 

“Never mind Nana. I concede.” Yoichi nodded.

“Great to hear!” She had moved Danny into a sitting position. “Now you are going to rest until you are recovered enough to leave and then some. I won’t have you passing out again needlessly.”

“Yes ma’am.” Danny joked giving her a salute.

“That’s yes grandma ma’am to you.” Nana joked back. “Now; to tell you about Toshinori when he was your age.”

Nana and Yoichi took turns telling him stories from when they were alive. He even learned a bit about the emergence of quirks. But the two of them kept their stories lighthearted, and Danny knew enough from class that the beginning age of quirks was not a pleasant time to live in if you did have one. He could relate to that notion well enough. 

It was weird to equate the brother in Yoichi’s stories that would pop up here and there to the villain even All Might seemed to be afraid of, and who killed most of the vestiges. It was even weirder however to equate the Toshinori in Nana’s stories to All Might. It was clear she really cared for him, she was basically a surrogate mother figure to him. Which was even weirder since it was obvious that All Might had taken on a surrogate father figure to Midoriya. She was like Midoriya’s surrogate grandma, and also Danny’s by her own claim. Which made Danny add one more to his surrogate cousin count next to Dani and Iida. 

Danny took time to tell them his own stories in between. Letting them know more about Midoriya. Apparently they weren’t fully conscious most of the time, so they only got bits and pieces of their current user's life. Telling some of the non-concerning stories from Amity, more focused on the stories from his time in this universe however. A few of the other vestiges passed by at times periodically adding their own two cents in when the opportunity arose. 

Eventually he felt well rest enough to try again, once Nana gave the okay. Danny remembered the reason he even came to the vestiges’ realm in the first place right before retried opening the portal. He pulled out his phone and turned to Nana. “Wait I need a picture of you for All Might!” 

“I’m not sure how well that’ll work here.” Nana tapped her chin. “But I don’t see why not. Yoichi come take a picture of us.”

“Wait, both of us?” Danny asked. He was just planning on getting a picture of her.

“Of course.” Nana said taking the phone out of Danny’s hand and handing it to Yoichi.

Yoichi looked at the phone blankly. “What is this?”

“It’s a phone Yoichi.” Nana supplied,

Yoichi shook his head. “No it is not, it doesn’t even have buttons.”

“Does he not know what a smartphone is?” Danny asked.

Nana shook her head. “No, he’s an old man. Just press the circle on the screen. Like so.” She instructed showing him how to use it. 

“This is ridiculous.” Yoichi grumbled as he blinked the flash from his eyes after she took a picture of him in demonstration. But he complied to her request and held the phone up towards the two to take a picture.

Danny finally managed to open up the portal as the vestiges saw him off. “Come back soon! But not too soon, don’t pass out on us again!” Nana called he walked through the portal. 

"And bring a game next time!" He heard Banjo yell.

He was not met with the room they were all in when he was talking to Midoriya and All Might but instead Recovery Girl’s office. Midoriya was sitting in an exam chair looking like a nervous wreck surrounded by Nezu, All Might, Recovery Girl, and Aizawa. All the adults were gathered together clearly in a heated discussion. Looking out the window it was a lot closer to sunset than Danny was expecting, school must have been out for a while. Shit.

“So give a child a quirk that’s highly volatile and decide it’s a great idea not to tell anyone?” Aizawa hissed out.

“Not no one, Nezu and Recovery Girl know, as well as Grand Torino.” All Might responded.

“I am his teacher Yagi, you didn’t think to tell me that his quirk came with baggage? I could have helped a lot sooner and a lot better if I knew this at the start of the year.” Aizawa was up close, if All Might were an actual reasonable height he’d be in his face.

“You expelled your whole class last year Eraserhead. How could I know for sure you wouldn’t expel him on the spot for being quirkless.” All Might reasoned,

“We are at the end of the first term, you could have told me by now, surely. And not when my son has been who knows, absorbed maybe, by your quirk.” He turned to Nezu. “And don’t think you’re getting out of this either. You knew, and not even that you’re in an even better position to make sure Midoriya had the proper instruction he needed. Instead, another student, once again my son who is now missing , had to approach me about helping him with extra training.”

“I will admit, this was not how I expected this revelation to play out. But should we not focus on the more pressing issue of finding out how to find Danny?” Nezu tried to mediate, his tail was swishing back and forth in a sign of agitation. 

Danny walked up behind Aizawa. All Might, Nezu, and Recovery Girl already noticed him as they went silent to stare at him. Danny tapped him on the shoulder, which he quickly brushed aside not even looking at him. Danny tapped again, causing Aizawa to glance back quickly before turning back to the adults. “Not now Danny.”

He paused before turning around fully. “Danny!”

“That’s me.” Danny nodded. 

“Are you alright? Why are you in your ghost form? What happened?” Aizawa asked looking him over.

Danny batted his hands away, he was happy enough that he didn’t pass out on his way back, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t exhausted. He didn’t need to be overcrowded. “I’m fine. Apparently a side effect of jumping into this world's closest equivalent of the afterlife that has ghosts. And in this world's equivalent to the afterlife that has ghosts, which just so happens to be Midoriya’s quirk, apparently.” Danny answered. “Also it was my idea, you can't get mad at anyone but me.”

“I’m mad about that, but also about everything else surrounding Midoriya’s quirk.” Aizawa started, he glanced over to Midoriya. “I’m not mad at you Midoriya, you were failed by all of us in this situation, this is not directed towards you. And I apologize.”

“You’re right.” All Might nodded.

“What?” Aizawa stopped.

“What? No.” Midoriya stood up.

“Yes. Due to my own experience with One For All and how easy the power came to be I was not properly prepared to teach another person to use it. And as it has been such a close guarded secret for so long it didn’t even occur to me that once you prove yourself to be trustworthy to tell you. I understand however, that does not change my failings as young Midoriya’s mentor.” All Might frowned. “Anything you decide Eraserhead I will understand.”

Aizawa blinked, expecting more confrontation and pushback. “Don’t frown, it’s unsettling.” He held up a finger. “Secondly, I need you to tell me everything you know about this quirk so I can make sure Midoriya is getting the best education he can. You’re also going to be assisting directly in Midoriya’s training sessions before school twice a week.” He turned to Nezu. “I can’t truly demand anything from you. But you owe me a big favor, I am not sure what quite yet but I will let you know when I figure it out.”

“Naturally.” Nezu nodded.

“Come on Danny, we’re going home. All Might you better make sure Midoriya gets home safe.” Aizawa said grabbing his bag from a chair.

“Actually I need to talk to All Might about something before we go, alone.” Danny said rubbing at his neck.

“Why?” Aizawa frowned as he shot All Might a distrustful glance.

All Might’s hands shot up. “I don’t know either Eraser.”

“Just for my project for my final exams. Don’t worry.” Danny reassured him with an eye roll.

“Best we leave them alone, Aizawa.” Nezu said as he made his way out the door. “It should only take a few minutes at most.”

“You never did tell me what his project was.” Aizawa mentioned as he followed the principal out the door along with Recovery Girl and Midoriya.

“You’ll find out soon enough! It’s a surprise!” Nezu clapped.

“So first.” Once Danny was sure the door was shut behind them, he pulled out his phone. Pulling up his photos specifically the photo he took with Nana. She was standing behind him with a smile, her fingers pulling his own mouth into the shape of a smile to match her own. It was a bit distorted around the edges of the picture and it wasn’t the highest quality picture the phone had taken by a long shot. But it was surprisingly clear for a photo taken of two ghosts. 

“Young Danny, I do not see how your phone relates to your final project-oh” All Might stopped mid-sentence and stared at the photo.  He placed the back of his hand to his mouth before he took a deep breath. 

Danny pretended like he didn’t see his eyes watering. He knew from what Nana said how much he had to mean to All Might. “You can send the picture to yourself if you want. She insisted I was in it though, sorry.” Danny offered. 

“No it’s- it’s perfect. This means more than you could ever know to me. I cannot thank you enough.” All Might quickly sent the picture to himself and gathered himself once more. “Apologies. I did not mean for you to see me in such a sorry state. You mentioned something about your final exams?”

Danny nodded. “It was what I was going to ask you about originally when I interrupted you and Midoriya. I’m trying to get my provisional license early but I need letters of recommendation first. I was hoping you’d be willing to write one for me?”

“Of course!” All Might nodded. 

“If not that’s fine, but I’d really-. Wait, really? Just like that, no questions?” Danny honestly had been expecting to have to make a whole case for himself as to why the number one hero would even think to back him for a license.

“You’ve already long since proven yourself a commendable hero. And you only prove yourself more every day. You have what it takes to be a grand hero, in fact I believe all of your class does. It makes me have faith in the next generation of heroes.” All Might said. “I must be honest in the fact I can’t continue hero work as I have been for much longer. I can only stay in my muscle form for two and a half hours a day nowadays, no matter how much it pains me to admit.”

Danny shrugged. “I’d talk to Nezu about that. Or well I’d talk to Jazz, but you should talk to Nezu.” Danny didn’t know how retirement worked in heroics. He sort of assumed he’d be fighting ghosts until one finally took him out for good, and then he’d continue as a full ghost. 

“I will think about it. Thank you for the advice young man! Now get along, your father will not be pleased if I keep you for long. He’s mad enough at me as is.” All Might shuddered. 

Danny nodded, it was a valid reaction. Something about Aizawa’s eyes just bore into your very soul when he was angry. Not nearly as bad as Yamada’s anger though, he was quiet when he was angry, which was worse. A quiet Yamada meant you messed up big time.

Danny met back up with Aizawa who was leaning against the wall a bit farther down the hall with his eyes closed. He opened one eye when he heard Danny approach. Though how he heard him Danny had no clue as he was still floating just a bit off of the ground in his ghost form. 

“Ready to go kid? I need a nap.” Aizawa asked ruffling Danny’s hair. Danny nodded with another yawn. Aizawa had the right idea, a nap sounded great. At least he had the teacher's letters down, now he just needed four pro-heroes. That however was a problem for after nap Danny.

Notes:

@papiliomame over on tumblr made some wonderful fanart of this chapter with Nana and Danny! Go look at it!!

Chapter 29

Iida looked Danny up and down with a frown. Danny could feel the judgment, which he did not appreciate. Especially considering, until recently, Iida had been bent on committing manslaughter. Not that Danny did anything to discourage the act. But still.

“Don’t look at me like that. I just don’t see why you can not simply ask either of your parents for my brother's phone number. You know either of them could give it to you. Especially since you are acting so elusive as to why you need it.” Iida shook his head.

“Because I’m trying to surprise them. Why do you want to know so bad anyway?” Danny crossed his arms.

“It is my duty as class vice representative to ensure all students of 1-A are doing okay in their school pursuits.”

“This isn’t about school, nothing the class rep, or the vice reps needs to worry about.” Well it sorta was, since Nezu made it part of his final exam. But that wasn’t the driving factor.

“Then again I’ll ask, as a friend, what’s going on?”

“Nothing!” 

“I fail to believe that for multiple reasons. You’ve not eaten lunch with us for days, and you clearly have not been getting an adequate amount of rest. If anything is going on you are aware that I’d always be willing to help if needed. Not to speak for them, but I’m positive the rest of our friends feel the same.” Iida said stiffly putting a hand on Danny’s shoulder. 

Danny knew Iida wouldn’t let the problem be until he got what he felt was an acceptable answer from him. He was stubborn like that. Danny did appreciate the effort he was putting in, he also knew that Iida often worried he wasn’t doing the right thing when trying to comfort people. He didn’t want to make him feel like he was doing something wrong. “I’m just going to ask Tensei if he’ll write me a recommendation letter for an early provisional license. But I wasn't it to be a surprise for my dads. That’s why I haven't been at lunch lately, I’ve been getting the ones I need from the teachers. Also, one of the day’s was just because I was accosted in the hall by Mirio because he wanted me to eat lunch with him and the rest of his friends.”

“I see, a commendable goal, getting a head start with a provisional license will surly be beneficial. Though I do not believe that would be the best path for me at the moment, for… obvious reasons. What about you not getting enough rest? It is vital for us to get at least eight hours of sleep a night if we want to be able to be the best students we can.” 

Another person saying he should sleep more. At his point he had started lying just to get people off of his back. “Yeah, but exams are coming up. I’d rather not fail, so a few nights with a bit less sleep aren’t going to kill me.” 

It wasn’t even a total lie. Just mostly one. He did end up studying a lot of the nights he couldn’t fall, or stay, asleep. Other night’s he’d slip out of the apartment. Aizawa and Yamada stopped checking in on him in the middle of the night to make sure he was still there around the time school started. It wasn’t like he was doing anything. He just had to get some air, no one could notice an invisible flying teenager. He wasn’t even seeking out fights or actively patrolling when he was out. And if he did accidentally happen across a villain he knew better now than to drop them off at a police station. 

“While understandable, you should try to manage your time to allow more sleep. Or even a nap. No amount of studying will help if you’re too exhausted to think during exam week.” Iida reminded him. “But I will give you my brother's number. Honestly I’m surprised he didn’t jump on the chance to give it to you the last time you visited him in the hospital.” Iida paused his stride for a few seconds to text Danny Tensei’s phone number. 

Danny nodded. “Thanks. Yeah, I’m glad he’s finally been discharged though.”

“As am I. It’s a small step forward, but a step nonetheless. I take it you’re walking home today?” Iida asked as they made their way outside.

“Fresh air’s good for me, and I’ve been tasked into strong-arming someone to make sure they come over for dinner.” 

“I see. Well then I will see you on Monday, expect to eat lunch with us.” Iida pointed at him.

“Sure thing Iida. See you Monday!” Danny saluted before they parted ways.  

The main problem with strong-arming someone into coming to dinner for cooking lessons was actually finding Hawks. He thought spotting a man with giant red wings who is more often than not swarmed by fans would be easy to find. But Hawks was not in the spot he said he’d meet Danny at, nor was there a large swarm of fans that indicated his whereabouts. Danny was about to give up on waiting and just fly around the city invisible to find Hawks, when he felt something tap his shoulder.

He turned around but no one was there. Then he felt another tap on his either shoulder. He turned quick enough to see a single small floating red feather dart back behind him. Danny turned around once more only to be met with Hawks standing right in front of him, causing Danny to jump back in surprise. 

Hawks laughed at the sight of Danny’s face, clutching at his stomach. “Aw man, you should have seen your face. You were like ‘Ah’” Hawks said replicating, assumedly, what Danny’s face looked like a few seconds prior. 

“I’m going to pluck you like a chicken.” Danny threatened as he slowed his breathing to get his heart rate back under control. 

“Oooh scary, I’m terrified. Truly.” Hawks said, still laughing. 

“I wasn’t sure you’d come. I thought I would have to go hunt you down.” 

“Nah, I wouldn’t miss it. Had to pull a few strings but I managed. Plus Present Mic is surprisingly scary for someone so bubbly.” Hawks shook his head. “Speaking of scary, look at those dark circles. When was the last time you slept?”

This was it, the moment Danny was going to finally snap. Even the self-proclaimed workaholic hero had something to say about his looks. 

“No need to glare at me jeez.” Hawks held his hands up in surrender. He looked around at the shops nearby before perking up. “Oh I know. Wait here.”
Hawks started walking towards a shop before quickly turning around and taking his phone out and snapping a picture of Danny. He went in and out of the shop before Danny even finished processing what had just happened. “Think fast!”

Hawks tossed something at Danny who processed what was happening just in time as he caught the cylindrical object thrown at him. He examined the object in his hand. “Is this concealer?”

“I would have offered the stuff I use, but our skin tones don’t match so It would just make your eye bags stand out more. Great for when you don’t get enough sleep. Or just to use in general, like when you’re stressed.”

“You wear makeup?” 

“Of course I do. You don’t become the countries most popular up-and-coming hero looking tired and exhausted from patrol and work.” Hawks scoffed. 

“Oh.” Danny glanced down once more at the concealer before pocketing it. He wasn’t a stranger to the stuff, it worked great at covering bruises, on areas not covered by clothing, that took longer to heal after ghost fights. But he never really considered using it for it’s more intended purpose. “Anyway, do you think you could write me a recommendation letter for a provisional license?”

“Yeah sure.” Hawks nodded.

“Wait really?” Danny had thought it would take more convincing, a lot more convincing. 

“Yeah. Who are the other three you’re asking? You need help?”

“Ingenium and Sir Nighteye. For the last one I was just planning on asking one of Sir Nighteye’s sidekicks since I don’t know any other non-sidekick pros well enough.” 

Hawks pulled a face. “No. You need to strive for the most impactful heroes you can. Sidekicks won’t cut it. Especially since you’re already planning on getting one from their benefactor hero. It looks tacky. I’ll introduce you to someone who’ll love you. Or possibly hate you.”

“Why?” Danny wasn’t sure why he was being so helpful. Danny couldn’t see anything he’d be getting out of it by helping him. 

“You remind me of myself sometimes. And if you get your provisional license now you can do a work study with me during your second year.” Hawks said nudging Danny with his elbow.

So that was the catch. Though it wasn’t like Danny would turn down doing a work study with Hawks. He was in Danny’s top choices for internships, until Aizawa limited his choices, after all. Though he would probably have still gone with Sir Nighteye even if Aizawa didn’t limit them. Danny couldn’t see an issue with doing a work study with Hawks next year, if he was even still in this universe in a year that was. “Yeah, actually that sounds like it would be fun. But you’ll have to get on Eraserhead’s good side first.”

“Sweat! Don’t worry about Eraser, I have a year to get on his good side. You and Tokoyami will so hit it off together.” Hawks cheered.

“We’re in the same class remember?” Danny didn’t talk to Tokoyami too often. It was nothing against the other student, he actually reminded Danny of Sam. Dark Shadow just didn’t like Danny all that much was the problem. 

“Oh yeah, you are, aren’t you? Perfect!” Hawks smiled. “I should be able to convince her to meet up sometime tomorrow but It’ll be pretty late in the day since I have work to do in the morning.” 

That wasn’t a problem for Danny he was meeting with Mirio to go to Nighteye agency tomorrow in the morning anyway, so the later time would work perfect. At this rate he’d be able to apply for a license by the end of next week. 

“Enough chit-chat I’m hungry. What’s the first meal we’re making?” Hawks asked as they made their way to the apartment.

The answer to that was apparently chicken skewers. A request from Aizawa. If it was supposed to be some sort of intimidation tactic on his end it was failing as Hawks took an almost concerning amount of glee from shoving the skewers through the chicken. They did end up having to lock Arson away in Aizawa and Yamada’s room just for the time they were cooking. She kept trying to play with Hawks’ wings which wasn’t the safest around an open flame. 

Danny didn’t know too much about how Hawks’ feathers worked compared to normal feathers, but he knew that bird feathers, living or ectoplasm tended to burn pretty quickly. So room jail for Arson it was. Laika either in an act of rebellion or just wanting to keep her company also was shut inside the room. Despite their ability to just phase through the wall. It did make Danny feel a bit bad. He hadn’t been spending as much time around Laika as he should. It was his fault they were trapped in this world anyway. Maybe he’d take them with him tomorrow. 

“Question for you all. How would you overthrow the government if you wanted to?” Jazz asked from her place sitting on the bar stool on the other side of the kitchen counter.

Aizawa paused looking through the papers he was grading his eyes narrowing. “...Why?”

“Assignment from Nezu for my finals.” Jazz answered.

“That raises more questions, Jazz.” Aizawa fully set down the papers in his hands.

“Stop being paranoid. I’m not gathering ideas if that’s what you're worried about. I’m breaking down the answers I get and explaining all the flaws in them. Then I’ll analyze the answers and put together why you chose that method specifically. It’s just an experiment” Jazz said. She by far had been the most busy in the upcoming exam season. She for some reason agreed to have a big final project for both Powerloader and Nezu. Danny had hardly seen her the past few days, she’d been spending most of her time in U.A.’s design lab. 

“That doesn’t make it any less worrying. None of you answer her.” Aizawa instructed the three in the kitchen.

Jazz rolled her eyes. “I guess you want me to fail then? Won’t it look bad for the daughter of two U.A. teachers to fail her exams?” 

Yamada gasped. “Shou’ she used the ‘d’ word.”

“She’s manipulating you.” Aizawa said.

“I’ll still take it as a success.” Yamada shrugged as he brushed his hands off on the apron he was wearing. “Take over the Japanese government, huh?”

“Hypothetically, and also just a hypothetical government.” Jazz added.

Yamada took a second to think before answering. “Information war. Gather all the horrible things this hypothetical government had been keeping from its citizens and slowly leak them all. You’d have to start with a big one though. A bunch of small ones first would desensitize the population to the true horrors. So a big one, some small ones to keep the momentum up, then once the trust in the government was lost one final thing that by all rights is the worst. At that point you wouldn’t have to do anything, the citizens would do all the work for you. Hypothetically.” 

Jazz nodded her head before writing something down in her notebook while Aizawa, Danny, and Hawks stared at Yamada. Jazz sat down her pencil and turned to Aizawa. “What about you Shouta?”

Aizawa took a deep breath. “Infiltration probably. Make friends with lower ranking members of the government. Slowly getting closer to higher ups one connection at a time. Place subtle ideas of change into their minds and let them think it was their idea. The lower ranking friends, who were bound to be less on guard will eventually work their own way up to the top and at that point would see me as a trusted friend. Which would also have given me enough time to radicalize them into believing in my ideals over the ones others are only now bringing to them now that they had political pull.” Aizawa looked back down at his papers. “That’s too much work though.”

“What about you Danny?” Jazz asked.

“I don’t think I’d want to overthrow the government?” Danny said. “Why would I?”
“It’s hypothetical, do you need a reason?” Jazz reminded him.

“Well why am I hypothetically angry enough to want to do it?” 

Jazz sighed. “What if the government heads tried to kidnap you?”

“Add them to the list of organizations that want to kidnap me.” It wasn’t like that list was lacking.

“Fair enough. What if they were trying to hurt one of us, or your friends.”

“Oh. Brute force then.” Danny answered almost instantly.

“Yo, wait can we go back a few steps? You have a list of people who want to kidnap you?” Yamada’s pleas were ignored.

“That’s it? Brute force? No planning or anything, just that?” Hawks asked as he snagged a piece of chicken off of where it was cooking and popped it in his mouth. 

Danny briefly wondered if Hawks was immune to salmonella, because the chicken definitely wasn’t cooked all the way yet. Hawks seemed to think it tasted good at least. “Yeah, I mean it’s worked for me so far.”

That made all the adults pause. “What do you mean so far kiddo?” Yamada asked.

“I mean, depending on how you look at it, I’ve overthrown at least two different governments. Both through force. It works so like, no reason to try anything else.” Danny shrugged. Between Pariah Dark and Prince Aragon, Danny was two for two in overthrowing tyrants. He wasn’t even counting the times he time traveled and, accidentally or otherwise, overthrew a government. “What about you Hawks?”

“Well seeing as it’s my job to prevent the government from being overthrown am I allowed to abstain?” 

“No, the other two heroes answered, so can you. Just think of it as an evil super powerful organization instead if it makes you feel better.” Jazz offered. 

“I guess?” Hawks still looked pretty unsure. “I guess I’d do something similar to Aizawa. But I’d be the one infatuating instead of making friends to do it for me. No one better to trust than yourself. Gain the trust of those in the evil organization, not the government, and get close enough to the leader and their underlings. That way  it’ll be enough of a surprise when I turn against them that they’re no longer prepared when it happens.”

“Ah I see, you have trust issues and have a hard time delegating tasks to others. Makes sense from what I’ve heard around, taking down a villain usually leaving your sidekicks to clean up duty. You trust them enough to take them on as sidekicks, and in turn enough for them to have an impact on you and your agencies image. But not enough for them to truly have another person's life in their hands. Not when you’re nearby and able to do so at least.” Jazz said not even looking up from her notebook.

“What?” Hawks blinked.

“Oh hey look dinners done! Time to eat! Danny can you grab the plates?” Yamada called out, interrupting whatever else was about to happen or be said. 

“Sure thing.” Danny nodded. Unfortunately for Danny, he was still waiting on that giant growth spurt he was hoping for. Jazz had had a huge one in the months they’ve been in this universe. She was only about an inch or two shorter than Aizawa currently. Which meant that unfortunately Danny was the only one who lived in the apartment, that was clearly built with only giants in mind, who couldn’t reach the cupboards. 

At least Hawks was also on the shorter side, still taller than Danny though. The only recompense Danny got was the fact he didn’t have to use a step stool since he could fly. Danny grabbed the plates through the cupboard door and made his way, still floating, over to the table.

“Oh can you grab the spoons too?” Yamada asked, apparently just realizing that the soup they made along with the chicken would be difficult to eat with just their hands. 

Danny groaned but did as he was told. His hands were full so he just used his telekinesis to open the drawer and move the spoons to the table. 

“Do you really save much time phasing through the cupboards?” Hawks asked as they started eating.

“No, just sorta instinct I guess? Just like idly floating, especially in my ghost form. Just feels normal to do.” Danny shrugged. It was something he had to focus on repressing back in Amity, but here he was free to do whatever. Hell, he hardly even used his bedroom door anymore. Opting to just phase through it instead. 

Hawks shot a quick glance to Aizawa and Yamada, almost as if he was concerned about what they would think about it. Yamada just laughed though. “Freaks me out if he’s not paying much attention sometimes. A hero for over a decade, and my own kid tiredly phasing through any object, including people, to get to the fridge a few seconds quicker, is what gets to me.”

“I said I’d stop if it bothers you.” Danny reminded him. He didn’t even realize he did it the first time it happened. It was back when he was training for the entrance exams and he was too tired to think about anything but eating and falling asleep. 

Yamada waved him off. “No, it’s just how you are. I’m not going to stop you because it makes me unsettled. It’s clearly something natural for you to do. Path of least resistance and all.” 

“Speaking of things we do because of our quirks, did you drink your throat medicine after that villain you fought today?” Aizawa asked Yamada.

“Eh, I don’t need it, I’m fine.” Yamada shook his head. 

“Last time you said that and didn’t take it  you ended up losing your voice for three days. You’re taking the medicine.” Aizawa said sternly. 

“It tastes so gross though, it is nasty and bitter.” Yamada complained.

“Yes, it does. But you’re an adult, not a child you can take the medicine. Also, if you can drink black coffee daily you can take some throat medicine.” Aizawa rolled his eyes.

“It’s not the same Shou’.” Yamada placed the back of his hand to his forehead.

“This isn’t a debate. I’m grabbing the medicine and you will drink it.” Aizawa said. 

It was a conversation that happened at least once every two weeks or so whenever Yamada had fought against a particularly stronger villain prior in the day. It also ended the same way every time, with Yamada reluctantly drinking the medicine and asking Aizawa for a kiss as ‘payment’ for torturing him with it. 

It was quite entertaining to watch it play out if Danny was being honest. Jazz also had a small smile on her lips as she watched the scene unfold. Danny had had the throat medicine before, when the was training and trying to push his ghostly wail to its limits, it wasn’t even that bad. Sure it wasn’t good, but still. At his point he was pretty sure Yamada just refused on principle. 

Aizawa stood up and stalked away to hunt down and find where Yamada absentmindedly left the bottle last time he had to take the medicine. Grumbling as he walked away. “Doesn’t balk at having to have an injection every two weeks, but if the medicine tastes bad heaven forbid.”

Danny laughed before turning to Hawks. Who was now stiff as a dead body in his chair. His head was pointed at his food, but his eyes were darting between Yamada and where Aizawa had been sitting. “Hey, are you okay?” Danny asked reaching towards Hawks.

Somehow that made Hawks stiffen even more before he slowly exhaled, and a smile reappeared on his face. “Yeah, of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Danny suddenly remembered that something similar happened last time Hawks was over. When Aizawa had reached beside him to grab his plate from him. Freezing at sudden movements, despite being known for his agility. For some reason that set off alarm bells in the back of Danny’s brain. But why?

‘It’s best to stay completely still so you don’t give a reason to be hit again.’ Was what Todorki said back in the hospital in Hosu.
Danny felt a pit form in his gut. There were not many people Danny would have no moral qualms with just attacking on sight, unprovoked if given the opportunity and no repercussions. Endeavor was a recent addition, and unfortunately for Danny attacking the number two hero wasn’t an option, not even adding in the fact that if he was the number two hero he had to be very strong which meant Danny probably wouldn’t actually be able to fight him. Which didn’t mean he didn’t want to. But at that moment, whoever raised Hawks was added to the list. Danny didn’t know anything about them, but on the list they were added anyway. 

Now totaling at least three for his list. Shigaraki, Endeavor, and Hawk’s parent or parents. He’d have to get Hawks to tell him more about his childhood. That would definitely take time though. For how open Hawks seemed to be with everything else, his childhood was a mystery. But that made sense if it was an abusive upbringing.
If Danny was a top pro hero he wouldn’t want to be advertising his upbringing that was for sure. Something he was slowly starting to come to terms with. His Jack and Maddie weren’t awful parents, not like Endeavor and Hawk’s parents, it wasn’t like they ever hit him or Jazz. But they probably could have been better. Living with Yamada and Aizawa made that clear, as well as Nana wanting to steal him from them. 

“You okay there?” Hawks had started eating again but was now looking at Danny in concern. 

Danny realized he had been zoned out staring at his plate for a while. Aizawa had already returned with the throat medicine and the empty medicine cup was sitting beside Yamada’s plate. “Yeah I’m good. Just thinking.”

“Don’t hurt yourself.” Hawks said as he set the last of his, now bare, skewers on his plate. 

“No promises. I’m told I’m accident-prone.” Danny shrugged. 

“Because you are.” Aizawa grumbled as he pointed a skewer towards Danny. 

“Hey, I’m not as bad as Midoriya.” 

“No, you’re right he does have a higher injury rate. But he has yet to be stabbed or shot.” 

“Wasn’t Midoriya the green kid who broke his arm at the sports festival?” Hawks asked. 

“Yes, but he’s doing much better now at not breaking bones.” Danny nodded. Midoriya hadn’t broken any bones during trainings in ages at that point. 

“No thanks to a certain someone.” Aizawa frowned. 

“Regardless, I’m less injury prone than him. That has to count for something.” Even if it was only slightly less injury prone. 

“Yes it does. That’s why you’re the menace. And he’s the problem child.” Aizawa answered. 

“Well I should probably get going. It’s late and I have a few things I need to finish up.” Hawks said standing up. He stretched his arms out in front of him as his wings stretched out behind him. 

“Not before you take the leftovers!” Yamada said quickly walking to the kitchen and shoving tupperware full of food into Hawks’ arms.

“This is more food than we cooked. And different food as well.” Hawks noted looking into the containers of food.

“Well you only learned how to cook chicken and a broth soup. You can’t live off of just that.” Yamada said as if it was obvious. Danny was pretty sure he also wanted to get rid of the leftovers that were taking up space in the fridge. Kill two birds with one stone. Or well feed one bird with like four meals. 

“Make sure you bring those back when you come back. That’s our nice tupperware.” Aizawa called out. 

“Yes sir.” Hawks nodded. 

After waving Hawks goodbye Danny started getting ready for bed. He had to at least try to get some sleep tonight. He had a busy day despite it being his day off of school. Danny have to convince Sir Nighteye, as well as whatever hero Hawks was going to be introducing him to, to write him a letter. So even if he did, which he was sure he would, wake up from nightmares he’d have to at least lie in bed and try to get back to sleep. 

At least Tensei was quick to text him back and agree to write him a letter. With the addition of him trying to convince Danny to get Aizawa and Yamada to all meet up with him again soon. As if he couldn’t ask them himself. Though it’d have to wait until after exams. But he would be busy once he got the provisinal licnese so maybe not. There was a lot to do when it came to fighting villians in this world. But he had to do as much as he could while he can. Just because he couldn't stay didn't mean he didn't want to help the friends and family he made here have a better life.

He stared at the ceiling after climbing into bed. He only needed two more letters until he could submit his appllication for a licnse. Everything would be better once he got one. It had to be.

Notes:

Apparently this fic is popular enough to have a TvTropes page, so that's cool I guess. Found that out in the middle of editing this chapter.

Also, my favorite thing in writing in mainly Danny's POV is that I know what the other characters are thinking and planning when stuff is happening, but Danny does not.

Chapter 30: Birds, Rabbits, and Ghosts. Oh my!

Hawks suppressed a sigh as he was leaving the Hero Commission building. He gave his handler a wave without turning around before taking off into the sky. Of course, they weren’t too fond of it when he referred to the people assigned to him as his handlers. They much preferred the term ‘supervisors’. Hawks much preferred being able to do his job in peace without their constant nagging.  As much peace as a hero could have on the job.

That was still a bit much to ask for a top hero though. Hawks couldn’t remember the last time he had an actual day off. If it wasn’t one thing it was another. It was a little better once he had gotten his own agency and place to live. But even that was funded by the Hero Commission. Forever in their debt he supposed.

Though he wasn’t complaining about his most recent assignment from them. Honestly he was pretty sure they were overreacting about all of it. But who was he to question orders? At least too much out loud. 

Trailing a kid for what he allegedly did during a villain attack was certainly not an assignment he was expecting when he was called in for the briefing. Even after the sports festival and confirming the story with Tokoyami during the internships, he thought it was a bit much. Not like he really had much of a choice to refuse in the long run. Not unless he wanted to deal with the consequences. 

At best his agency or license was taken away. At worst… well it was best not to dwell on that. 

At least the kid was pretty interesting to hang out with. He didn’t know what he would have done if he turned out to be a stick in the mud. Even if he said some concerning things every once in a while. He was glad the Commission was letting Hawks wait to give a first full report because he honestly didn’t understand the context of half the things the kid said. Or even understand it at all for that matter. 

No clue how he would explain to anyone that a fifteen year old first year hero student claimed to topple at least two governments and had a constantly updating list of people trying to kidnap him. Hawks’ running theory was that the two kids were in some sort of witness protection program from the States. But that idea was on shaky ground seeing that they allowed both of the kids to participate in the sports festival. Best guess he had so far though. 

Plus he was getting free food out of the arrangement. Which he certainly wouldn’t complain about. Speaking of food, maybe he’d pick some up for himself and the kid. He mentioned he would be out on errands all day yesterday, he probably hadn’t eaten much. From what Hawks had learned so far the kid seemed to have a habit of forgetting to take care of himself. Like it was more of a second thought to him than an actual priority. Weird ass quirk or not, he was still human and needed food. He doubted Mirko would mind him being a bit later than expected, especially if he got her some food too. 

The look on her face however when he landed next to her on the rooftop of his agency said a different story. “You better have a good excuse for being late. I’m doing you a favor, not the other way around.”

Hawks shrugged. “Fine, I’ll just give your food to the kid then. Too many greens for my taste.”

“Hey now, I never said anything about not accepting some free food.” Mirko’s ears perked up before she grabbed the bag from where he was holding it out towards her. “What exactly am I doing here anyway? You were too vague in your explanation earlier.”

“Like I said before. I’m introducing you to a kid and you are welcome to interact in whatever way you see fit as long as it results in you write in support of him getting a provisional license.” Hawks explained as they both made their way down to the first floor of his agency.

“That doesn’t answer much. Why are you so interested in some kid from U.A. anyway? Mirko asked.

“I heard you’ll probably be making the top five in the rankings next time it’s announced.” Hawks told her.

“So what? I don’t need rankings to tell me what I already know. Don’t go trying to change the subject.” 

Hawks quickly weighed the pros and cons of straight-up lying and decided it was too much work. “He reminds me of myself a bit. Honestly I think you’ll like him, he seems to have a habit of endearing himself to others on accident. Plus us mutant types have to stick together right?”

Mirko snorted. “Damn straight. I take it the kids got a mutant type quirk too then, yeah?”

“Yep.” That’s what it said on the quirk registry at least, and it matched up to what Hawks had seen so far. But he didn’t really get much chance to actually see the kid's quirk in action in person all that much. Other than some basic everyday usage of it at least. All he’d really seen was the Sports Festival stuff and he really only seemed to use ice powers during that for some reason despite it being clear his quirk was much more versatile. But it didn’t make sense to not show off what your quirk can do, not when the whole point of the sports festival, for the students at least, was to show off their strengths. 

“That's the kid there? Looks sort of scrawny, doesn’t he? No wonder he reminds you of yourself.” Mirko nodded to where the kid was standing in the lobby at the security point looking uncomfortable. He was talking to one of the sidekicks in a quiet but firm voice. It didn’t seem like they believed what he was saying all that much. “Wait a moment isn’t that the kid from U.A’s sports festival? The one who destroyed the stadium?” 

In the kid’s defense, the stadium was destroyed by multiple different students. Even if it was not nearly at the same level. “That’s the one. Hey Danny!” Hawks called out waving as he approached the kid.

“Hawks!” The kid visibly slumped in relief when he saw them approaching. 

“Sorry I’m a bit late, I brought food though.” Hawks said lifting up the bag of food in hand.

The kid turned to the sidekick with a smug I-told-you-so look. “See, I know him and he asked me to be here.”

His poor sidekick started to flounder. Hawks shook his head with a smile. “Come on Danny, if we let in everyone who just claimed they knew me we’d be too swamped by adoring fans to do any actual work.”

The kid’s eyes narrowed at him. “You could have told them all I was coming. Instead, I was stuck here arguing for ten minutes while waiting for you.” 

Even if the glare wasn’t truly in bad spirit it still caused a chill to run up Hawks’ spine. It wasn’t often but every once in a while around the kid it was like his instincts were yelling at him to get away as fast ass possible. But those instincts were trained out of him over and over again when he was younger, and he now took pride in being a pretty unflappable hero. “I was only five minutes late though.”

“I got here early. I didn’t want to be late. What food did you get, fried chicken again?” The kid asked peering into the takeout bag.

“How predictable do you think I am? It’s udon.” In all honesty even two months ago it would have been fried chicken, he’d been trying to expand his pallet a bit more though now that he was, slowly, learning to cook. 

Hawks lead the two to the agency’s training floor. Mirko was headstrong, it wasn’t hard to guess how she was going to make the kid prove himself. Not that it was a bad thing, Hawk’s was definitely interested in seeing the kid's fighting ability first had, especially if his older sister, who was a force to be reckoned with herself, said with no hesitation that the kid was the better fighter. 

He finished up his food as the kid and Mirko did the same. Once she finished her food Mirko started to shift back and forth on her feet jumping in place. “You ready kid?”

The kid slurped up the last of his noodles before looking up at the rabbit themed hero in confusion. “Ready for what?” 

“To fight of course!” Mirko stretched her arms out.

The kid looked back at Hawks, unease clear on his face. The kid had to work on his poker face, he was too clear with his emotions. “Fight?”

Hawks shrugged. “Gotta prove yourself in a short time somehow. Don’t worry about damaging the building, the walls are super reinforced. This room could go through a typhoon and an earthquake simultaneously and still be safe enough to battle in.” It was the same stuff most of the Hero Commission building was made out of.

“Sounds like a challenge! So, you ready squirt? Don’t think I’m gonna go easy on you now!” Mirko made her way to the middle of the room.

“Um okay I guess. Then I won’t hold back either.” The kid nodded.

Hawks felt bad for the kid, even if it was his idea. Mirko was in the top ten for a reason. Even if she preferred to work alone she had helped him out taking down some larger villains. Not to mention the fact that once she got in close to here opponent they were done for if they fought long range. She never gave them the chance to even consider retreat back to a comfortable distance. Not to say her opponents who fought hand to hand fared better, because they didn’t. No denying she was a good hero.

The kid however didn’t seem to know Mirko’s reputation. He transformed into his hero costume for the first time in front of Hawks. He’d seen it briefly at the sports festival, but that was only through a recording since he was busy on hero duty during it. Up close and personal was totally different. Hawks had to actively suppress a shiver from running up his spine and through his wings. He knew, especially as someone with an animal mutation quirk, he shouldn’t think it, but he couldn’t help it, the kid didn’t seem human. If he didn’t know better he’d probably say he wasn’t. It was an impossibility though, there wasn’t anything else he could be.

Mirko must have felt similarly, her ears were straight up and her foot shifted behind her just slightly. The two heroes briefly made eye contact before shaking their heads. This was a kid for god’s sake, not even out of his first year of heroic training. A kid Hawks was pretty sure would never hurt someone out of malice. 

“Alright, I’m ready. Do you have any rules?” The kid asked, unaware of the discomfort he caused. 

Mirko shrugged off her uneasiness and smiled. “Just no killing, and stay in the room obviously. Real villain fights don’t have rules. Hawks count us off.” She lowered herself into a fighting stance. 

“Three, two, one, fight.” Hawks said without much enthusiasm. He was more focused on the fight transpiring in front of him. Mirko wasn’t expecting for the kid to win, neither was Hawks. It was more of a test to see how long he can last before tapping out. 

That was the expectation at least. But as he watched the two clash he wasn’t as sure. The kid was holding his own to say the least. Neither of them had been able to land any blows on each other. Hawks was self aware enough to know that if he was in the kid’s position that he would have had taken at least a few blows fighting hand to hand with Mirko. What was stranger was that the kid hadn’t really used his powers. Not many of them at least. He was flying around and turning intangible to avoid attacks, but that was really the extent. 

Mirko must have realized that too. “Come on kid, I thought you said you weren’t going to hold back? I know you have more in you than that! Or do you not need this letter that badly?”

“Well I thought you said the same.” The kid almost seemed exasperated as he managed to throw Mirko to the other side of the room.

Mirko stuck her landing, only sliding back a foot or two once she did. Her head snapped up revealing a smile. “Oh? Is that the case? You better quit that and come at me with all you’ve got kid!” 

The kid’s face steeled as he nodded and then Hawks couldn’t see him anymore. His feathers could feel the vibrations of him moving though the air so he knew his location at least. Mirko’s ears swiveled on alert for the kid’s location.  

“Found you!” She snarled. She twisted around in a kick clearly making impact. The kid turned visible once more as he flew back through the air. He had the advantage of not needing the ground to aid him in stopping his unwilling flight. 

Hawks was a bit worried about the kid before he saw the smile on the kid’s face that matched Mirko’s. Kid could take a hit that was for sure. Mirko didn’t give the kid much chance to recover before she shot towards him. Only to be stopped by a glowing green dome grounding the kid. 

She recovered quickly using the dome as a platform to bounce away from it. While she was still in the air the dome dropped and the kid shot a green beam of energy at her, barely missing and scratching her cheek. 

She started back towards the kid, who dodged her kick. He grabbed her leg as he dogged and used her own momentum against her to slam her into the ground. Hawks winced as he heard the air leave her lungs. 

Mirko just barely managed to roll out of the way with a laugh as the kid went to attack once more hitting the floor instead. Neither of the two seeming to notice the cracks in the floor that were left behind causing Hawks to turn pale.
“Alright, enough.” Hawks called out.

The two looked over at him in the middle of trying to grapple each other down to the floor. “Come on it was just starting to get fun!” Mirko said pretending she wasn’t out of breath.

“Yeah, that was fun!” The kid on the other hand didn’t seem exhausted in the slightest. He turned to look at Mirko and his face dropped. “You’re bleeding!”

“Don’t worry about it kid, I told you to go all out.” Mirko slapped the kid’s back before wiping the blood from her cheek.

“I would have if you did too. But I get it, we’re indoors.” The kid shrugged rubbing his chest where Mirko kicked him earlier.

Mirko and Hawks froze at that comment. Once more sharing a look. Mirko might not have been treating the fight like she was up against an extremely dangerous villain, but she was not holding back at all. Even then the kid should have struggled more than he had, hell Hawks would have struggled more. Not even mentioning the fact that the kid managed to somehow crack the floor of a room that could withstand a natural disaster. All while holding back, apparently. 

Hawks had to change the subject. “So Danny, you went to visit Sir Nighteye before this right?” 

The kid nodded with a smile perking up. “Yeah, I did! I’m surprised you remembered I said that. Did you know I’ll get paid to be a hero?”

“Did you not know that? You’re related to two pro’s, how did you think they made their money?” There was no way the kid didn’t know heroes were paid.

“Well yeah, but that’s their job.” 

“What do you think you’re going to a hero school for? Fun?” 

The kid blinked like it wasn’t something he thought too hard about. “Oh, I guess you’re right.”

“What brought this realization on anyway?” Did Sir Nighteye mention something about how much he makes or something?
“Nighteye said he was going to start drawing up work study paperwork so I can start once I get my license. I’ll get paid for it, me, paid for just taking down some villains and helping people out.” The kid explained.

“Hey I thought you agreed to do your work study with me?” Hawks accused.

The kid shook his head with a smile. “No I said I’d do my work studies with you in my second year. I didn’t know I could do it my first year as long as I had a valid provisional license. Which is good because I was trying to figure out what I could do in the meantime, since you generally need a supervising pro-hero to do heroics with a provisional license.” 

The kid had him there. He supposed that’s what he got for not actually taking on a work studies student before, only interns. Interns were so much less work though. Hawks ruffled the kid's hair, despite how it looked almost mistlike it felt surprisingly tangible. “Fair enough I suppose, you traitor.”

“It’s what you get for not telling your staff I was coming.” The kid pointed out as he tried to fix his hair. 

“Eh, you ended up fine.” Hawks waved the look he was given off.

“I was arguing for ten minutes trying to convince them I knew you.”

“You should have called me, my headphones are connected to my phone so even if I was flying I could have answered.” Hawks tapped the headphones around his neck. They were mainly used to block out the sound of flying too fast to protect his ears, but they doubled nicely as actual headphones. 

The kid looked at him flatly. “I don’t have your number.”

Hawks scoffed, pulling out his phone. “Of course you do-oh. No I don’t have yours either. I could have sworn we’ve called each other.”

“No, we just have planned things by you being weird and dropping in on my walks home from school.” The kid rolled his eyes. He snatched the phone from Hawks, presumably to put his phone number in it.

Hawks gasped. “You steal my phone, and call me creepy? I thought we were friends, mentor and mentee even! Honestly this should be considered slander.”

The kid made a so-so motion with his hands. “More like a weird annoying older brother.”

“Ha! I like this kid.” Mirko butted in. “I’ll get in contact once I finish up writing that letter for you. I gotta get going.”

“Yeah I better hop along as well.” The kid nodded before laughing. 

“Haven’t heard that one before.” Mirko rolled her eyes with a smile.

“Thank you though. For agreeing to write a letter.” The kid said.

“Don’t sweat it. You seem pretty tough Danny. Glad you’re on our side. Keep training, I’d love a rematch once you go pro.” 

She left, and the kid followed not too far after once returning Hawks’ phone to him. Leaving Hawks alone once more.

He made his way up to the top floor of his agency where his living quarters were. Contrary to popular and public belief his living space was quite small. It was maybe half the size of the kid’s apartment. He liked it that way though. Large open living spaces made him uncomfortable.  Not enough places to hide, too many places to be seen. Though as an adult he supposed his size and wingspan would make it difficult to hide even if he wanted to. 

He took some of the leftovers from yesterday out of the fridge and put them in the microwave. He was glad to have them available when he was hungry. The Hero Commission liked to watch his purchases so having some food stored away in secret was nice to avoid a conversation with his handlers about making sure he doesn’t eat too much so he would stay in shape. He was well acquainted to the conversation but he felt like two of them in under a month wouldn’t go down too well. 

Plus since he didn’t have to spend the money he was hiding from the Hero Commissions eyes on extra food he could put it towards other things that they’d frown at him having. He wasn’t sure what but it was a nice idea. Maybe some extra blankets and pillows so he didn’t just have the one pillow, sheets, and comforter. 

He took a seat in the only chair at his table. Wasn’t that a fun thought. Having to embezzle his own money to avoid a lecture.  For now though, he’d just keep slowly squirreling it away when he had the chance to.

He’d have to report what he learned today to the Hero Commission, he was sure the president would love to hear it. But something in him rejected the idea of doing so. It wouldn’t hurt if he put it off a bit longer, until he got more information. Until he spent a bit more time with the kid and learned more about him at least, it was only logical he wanted to know all he could so he didn’t give a poor quality report. 

Notes:

Updates will be a bit slower with the Phandom Phight club happening this month and the fact I'm going to be starting to work on my Invio-bang fic soon. But don't worry, I won't leave you haning for too long.

Chapter 31: Licenses and Watches

Notes:

Heyyyy
*Looks at the notes from the last chapter*
*Looks at today's date*
Well that was a fucking lie

“So what’s this big surprise about anyway, kiddo?” Yamada asked.

Danny shook his head as he led Yamada and Aizawa through the halls to Nezu’s office. “Well, it would ruin the surprise if I told you, wouldn't it?” He worked too hard to spill the beans at the last minute. He even allowed himself to be bribed by Nemuri.

“I’m more worried about my heart giving out from nerves before we get there than a ruined surprise.” Yamada placed a hand to his chest, sagging slightly.

Danny rolled his eyes at the hero’s dramatics, far too used to his antics by that point. “It’s nothing bad, it’s a good thing, I promise! I worked a lot for this.” 

“When it comes to Nezu, I’ll believe that when I see it, and even that is debatable.” Aizawa grunted as they walked through the office door.

“Do you trust me so little, Eraserhead?” Nezu’s eyes gleamed. “No need to worry. Daniel’s surprise had nothing directly to do with plans for world domination.” 

“What about indirectly?” Danny asked. He was thankfully at least able to catch on to the more obvious misdirections from Nezu.

“No comment.” Nezu clapped his paws together before presenting the three with a large manila envelope. “I assume you’d like to explain Daniel? It is your achievement after all.” 

Danny accepted the envelope with a smile, brushing off the comment, or lack thereof from Nezu. That was a problem for another time. He pulled out the small plastic rectangle inside with a flourish, striking a pose that would make All Might proud. “You are now looking at Japans newest provincial licensed hero!” 

There was a moment of silence, and a shared look between Yamada and Aizawa that Danny couldn’t place. Just long enough for him to start to become worried about their lack of reactions. Were they angry he kept it from them? Or maybe because he also had their friends and coworkers also not tell them? It’s not like he lied about what he was doing, he just never mentioned it. That was the whole point of a surprise. Thankfully, the moment passed before Danny could stress anymore.

“That’s not easy to do. Especially at your age.” Aizawa said. “It’s difficult, getting the sponsors.” 

Danny shook it head. “It was surprisingly easy? Shockingly so actually. Even with Principal Nezu’s deadline increasing the stakes.” He had honestly thought he’d either be cutting it extremely close, or failing entirely. Which would suck since that would mean he failed his practical exam and wouldn’t be able to go to the summer training camp with the rest of his friends. 

“Oh really?” Yamada hummed. “Who all sponsored you anyway?” 

He expected the question from Aizawa, with how suspicious he tended to be. From Yamada though, Danny was pretty sure it was just genuine curiosity. “Well for the teachers it was Midnight, Snipe, Thirteen, and All Might.”
“How’d you convince Midnight to sponsor you without telling us?” Aizawa frowned.

“Told her I’d have a spa day with her, and get a hobby.” 

“Ooh, interesting, what hobby?” Nezu asked.

“I was thinking like card tricks?” 

“Why card tricks?” Yamada tilted his head.

“Hound Dog want’s me to avoid physical activities because ‘it’s too close to training and your brain needs something distinct’ so magic tricks seemed fun.” He figured it would be something easy to pick up and put down between villain or ghost attacks.

“Fair, we should look into classes or something. I’m pretty sure they have books for that or like online videos.” Yamada nodded. “What about the non-teacher sponsors? I didn’t think you knew that many Pros outside of U.A.” 

“Oh yeah, it was Hawks, Mirko, and of course Sir Nighteye and Ingenium.” Danny counted off on his fingers. 

Hawks was right, it was a good range of Pros. Two in the top ten, one who used to work with All Might, and one who came from a legacy hero family.  He really couldn’t ask for better people to write his recommendation letters. 

“Oh yeah, makes sense-wait Mirko, the rabbit hero? When did you meet her?” Yamada did a double take. 

“Hawks introduced us.” 

“Just for like, funsies?” 

“Yeah, something about mutant type quirks supporting each other? I did have to agree to doing work studies with him next year, I was probably going to do that anyway.” If he was still here by then, obviously. “But that was just to have him write a letter himself, the Mirko introduction was because he didn’t want me getting a recommendation from one of Sir Nighteye’s sidekicks. We sparred, it was fun. She’s pretty cool, and quick, I’d struggle to actually fight her.”  

“Right.” Aizawa said. “Why not.” 

“Congratulations on passing your practical exam Daniel.” Nezu smiled, going back to the subject at hand. “Of course, you’re not done quite yet, you will still need to pass the written exam.” 

Danny wilted, “Don’t remind me.”

“This was what your plan for his final?” Aizawa asked. 

“Would you prefer the alternative? I’d take it as you volunteering, of course.” 

Aizawa stayed silent a minute before responding. “Proceed.” 

Whatever that was about, Danny had no clue. All he’s heard from Mirio was that they would be fighting the robots from the entrance exams again. Something about measuring their growth from the start of the year to the finals.

“Perfect, glad that we are in agreement. The rest of the information in that packet is more information on the specifics of what holding a provisional license entails. Please read through it thoroughly. Your parents will be happy to answer any questions you might have.” Nezu explained to Danny. 

“Thanks again, Principal Nezu.” Danny bowed before they left the office and school. 

Once they got home, Danny went to his room, falling onto his back onto his bed and looked up at his new license. Actually examining it for the first time. It had him in his school uniform, with his hero name in large letters at the bottom. Along with the basic information like his quirk name and his grade. 

It was exciting, he was a real hero now! Or, well, pretty close to one. He’d have to graduate first to get an actual license. Which meant for now he’d have to actually pass his finals. Which also meant he needed to study…even more. 

Or at least he would have studied if jazz hadn’t appeared in his doorway. “Congratulations, I heard you got your provisional. Can I come in for a bit?” 

Danny smiled sheepishly. “Sorry for not telling you, and of course. I’m not in trouble, am I?” He laughed.

The blank look on Jazz’s face and the fact she closed the door behind her made him less sure if it was a funny concept. The bed dipped as she sat down next to where he was laying, but she stayed silent.

“Soooo? Was there something you wanted to talk about, or tell me? Finally got a date?” Danny asked, trying to gauge the mood. 

“No, I did not get a date. Is there something you want to tell me ?” Jazz asked in turn. 

Well now Danny was nervous. That was one hell of an open-ended question. He doubted this was about him not telling her about him trying to get his license. There were probably a lot of things he should tell her. But he didn’t want to offer too much information. “Did you find out Endeavor wasn’t really the one to defeat Stain? Because we had no other options.” 

“The fact he had ecto-poisoning, frostbite, burns, and high impact injuries made that one obvious. But no, I don’t care about him.”  Jazz spoke flatly.

“Then, no?” 

Jazz pulled her legs up to her chest, resting her head on her arms as she looked at Danny, before looking away to the wall. “When was the last time you’ve looked at your ghost form in a mirror?” 

“A few weeks, month or so maybe?” That was a weird question. He didn’t make a habit of it. He didn’t have much reason to, he only transformed for heroics class or the occasional invisible vigilante jaunt. Though now that he had his license, maybe Aizawa would let him tag along on his night patrol occasionally. Or if not, perhaps Hawks would, if he’d be willing to keep it a secret at least. 

“Now, I might be wrong about this.” Jazz started, which Danny found laughable. Jazz was hardly ever wrong. “You and mom were always better at the biology aspect of ghosts. But, I’ve had enough experiences with ghosts in general at this point, I think. Especially with ones that attacked Amity due to their obsessions.” 

Danny shifted where he was sitting. He wasn’t too fond of where this was going. 

“Your obsession’s been showing through in your ghost form lately. It’s looking even more ghostly than before. Hell, you can hardly see anything other than green in your eyes. And it stared after you got home from internships. I don’t know what happened, but I’m here for you. I just want what’s best for you, for both of us.” 

Danny shook his head. “Nothing happened. There was a fight with Stain, and I realized I wasn’t doing enough.” No need to worry her about the Clockwork situation. Especially when he had made it clear he almost certainly wouldn't be able to preform trans-universal teleportation again. And he did realize he wasn’t doing enough. Even if he couldn’t help Amity Park until he got back, he could at least help the area around U.A. 

Jazz shook her head with a sigh and reached into her pocket. She pulled something out with the jingle of a chain. Revealing the exact thing he was trying to hide the most from her. If Aizawa or Yamada found it, they’d be none the wiser. But they weren’t Jazz. They wouldn’t know the significance of something as simple looking as a stopwatch. 

“You went through my stuff?” Danny hissed, lunging for the stopwatch. 

Jazz held it just out of reach with a huff. “No. Laika went through your stuff. She was flying around with it inside her. No surprise with the amount of ectoplasm coming off of it. Even I can feel it without having to tough it.” 

Danny fell back into his bed. “So? What's your point.” 

“You were in the Ghost Zone.”

“Yeah.”

“You met Clockwork.” 

“Yep.”

“But you came back?”
“Obviously. I’m here aren't I?” 

“Why?” 

Danny threw his hands up. “What do you want me to say? I got pulled into the Ghost Zone in the middle of fighting Stain. Should I have stayed and let my friends be injured or killed? I was back home and had the perfect opportunity to stay. You would have been brought over a few weeks later afterword. Everyone, ghost and human, has been looking for us this whole time while we enjoy living without a worry! And the worst part? I miss my friends and our family of course, but I don’t want to go back, i’m dreading it! But I have to. I ruined your chance too! The fact I’m just sitting here doing nothing while Amity is in who knows what state due to ghosts, is literally eating me up inside!”

Danny was shocked out of his rant by a loud slapping sound and things clattering to the floor. Only moments later realizing Jazz had actually slapped him, and his telekineses had been levitating most of the small objects in the room. “Hey!” 

“Are you done being an idiot?” Jazz asked, tossing him the pocket watch. “Of course you want to stay here, even before the portal accident we didn’t have the best home life, and it got exponentially worse afterwords. This world is probably the best environment for you; quirks are normal here, you’re trained on how to use it, and with schooling you’d be paid to engage in your obsession. And you’re not the only one, you’re surrounded by people who want to help others, you’re free to take time off if needed and the world won't end. As to you ‘ruining’ my chance to go home, I do not care. Really. Plus, I’m still making progress on the portal gun. Honestly, I’m just trying to augment the design to be able to handle a different power source. And find one too. Maybe we can figure out a way to jump in between, we don’t know yet.” 

Danny looked down at his hands. “But what about Amity? I abandoned it.” 

Jazz scoffed. “Did you not say ghosts and humans were looking for us. I’m sure the literal taskforce can handle the job of one teenage boy. Especially since they know we’re not in danger at least.” 

“I guess…”

Jazz pulled him into a hug. “Look I’m not going to lie Danny. It’s not going to get better or be easy right away. It’s going to take time and work. But it won’t get better at all if you don’t talk. It doesn’t have to be me, maybe Hound Dog it’s his job after all. That's the only way we can help. We can try to come up with ideas together to help you.”

Danny returned the hug halfheartedly. “You sound like dad.”

“I do sound like Shouta don’t I?” 

“He’s surprisingly good at comforting speeches.” Danny mumbled into her shoulder. 

“He does teach kids.”

“Yeah.” Danny sighed. “I’m tired, Jazz.” 

He could feel her nod. “I know. You’re strong, you’ll get through it. But you don’t have to do it alone.” She broke the hug. “Get some sleep. You deserve rest.” 

Danny watched as she left the room, and behind the door he could hear hushed whispers. They probably forgot he could hear them, but sleep took over him before he could actually make out what was being said. 

Notes:

Sorry for it being a shorter chapter despite it being such a long wait, I've been trying to get back into the swing of writing after a long bout of writer's block to say the least

But do not worry I’ve read all the comments you all left and I appreciate them dearly, and there has not been a day past that this fic hasn’t crossed my mind, like visions from a vengeful god

Chapter 32: Why a Hero?

Notes:

hello again, I wrote this instead of doing my 4 hours of chem homework due tomorrow. Don’t go to college folks.

“What’s got you in such a good mood?” Danny asked, sitting on a bench outside of the main school building, next to Shinso. They had just finished their last before school training session with Aizawa before summer vacation started. Midorya had already left for the classroom leaving the two of them alone.

Shinso shrugged with a rare small smile on his face. “Been a good week I guess. Eraserhead had me stand in for you during the practical exams for 1-A to have an even number of students for pair-ups. Technically I passed. Not too sure about that tape kid though, he charged right in against Midnight and her quirk knocked him out instantly. Kinda brutal honesty.” 

“Oh you were paired with Sero.” Danny had heard a bit about the practical exams the other 1-A students went through. They faced off against the teachers. A scary scenario even if they did have handicaps. All the teachers were Pro’s with years of experience after all. Danny was glad he was exempt. Honestly it seemed pretty intense for their first year and first semester final exams.

“That his name?” Shinso didn’t seem too keen on remembering it. “Regardless, Eraserhead said I might be able to transfer to the hero course sometime next semester. If not then, it will be next school year at the latest.”

“Hey, that's great! Congrats, I knew you had it in you!” Danny cheered. Shinso had been training extremely hard. His determination to be a hero fit perfectly among the likes of Midoriya, and he had the same competitiveness as Bakugou. He was just less loud about it. 

Shinso shrugged again, trying and failing to appear nonchalant as the corner of his mouth twitched. “Oh and my foster-mom asked me how I felt about her filling for adoption.”

“Hey, adoption buddies! We could start a club.” 

“Yeah well…maybe. She’s actually a pro-hero, sorta my opposite personality wise. Apparently she’s been working on getting the paperwork sorted for a while now, it’s a long process.” 

Danny supposed his and Jazz’s adoption process was less than ordinary, Shinso’s foster-mom also didn’t have Nezu to pull strings to speed up all the legal processes. “Wow, now we really do need to start a club. We can call it future heroes adopted by heroes.” 

Shinso shot him a strange look. “You were adopted by a hero? Who?”

Danny winced inwardly, so much for not letting the cat out of the bag. He quickly weighed his options on the best way to answer.  One one hand Midoriya already knew he was adopted by Aizawa and if it came up in conversation the stories would need to match. On the other hand it was clear how much Shinso looked up to Aizawa and he didn’t feel great about practically rubbing the fact that he was adopted by the hero Shinso had started to base his entire fighting style and future hero work after. “Present Mic.”

Shinso looked surprised. “Really?” 

“Don’t let his personality fool you. He’s quite the paternal type. Just make sure to keep it lowkey if you could.” Danny laughed. 

The first bell rang indicating it was time to start to head to class. Danny pulled himself off of the bench, Shinso following suit. Right before they parted ways Danny stopped remembering the question Hound Dog posed to him at their last session.

“Why do you want to be a hero?”

Shinso looked taken off guard at the sudden question. Danny had been too when Hound Dog had asked, and he still hadn’t given an answer. At first it was out of necessity, there was no one else in Amity suited to do so. Then he arrived in this universe and the mentality stuck. Joining the hero course was more of a way to pass the time initially, one he found himself enjoying. But that was just training to become a hero. If he really wanted to, he could just stop, transfer to general studies. If his obsession reared its head too much he had the perfect set of abilities for vigilantism. Why did he want to be a hero?

It was something he was still pondering. He did want to, at least he was pretty sure he did. 

“Well to be honest, spite mainly.” Shinso replied. 

That took Danny by surprise, he wasn’t sure what answer he was expecting but it wasn’t that. “Spite?” He echoed.

“Not a super ‘heroic’ reason I know. But I spent my whole life with people throwing me aside and expecting me to become a villain just because of my quirk. As if a random gene mutation automatically made me evil. So I want to prove them wrong.” He looked down at his watch and turned to make his way towards his class. “And hey, if I become a hero maybe a kid someday in my same position will be able to look up at me and know they have options.” And with that he walked off.

Danny headed to his own class, Aizawa would have no leniency if he was late. He arrived to the sight of his classmates just a few steps away from a full blown panic. 

“Danny!” Kaminari wailed as he entered. 

Kaminari, Ashido, Kirishima, Sato, and Sero all turned to him. Danny blinked and wondered if it was too late to turn back and leave, punishment for being late to class be damned. 

“Why’d you have to be so cool and get your provisional license? You could have been paired with me and we would have passed in an instant! It’s rigged!” Kaminari cried. “Goodbye summer camp, goodbye s’mores and ghost stories and late night gossiping.”

“Excuse me?” Ashido gasped. “You weren’t doing any better than I was. We failed together , maybe he would have been paired with me!” 

“I probably would have been paired with Sero.” Danny pointed out. “And you were against Nezu, it wasn't exactly a fair fight.”

“Like I said, rigged!” 

Thankfully the bell saved him from consoling anyone else. The class was instantly in their seats as Aizawa walked through the door. 

They watched him as he made his way to  the podium. “Unfortunately there were a few of you who did not pass your exams. So when it comes to the training camp…” He paused, staring at the students. “Everyone is going.” 

“Wait really?!” Kirishima asked.

“For real?!” Ashido yelled at the same time.

“Yeah,” Aizawa said blankly. “The good news is you all passed your written exams. The bad news is five of you failed the practical. Badly.” He went on to explain more about how the practical exams were graded. “Anyway, the training camp will focus on building your strength, something that those of you who failed sorely need. We were never going to separate you.” He grinned widely. “It was a logical deception we used.” 

The five who failed cheered, starting to celebrate with each other. Danny wondered when they'd stop taking Aizawa at his word for things like this. The excitement of the five was quickly stomped out when Aizawa reminded them they would still be having remedial lesions during the training camp to make up for their weak points. 

The rest of the school day went by quickly, the most intense courses being hero training as it was the last day before summer vacation and exams were over so there was not much to do for the general education portion of their schooling. 

“How ‘bout we have a class shopping trip tomorrow to prepare for the trip?” Hagakure clapped her hands together with a smile. Probably. 

Most of the class agreed, barring Bakugou and Todoroki. Danny also had to abstain. “Sorry, I have my work study tomorrow. Thankfully I already have all the supplies I need.”

“No need to apologize man, that's rad!” Kirishima smiled. “Is it with someone you’ve worked with before?” 

“Something like that yeah.” Danny answered evasively before quickly saying his goodbyes and leaving the classroom in a rush.

Aizawa fell into step beside him. “Just ‘Something like that’ hm?” 

“Oh yes sorry I should have told everyone I’m doing a brief work study with my dad who’s also our teacher and had been training me before I even applied to U.A.” Danny rolled his eyes.

“Your sarcasm is much appreciated.” 

It was decided since he got his provisional license right before summer vacation he’d briefly do a follow along with Aizawa’s patrols and start his actual work studies with Sir Nighteye after they got back from camp. Jazz was actually the one who suggested it after she talked to Aizawa and Yamada regarding ways to help Danny manage his obsession in a more healthy manner. 

It wasn't an instant fix to his mental health of course, he still felt on edge a lot of the time. But Jazz had said she felt like he was already making progress, and Danny trusted her judgment on the matter. 

“So what’s on the agenda for tomorrow?” Danny asked as they made their way to meet up with Jazz and Yamada to head home. 

“Just basic patrol, no point on picking up a case to help with when I’ll be gone supervising a bunch of kids for a week here soon.” 

Danny could understand that but that didn’t change the fact that when they had actually started patrol the next day he was incredibly bored. He sat on a rooftop beside Aizawa scanning below for any signs of trouble. 

Something he was realizing about being an underground hero: it was a lot of waiting. Honestly it wasn’t super his speed, but he supposed it was good to experience the different types of ways to approach heroics. 

“So where is training camp anyway? I don’t think you’ve mentioned it yet.” Danny asked to fill the silence. 

Aizawa grunted. “That is information only your teachers and the people who run the camp get to know. After the USJ incident, and everything in Hosu we are not taking any risks.” 

“That’s a bit extreme don't you think?” The villains were strong, sure. But Danny had dealt with worse. Honestly if he and the Pro heroes didn’t have to focus on also protecting his friends and the other students the fights would probably have gone a lot quicker. 

“Better to be extreme than to put you kids in more risk than you need to be in.” Aizawa answered as he checked his scanner for any alerts. Something clearly caught his attention, the first time all afternoon, as he shot to his feet. 

“What? What happened? Was there a villain attack?” Danny asked following Aizawa who had already started to move. 

“Yes. Shigaraki, the assumed leader of the League of Villains, was spotted at the mall.” 

It only took Danny a moment to process the words, but thoughts were moving a mile a minute. Shigiraki was the man who had led the attack on the USJ, the one who was trying to kill All Might. He was the one who hurt his friends, his family. He was at the mall. He was at the mall that his classmates were currently at. 

“Uraraka was the one who called it in, apparently he had accosted Midoryia, then fled the scene.” 

Danny might have stopped in his tracks if he wasn’t following Aizawa on pure autopilot. “Midoriya, is he..?”  He trailed off not wanting to finish the sentence. If only he agreed to go with the rest of the class, maybe he would have stopped him.

“Everyone is fine, no one was hurt. Midoriya included. But the police have that handled. It’s on us to help with the area search to try and locate Shigaraki.” Aizawa reassured Danny. 

Danny frowned. “But doesn’t that thing…I mean person with the portal quirk work for him? How do we know he’s even in the area still?” 

Aizawa shook his head. “We don’t, chances are he’s not. But it’s our job as heroes to ensure that.” 

Danny bit his cheek but nodded. He made sure to send a quick text to Midoryia though, just to be sure. He only breathed a sigh of relief once he got a response back from Midoryia confirming he was fine, no damage, just a bit shaken up from the experience. 

“Should I go off on my own? I can cover more ground by myself.” Danny offered as they scanned the streets.

“No.” The answer was stern leaving no room for argument. “You're still on your provisional so you need an accompanying licensed hero with you for fieldwork. And on the off chance you do find him, I do not want you to be in the situation where you have to confront that man alone. He’s dangerous and we do not know if he has backup.” 

Not like Dannay could argue with that. Aizawa made him agree that he would listen to him completely during their work study, otherwise he’d be barred from them completely, including after summer vacation. 

He understood why the rule was set in place, Danny didn’t exactly have the best track record he could admit. But it didn’t make it any less frustrating. Especially when the search was officially called, well past the sun setting, with no sign of the villain anywhere. 

On the plus side they did find a random villain who was trying to take advantage of the general panic caused by the incident. And by find, it really meant the villain had cut them off in an alleyway thinking the two of them were easy pickings to rob. Probably mistaking Aizawa as a homeless man similar to when Danny first met him, and thinking Danny was just a random teen. Which Danny could admit, he didn’t strike the most imposing figure. It was an embarrassingly easy takedown for the two of them. 

Bringing the captured villain to the police station, detective Tsukauchi specifically, the two of them ended up coming face to face with Midoriya and who Dannay could only assume was Midoriya’s mother with how similar the two looked. The woman looked like she had been crying and was moments away from resuming. 

“Oh Danny,” Midoriya looked surprised to see him, eyes flickering between him and Aizawa, “and Mr. Aizawa.”

Even if he did get a text confirming the other was okay, Danny was glad to see Midoriya all in one piece. Aizawa cleared his throat. “I’ll fill out the paperwork for the intake,” He jabbed a finger towards the villain still wrapped in his capture scarf, “come find me when you’re done here.” 

The group watched as Aizawa disappeared into the precinct, villain in tow. Midoriya quickly turned his attention to Danny. “You’re doing your work study with Mr. Aizawa?” The normal gleam that was previously missing from his eyes quickly returned as he started to badger Danny with an onslaught of questions on Aizawa’s style of fighting and general patrol practices. Completely ignoring the fact that he could very well ask the man himself during school hours. 

“Izuku, who's this?” Miss Midoriya finally spoke up after seemingly buffering the past few minutes. 

Midoriya turned towards her with a smile. “Oh this is Danny, a friend from school. His quirk is so interesting. It’s called Ghost, I actually have a few theories on how his DNA might have altered to accommodate just how many different aspects of how his quirk is utilized and-” 

“Nice to meet you, I’m Danny Fenton but you can just call me Danny. I’m Midoriya’s friend from school.” Danny didn’t feel too bad cutting Midoriya off, if he didn’t they’d be there for hours at best, and it was already much too late. 

Miss Midoriya didn’t seem that bothered by her sons ramblings being cut off either. Or well maybe she did, Danny realized in horror as she started to cry. “I’m sorry dear, it’s just-” She managed to compose herself briefly before her tears resumed. “I’m so glad my baby boy has made friends at school.” 

“Mom…” Midoriya’s expression was rapidly shifting between trying to comfort her, embarrassment, and holding back his own tears. He was a sympathy crier after all, something Danny found out very early in their friendship. 

Danny just stood there awkwardly not sure what to do. “Um, do you need someone to walk you home? It’s late.”

“He’s so polite too!”

Maybe he should just stop talking because she was  crying again. In her defense her son was just attacked by a villain, being emotional was probably normal in that situation. His mom fussed over him if a ghost attacked when they were together, which made it a lot more difficult to sneak off and transform to fight said ghost, thankfully in most of those instances she typically was able to handle it on her own or with the help of his dad. Not that that was the case with Miss Midoriya who was simply a civilian. 

“We’ll be fine, they’re sending an office to escort us home just to be safe, but they’re pretty sure there's nothing else to worry about now.” Midoriya interjected for his mother. 

Danny nodded his head. “Alright, stay safe. Text me if you need help with anything. I should get back with Eraserhead, he’s probably done with the paperwork and stuff by now.”

Midoriya’s eyes went wide. “Yeah, you don’t want to keep him waiting!” Midoriya shuddered. “He’s scary enough at school.” 

“Midoriya.” Danny deadpanned.

“Hmm?” 

“You remember I live with him right?” 

“Yes but he’s your dad at home, not Eraserhead the Pro hero.”

“I do not magically stop being a Pro hero the moment I pass through the door of my home.” Aizawa appeared suddenly, causing Midoriya to jump with a yelp. 

He then turned towards Miss Midoriya, bowing. “I assure you U.A. is working hard to make sure each of our students remain as safe as possible. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. I understand that this is a very stressful incident.” 

She sniffed but did not start to cry again. “I appreciate the thought and will keep that in mind.” She glanced at Danny. “I’m sure you understand a parents worry when your child is in danger.” 

Aizawa nodded. “I do indeed. I’ll let you get home, it’s been a long day.”

“Thank you.” She nodded before she and Midoriya left towards where an officer was waiting to take them home.

“Time for us to head home too, come on.” Aizawa yawned as the two of them made their way home. 

Notes:

Great news? the difficult in-between chapters are pretty much out of the way for now. the next good chunk of the story is clear in my mind.

Chapter 33: Amity Interlude

Summary:

A brief view of the life of the Fentons who were left behind

Maddie Fenton could not remember the last time she, or her husband, had gotten a full night of sleep. Or for that matter, the last time she and her husband had let themselves sleep at the same time. They had ended up falling into an alternating sleep schedule, not wanting to waste time, miss a lead or a call due to them both being asleep. 

Her children had been missing for two months now with no indication of where they had gone. She was staring at the last footage taken from a traffic camera of them walking home from school. Somewhere in between them leaving the sight of this camera and before they’d walk past the next, they had vanished. 

“You can glare at it for the rest of your life Mads but we’ve gone over the footage probably hundreds of times at this point and found nothing.” Jack had come up behind her, momentarily pausing his own work on the Boo-merang. 

At first the fact that it wouldn’t lock onto a ghost and only Danny was a frustrating bug they couldn’t figure out, now it was a slight hope. The only one they’ve had. They just had to figure out how to get the remote tracker working when no matter where it was inside or outside of the Ghost Zone. At the moment it wasn’t leading them anywhere. 

“Maybe if the city invested in better quality cameras there would be something.” Maddie sighed, placing her head in her hands. The image quality of the recordings left much to wish for. The last known video of Jazz and Danny’s whereabouts and they didn’t show up as anything but blurry pixels. “What if we don’t find them Jack? What if they’re gone for good?” 

Jack pulled her out of her chair and into a hug.”we can’t think like that. Our kids are Fentons, they're made of tougher stuff. Plus you really think Jazzy of all people wouldn’t have any unfinished business? Our girl is too ambitious for that. And Danny-boy has wanted to be an astronaut since he was smaller than your knee. If they were really dea- if they were gone we would have seen their ghosts by now. Plus we’re their parents, we'd know if either of them were.” 

Maddie could only hope he was right. She couldn’t help but feel guilty. Whoever, or whatever, had taken Jazz and Danny took them when they were walking home from school. Something they were doing only because she had grounded Jazz from her car. Not like it even helped, even with the offer to get her car back early Jazz had adamantly refused to tell her what Danny had been up to the night he had been gone from his room. 

It wasn’t the first or only time either of the kids had evaded their questioning or given a flimsy excuse, and Maddie had gotten fed up with it. She didn’t even know what happened to make her kids not trust their parents anymore, they used to tell her everything. Danny especially. 

Then suddenly they hardly talked with her. It felt so recent when Danny was younger and would sneak down into the lab when he knew he wasn’t supposed to to spend time with them while they worked on the portal. Then it all stopped, and now they were gone. 

She just wished she could ask why. 

“Let’s go outside, the fresh air will do us good. And we can check around the areas they were last seen again.” Jack suggested. Maddie knew he was just saying that to get her out of the lab for a bit. They had scoured those areas to the point she knew each pebble like the back of her hand.After this long any trace that might have been there surely was washed away with the last few rainstorms. But she could say the same about the footage she’d been staring at. Reluctantly she agreed, following him upstairs and out the door. 

As expected; there was nothing out of the ordinary on the walk there. The sun was shining brightly, making sure everyone was aware Summer was in full swing. Maddie allowed herself a brief moment of respite during their walk, letting the warm air envelop her as she stood in place. 

The moment was quickly interrupted when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She grabbed Jack and ducked into an alleyway peeking her head out slightly.

Two ghosts had appeared out of nowhere. One giant one and one who was about the size of an average human holding a staff and wearing a purple cloak. Maddie rested her hand on her ecto-gun in time with Jack, waiting.

“If that magical map cannot find him, why can you not simply find him by looking into the future?” The tall ghostly woman with multiple arms dressed like some sort of ancient soldier turned to the smaller ghost.

The smaller ghost sighed. “I’ve told you before, that is not how the time stream works. There are an infinite number of possible futures I can see. Some of them Danny makes his way back without aid, and others he never returns at all. It’s only harder with the fact that his time stream has completely vanished.”

“Vanished? As in he’s dissipated?” 

“No, if he had he would have left some sort of remains, even a corpse affects the timeline. Even if the consciousness no longer remains. He simply vanished from both the living world and Infinite Realms. There was an anomaly in the timeline right before his trace vanished but I do not recognize it.” The smaller ghosts form shifted taking on the appearance of an old man. “But we would be best to end our conversation here, we have some eavesdroppers.”

The ghost turned towards them. Maddie was already prepared, she drew her weapon in a flash pointing it towards the two ghosts. “You mentioned Danny, what do you know about our children going missing?” She demanded.

The smaller ghost gave her an unimpressed look, unphased even when staring down the business end of an ecto-gun. “Do not delude yourself into thinking will have much of an effect on me, I am not as weakly constructed as the ghosts that tend to frequent this city. You seem to forget that the ghost you call Phantom also has the name Danny. If you have not noticed, he has also vanished.”

Maddie had noticed all right, Phantom was one of their suspects at first, but there was little evidence to support the ghost kid being involved. And now they had confirmation he had also completely disappeared. It was hard to not notice his absence in fact. The ghosts who were common sights around Amity fighting Phantom had started to visit less and less, and in their place were ghosts who had more and more interest in pure chaos and destruction. 

They were not impossible to deal with but each one dealt with took up more and more time the Fenton’s could be out trying to find answers. 

“I’ve seen and memorized all the ghosts who appear in Amity, your tall four armed ghost friend here, has been here briefly, but never you. For all we know you’re the one behind both disappearances.” Jack growled, the sound of his ectogun priming only adding to the tension.

Maddie never imagined something with such solid colored eyes could show so much emotion in them. The ghosts hand tightened its grip on the staff it was holding, jaw clenched so hard that Maddie was almost shocked she didn’t hear a popping noise. But its face remained passive. If she didn’t know better she would have assumed it was actively holding itself back from action.

The larger ghost placed one of its hands on the other. “Remember our goal Kronos. Humans may not develop bonds as ghosts do, but we are in the same boat nonetheless.”

The ghost closed its eyes and a wave of something washed over her before it opened its eyes again looking calmer. “Don’t underestimate human emotions Pandora. It is not what fuels them but it is a strong driver for them. Human parents regarding their children especially. Some just happen to realize that much too little and much too late.” It was staring straight at her and Jack as it raised its staff. “And I’ve told you before to stop calling me by-” 

Within a blink of an eye the two ghosts had vanished without a single sign they had moved to depart. Leaving the ghosts final worlds echoing through her mind. She knew better than to listen to the words of a ghost, or she should have. But for some reason those words left her feeling hollow inside. She barely registered Jack wrapping his arm around her and leading her away. 

“We missed Jazz’s birthday. She had to spend it alone. Danny’s is only a few weeks away.” She mumbled against him as they walked. “What if last year was the last time we got to celebrate their birthdays with them? And all we did for them was get a cake from the store.”

“Forget everything those ghosts said. They’re ghosts. They don’t know anything.” Jack said, staring forward.  Maddie figured it was best not to point out how he himself was visibility biting down on his bottom lip. 

 

It had been months since Maddie and Jack's strange encounter with those strange ghosts. Months without a single clue to where their kids had gone. It was clear she was starting to lose any hope of seeing them again, or even figuring out what had happened. Jack as well. But they were both still trying. They had a few people tell them they should just hold a funeral at this point and move on. Those people more often than not ended up on their backs with the wind knocked out of them. 

Sam and Tucker visited every once in a while, some of the only ones who still believed Danny and Jazz would be found. They had avoided Fentonworks when Danny first went missing, except the time Jack had found them after they had broken into the lab for some reason. They started visiting after that. None of them talked all that much, they gave some small updates on their lives while Maddie and Jack gave them the nonexistent updates on progress.

Maddie trudged downstairs to the kitchen wiping the remains of what little sleep she had gotten out of her eyes. There was a note left on the table, most likely from Jack letting her know he’d gone out. The BOO-merang had somehow triggered a false alarm the night, briefly flying through the air before deactivating again. He was probably trying to follow anything they could from that. She made herself a cup of coffee, sipping it while she picked up the note to read. 

Her mug shattered against the floor as she read the elegant words that were scrawled onto the paper, much too nice to be Jacks. She read the note again, and then twice more before Jack had appeared from the stairway leading to the lab to investigate the noise. 

Without a word she had shoved the letter only signed at the end with a ‘-C’ into Jacks hands as she collapsed into the chair. Her children were alive. Stuck in an alternate dimension, but alive. If the letter was to be believed. 

She rushed downstairs into the lab leaving Jack to read the note and catch up to her later. They had never considered alternate dimensions, other than the Ghost Zone. They weren’t even sure other dimensions other than the Ghost Zone even existed. The Ghost Zone was a dimension that was linked to their own. Almost like sister dimensions. If the letter was holding the truth their kids were in a completely unlinked dimension. 

She had heard of the multiverse theory of course, but never paid it too much attention as her studies had always been focused on the one. But it wasn’t totally out of the question. They had broken the walls between dimensions while keeping both stable once, they could improve, do it again. There was hope. 

Jack rushed after her soon after. She had already pulled up the data from the day Jazz and Danny vanished. There was a small amount of ecto-activity from that day indicating the formation of a natural portal. Too small to actually cause issues, it wouldn't have even been able to let a person in or a ghost out of the Ghost Zone. So they dismissed it. But if somehow that natural tear in reality was altered in some way or given more energy perhaps the tear mutated pulling the surroundings through so strongly it punctured into an entirely unknown dimension. 

They just needed to figure out how to reopen that puncture, and make sure it led to the right place. Easier said than done. Much easier said than done. But so was the ghost portal, and they got that up and running. They could do this. 

No longer would they be ambling hopelessly around hoping for a lead, anything to let them know where their kids were or if they were even alive. That letter was a lifeline and Maddie refused to let it go. 

Neither would Jack. He had already pulled out the old blueprints for the ghost portal, redrawing them on new paper changing things as he went that could theoretically help the process. They could try to track the pseudo-ectosignature Danny had and lock onto that. It was just how that was going to take time. But Maddie had hope again, and she wouldn’t give up. 

She and Jack worked for a week straight, she wasn't sure how much sleep she got, she knew she got some seeing she’d wake up occasionally, using schematics and data as a pillow.

Maddie wasn’t a detective, she wasn’t someone who was good at finding leads and following them through, but she was a scientist and despite the circumstances this was a scientist's task.  

“Mads, I think I got something!” Jack called out as he stepped back from where he was fiddling with the ghost portal. 

She didn’t doubt that the portal was still swirling its normal green color but the swirls were becoming more erratic and less uniform. The entire basement was shaking and equipment rattled all around them until it all stopped in an instant and a small form was spat out of the portal's opening and onto the floor. 

Maddie rushed forward at the sight of blue eyes and black hair before stopping in her tracks. Confused. 

The child standing before them looked alot like Danny when he was younger. Eerily so in fact. But by that age Danny had been out and cutting his hair short for years. The small girl, who looked too much like Maddie’s son, stood up glaring at the two Fentons. She pulled her infront of her trembling as if she was readying to fight before speaking.  “What did you do to Danny?”

Notes:

Y'know writing a parent who loves their kids but wasn't fit to be a parent is harder than it looks.

Chapter 34: Off to Camp

Notes:

Surprise you didn't have to wait 4 months for the next chapter!

You know what interlude meant right? Wonder what's happening over there.

“Mr. Aizawa, I have a question!” Ashido stood up in her bus seat and raised her hand.” They were on their way to the summer camp, and they had been driving for two hours at that point.

“Sit down in your seat when we are moving.” Aizawa waited until she had sat back down to continue. “What is the question?””

“You’re married right?” She technically stayed in her seat, but leaned forward far enough that she was halfway over the seat in front of her as the entire bus turned to stare at her in horror.

Danny looked rapidly between Ashido and Aizawa, with notably more shock than horror. Aizawa glanced back at her, his scarf covered his mouth but Danny knew him well enough to know there was a shit eating grin behind it. “Yes.”

The sound of the bus driving down the road was too loud of a noise for the silence that had formed. But that did not stop Ashido. “Really? To who?”

“”I’m not telling you my husband's name.” Danny figured the class shattering event was over as Aizawa turned to face the front once more. That is until Aizawa glanced back briefly.  “I do have three kids.”

Danny was pretty sure even the bus chose not to make noise at that moment. He was also pretty sure the third kid was referring to Arson. 

“Wait like actual human children?” Ashido gasped, once again standing. 

“Sit down. One of them is a cat, but yes the other two are actual children.” 

“How have you never told us any of this! We’ve been through so much together!” Kaminari complained.

“You never asked.” The bus rolled to a stop cutting off any more questions the students could ask. “Everyone off the bus. Leave your luggage.”  Aizawa called out to the class. 

 Looking out the window Danny didn’t see any camp. Or much of anything except the mountain cliff they had stopped on and endless forest past that and a black car that had also stopped in the sad excuse for a rest area. “I don’t really need a pit stop.” 

“Off.” Aizawa only pointed. Danny knew better than to argue. 

 Danny joined the rest of the class standing next to the railing preventing anyone from falling off. 

Danny watched as two women dressed like blue and pink cats got out of the car introducing themselves as members of the Wild, Wild Pussycats. A hero team focusing on rescue, and also the owners of the camp they’d be staying at. 

A camp that was hardly a speck at the bottom of the mountain. Danny was not the only one who was starting to realize what was happening, as the rest of the class started to run back towards the bus. “Your training camp starts now.” Aizawa deadpanned as the woman dressed in blue placed her hand on the ground sending a giant wave of dirt that dragged the students over the edge of the cliff as they screamed.

Danny sat in the air cross legged staring at the three adults and one child in a red hat he hadn’t noticed until just then. He glanced down the cliff making sure his classmates all landed safely, they did. “So can I get back on the bus?” 

“Who’s the kid?” The woman in pink asked Aizawa, her paw glove blocking Danny’s view of her mouth as if he couldn’t hear her.

Aizawa only sighed. “A menace. And no, join the rest of the class. You don’t have to stay with them but you’re making your way to the camp on your own like the rest of them. And let them do their own fighting please.” 

 “Figures, had to try though.” Danny shrugged flying down to meet his classmates at a much slower pace than they fell. They were all, unsurprisingly covered in dirt.

“I always forget you can fly when you look like that.” Uraraka said once Danny reached them. 

“He floats all the time though?” Kaminari pointed out. 

Uraraka shook her head as she tried to brush her clothes off. “Floating and flying are completely different.”

They were interrupted by a giant monster coming through the trees and running straight at them. Danny watched as half the class charged forward obliterating the monster in seconds. 

“That was easy?” Kirishima stared at the rubble around him as Kaminari shook the lingering volts of electricity out of his hands. 

“We’re not done.” Bakugo growled as they all turned to see another monster, this one looking like a dragon emerge from the dirt and take to the sky. 

“Oh come on! Do we just run?” Ashido asked, looking up into the sky, but no one could see anything with how thick the canopy of leaves were. 

Yaoyorozu shook her head. “You heard them. We have to take the most direct route or we don’t get lunch. We have to work together, no classmate left behind.”

The class fought like a well oiled machine. They had been training together the past semester nonstop and had actual combat experience together as well. Danny was no exception, he was working on taking out the wings on the flying dirt monsters leaving his ground bound classmates the opening to attack. 

“Tch watch it, Casper!” Bakugou shot past him, exploding the head of a monster that Danny didn’t notice right behind him. 

“Thanks!’” Danny called out as he tossed an ectoblast straight into the mouth of the monster he was focusing on sending dirt chunks everywhere as it fell apart from the inside out. 

Danny landed next to Todoroki whose right side of his body was starting to get frosty. “Maybe you should take a break or switch to more fire? You’re going to give yourself frostbite at this rate.” 

“No. Everyone is still fighting, I will be fine. Plus ice is best to hold them in place.” Todoroki said as he wiped the flecks of frost off of his face.

“Uraraka, what about you?” The girl looked like she was about to puke.

“I’ve got this. We need to push ourselves past our limits, yeah? Plus Ultra!” She weakly cheered, a few other students following in the cheer. They were all looking similarly worn out, they had been fighting for hours. 

Danny wondered if this is how Jazz and his friends felt every time he’d be up countless nights to fight ghosts without rest. They were hardly in any state to fight, but they all refused to stop and Danny wasn't just going to leave them. So they continued onward.

If their goal was to make it to camp by noon they certainly had failed. By the time they made it to the clearing where the camp was, the sun was probably at least a few hours past noon. Danny couldn't really tell how far past though. 

“Wow, that took you all a lot less time than I was expecting!” Pixie-bob laughed into her hands.

“You said it should only take three hours!” Kirishima protested. 

“For us,” Mandalay said. “Honestly the fact it only took your group six hours is very impressive. It’s three now but we can get you a late lunch.” 

“You were all seriously great against my dirt monsters! Especially you five!” Pixie-bob started to make her way towards where Danny was standing next to Midorya. Iida, Todoroki, and Bakugo. 

She was stopped in her tracks however by Aizawa grabbing onto the back of her shirt. “Refrain from harassing my students.” 

“Aw, no fun.” Pixie-bob slumped down. 

“I’ll keep an eye on her.” Mandalay looked at the ground in resignation. 

Midoriya got kicked right between the legs of the kid in the red hat, whose name was apparently Kota. Mandalay’s cousin, who had an avid dislike of heroes. But Danny wasn’t paying much attention, busy unloading his bag from the bus so he could put it away and get some food.

Yaoyorozu and Sato clearly had similar mindsets as they were already on the bus when Danny phased through the side to grab his stuff. But as he tried to phase the bag through it got stuck halfway through. 

“Quirk malfunction?” Yaoyorozu asked through the window, causing most of the class to look their way. 

Danny frowned and shook his head. “Trust me out of all my abilities this one has a harder time turning off than on.” His countless falls through walls, floors, and objects through his hands when he first got his powers was proof enough for that. “Could you just toss it out the window?” 

Danny pushed the half he managed to get out of the bus back in, handing it off to Yaoyorozu before she pushed it through the bus window. 

Danny caught the bag and started to unzip it. Did He accidentally pack one of Jazz’s ecto-projects? His questions were quickly answered when the moment his bag was fully unzipped he got a face full of green. His momentary shock aside he pulled back. “Laika?!”  

The blob ghost vibrated as they snuggled against his side until he grabbed them. “No , no, no you don’t get to snuggle up to me! You're not supposed to be here and you know that!”  

He had prepared so much to make sure Laika would have enough ectoplasm to feed off of while he was gone. Countless hours of draining himself of energy. Sure it could be used once they got back, but Laika didn’t even need anything when he was around. He guessed he could use it But there weren't many occasions he had to, usually when he went overboard with training. So maybe he’d need it once he got home after all. 

Now the problem was what to do with Laika for the next week. Danny would have to deal with that issue later. It really wasn’t a big deal. He was hungry and needed to put his stuff away before he could eat. 

“What’s that?” Midoriya asked. There was a small crowd of his classmates that had gathered, noticing Laika’s presence. 

Danny slugged his bag over his shoulder, allowing Laika to float on their own. “My pet ghost Laika.”

“Your quirk is ghost-like but you’re not actually one. Ghosts aren't real. I think.” Midoriya looked Laika up and down as if they were going to change his entire worldview. 

Right. Ghosts don’t exist, flat out. Or well the vestiges seemed to be the exception. “Think of them as something like Nezu. An animal that got a quirk like mine.” Danny explained. Really blob ghosts were more complex than that, but it was the basic gist that would let Midoriya understand. 

“Wait, you're saying that thing has the same powers as you do with your quirk?” Midoriya was already scrambling to find where he packed his notebook. 

“One person with Danny’s quirk is enough.” Jiro chimed in. 

Danny wondered how they’d all react knowing that most of his power-set was par for the course when it came to all the ghosts back in Amity. There were not many that were exclusive to him. “Not really all the abilities my quirk has. They can fly obviously as you can see and phase through objects. Oh and as long as they have access to ectoplasm they can regenerate really quickly if they get hurt. They’re made of ectoplasm so my bag caught on them when I was phasing it through the bus since they didn’t phase with it. ” 

“It hurts to be outmatched by a pet. Especially by a pet that is literally just slime. So on that note, see you all at the cafeteria.” Jiro decided.

Thankfully the remainder of the day was relatively uneventful. The teachers allowed the students to recuperate for the day before training really started tomorrow. Danny did have to explain Laika a few more times, but the look on Aizawa’s face was priceless when he saw them. Danny wished he brought a camera with him. 

As night fell they were given permission to use the hot spring baths to wind down for the night. Danny was pretty excited, he’d never been to a hot spring before. Tucker would talk about them a lot after his family went on vacation. 

The other boys were already in the spring by the time Danny had arrived. He had talked to Aizawa about watching Laika during the times Danny would be training since he didn’t want to leave them alone in an unknown place. Plus Aizawa was more than familiar with Laika by now. Danny knew he wouldn’t say no. 

Danny stepped out into the bath area after adjusting his towel. “There you are Danny! I bet you didn’t have hot springs like this in the states!” Kaminari waved his arm from where he was sitting in the water.

“Can’t say we did.” Danny laughed as he made his way into the water. It felt great as he closed his eyes, he felt like he could just melt away into the water. The warm water relaxing his muscles from the day’s earlier activities. 

Danny was expecting laughter, or even idle chatter picking conversations back up from where his arrival interrupted them. But all that could be heard was the sound of water and the barely audible sounds from the girls bath.

He cracked an eye open pulling himself into a more upright sitting position. Everyone was staring. Even Bakugo was watching him from the corner of his eye. 

Danny looked around, did he miss a sign with instructions? “What’s wrong? Did I break like an etiquette code or something? I thought I did everything I was supposed to do before entering.” 

“Are you feeling alright?” Aoyama covered his mouth with his hand. 

Sure he was tired from a long day but that seemed a bit much. They had all seen him in a much worse state. Multiple times. 

“That’s a lot of scars man, you good?” Kirishima reached out a hand halfway as if he was afraid to touch him. 
“Scars?” Danny glanced down. Right. Scars. They had never actually seen him with his shirt off, he still phased in and out of his athletic clothes and he never had to change into his hero costume.  “Oh yeah, but they’re all healed for the most part.” 

The hand print scar on his shoulder from Shigaraki was still slightly tinged pink. But in his healing factors defense, it probably would have killed most other people. Once the damage was healed his body had no reason to waste energy on making scars look better aesthetically. Other than that most all of his scars were from before he even arrived in Japan. Even Snipes bullets didn’t scar. 

They just continued to stare. 

Danny didn’t really get why, he hardly remembered which fights half of the scars even came from. Some of the bigger ones sure. The time Argon’s fire got a little too hot, a little too close. Overgrowth’s thorns left a few nice puncture scars. Meeting the business end of Fright Knight’s sword, and of course the sizable one left from Pariah Dark where his ribs were. Some of them were probably from Vlad, but Danny couldn’t think of which ones specifically. 

“You can’t be a hero without getting hurt.” Danny felt the need to defend himself. “I mean, Midoriya has scars from his fights too.” 

“Midoriya’s scars are because he doesn’t know how to hold his own power back and refuses to give up.” Todoroki countered, ignoring Midoriya’s protests claiming he hadn’t broken a bone in months. 

This was why Danny wore a swim shirt. 

“Scars are trophies of your conquest against the never-ending cascade of darkness.” Tokoyami started closing his eyes and relaxing once more.

“Yeah!” Midoriya looked confused but agreed. “Not like you fought villains or something before coming to U.A. that would be crazy!” He laughed nervously. 

“Right.” Danny wondered if he could somehow teach Midoriya to lie. He wasn’t that hung up on people finding out he did one vigilante work in the past, but it would probably be best for that to stay more low-key until he had his actual heroics license. 

Midoriya’s rambles thankfully seemed to knock everyone out of the weird mood they were in. They all stayed in the bath until they were pruney. Bakugo left first, apparently according to Midoriya, he had a strict self imposed bedtime. The rest of them moved en masse a bit later back to their room where they’d be staying for the week. 

Danny fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow, Laika laying on his chest. He’d need all the rest he could get for the coming week. He’d experienced Aizawa’s training pushes before. Ancients knew he’d need all the sleep he could get.

Notes:

Bit of a lighter chapter today, only a bit though.

Chapter 35: Training

Notes:

Thank you everyone who commented on the last chapter <3 i got t-boned while driving literally a day after posting (I'm fine dw, but my entire passenger side had to be replaced) so those comments really lifted my spirits (heh spirits)

“Why do your eyes glow in the dark?” Ojiro asked, rubbing his eyes.
“And can you turn it off?” Sero added.

“Quirk.” Danny stood among his classmates, it was so early the sun hadn't even risen yet. It was still dark enough out that his eyes still had a slight glow to them, spooking the majority of his barely awake classmates when they first saw him. Or in the middle of the night when poor Koda had gotten up to use the bathroom when Danny was already awake. Aizawa had rounded up all of 1-A to get their training started as soon as possible. Class 1-B wasn’t even awake yet. “And no.” 

“How are you not tired?” Midoriya yawned, causing most of the class to follow suit. 

Danny shrugged. He got plenty of sleep by his needs. For normal humans however, not so much. Benefits of dying and all.

Bakugo scoffed, one of the only other students that didn’t look dead on their feet. “I told you all.” 

“There is nothing you can say that will make me go to bed at eight thirty.” Midoriya replied. Apparently not awake enough for his brain to mouth filter to be working. 

“You go to bed at eight thirty? My little sister doesn’t even go to bed that early!” Tsu laughed. 

“Then don’t have shitty complaints about being tired, Deku. And your sister’s not gonna be the number one Pro-Hero now is she?” Small sparks popped off of Bakugo’s hands.

“If that is your goal, put that energy into training, not arguing with your fellow students Bakugou.” Aizawa interrupted. “This entire week we are focusing on pushing your quirks past their natural limits. We’re trying to fit an entire semester's worth of training into the span of a single week. Expect to suffer.” 

Aizawa proceeded to explain to each student how they’d be training their quirks for the day, and directing them to the equipment already set up for those who needed it. Leaving Danny as the last one standing next to him, Laika floated nearby watching the other students as they started training their quirks. 

“How many duplicates are you able to keep consistently stable now?” Aizawa asked Danny.

He had improved his duplication ability during his time with Sir Nighteye, and had continued working on it since. He wanted to show him the improvements he made when Danny started his work study after camp. “At most? Three.”

“Four it is. Have each one focus on a different part of your quirk” Laika had moved into Aizawa’s scarf. Not that he seemed to mind, he simply adjusted it slightly to ensure they didn’t fall.

“Four!?” It took enough focus to keep three stable enough for him to use other parts of his quirk and now he was expected to keep four stable while pushing his abilities to the limit? 

“Oh, and I almost forgot.” Aizawa turned towards where most of the students were training before speaking loudly. “Whoever is able to take down one of Danny’s duplicates gets an extra half hour of rest during your break for the day. If you manage to get his original body you’ll get two hours.” 

“What!” Danny protested as his classmates turned towards him. “How is that fair?”

Aizawa simply shrugged. “Despite everything, your situational awareness is still awful. Stop getting hit by avoidable attacks and this wouldn’t be happening.” He looked at Danny’s face. “But, if you manage to get through all of the training before break without any of your duplicates dissipating you get the extra time. Full two hours.” 

Danny blinked at the pure absurdity of the situation. Trying to manage four duplicates by itself would likely cause at least one to dissipate. Training his abilities to the extreme certainly would. But all of that while being on guard the whole time and fending off his classmates attacking him at any moment, while still making sure he didn’t kill them in the process? Even if his power was split up among his duplicates it had the chance to be pretty risky. 

“Your classmates are giving it their all to improve themselves and be the best heroes they can. Doing anything less yourself disparages their efforts.”  Aizawa motioned for him to get on with it.

Danny transformed with a sigh. He created the duplicates as instructed, the fourth one wavering slightly before it stabilized into his proper shape. The five Danny’s looked at each other in silent agreement before shooting off in separate directions.  

His duplicates could take care of themselves and cover for each other if needed. He on the other hand would be the prime target. Two extra hours of rest was a godsend for a bunch of teens who didn’t get enough rest the night before and were getting put through the wringer the next several days. 

He quickly turned invisible and dashed back to the boys room where his bag was. Pulling out the extra deck of cards he packed, thankful he packed two. He was getting pretty good at sleight of hand lately, and was planning on showing some tricks to his classmates during their down time. He wasn’t even using his quirk to aid him. 

Danny flew back to the training grounds where class 1-B had recently arrived. Yaoyorozu was talking to Ragdoll, pointing towards one of his duplicates who was floating just out of reach of Midoriya keeping him occupied. Just as he was supposed to.

Danny landed on the ground shuffling the cards as he turned visible. He’d need all the energy to spare for this if he wanted to keep his duplicates stable at the same time.He really hoped he could even keep them up when he did. Not like he ever tried before. 

“Ever hear about the Mexican magician?” Danny asked, drawing the attention of his classmates trying to attack his double. He waved the cards in his hand, distracting them enough for him to continue. “He told his audience he’d disappear on the count of three. He counted down: Uno, dos…and disappeared without a tres.” 

Danny quickly ripped a hole through the air diving into the black void. Leaving his confused classmates in his wake. Danny was positive they couldn’t follow him through.

Well he didn’t pass out this time so that was a good sign, he did spend quite a bit of energy though. He could also sense his duplicates still but the connection felt distant and fuzzy. But they were all still stable so the plan was a success.  He would be the biggest target for his classmates, even if they would have a harder time winning against him than his duplicates. He was weakened when he had active copies of himself, and if he took a big enough hit his duplicates would all dissipate. 

None of the vestiges must have been active before his arrival, they were all blinking rapidly as they took in their surroundings. “Danny!” Nana smiled, rushing over and grabbing him by the shoulders once she got her bearings. 

Banjo and Yoichi followed behind her. The three of them were the ones Danny was most familiar with. Danny didn’t think the other four disliked him, they spoke to him briefly when he had been here last while he was recovering enough energy to leave. They just seemed less outgoing than Nana and Banjo. While Yoichi got forcefully roped into interacting with him originally via Banjo’s insistence of them being related. Something told Danny that the man wasn’t exactly the super social type.

“I brought cards!” Danny held up the deck with a flourish causing Banjo to cheer loudly. 

“Wanted monopoly, but cards work too! Thanks a lot mini First” Banjo dodged the hit from Kudo who had meandered his way over.  

“The worst part about all of this is that Banjo is right.” Kudo leaned down examining Danny’s face closer causing Danny to back away slightly from the closeness. 

“That monopoly is better than cards?” Banjo asked, snatching the cards out of Danny’s hands.

Kudo just turned and stared at Banjo for a full minute. “No. Their face shape is slightly different, but they do look very similar.” 

Banjo clapped Kudo on the back. “We can work through the emotional damage of you being cheated on by your boyfriend together.”

Kudo shoved Banjo off of him with a glare.

“I mean by that logic he also cheated.” Danny interjected. “Because I have a classmate, Bakugo, who looks a lot like Kudo but more blonde. Also I only look like this when I’m a ghost. Completely different hair and eye color otherwise.” 

Yoichi put his face in his hands. “Not you too Kudo. I never had kids!” 

“I’m not saying he’s right about that. I’m well aware you didn’t, we've known each other for hundreds of years now. Just that you two look alike. Even without the hair and eye color” Kudo shrugged. “But monopoly would be awful for us.” 

Banjo gasped. “What’s wrong with monopoly? You’re just worried I’d beat you.” 

“We go in and out of awareness constantly and only sometimes all at the same time. A game would take forever. At least with cards if only one of us is present we could play solitaire.” 

“Speaking of things that take forever.” Danny spoke up. “I’m going to need to hide out here for at least like five hours until it’s lunch time.” 

Nana straightened. “Who are you hiding from?” She looked around as if she would be able to fight, or see, an attacker from the living world from the vestige space. 

“Just my classmates. If they beat me in a fight they get extra rest time. We’re at our summer training camp.” Danny explained.

“Oh I think I remember seeing that discussion a bit ago when Izuku was in class.” Nana nodded.

“It’s summer?” Banjo asked. 

“You’re strong enough that your entire class is challenged with fighting just you?” Yoichi blinked as he looked Danny up and down. 

Danny shrugged. “I guess. I’ve fought against a Pro-Hero before and we were pretty evenly matched. But we were both holding back.” He would like to fight Mirko at both their full strength one day, or maybe Hawks. But Hawks was super high in the rankings so he’d almost certainly lose quickly. He did wonder how long he’d last through. “It helps that my quirk is like-,” Danny counted on his fingers before giving up, “More quirks in one than I can count.” 

Banjo slowly turned towards Yoichi, almost like he was convinced if he moved slow enough he wouldn’t be noticed. “Are you sure there’s no relation? Like your lot’s of great's grandson? Grandnephew even? ” 

“Positive.” Danny spoke up. “I’m from a different dimension, so… it would be pretty difficult.” 

All of the vestiges turned towards him. “A different dimension?” Nana questioned, her tone urging him to elaborate. 

He would be here long enough to explain so he figured it wouldn’t hurt. Plus even if they weren’t really the same sort of ghosts as back in Amity, he did miss talking to people who wouldn’t be weirded out about his casual attitude towards dying. Sure, Jazz, Aizawa, and Yamada were used to him, but some things were only really understood by people who’ve also died. 

So Danny explained to the best of his ability how he and Jazz had gotten to this dimension, and worked backwards filling in information until he got to explaining the portal accident. 

Yoichi cringed once Danny finished. “And I thought my death was painful.” 

Danny nodded with a shudder. “Oh it was awful, worst pain of my life, and afterlife. I would have preferred something as simple as being murdered.” Though he’d just be dead dead if that was the case, not permanently in a limbo between life and death. He probably would have ended up as a ghost nonetheless, with how much ectoplasm he was exposed to growing up. But he was rather attached to his human side. 

“Damn out of all of us Fourth is the only one who died normally.” Banjo shook his head.

Hikage looked over from where he was sitting a few yards away. “I died of old age at forty.” 

“Still counts as natural causes.” Banjo defended. 

“Forty?” Danny’s eyes went wide. 

“One for All basically cuts your lifespan in half if you inherit it while already in possession of a quirk. Due to how rough having multiple quirks is on the body. The already established quirk factor can’t keep up with the new quirk in addition to the original one. That's why Yagi and Izuku were perfect candidates.”  Nana explained. 

“All Might was quirkless?” Danny felt like he was learning a lot of information from the vestiges he was never meant to know. 

“Yep. Will be again in about a year or so, now that One for All has been transferred.” Banjo nodded.

Nana huffed. “If that idiot doesn’t stop pushing himself too hard he’ll burn through it even faster than that at best. That or we’ll have a new roommate much sooner than I’d like.” It was clear her words came from a place of worry for All Might. Danny wondered if he ever got around to talking to Nezu about preparing for his retirement. 

A silence settled over them before Banjo clapped his hands together. “Let’s play cards! What game should we play? Poker? Spoons? Bullshit?”

“What would we bet with? And we don’t have anything we could use in place of spoons.” Nana pointed out.

“I mean you don’t have to bet something with poker. But I can bring some colorful rocks or something that you can use for chips and replacements for spoons.” Danny offered. “But in the meantime I can teach you how to play euchre?” 

“What the hell is that?” Banjo asked. 

“It’s a Midwest thing. We need to split into two teams and I’ll explain the rules.” Danny explained as he took the deck back from Banjo and started to set up the deck. 

Needless to say Danny’s team wiped the floor with Banjo’s. He still had about half an hour left to burn before he’d have to leave for lunch. He was just about to set up a new game at Banjo’s insistence when he felt one of his duplicates dissipate. Danny frowned as the memories started to integrate with his own, a bit slower than they would have if he wasn’t in the vestige’s realm. Who had gotten him?

“Banjo!” Danny shouted as his memories revealed a very familiar black tendril grabbing onto his duplicate. 

“What did I do?” Banjo looked up from his sulking in protest.

“Midoriya!” Danny gasped as the memories finally slotted into place. “Midoriya used blackwhip!” 

The vestiges as a collective started clamoring that that wasn’t possible, but Danny had already abandoned the deck of cards, opening a portal back to the living world and rushing through it. He ignored the slight wave of exhaustion that washed over him as he turned to be face to face with Midoriya who was looking at his own hand in shock. Aizawa was already at his side, applying eye drops. A telling sign he had just used his quirk. 

“Does this mean I get the extra break time?” Midoriya asked, looking towards Aizawa.

Aizawa glanced at his watch, suddenly looking much more tired. “Yes. After lunch. For now, you two follow me. Danny, feel free to recall your doubles.” Danny shrugged leaving the duplicates active, the three left were doing pretty well with the training and there wasn't much time left anyway. 

They made their way to the room where the remedial classes would be held for the students who failed their exams. After closing the door behind him, Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose. “Danny what just happened?” 

“Hey, it’s not my quirk, why do you assume I know what’s going on? Why not ask Midoriya?” Danny protested.

Aizawa stared at him flatly. “Because Midoriya looked just as confused as I was when it happened and you reappeared right after.” 

He did have a point. Danny did know what was going on. Well sorta. “It was one of the past One for All users quirk, Banjo, called blackwhip. From all of their reactions when I mentioned you used it, this hasn’t happened before.” 

“I have two quirks?!” Midoriya reached his hands to his head grabbing fistfulls of his hair. 

“Is this the only one he’ll get?” Aizawa asked at the same time.

Danny held up his hands “How should I know? Like I said, even the vestiges were surprised. For all I know he could inherit all of their quirks.” 

“All of them?” Midoriya whispered to himself. It was probably a lot to take in for someone who thought he’d be quirkless the rest of his life before meeting All Might.

“What are the other quirks so we can keep an eye out for them?” It was only the first full day of camp, not even lunch yet at that, and Aizawa already looked like he was missing being anywhere but here.

“No clue. I only know blackwhip because Banjo kept abducting me with it when I opened the portals.” Danny racked his brain for any mention the others gave for what their quirks were. “I can ask them next time. I have to bring them something they can use as betting chips anyway.” 

Aizawa looked like he was going to comment on that last part but decided against it. “Please do. Midoriya we’ll need to focus on training your new quirk this week. Keep working towards increasing the percent you can use like normal, but this new one now has priority. I can’t have you walking around in public with a quirk you can’t control and know nothing about.” 

Midoriya nodded as he slumped forward. “I wish All Might was here. He’d know what to do.” 

Danny wasn’t too sure about that. Maybe if it was whatever Nana’s quirk was, but this was uncharted territory in general. He’d at least give Midoriya some confidence though. 

“I can’t believe I’m saying this but me too.” Aizawa frowned. “Unfortunately he’s the League of Villain’s main target, so it was too much of a risk to bring him along. This will certainly be something the two of us discuss with him once the week is over. We can get his input, if he has any, then.” Aizawa ran his hand down his face. “Alright, both of you make your way to the cafeteria pavilion, the Wild Wild Pussycats weren’t lying when they told you you’d be making your own lunch and dinner from now on. Go help your classmates cook. Midoriya you get an extra thirty minutes after that but once you get back expect to work harder than the rest of your classmates to hone this new quirk.”

“Yes sir!” Midoriya aggressively nodded his head before he and Danny made their way to where class 1-A and 1-B were gathering to start cooking. 

Thankfully they were making tempura, something Danny had made multiple times with Yamada. The students all worked together and by the end the result was…passable. It tasted fine but the presentation certainly could use some work. He would have certainly done a lot worse than what they did a year ago. Once they had all finished eating they got a short break before being hauled away for training once again until it was time for dinner. 

The pattern continued for the next three days. It all blurred together when you were exhausting yourself with training during all the waking hours of the day. At least by the third afternoon Danny managed to avoid any of his duplicates being destroyed. He would have succeeded in the morning if Yaoyorozu hadn’t seen through his invisibility with the thermal goggles she created and hit him square in the chest with a cannonball. Apparently she asked Ragdoll to help with her search quirk, pinpointing a way to navigate around Danny’s invisibility. He was positive he'd be able to last the whole day tomorrow without having a single one dissipate. 

Thankfully after dinner they got a break from training as they all met in the forest for an actual camp activity. A ‘test of courage’, which was basically each class trying to scare the other as they walked in pairs down a dark forest path after the sun had set. 

Well most of the class. Much to Kaminari’s disappointment of not being able to watch class 1-B be on the other side of Danny’s ‘totally scary and super freaky scare abilities’. Despite Yaoyorozu being the one who had planned most of the scare tactics during their very first battle simulation. The remedial students were all excluded, having additional training with Aizawa and Kan. Laika had followed Aizawa when he left, at this point Danny was pretty sure they liked Aizawa’s scarf more than Danny.

They drew lots to see who they’d be paired up with. Danny looked down at the slip of paper that had a large number one written on it. He and his partner would be the first ones going through the forest. “It seems we are to face the unyielding darkness together.” Danny jumped as Tokoyami appeared behind him. He always managed to somehow be the only one able to sneak up on Danny.

Danny took a moment to get his heartbeat under control before speaking. “Seems so.” He glanced at Dark Shadow who was peaking ever so slightly over Tokoyami’s shoulder before it noticed Danny saw it and ducked completely behind him. 

Right. Dark Shadow tended to hide when Danny was around. “We can ask to switch partners if you want?” He offered.

Tokoyami cocked his head to the side. “Why would I want that?” 

Danny pointed to Dark Shadow, or at least where it had been. “Dark Shadow is scared of me, and I don’t want to make you and it needlessly uncomfortable.” 

Tokoyami looked back and forth between Dark Shadow and Danny. “Actually-” He was cut off by Dark Shadow screeching and trying to wrap its hands around his beak. Tokoyami brushed off its attempts to stifle his speech before continuing. “Actually it’s just really shy around you. It believes you are, and I quote ‘really cool’” 

“Wait really?” That had to be the first sapient non-human he’d come across in this world who wasn’t put off by his general ghostliness, though he really only had Nezu to go off of. “You’re pretty cool too, Dark shadow.”  

He was pretty sure if Dark Shadow wasn’t a literal sentient shadow being it would have lit up at the compliment. Soon enough they were given the signal from Pixie-bob and Tiger to start heading down the path. 

Class 1-B had it pretty rough with Danny and Tokoyami being the first group in to try to scare. Danny used to fight ghosts regularly, and was one. While Tokoyami was, well, Tokoyami. Danny was pretty confident he didn’t scare easily. But as long as their confidence wasn’t immediately crushed by failing to scare the first group, they’d have much better luck with the following groups.

Danny, Tokoyami, and Dark Shadow scanned the woods as they walked, waiting for the first sign of their fellow students. But they hadn’t come across anyone yet. That was, until Dark Shadow made a loud startled noise causing Danny to turn around and look what it was worrying about and-

Notes:

Wonder why there was such an abrupt stop...

Next few chapters are going to be pretty heavily connected so I'm planning on getting at least the first complete draft down for all of them before posting the next chapter so it might take a bit longer. But those chapters have been pretty much planned out since I started this fic so I'm quite excited to see how they turn out.

Chapter 36: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Danny woke up handcuffed and tied to a chair in what appeared to be a dingy bar. Which frankly raised a lot of questions. Mostly because the last thing he remembered was doing the walk of courage with Tokoyami and then suddenly he was here. His head didn’t hurt, so he most likely didn’t forget how he ended up there due to a concussion. He had enough of those to recognize them quickly. It took him only a moment longer to realize he was surrounded by people. 

He recognized two of them, Shigaraki and Kurogiri. But he had no clue who all the others were. But seeing who they were with they must all be part of the League of Villains. 

Oh, Bakugo was here too. In a very similar predicament as he was on the other side of the room. “We’ve been kidnapped. How’d that happen?” Danny looked around the bar for any indication of an answer. He hadn't been kidnapped in a while. 

The man in the black and white mask raised his hand. “Apologies, that would be me. We had to play a bit dirty and get a hold of you before you had the chance to react. Lacking showmanship unfortunately, but it was necessary. I am Mr. Compress.” 

He seemed nice enough for a man who helped kidnap two teenagers. 

“Yeah and because of you Kurogiri had to warp us like a whole mile away and make us walk all the way there.” The girl who looked like she was around Danny’s age complained. “But, it’s okay you’re cute! You can call me Toga.” 

“Right…” Danny trailed off, looking towards Bakugo it seemed they both had the same look on their face in response to that. It did raise the question of how they knew he could detect nomu nearby. It was really only his teachers and classmates that knew that. Though there were a decent amount of Pros and police officers during the Stain incident, maybe one of them noticed his ghost sense go off right before the nomu appeared. But even Danny didn’t think that seemed likely, pretty much everyone was focused on Stain. “This is fun and all really, I was starting to worry that my surviving a kidnapping skills were starting to get rusty, we’re gonna go now. You seemed to have forgotten something super important.” 

Danny moved to phase out of the handcuffs, only to be met with the sound of clanking metal and the complete resistance of metal digging into his flesh. That didn’t seem right. He could still reach his core, so his powers were still working. 

Shigiraki laughed. “Do you like the handiwork of our good doctor? I never would have guessed the bullet shards covered in strange medical waste he came across a few months ago would have been the key item to defeat the hidden boss.” He moved closer to where Bakugo’s chair was, lifting his hand close to it. “And I would suggest you think twice before trying to escape. Unless you think you can move faster than my quirk.”

Danny glared at Shigaraki, but he was right, breaking out of his bonds manually would take too long, especially with this many eyes on him, by the time he got out Shigiraki would be able to easily disintegrate Bakugou a few times over. And he knew from experience that the receiving end of that quirk was not a pleasant experience. But bullet shards? What the hell was he talking about? How would pieces of a bullet be the reason he was stuck? Until he remembered. “You made these out of the bullets Snipe shot me with?” 

Honestly it was such a minor injury Danny forgot about it after his training for the entrance exam started. For the most part at least, unless Jazz was using it to guilt trip Snipe, or when Yamada and Aizawa got particularly hovery after a less than enjoyable fight against a villian. But even that only really happened if there was a casualty they couldn’t prevent. A rare occurrence, Danny could count how many times it happened on one hand and have fingers to spare.

“Partially, not exactly enough to make a full pair of handcuffs but I am glad it was enough.” Shigaraki smiled before frowning. “It was a hero who shot you and you’re still going to U.A?” 

“Snipe shot you?” Bakugo stared at him.

“It was an accident, and clearly I’m fine.” Danny still didn’t really see why it was a big deal.  It was at times like this he was reminded Bakugo and Midoriya were childhood friends, they had almost the same exact reaction. Though Midoriya cried a lot more once Danny actually got the chance to call him and explain what happened since he wasn’t allowed out of the house alone for a while after the whole vigilante stuff. 

“If he was fine after being shot, does that mean I can stab him?” Toga asked, reaching for the knife on the counter next to her. 

 “I’d prefer it if you didn’t.” Danny interjected before anyone else could answer. 

“No,” Shigaraki denied much to Danny’s surprise, with an annoyed look on his face. Danny kinda assumed they’d try to at least hurt him to show they were being serious, basic kidnapping protocols. “Master was the one who requested him here. He specifically requested that he be brought mostly unharmed.” 

“Ha! And here I thought you were the boss, you’re just a sidekick aren’t ya?” Bakugo barked out. 

Shigaraki didn’t grace Bakugo with a response. Which was a shame, kidnapping was no fun when your captures didn’t respond to taunts. It was the highlight of being kidnapped. “However, you didn’t get nearly as much blood during the raid as we had hoped you would so feel free to collect some from him. But be as careful as you can. Leave Bakugou alone, we want to keep him on our good side. Dabi, Toga, you two keep an eye on them first. It’ll still be a bit until master calls on the other one, and our conversation with Bakugo is locked until he’s gone.” 

That wasn’t ominous at all. The rest of the League filed out of the room leaving Toga, Kuroguri, and what appeared to be a walking medical disaster of a man who Danny could infer was Dabi. 

“So what’s your deal?” Danny asked, looking up at the man covered with staples who was standing beside him in case he attempted to escape. Toga was passing her knife between her hands as she stood beside Bakugo. 

“I don’t think captives are supposed to be this chatty.” Dabi glanced down at him. 

Danny shrugged as much as he could while restrained “I don’t think you're supposed to do whatever you're doing that makes your skin look like that. But here we are. You going to answer my question? Or you could tell us why we’re here. Clearly you would prefer us alive. Ransom? Hostages? Brainwashing us to join you? Leverage?” 

He saw Dabi’s eyebrow twitch slightly, so he’d count it as a win. “Toga we’re trading places.” 

“Okay!” Toga smiled as she skipped over to Danny. “I’m gonna take some of your blood now, alright? I can’t wait!.” 

“Well if I get a choice I’d rather you not to be honest.” Last time someone tried to consume his blood was Stain, it didn’t do anything to Danny but apparently once they had gotten Stain to the villain holding hospital he had started glowing. “What are you going to do with it anyway?”

Toga clapped her hands together. “I’ll show you first!” She grabbed a small vial from her cardigan pocket that was filled with a red liquid that Danny felt like he could safely assume was someone’s blood.

He watched disgusted, as she took a small sip from the vial. He’d love to stop meeting crazed villains who had a tendency for drinking blood. Preferably two villains ago. Danny never had this problem with ghosts. Regardless, Danny was mildly surprised to see Uraraka standing in Toga’s place. 

“Aren’t I cute Dabi?” She asked with a face Danny was sure Uraraka was too proud to ever make.

“Sure.” Dabi replied not even looking over, uninterested in the happenings across the room. More occupied with watching Bakugo glare at him amused. 

“You’re really no fun, you know that.” She pouted. 

Definitely not Uraraka. Some sort of Amorpho situation then. At least Amorpho could just shapeshift into whoever he wanted whenever. Having to consume blood to do that had to suck. Not that he felt too bad for her, she did help kidnap him and Bakugo. “Wait, you hurt Uraraka for that!” 

“She’s fine,” Watching Uraraka’s face roll her eyes at him was off putting. “What’s the point in being able to turn into someone if they’re dead?” Her quirk must have worn off as she spoke, reverting back to her original appearance much to Danny’s relief. 

“Actually before you do take my blood. How does your quirk work? Does it like copy the DNA of the person?” Danny asked, eyeing the needle in Toga’s hand.

“You’re spending too much time around Deku. Why does that fucking matter, you’re about to be stabbed idiot.” Bakugo yelled at him.

“Well because-,” no Bakugo was right. Not about him spending too much time with Midoriya. But he didn’t really need to warn his captures of any potential side effects that may come about. “Actually never mind, proceed I guess.” 

Danny averted his eyes as the needle was stabbed into his thigh. It didn’t really hurt all that much but he generally wasn’t a fan of needles, too many nightmares, or being stabbed really. If it wouldn't put Bakugo in danger, and if he didn’t want to figure out who the hell Shigiraki’s boss was, he’d have been out of there long before then. 

That last part was really the main reason he stayed. If he tried hard enough he probably could have made a break for it with Bakugo in tow, especially with most of the League out of the room. But Kuroguri ’s portals would be hard to circumnavigate fast enough with how quick he seemed to be.

Speaking of the abomination, Danny was pretty sure the man had hardly looked away from him since he had woken up. It was more of putting than his blood being stolen. He was probably still mad at him for beating Shigaraki up during the USJ incident or something. 

Danny watched as Bakugo yelled and strained against his restraints after seeing him get stabbed. It was nice to know he cared enough to get angry. Well more angry than his baseline had been since they’d gotten there. 

Looking at the amount of blood Toga collected from him, it was almost enough to donate to a blood drive. Not that his blood was exactly safe to donate. Thankfully losing that amount didn’t affect Danny much. He had lost more than that in fights before, if he lost too much his ectoplasm just filled in until his human half could regenerate enough. 

Toga made a face as she downed some of his blood in the same manner she did with Uraraka’s. It probably didn’t exactly taste normal compared to other people with all the ecto-contamination in it. Hell be bet even Jazz’s wouldn’t exactly taste normal with how much they were exposed growing up. Not that he wanted to find out if hers did, he would like his sister to remain unstabbed. She couldn’t regenerate like he could, and stabbing was a pretty big injury for most people. 

Danny was interested to see how this transformation went. If she was lucky her quirk worked in a way where her victims DNA wasn’t copied and it used some sort of different method. 

“It sorta tastes bad. What a shame.” Toga licked her lip with a frown. She did manage to replicate Danny’s appearance without experiencing excruciating pain, so it didn’t seem to copy his DNA onto hers. But it seemed to only mostly copy his appearance. There were a few pretty big differences. Her quirk didn’t seem to know what appearance of his to copy. Resulting in two different colored eyes and a mix of black and white streaks of hair. She did look human in everything else though. So it might just be the ectoplasm in his blood messing things up for her. Or it simply copied the appearance of his DNA and didn’t impose it onto hers, hence the messed up copy attempt. His DNA wasn’t exactly in a normal state. He could always ask Midoriya if he’d seen anything like it. Quirk science wasn’t exactly Danny’s area of expertise.

“Seems like that’s a bust.” Dabi noted.

“I feel kinda funny.” Toga wrapped her arms around her abdomen and detransformed into her original appearance. 

“Yeah, that’d be the ecto-poisoning. You’ll probably want to get to a hospital before it actually kicks in.” Not that they could do much here. Even back in Danny’s original universe Amity’s hospital was one the the few that had resources to treat ecto-poisoning. “Goodish news is that you didn’t drink enough to kill you! But you’ll probably end up floating, or glowing, or falling through the floor, or all of the above for a day or two. Good luck with that.” Danny smiled.

“Stop being so fucking chatty with the villians idiot, what’s wrong with you?” Bakugo snarled.

Dabi stepped in and pushed Toga towards Bakugo with a frown taking her place back beside Danny again. “What is wrong with you?” 

“Don’t agree with me, shitty villain!” 

“According to multiple sources; neglect. But honestly, pretty sure that’s only tangentially related to what you’re referring to.” Danny shrugged. “Get kidnapped enough times and you learn to have fun with it. I’m not being hunted for sport right now, or currently at an active risk of being the subject of various unethical experiments. So I’m not having an awful time other than the fact you kidnapped my friend too.” 

“Huh, what the hell are you-? You’re not my friend, Casper.” 

Danny gave Bakugo a look that made it clear he did not believe him. “Then why do you try to fight me all the time? That’s friendship one-oh-one. Look at you and Midoriya or Kirishima. Or look at me with Midoriya, or Todoroki, or Kaminari, Iida, or actually most of our class, oh Shinso, or Mirio, Nejire, and Tamaki when they’re not busy with their work studies. You don’t really know those last four actually, Shinso is the guy who challenged us before the sports festival, the other three are third years.” Danny paused. “You know what, I just realized, I’ve never been this popular.”

Bakugo, and the three villains in the room, just stared at him. For some reason. All the ghosts Danny was friends with back in Amity fought him all the time, trying to injure each other was a friendship right of passage.The only reason Sm and Tucker never fought with him was because they said they didn’t like fighting when it wasn’t super necessary. Honestly Bakugo would make a great ghost if he lived in Amity. 

“Again; what is your issue?” Dabi asked.

“I already gave my answer, what’s your excuse? Holed up in a run down bar, kidnapping kids, with skin grafts so crispy even fried chicken would be jealous.” Danny retorted. 

Dabi’s eyes flashed in anger as blue flame started to lick up his arm. So that’s what his quirk was. Flame quirks must be pretty common, apparently Midoriya’s dad had one too.

“I must cut in,” Kuroguri interrupted, still looking at Danny, “and remind you that we have specific instructions to keep him as intact as possible.” 

“Then get Shigaraki back in here to watch the brat.” 

“There’s no need for all that Dabi.” Shigaraki re-entered the room. “Master says he is ready. Which means we can finally get on with our own plan now.” 

Danny straightened in his seat, as much as he could at least. “Coolio, before we get portaled away. I’ll be taking this back, thank you.” Danny grabbed the bag of blood Toga had collected from him with his telekinesis before freezing it to the point it shattered into fine particulate.

Sure, his blood didn’t really have enough ectoplasm in it to do much at all with. Other than mildly poisoning someone, but in theory any blood could do that. Not like the stuff his ghost form ran on, which could do a lot more damage to a human in much smaller amounts, and also why he was stuck in handcuffs in the first place. But still he wasn’t the biggest fan of the idea of someone, let alone a bunch of villains, having free access to it. He didn’t need any more clones running about. 

The villains were staring at him again. “You could use your quirk this whole time?” Shigaraki hissed, beelining straight for him. Out of the corner of his eye, Danny could see Toga start to glow faintly. 

“That’s the fun thing about telekinesis, it doesn’t require hands. That’s sorta it’s whole deal.” This world didn’t even have the resources to make actual ecto-suppression equipment. It took his parents years, even with access to a near infinite supply of ectoplasm to work with. 

Danny ignored the fact that Shigaraki was now way past his personal bubble and turned to Kuroguri who had thankfully stopped staring into his soul once Shigaraki reentered the room. “I’m I being sent away now? No need to keep this master of yours waiting, right?” 

Once the portal was open Danny would quickly grab Bakugo before anyone had the chance to react and go through it. He could grab him and fly off the moment they exited. All Danny really had to do was keep note of the location they arrived at to point the Pro-Heroes towards once he and Bakugo were confirmed to be safe. Easy peasy. Best case scenario they let Danny tag along with them now that he was licensed. 

Good news was that Jazz, Aizawa, and Yamada probably weren’t freaking out, it was only a kidnapping after all. But Danny was pretty sure Bakugo’s parents were civilians. Even with knowing how strong their son was, they would probably be pretty worried. 

Bad news was a portal never appeared, throwing a wrench into one of the few plans he ever actually bothered to make. Even worse was the feeling of muck and a disgusting taste inside his mouth that came out of nowhere before it started to envelop his body. Leaving the last thing he saw before being completely covered by the ooze was Bakugo, struggling against his own restraints once more as he futilely tried to reach Danny.

Once the gunk finally dissipated from around him, Danny landed on the floor coughing the remnants of it from his mouth. He was still handcuffed. Looking around he was noticeably in a new location, some sort of warehouse from the looks of it. A wave of nausea washed over him as his ghost sense went off. In a way he now recognized meant that there was a nomu somewhere nearby. 

Great. Just what he needed. He almost wanted to thank Kuroguiri for having the least sickening patchwork of a soul. 

Danny pulled himself up off of the ground once he was able to get his legs under him, only to be met face to face with a large figure in front of him wearing a black mask that reminded Danny vaguely of Star Wars. 

“Thank you for joining me, I do hope Tomura did not give you too much trouble.” The masked man said.

That must be the villain Shigaraki was calling master. The real head of the League of Villains. Danny originally was going to make a break for it the moment he got to this point, but the League still had Bakugo hostage. For all Danny knew the moment he tried something the man in front of him would give a signal to the league of Villains to kill Bakugo. 

“I have wanted to speak with you since Tomura informed me of what transpired during his attack on U.A., and even more so after I heard about that incident of yours at the sports festival. Of course introductions are in order first. There are many names I go by,” Danny’s eyes widened as the man continued to speak, holding out a large hand out towards Danny as if he was offering him something, “but you probably know me best as All for One.”

Notes:

Unfortunately for y'all, and Danny (and to much delight to me) we're in heavy cliffhanger chapters for the next three or so chapters due to BIG EVENT ARC. But it'll all probably be fine in the end no need to worry at all.

Chapter 37: An Apex Predator

Summary:

Apex Predator: A predator that is at the top of the food chain in it's ecosystem and has no native predators of it's own

Notes:

Happy 150k words, what the helllllll
thanks for everyone who's read that many of my words, genuinely crazy to think about
Sooner update due to how I want to pace the next 3 chapter, enjoy!

Well shit. 

Danny didn’t really know how to respond to that.

He was under the impression that All For One was dead. Sir Nighteye did mention they never found his body, but it was pretty easy to assume that a hit that hard from All Might of all people wouldn’t leave much to find. He’d seen his teacher level multiple buildings at the U.A. training grounds with a single punch. Most people made up of flesh didn’t survive things like that. 

All For One retracted his hand before he took a seat on a nearby chair, bringing them to be closer to eye level, if Danny was actually able to see All For One’s eyes behind the mask. He gestured for Danny to do the same. Danny looked around at the chairs scattered about, vaguely reminded of his first time meeting with Hound Dog, and made the decision to stay standing. 

“No worries, feel free to take a seat whenever. I’m sure you have plenty of questions, but I ask you to just listen first.” All For One asked as he clasped his hands together. 

What the biggest villain of all time in this universe wanted with him, Danny had no clue. But he wasn’t too eager to find out. He was out of there the moment any sort of testing was involved though, Bakugo would have to hold his own with the League. 

All For One continued. “Honestly I was quite surprised to hear about your existence. Your family hid quite well in America for all these generations. I am grateful your family returned to Japan once you heard news of my ‘defeat’ at All Might’s hands. It is fascinating, I never would have considered the quirk could be passed down not only to his chosen successor but also have the quirk factor itself be copied genetically down through descendants. I take it each time your ancestors had children both quirk factors were copied genetically until each generation became stronger and stronger?”

Danny blinked as déjà vu started to seep in. “What?” 

Danny could hear the smile in All For One’s voice even if he couldn’t see it. “Of course, I am getting ahead of myself, apologies. It’s been so long your family most likely forgot their ties generations ago, leaving me nothing more than a scary ghost story.”

He wouldn’t have said scary. Or ghostly. Strange maybe. Weird for sure. Danny didn’t have much reason to be scared of the man personally. Dealing with Pariah Dark sorta made most other people seem less threatening in comparison. “I think you’re really misunderstanding something.”

“You have nothing to fear from me.” Well that certainly felt like a lie. He really wasn’t too afraid but Danny practically gave All Might and Sir Nighteye heart attacks when they first saw his ghost form because of the alleged resemblance between them. Which Danny was starting to quickly realize was the reason why he had been kidnapped in the first place. 

The moment he got out of there Danny was finding Midoriya and complaining to the vestiges. Yoichi especially. Banjo was going to have a field day. It was considered taboo to go after another ghosts killer, but Danny was pretty sure at least five out of six of the ghosts killed by All For One wouldn’t mind if Danny roughed him up a bit during his escape. Yoichi just got sad when he came up in conversation, but probably wouldn’t be angry at Danny. He was actively working to bring All For One down when he was alive after all.

“So what do you want? Am I here just so you can steal my quirk then?” Not that it would work. He didn’t have a true quirk. But if All For One was convinced he had a copy of the quirk he’d been hunting the One For All users for, it was likely. 

“No. I want my brother's original quirk. I want what is mine . I want Japan to bow their heads and live in fear as they all watch their precious heroes fall at the hands of a great and true demon lord. I want humanity to realize what true power is.” All For One laughed, his voice reminding Danny of Vlad when he got smug and convinced his latest plan was foolproof. “ You are here because I’ve had my family stolen from me once, and I will not let it happen again.” 

Danny wasn’t sure what to address first. The fact they were not related at all or point out that All For One was very much the person who killed Yoichi. He didn’t even understand the resemblance, sure they looked similar. Danny couldn't’ argue that after meeting Yoichi but Danny wasn’t Japanese, he wasn’t even Asian. 

All For One must have taken his silence as fear and not what it really was. “I’d take off my mask to put you more at ease, but I fear it would only make things worse. You see All Might caused me to lose most of my face above my mouth, and I am told it is not a pretty sight. I have to rely on quirks for most of my senses. Such violence leaving me dependent on machinery to keep me alive.” 

“I’ve probably seen worse.” Danny shrugged, not touching the hypocrisy of the last statement with a ten foot pole, figures that was where Shigaraki got his. The appearance of a lot of  ghosts deeper in the Ghost Zone fell firmly in what most humans would consider body horror. It never bothered Danny but on a trip farther into the Ghost Zone than Sam and Tucker had been before they came back with notably less food in their stomachs. After that they only traveled that far in when visiting the Far Frozen and made sure to take the most direct route.

“Is that so?” All For One hummed. “Perhaps when you’ve gotten settled in then. Of course, we’ll have to get rid of that pesky permeation quirk of yours before you’re let out of your restraints. But I worry I have been doing all the talking here, do you have anything to ask before we continue?”

Ancients, this man was cuckoo for cocopuffs. “So, let me get this straight. You had your goons kidnap me because you believe I’m a descendant of your brother? And assumedly are planning on doing the locking up part to me as well, because once again you think I’m related to you. That right?”

All For One clicked his tongue. “For the most part, I was hoping that hiding you away would not be necessary. At least not for the long term until you realize the blight on humanity that the heroes truly are.”

“I know you can’t see me but I’m rolling my eyes and I need you to know that. In what world do you think a hero in training would willingly join you?”  

“Come now, do not be so quick to make your decision. You’ve certainly seen it too. Humans are so quick to judge and oppress those they find different. They require a strong leader to keep them in check, so they do not ruin their own lives or that of others. Only then will humanity truly flourish.” 

What an absurd conclusion to come to. He was like if Vlad and Pariah Dark merged into one messed up person. “You talk like you're not human yourself.”

“Well I can hardly be called one at this point can I? I’ve lived for hundreds of years and countless generations. I have much more strength than any human could ever dream of achieving, with the exception of All Might with his stolen quirk, but that should be mine anyway. With all of that, can you not see my vision? If you join me willingly you’ll have full access to my centuries of knowledge and all of my power at your disposal. And of course so will your sister. After I pick out a suitable quirk for her naturally. Honestly, being quirkless in this era is such a rarity it’s fascinating she didn’t inherit a single one. No matter though, you were the one who’d give the most trouble during capture so we had to get you first. Once you realize the truth you can assist in persuading her over to our side. Siblings do have a  certain bond after all.” 

Danny’s blood ran cold at the mention of Jazz. Just because All For One couldn’t take Danny’s quirk didn’t mean he couldn’t give Jazz one like he did to Yoichi. Danny was planning on sticking around for Bakugo’s sake just in case, and his own general curiosity towards the villain he’d heard so much about and been compared to. But he wouldn’t just sit idly by when Jazz was being threatened right in front of him. 

“You know,” Danny started as he transformed into his ghost form not bothering to keep himself in check, “that’s the thing about you humans. You’re convinced such trivial things will absolve you of your humanity.” Danny was familiar enough with the mentality, other than the fact ghost envy wouldn't be the correct term in this world it was close enough. All For One didn’t seem to realize he had changed yet. 

“Hundreds of years is nothing.” Pandora was one of the youngest ghosts at her caliber and even then had been around since the fall of the Roman empire. Frostbite and especially Clockwork were exponentially older than that. “And your strength? It’s still limited to the constraints of a human body. You said it yourself, with that ugly mask of yours.” Even a ghost as small as Skulker could recover from that sort of injury and supplement his own strength with a mechanical vessel. “Are you strong enough to alter timelines? To hold back countless evils while still holding onto hope? Can you put the whole world into an endless sleep on a whim? Or even lesser things, what about altering reality with a wish, hijacking the internet and every single electronic device?” 

“There is nothing you can do to escape your humanity. Other humans might argue otherwise, calling you a monster or even agreeing with you about the whole demon thing pointing at your atrocities and all the people you’ve killed. But that’s the worst part isn’t it?  Every one of those things you’ve done, even killing your own brother, was so very human, because there is nothing you can do that would make you anything else. And isn’t that horrifying?” 

Danny dodged out of the way as All For One lunged towards him with a punch. Maybe one day he’d learn to stop riling up people who were strong enough to erase his status as a halfa, but probably not. It was practically a hobby at that point. He pulled his wrists away from each other with a hiss as the metal dug into his flesh until the chain connecting each of the handcuffs broke. They were just made out of metal after all. 

He didn’t get the chance to actually remove the individual cuffs around each wrist before he had to dodge the blast from All For One’s next attack. Danny quickly turned invisible, that last attack blew a giant hole through the building straight to the outside and that was something he’d prefer not to get hit by. 

Danny turned to vacate through the newly formed exit. If this man was as strong as the vestiges and Sir Nighteye had said he didn’t really want to fight him alone. The only advantage Danny had was All For One had no way to know about every one of his powers but Danny in turn also didn’t know about All For One’s, putting them in the same boat.  It would be best for him to find All Might as quickly as possible since he had fought him and won before. Danny wasn’t sure if he’d be able to fight him alone with his injury, but he’d at least be able to help give everyone more information on the villain.  

All For One didn’t let him get far however, landing a direct blow as Danny was turned, sending him flying. He landed in the pile of rubble that formed from the previous attack with a gasp. Even one attack had enough force that some of the damage had to be buffered by his human side, no doubt that at least one of his ribs were certainly cracked. 

Right, he didn’t have eyes and used some sort of quirk to see. Apparently whatever it was made it so he could see Danny even when invisible. Some sort of infrared vision maybe. So that plan was a bust. It seemed he had no choice but to stay and fight. He was hoping to at least get some backup.

With that kind of force Danny would have just thrown in the towel and overshadowed the man. It was something he’d been avoiding doing since he arrived in Japan. It was one of his powers that was a bit too ghostly, especially for people who’ve never actually encountered ghosts. But mental quirks were a thing, Shinso’s for example, and Danny had no way of knowing if All For One had some sort of quirk that blocked out attempts to dominate his mind. Not to mention if his willpower was strong enough he could just eject Danny. 

Danny pulled himself up, his body already working in overtime to heal his wounds. He managed to form a shield just in time for the next attack, thankfully it held up against it but Danny doubted it would be able to after the next one. 

He quickly took a moment to examine his surroundings, which was mostly rubble now. They were in a city Danny didn’t recognize, but a billboard in the distance confirmed they were still in Japan at least. 

Danny took a breath forming as many ice spikes as he could before sending them flying in a non stop barrage towards All For One. He managed to get two of them to hit his target, embedding themselves in All For one’s shoulder and just below his ribs as All For One blew the rest away causing them to shatter into dust. 

Dropping the shield Danny flew into the air throwing ecto-blasts as he went. All For One had been using melee attacks the whole time, perhaps it was his main mode of attack. But Danny had no doubt he had at least a few long distance quirks. However Danny excelled at aerial combat. 

Dany watched as All For One raised his head to look at him. “I am impressed. It seems I underestimated you. No matter, there is nothing wrong about a change in strategy.” He lifted his hand up towards Danny, dark colored electricity sparking along his arm quickly building up in activity. 

 “Kid watch out!” A feminine voice yelled before a giant figure appeared. Danny recognized her, it was Mount Lady. With her quirk active her head was at the same height Danny was floating at. She lifted her leg bringing her heel down on top of All For One causing the ground to shake. 

Looking towards her feet Danny could see Best Jeanist and Gang Orca prepared to fight, and he was pretty sure he saw Tiger run into the building Danny was just punched out of. Thank the Ancients, the Pro Heroes were here. Not to mention Best Jeanist and Gang Orca were both heroes in the top ten rankings. 

The feeling of relief didn’t last long however as an explosion erupted beneath Mount Lady sending the three heroes and Danny flying back. Danny caught himself midair, his eyes widening in horror as he saw Gang Orca, Mount Lady, and Best Jeanist sprawled on the ground, the entire surrounding area completely leveled. All of that damage in just one blast.

Danny almost fell out of the sky as a feeling of overwhelming blood lust and killing intent crashed into him. If he had actually needed to breathe he wasn’t sure he’d be able to. Was that what his own ghostly aura felt like to others? No wonder All Might had freaked out that one time. It felt awful.

Thankfully, at least, it looked like Best Jeanist managed to grab the other two heroes by their clothes just in time to save them from the worst of the impact, but even Danny was thrown back from the force and he was flying above most of the buildings around. It was unlikely they’d be able to get back up in time to get back into the fight. Best Jeanist probably tried to pull him away too, but Danny’s suit wasn’t actually cloth but ectoplasm. 

Danny shook off the feeling as much as he could and dived down only to be shocked once more as the League of Villains and Bakugo materialized beside All For One. He was speaking to Shigaraki holding his hand out to him much like he had when he was introducing himself to Danny. 

Looking between All For One and Bakugo, Danny was at an impasse. He couldn’t risk the loss of power with a duplicate, not when he was struggling enough to hold his own as is. Bakugo would have to manage on his own for now until more heroes arrived, All For One was the bigger threat.  

Diving down once more Danny used the downward momentum to punch All For One square in the face, shattering his helmet and staggering him back.

“Master!” Shigaraki yelled out reaching towards  All For One, while the rest of the league was focused split on both Bakugo and trying to get Toga back on the ground who was now floating, but everytime they tried to grab her their hands just passed through the panicking girl. 

“Wow you weren’t kidding, you look like a melted Mr. Potato head.” Danny said at the same time. 

Losing his breathing aid would have to put All For one at least a slight disadvantage. Danny kicked off of All For One’s body launching back into the air as forcing the villain a few more steps back. 

Just in time too, All Might appeared in a flash right where Danny had been, meeting All For One fist to fist causing a shock wave. 

Taking the moment of distraction to his advantage Danny focused on the ice spears still embedded inside of All For One, taking a page out of Snipes book shattering them inside of him before pulling at them towards him ripping them out of All For One’s flesh. 

“ Danny, get Bakugo and get to safety!” All Might yelled out as he threw another punch.

Danny remembered Nana’s words from a few days ago, and the rate All Might’s strength was declining, and shook his head. “All Might! I have my license now, you’re a supervising licensed hero, and this definitely counts as an emergency combat situation. Plus Nana would have my head if I let you get hurt, she says hi by the way. Bakugo looks up to you, but he’d probably just argue with me if I tried to help him.” 

Danny raised a shield around where the three downed heroes were to protect them from any debris that might fly their way from the fight. It looked like more heroes were arriving, staying far on the sidelines focusing on searching and moving civilians who were trapped in the rubble from All For One’s attacks. For the best, both Danny and All Might would have to be careful if any of them were closer. But neither of them could do anything until Bakugo managed to get out of the way. 

Bakugo seemed to realize it too as he fought against the League. But he was outnumbered.

 “I am not asking.” All Might continued. “I will not make the same mistake I did during the USJ attack.” 

Danny rolled his eyes as he continued to fight alongside All Might. “I was fine after that, there was no mistake. You can’t make me leave this fight, but I can make you. How do you think the public will react,” Danny gestured his head towards the news helicopter flying above them, far enough away to be out of the range of the fight but close enough to get a clear view of it, “if the Symbol of Peace up and leaves a fight abandoning a student to fight alone?” It wasn’t an empty threat either,he might not know enough about All For One but he knew enough about All Might’s abilities. He’d be able to overshadow him at least for a few seconds.

All might gritted his teeth. “You take after Present Mic. You’ll be a noble hero one day, but this is not your fight.” 

Danny’s smile was nothing but sharp teeth. “It is though, he threatened Jazz.” Danny blocked the crescent shaped blades thrown his way as he got closer to All For One preparing to use his ghostly wail point blank. 

Their argument was suddenly resolved as they looked up watching as Midoriya, Iida, and Kirishima flew through the air and Bakugo propelled himself up grabbing onto Kirishima’s hand. “Danny, go on, get out of there!” Iida yelled as the group traveled through the sky at extreme speed until they were far out of reach.

Taking advantage of Danny’s distraction All For One hit him in the chest with what had to be at least ten different quirks by the way his arm looked and the shock wave formed at impact. Danny was sent soaring back, All Might moving to grab him but just barely missed, his fingertips barely brushing Danny, his face morphing into a look of fear.

It… didn’t feel great. Danny noted as he whipped through the air stunned, passing over the League of Villains. He was flung far enough to start crashing into buildings that were still standing, which was at least a few blocks from where the fight was happening. He managed to get his bearing enough to turn intangible before he was quickly reminded the individual cuffs were still around his wrists as pain shot through his wrists up to his shoulders as they took the full force of being smashed through concrete and steel support beams. He turned tangible again as soon as possible, it was better for the force to be distributed through his whole body.

 If he was going by the brief flashes of light he saw, through the searing non-stop pain of crashing through buildings, he had gone straight through at least six entire buildings before he came to an abrupt stop against a wall, rubble falling around him and covering him completely. 

The building seemed like it was still standing, but from the loud creaking sounds all around him it wouldn't be for much longer. He could feel that his core had taken up on managing most of his functions, even in his ghost form he felt his heart was struggling to stay beating. Not a great sign to say the least. 

Danny took a brief moment to just lay there in the rubble as he tried to recollect himself. Every part of his body was screaming at him to stay still, any small movement sent a jolt of pain that radiated to every inch of himself. Aizawa was right as always he supposed, he really did need to be more aware and alert of his surroundings during a fight.

He was positive that the initial hit alone would have killed, well, anyone else. Even Kirishima with his stone skin could only handle so much. Danny couldn't see what he looked like with the ruble burying him completely, but he could feel himself covered in a mixture of ectoplasm and blood. It wasn’t the worst hit he’d ever taken but it came close.

But the moaning of the building above him let him know he didn’t have much time to just sit and think before it completely collapsed onto him. Moving as little as he could he manipulated his first hand to elongate until it was thin enough he could pull it through the cuff. He suppressed a scream as his movement caused the ruble to shift slightly, putting more force onto him. He froze as the building itself started to rumble, the sound of the building collapsing around him was the only thing he could hear as he tried to remove the remaining cuff in a panic. 

But it was too late.

As the weight of the ruble on top of him increased to hundreds of tons, it almost felt like it happened in slow motion. He felt it the moment it happened, the moment his heart stopped. 

His core was stuttering as it expended all of the energy it had left at its disposal to get his human side up and running again. But he wasn’t in Amity, he couldn’t draw on the ectoplasm around him to aid in the process. There was no ectoplasm to draw from. The only ectoplasm in this world was the ectoplasm Danny produced himself, something he could only do due to the compensation of his human half. A full ghost would dissipate completely in a short time. Soon enough so would Danny.

Back in Amity he always assumed at some point he’d go out during a fight. That eventually he’d come across a ghost too strong to fight. But it still felt wrong. He didn’t mind dying, not really. Being crushed to death by a building hurt for sure, at least compared to the portal it wasn’t so bad. If he had to choose he supposed he’d rather be crushed.
But he’d be leaving Jazz alone. She was starting to make such a productive life for herself here. Even if she didn’t say it out loud she seemed to enjoy the work she was doing a lot more than in Amity. He doubted it would stay the same once she got the news of his full death. She spent so much of her life taking care of him, and in an instant he’d be gone. 

Yamada and Aizawa too. They all integrated as a family unit so quickly. Danny dying via building especially felt too cruel for the two of them. It would open too many old wounds.

Then there was Laika…Laika wouldn’t make it much longer than Danny. There was the ecto-infused food back home, sure, and Jazz knew enough to be able to ration whatever was left. But it would only last a month at most. He ended up breaking the promise she was named for after all. 

He wondered what would happen after. There was no ghost zone for him to fully form as a ghost in. Maybe he’d end up with the vestiges. At least he was able to bring them the pack of cards before he went if so. Or maybe he’d just stop existing.

He couldn’t see anything except his own glow against the rubble but even that was dimming. He couldn’t tell if it was due to the glow itself fading or his vision going dark.

It didn’t matter much he supposed, what would happen after or the lack of light, his core was already running on his last scraps of energy, still futilely fighting to restart his heart. At least he knew there were plenty of people who’d mourn him this time around, Danny thought as the pain started to fade to the background and he was enveloped by darkness. 

 

Notes:

....damn :/

guess I need to change the title to Jazz Fenton Is an Invasive species

Chapter 38: A Keystone

Summary:

A keystone species: A species that has a large impact on how their environment functions despite their often relatively small numbers.

Almost like a certain teacher.

Shouta watched as his students dispersed to start training, all used to the routine by the third day of camp. Not that that meant they didn’t still complain about how early they had to rise. Honestly out of all the students he had taught through his time teaching his current class had to be the one that stressed him out the most. 

It wasn’t just Danny either, or even Midoriya, though the sudden manifestation of a new quirk didn’t help, it was the whole class. Most of the time Shouta felt like he was preparing the world for them and not the other way around.  They all had the makings to be accomplished heroes , hero society wouldn’t know what hit them once they graduated. Nor would the villains who were unfortunate enough to face them.

Of course they were nowhere near ready for that sort of responsibility yet. They were still children after all. A student could have all the potential in the world, but without proper guidance all they’d end up as was dead. 

Speaking of which, the Wild, Wild Pussycats were already out and about helping the students where they could. Yaoyorozu was with Ragdoll bowing, thanking her for something. Ragdoll smiled before she excused herself and made her way towards him. Her smile only morphed into a look of worry once she was out of  the line of sight of any student who could see her face. That wasn’t a great sign for him, Ragdoll was by far the most excitable from her hero team. To the point it almost made Hizashi look low energy.

“Hey Eraserhead! Quick question for ya?” Ragdoll approached, glancing back towards the students. 

“Go ahead, you’ve been a great asset in helping the students with your quirk.” It would be rude to say the least if he just refused.

“Yes, um about that, you know how my quirk works right?” He nodded. Search was an invaluable help to figure out specific weak points each student should work on. She pointed towards where Danny, or at least one of his duplicates, was flying. “Well when I used it on Danny-”

Shouta raised a hand to stop her. “It’s best to just ignore it.” 

“But it’s saying he’s dead-”

“Like I said, it’s just his quirk, it's weird. I know. But you can see he’s fine.” Aizawa pointed where Danny was gleefully dodging Sero’s tape and Midoriya’s blackwhip. He continued observing the class as he spoke. “Think of it like a glitch in his quirk factor, my quirk doesn’t even work on- Aoyama! Stop acting distracted! You and Uraraka barely passed your practical, focus or you’re joining the remedial class.” 

Aizawa shook his head. Aoyama had been off since that morning, he had no doubt the student was used to much more sleep and comfort than what was provided at the camp. Not to mention constantly dealing with his quirks drawback, but that was exactly why they were all training so hard. Working as a hero was not a cushy job as some seemed to think. “Sorry about that Ragdoll, but like I said. There really isn’t any worry.”

Ragdoll seemed to accept the answer and Aoyama thankfully quickly got back to training without more persuading. He’d probably have to talk to Hakugure about the same. She was supposed to be moving across the training field while Jiro and Shoji used their quirks to find her, but the day before they ended up finding her hiding out in a tree. She was only discovered because one of Koda’s birds flew right into her when it was trying to perch. He had to give her credit, she did a great job hiding, but it wasn’t exactly what she was supposed to be working on. 

He couldn’t fault them too much, they had been pushing themselves past their limits the past three full days, it was about time the true exhaustion started to set in, the novelty of being able to constantly use their quirks finally wearing off. 

Speaking of exhausting things, Kan had finally arrived with his class. The man was constantly boasting how class 1-B would overtake 1-A in the next semester but still refused to make his own students wake up as early as Shouta did for training. Class 1-B at least were similar enough to his students and went right into training, some of them heading straight towards the first duplicate of Danny they saw, desperate for an extended break. 

Shouta had banned Danny from hiding out inside of Midoriya’s quirk during training, so his original body was around somewhere, he was supposed to be improving himself afterall. Not that he could tell just by appearance whether or not the Danny he was talking to was a duplicate or not. Not that it mattered all that much, they were all Danny and shared memories once reincorporated.

Kan took his place beside Shouta as they surveyed the ongoing training. Of course it was Shouta who had to pay the most attention in case any of the students had a mishap with their quirk from overuse. Blood control may be a strong quirk but it was little help against an out of control quirk when it was your literal job to not hurt the student the quirk was attached to. 

“How’s your dog been?” Shouta asked, making conversation.

“He’s been good, Hound Dog is watching him for the week. What about your cat, and your…thing?” Kan looked at Laika who had woken up from inside his scarf and peaked their eyes out from it.

“Arson and Laika are both doing great. Although someone wasn’t supposed to be here.” Shouta glanced down at the blob ghost. 

“Right,” Kan’s eyes tracked across the field landing on a different Danny, who was laughing as he fought off four students from 1-A, “are you ever concerned with how much he seems to enjoy fighting his classmates?” 

Shouta was pretty sure that was Danny’s original body, if only because that’s the direction he flew off in. That and he was being more liberal with his use of his quirk. Suggesting he didn’t have to worry about destabilizing with the use of his powers. He was currently up against Uraraka, Kaminari, Iida, and Asui who were all working surprisingly well together despite how varied their quirks were. From the looks of it Yaoyorozu was about to join in too by the way she was observing the situation. 

“I don’t see why I should be?” Shouta flicked his eyes over to Kan as he continued to face towards the students. 

“Calm down Aizawa, I’m not questioning your teaching or parenting skills. It’s just an observation.” 

“Pleanty of heroes enjoy a good fight with their peers.”

“Pro Heroes not first year students. Spars get fun when you actually know what you’re doing.” 

Shouta sighed. “It’s part of his quirk, something about ghosts bonding through friendly fighting.” 

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Shouta turned fully towards Kan. “You have students with animal mutations in your class, and had more in the past. I’d hope by now you’d know they tend to come with their own instincts and need for accommodations. Otherwise you, me, and Nezu are having a long talk after camp is over.” 

“Yes, animal quirks tend to. I don’t recall ghosts being on the list of known animals.” Kan folded his arms.

“Well,” Shouta turned away once more, “when you get the technology to get into his DNA and let his quirk know that, let me know. I’ve wanted a long chat with it for a while.”

“Sometimes I wonder how people think Mic is the more dramatic one out of the two of you.” Kan shook his head.

“He’s just louder about it.” Shouta answered watching as Danny turned invisible leaving the four students fighting nothing but air. He and Kan flinched in sync as a loud bang rang out and they watched as Yaoyorozu, wearing some sort of heat sensor goggles, shot a cannonball from a cannon straight into Danny. Leading to all the active duplicates to dissipate on impact. 

So that was his original body. 

Kan stood slack jawed. “Is he okay?”

Shouta shrugged. “He’s walked off much worse with no issue. Why do you think no one wanted to fight him during exams?” 

“I assumed it was because no one wanted to fight your kid.”

Danny pushed the cannonball off of himself, sitting up with a frown while Yaoyorozu celebrated being the first one to manage to knock down Danny’s main body. Hopefully this way he’d finally learn to notice an entire cannon aimed at him in the middle of a fight. Probably not, maybe he’d ask Yaoyorozu to make all the students a pair of the goggles and sick them all on Danny at once. Though, that would interrupt their training quite a bit, maybe once the semester started back up. “Well you know what they say about assuming.” 

Thankfully being hit with an entire cannonball seemed to at least knock some sense into Danny, he managed to go the entire afternoon without losing a single duplicate. Even after one of his wails, which Shouta completely didn’t think to warn Kan and his students about until it was too late. Class 1-A was already used to it. Shouta wished he could say the same, it still put his hair on end, but certainly less than when he heard it the first time when they were doing Danny’s quirk documentation. He did wonder if it would change for the students once they had been doing fieldwork long enough. Or if the preexposure would lessen the response even after they learned what an actual dying scream sounded like, not just what they heard on their shows and movies. 

Shouta shook that thought from his head as he headed to the remedial classroom with the five students in tow, moving a hand up to pet Laika. 

“This sucks! It’s not our fault we were against Nezu.” Kaminari complained, dragging his feet.

“Each teacher gave the students they fought multiple different opportunities to pass the exam. Nezu included. Think about how to improve instead of complaining.” Shouta responded.

“Mr. Aizawa will you at least tell us more about your kids?” Ashido asked, less despondent than the other three.

“Why are you so interested in my personal life?” Shouta asked, looking back at her.

“Well it’s kinda hard to believe you have one.”

He slowed his pace as Kirishima elbowed her. On one hand he really needed to encourage these students to come to him with any questions or issues they might have, they were still hesitant to do so at times. On the other hand, why of all things were the questions they asked him all about things unrelated to hero work? “I’ll answer if you get one of the others to ask.” 

Ashido cheered before turning to Kirishima, her stare boring holes into his soul until he relented. “Man…Mr. Aizawa, can you tell us about your kids?” 

“Sure, my youngest wants to be a hero, and my oldest thankfully does not.” 

“Thankfully?” Kirishima inquired.

“You’ve used up your one non-school related question.” 

“Aw come on, that was hardly an answer!” Kaminari accused. “What do you mean thankfully?” 

Shouta smirked. “Thankfully because I fear what she’d be capable of.” She could put up a decent fight even without a weapon at her disposal, the only saving grace was that she wasn’t too fond of fighting unless she had to. If Jazz became a hero Shouta feared hero society wouldn’t last long. Though it probably wouldn’t anyway, at least not in its current state, as she continued her studies with Nezu. He wasn’t sure what she was planning to do once she graduated, but whatever she decided it was sure to cause waves. 

“Your answers suck.” Ashido pouted.

“Then ask better questions.” Shouta replied as he opened the door of the classroom for them, ushering them through. 

“A hero raised by Mr. Aizawa is a terrifying thought.” Sero added. “Imagine how intense the non-stop training must be.”

“Do you think I’d just force my own kid into endless training? I assure you, for the most part we have a normal relationship.” Technically Danny was currently endlessly training, but so was the rest of his classmates. He supposed he did make Danny train pretty hard for the entrance exam, but that was a punishment. Nowadays the only extra training he did with Danny outside of class was before school started with Midoriya and Shinso. Not that Danny really needed that either, but Shouta wasn’t going to kick him out of the training sessions just for that. The kid enjoyed it.

He ignored Monoma’s taunts as they entered the room, Kan really needed to nip that attitude in the bud. Though he could say the same about himself with Bakugo. He had a good head on him and was an excellent combatant but that sort of attitude got people killed in high stress situations. He had certainly improved since the start of the year but there was much room for improvement. 

“Do we know your husband?” Ashido asked as she took a seat.

“What did I just say about one question per student?” Kan was looking at him like he grew a second head. Understandable with how closed off he tended to be.

“Do we though?” Sero asked.

“How should I know who you do and don’t know?” Of course they knew Hizashi, but that was not something he was just going to offer up. 

“Is he also a hero?” Sato slid into the seat next to Ashido.

“Yes. And your questions have been used up.” Shouta turned to Kan to discuss that night’s lesson when Mandalay’s telepath quirk interrupted them.Shouta shushed the students as they talked, trying to listen to what was being said. 

“Everyone, two villains attacked us. It’s possible more are coming, everyone return to camp immediately for regrouping. Do not engage any enemies.”

Shit. How’d villains find out where they were? “Vlad, I'm going after the other students, protect them here!” 

He ran outside only to see a giant plume of smoke coming from the forest in the area the rest of the students had been. Todoroki and Danny might be able to quell the flames around them with their quirks, but the other students did not have that luxury.  He heard movement from behind him, only to be met face to face with a strange man covered with staples. 

“Your concern has you distracted, Eraser.” The man reached forward as a giant blast of blue flame burst towards him.

Shouta managed to dodge out of the way, grappling up the building with his scarf. He activated his quirk as the man tried to go for another attack, wrapping him up with his scarf. He pulled the man forward as he jumped down from the building using the momentum to grab onto the man and knee him in the face and pinning him to the ground and grabbing his arm.

“What are you here for, and where are the rest of your friends?” Shouta demanded.

“Friends?” The man asked, his face digging into the dirt.

“Start talking,” Shouta pulled the man's arm back, forcing his elbow in the opposite direction with a crunch, “or your other arm is next. Let’s be smart about this, I’d really rather not have to break your legs as well. It’d be a pain to have to carry you all the way to jail.” 

A loud rumble came from the forest before three of his students emerged into the clearing. It was Ojiro, Iida, and Koda. Thank goodness they were all right. Shouta didn’t know how he’d begin to explain to Tensei if his little brother got hurt while under his care. Nor the other two’s parents. 

“Mr. Aizawa!” Iida shouted out as he panted heavily. 

“Stay back.” Shouta demanded and he slammed his knee down on the villain, only to have him melt into a puddle of goo. Leaving nothing else behind. 

Shouta stared at his now empty capture scarf. Were the flames not his quirk? Or was there something else at play? “Go inside and stay with Vlad, he’s watching over the remedial students now. He’ll keep you safe.” 

Shouta continued his sprint through the woods after ensuring the three made it into the building. Scanning the trees for any signs of the students. He was still a ways away from where the rest of them were originally supposed to be but some of them might have had a similar idea to head to the main building. 

He slowed down at the call of his name, Midoriya was running towards him with Mandalay’s cousin clinging to his back. It was clear he was favoring one arm over the other, but even that one looked a bit red. At least they were in working order for the most part, proof that all the before school training was paying off. He’d chastise the boy for over exerting himself later. 

Midoriya was talking a mile a minute about needing to find Mandalay and how they were targeting Bakugo, not listening as Shouta tried to interrupt. He dropped Kota beside him and started running off again.

“Midoriya!” Shouta shouted out, finally stopping the boy in his tracks. “Tell Mandalay to tell all the other students they have permission to engage in combat.”

Midoriya ran off with a nod, with his quirk active he’d reach Mandalay much quicker than Shouta ever could. Shouta scooped up Kota into his arms and started back for the main building. 

“Is he gonna be okay?” Kota asked with a sniffle as he clinged to him. “I kicked him and even then he got hurt just to protect me. I never got to say thank you or apologize. He’s not gonna get hurt more right?”

Shouta kept his eyes forward but tightened his hold on the young boy. “Don’t worry, Midoriya is strong, he can handle himself well. Those injuries are nothing compared to what he’s sustained before. You’ll be able to talk to him once this is all over, and you can properly apologize then.” 

He arrived at the main building only to find Kan fighting against another version of the man from before. Shouta grabbed onto him and stomped his foot down onto him with all of his force until he was reduced to another pile of goo. 

“Uh Mr. Aizawa I think you got him.” Kirishima said pointing to the puddle on the floor.

“Tsk, another fake, I fought another one out front. There’s not that many of them. Take care of Kota, I’m heading back out.” Shouta kicked the goo off of his shoe.

“If there’s not a lot of them let us help fight!” Kaminari demanded.

“No,” Shouta shook his head, “we know they’re after you students. We know they’re going after Bakugo but they might have other targets as well. Our priority is to keep you all safe.” 

However after Shouta left and finally made it to the clearing where the majority of the students had regathered it was already too late the villains were gone. The students who hadn’t sustained too many injuries had moved the unconscious and majorly wounded students into the clearing as well. Midoriya, Todoroki, and Tokoyami were gathered to the side. Both Midoriya and Tokoyami were just…staring into the forest. Todoroki at least seemed alert and mostly unharmed, using his fire quirk to brighten the area around Tokoyami. Assumedly to keep Dark Shadow at bay. 

Shouta did a quick headcount, accounting for the students in the main building as well. -Thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight. Wait, that wasn’t right. He counted again, slower. 

-Thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight.

-Thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight.

-Thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight.

No matter how many times he counted they were missing two students. Two of his students. He was missing his son.

He quickly made his way to Todoroki, who at the moment seemed like he was in the best state. “Has anyone seen Danny?” 

It was Danny, it wasn’t like the villains stood much of a chance against him. Hell, even if Danny didn’t realize it, Shouta was confident that after the past few months of him receiving actual proper training even All Might wouldn’t stand a great chance against him. He certainly beat Danny out in terms of raw physical strength, but that was about it. 

In all likelihood Danny was flying about making sure no student or Pro was left in the forest. He didn’t see Ragdoll anywhere either.

It was not Todoroki who spoke but Tokoyami. “They took them. The villains took Bakugo and Danny.” 

---

Shouta awoke with a start, the sound of gunshots running in his ears and the image of Danny laying on the ground motionless burned into the back of his eyelids. A nightmare, it was just a nightmare. 

He ran a hand down his face, he hadn't gotten home until late that night, or well early that morning by that point. He’d been at the hospital monitoring all his students that were still accounted for and making phone calls to all of their parents. Not an easy task when he could at least give them reassurance that their children would be fine with some time, something he could not guarantee to Bakugo’s parents. Or about Danny. By all accounts Shouta should be having the deepest sleep of his life after all of that, yet there he was. 

He rolled over to check on Hizashi, surprised to see him awake as well staring up at the ceiling. “You should be asleep, we have a hectic day ahead of us.” 

Hizashi shrugged as much as he was able to while laying down. “I should say the same to you.”
Neither of them were taking Danny’s kidnapping well. It wasn’t often they had to worry about his physical health. His mental health? For sure. But now they had no clue if he was okay, or even alive. If they were able to capture him in the first place there was no telling what else they were able to do.

Jazz on the other hand was taking it surprisingly well. Concernedly so in fact. Going as far as referring to it all as ‘just a kidnapping’. A stark reminder that their kids did not have a pleasant life before they came into theirs. She was convinced the only reason Danny hadn’t reappeared was because he had some reason to remain wherever the League of Villains had taken him. 

It was a nice thought, if only slightly naive.

Shouta wasn’t sure if he actually got any more sleep after that or if he was just teetering on the edge of consciousness. Regardless he got up and out of bed all the same when it was time to.

He peaked his head into Jazz’s room before he headed out to the police station to give his statement of the attack. He just needed to make sure she was at least still okay, still there with them. She was, still fast asleep. 

She would have to get up soon enough, Nezu had called a meeting with the teachers he trusted the most while he and Kan would be giving their statements. Hizashi would be there of course, and Nezu also asked for Jazz to be there as his student. He supposed he should at least feel glad Nezu was able to trust Jazz so much as to do so. 

It was getting dark by the time they had given the police all the information they needed recounting what had happened, and coming up with an action plan. Unfortunately that was the easy part of the day. They were holding a press conference, and as the teacher of the two missing students he was required to be there for obvious reasons. 

At least Nezu and Kan would be there too. If he had to face the press alone after everything he’d probably end up in Tartarus. 

The conference went just about how they were expecting. It was clear public tensions were getting high when it came to U.A’s competence with protecting their students. It helped that the three of them had planned answers for most any questions the reporters may ask. It took everything inside of him to appear unfazed when a reporter outright suggested Danny and Bakugo might join the League. Pointing at Bakugo’s attitude and Danny’s quirk mishap at the sports festival. 

Out of all of his students those were the two he had to worry about the least in that regard. Bakugo would sooner work as Midoriya’s sidekick than give up on his ambition of becoming the number one hero. While when it came to Danny, Jazz was right when she said Danny wouldn’t hurt an innocent person without an extremely good reason. Not to mention if he for some reason did end up becoming a villain, Shouta was pretty sure at that point he might as well too. Not like there’d be anyone standing after. 

“You did a great job out there, Eraserhead. All is going as planned.” Nezu said once they were in private. 

Shouta hummed in confirmation as he hurriedly changed out of the stuffy suit he was wearing into his hero costume. Detective Tsukauchi outright forbade him from taking any combat roles in the raids  due to his personal connection to the case. But he managed to convince him to let him and Hizashi at least be on standby for any rescue work that might be needed. 

If all went well it wouldn’t be needed at all, but Mount Lady could cause quite a bit of property damage with her quirk so it never hurt to be safe even if she was careful. Shouta trusted All Might enough to take care of things if the kids were being held at his raid location at the alleged abandoned bar. But he was less familiar with the second raid team who were following the tracking signal given to them from Yaoyorozu.

So he made his way as quickly as possible to Kamino Ward. Once he arrived however it was more than clear that things had gone wrong . There were multiple blocks of buildings that were completely leveled. He caught sight of Hizashi quickly. He was helping a young girl who had to still be in elementary school, and her mother, out of the ruble. 

Shouta quickly made his way over to him only to stop in place from the feeling of dread that permeated every bit of his being. There was a part of it that felt familiar, the fear that crawled up his spine, digging its claws into his very soul and the feeling that he was being watched in every direction with nowhere to hide. That was Danny. He was at least used to that feeling every once in a while that while not unaffected he would easily function through it.

The other feeling that was mixed in however was completely foreign to him. It was a feeling of hopelessness and utter defeat, the feeling of what he could only describe as pure blood lust. 

He took a moment to compose himself before pushing through the feeling. He looked towards the center of all the carnage and saw All Might and Danny fighting someone who Shouta could only figure was the source of the other feeling. He was pretty sure he saw Bakugo as well, fighting some of the members of the League. At least he could breathe slightly better knowing Danny was at least okay for the most part. He had no clue who they were fighting but between the two of them they would be able to handle it. Shouta knew when he’d just be in the way. He just hoped one of them would grab Bakugo and get him out of there when they had the chance to.

He finished his trek to Hizashi, taking over supporting the woman leaving him to carry the child. “Mic what is going on? How’d this happen?”

Hizashi shook his head. “Hey Eraser, nice of you to join us. No clue, I got here just a bit before you did. All I know is the entire raid team was wiped out, they found Ragdoll but she’s not looking too hot.” 

They brought the civilians over to where a triage tent was being set up farther away. Leaving them in the care of the emergency responders as they made their way back to rescue anyone else that might have survived. 

Deeming they were far enough away, Shouta spoke. “Who’d you end up getting to stay with Jazz? Tensei wouldn’t have been able to make it in time.” 

“I ended up having to call Hawks. Thankfully he agreed.” 

Shouta relaxed slightly. That was one less thing to worry about. Neither of them wanted to leave Jazz by herself. Not just due to her past actions. She was smart enough to know she wouldn't be able to talk her way out of interfering with a large-scale raid. It was mainly because they didn’t want her alone in case something happened to them. Or if the Villains targeted her as leverage of some sort against Danny. 

With both All Might and Endeavor in on the raid, Hawks was the best hero they could ask to keep an eye on her. Not to mention he was a familiar face now.

Scanning the area his gaze landed on Mirko among the heroes searching through the rubble. Her ears were swiveling as she listened for any sounds of civilians who might be trapped under the ruble. He didn’t know her well, or really much at all. But she seemed like a dependable hero from what he’s heard. 

She, along with other heroes whose quirks were more suitable to finding people, were directing the heroes who had arrived as backup after the explosion on where to dig. 

The amount of collapsed buildings definitely didn’t bring back enjoyable memories. It was clear to him Hizashi was feeling the effects too. Though anyone other than Shouta and Nemuri wouldn’t be able to tell. Hizashi had mastered the art of an enthusiastic face even in the face of extreme danger. It put people more at ease.

  There were gasps from a few of the gathered heroes as they pointed at the sky. Following their gaze Shouta felt his heart jump into his throat as he watched Iida, Midoriya, and Kirishima fly through the sky off of a giant ramp of ice that he was positive came from Todoroki. 

At least they managed to get Bakugo out of there, clearing the way for Danny and All Might to give their full focus to the fight. 

But the relief was short-lived.

Shouta and Hizashi watched with mounting horror as the man the two were fighting hit Danny, sending him flying. They heard a resounding crash, and another, and another.

Then silence. From the sounds of impact he had hit six buildings before coming to a stop.

“Hizashi!” Shouta grabbed a hold of the neck of his jacket as Hizashi made a move to run towards where Danny was thrown. “Think.”

They were both letting their memories of Oboro’s death cloud their reasoning. Shouta felt himself shaking even as he held his husband back. But Danny was not Oboro. Danny probably turned intangible once he managed to get control of his movement. They would have to cross the battlefield to get there and from seeing that hit alone, guaranteed it would be nothing short of a death sentence for either of them.

Hizashi stopped fighting against him, slumping slightly. But as the seconds passed by with no more sign of Danny no amount of rationalizing could stop their mounting fears. Countless nightmares resurfacing. 

It all finally came to a head as they watched frozen as the building Danny had stopped in crumbled along with their entire world.

Notes:

A03's authors curse is hitting me hard folks in all directions but we will persevere.

Chapter 39: A Bird of Prey

Summary:

Bird of Prey: A carnivorous bird that pursues and hunts down it's prey for food. Often referred to as raptors.

Notes:

This was supposed to be posted Thursday, unfortunately life had other plans.

“Hawks, I told you I will not allow it.” The president of the Hero Commission tapped her finger on her desk, a clear sign of irritation.

“How does that make any sense? Everyone else in the top five will be there. And you really don’t think the kid’s parents aren’t going to question why I’m not there when I’m literally at their home regularly? The whole point of me doing all of this is so they trust me.” Hawks was frustrated to say the least. While he wasn’t technically supposed to know about it, he had heard about the teams forming to rescue the kid and his classmate after they were kidnapped by the League of Villains.

“That is something you went out of your way to do. All we asked of you is to keep an eye on Daniel Fenton until we figure out how to handle him. It’s bad enough we can’t do much now that U.A. already got their claws into him. Even more so with his adoptive parents being U.A. teachers. At this point we can’t do anything with him without risking a huge PR disaster at the very least. I was hoping to take him into the HPSC and have him trained to be your backup.” The silent implication of what that really meant, so Hawks could be replaced if he acted out too much, was deafening to him. It left a bitter taste in his mouth at the idea of the kid going through that kind of training. 

“Yeah, because me tailing him all the time totally wouldn’t seem suspicious. Present Mic already noticed me once. Once could be shaken off as a coincidence but if I was seen again? Me getting close to them was the best course of action. And since we’re close, I should be on one of the raid teams.”  

“And I said no. That is final. I’d feel much better knowing you were on standby for any other incidents that might crop up while the rest of the top Pros are occupied. I know you wouldn’t want people to suffer just because you couldn’t let go of a childish tantrum.” The president frowned.

Hawks bit his cheek to keep himself from retorting. He could get away with a lot more than when he was younger for sure, but there was still a limit. Just because he enjoyed toeing the line when he could didn’t mean he wanted to deal with the consequences of stepping over it. Even if he was able to handle the consequences, which entirely depended on how far the commission was willing to go, he had an entire agency staff that would suffer the loss of their jobs at the very least.

Not that he was happy about having to do so. What sort of hero just sat around while a child was in danger? 

The president moved to speak again but was cut off by his phone ringing. The ringtone being the intro jingle of Put Your Hands Up Radio let Hawks know who was calling before he even looked at the caller ID. “Whoops one sec gotta take this.”

“Hawks this is highly unprofessional.” She protested.

But he had already turned on his heel away from her desk to stand near the window, quickly accepting the call before it rang out.

“Hey Mic, what’s up?” He asked rocking back and forth on his heels.

“Hawks, thank goodness you picked up.” Present Mic’s voice came through, louder than needed. Not that Hawks could blame the man, his kid was missing. 

“Always happy to please.” Hawks glanced back towards the president before returning his gaze to the scenery outside.

“You’re not part of the raid teams tonight right?”

“Hmm, I’m pretty sure I’m not super supposed to know about that. Neither should you actually.”

“Yeah, but you do know right?” Present Mic said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Of course I do, what do you take me for? But, no I’m not. Not for lack of trying, trust me.” His wings flapped slightly behind him in annoyance.

“Great!” Well that’s not the response he was 

expecting. “Can you watch Jazz?” Neither was that.

“You want me to watch your seventeen year old?”

The next time Present Mic spoke his voice was much quieter, almost pleading. “Look, I don’t want to leave her alone with all that’s going on. Plus, we don’t know why the villains have targeted Danny and Bakugo, I don’t want to risk her being a target as well.” 

Hawks sighed. It made sense though. Jazz was smart for her age, without a doubt, but she was still quirkless. “I’m not sure, they want me to stay at my place to keep an eye on things while everyone else is busy. And it’s not really fit for guests, kinda a bachelor pad situation. She wouldn’t have anywhere to sleep except my couch, and I don’t have any extra blankets.”

There was a beat of silence before Hawks had to quickly pull the phone away from his ear as Present Mic yelled. “HEY JAZZ! You good with sleeping on Hawks’ couch?” There was a muffled sound of confirmation from the other end, but the phone didn’t pick up enough for him to hear exactly what she had responded with. “Perfect! I’ll give you some money if you don’t mind picking up a blanket or two for her. She practically burrows herself in them, so an extra is usually helpful.” 

There was another sound of faint protest in the background, causing Hawks to chuckle. “You really want me to though?”

“Unfortunately for you, everyone else I’m close enough to ask isn't a viable option. Turns out when all your friends are your coworkers or when they live two hours away a major work emergency really puts a wrench in things. And my sidekicks are all under enough stress as is with me being out for an undetermined amount of time.”

“Ah I’m the last resort then huh? Fair enough. I can’t really say no now then can I?” He glanced at the clock. “I can be there in a little over half an hour, does that work?” 

“Perfect! See ya then.” The call ended before Hawks even had a chance to respond. 

“Hawks.” The president frowned. “I thought we got rid of that little habit of yours with your wings.” 

“I’d love to stay and chat but I do have to get going if I want to make it within that promised time. A hero’s only as good as their word and all that.” Hawks booked it out of the office as quickly as possible and took to the sky. 

That was not a conversation he wanted to have. At all. His wings were always a dead giveaway to his emotions when he was younger. It was one of the first things the Commission trained out of him. Or at least trained him to suppress. He’d been spending too much time around the kids’ family. Gotten too comfortable. 

It was hard not to around them. It wasn’t like Hawks no longer felt the compulsions that came with his quirk. He simply learned to ignore them. Their complete acceptance around the odd things the kid did due his quirk was completely foreign to Hawks. Even before the Hero Commission took him in, acting out, showing emotion with his quirk never ended in anything pleasant. So suppression came easily. It was either that or suffer the consequences.  

The kid however was completely different. He practically wore his emotions on his sleeve. His quirk only expanded on it. His eyes became a sickly toxic green when angry, he literally lit up when he was happy. His tells were clearer than the light of day but his family never disparaged it, or really ever commented on it, sometimes it seemed like if anything they were glad when it happened. Especially when the kid would just use his quirk for the most mundane tasks or just sitting floating midair instead of sitting in the many available seats. 

All that to simply say, Hawks started to feel like he could loosen up slightly around them. To a point of course, he was still starkly aware of why he was around them in the first place. But there really wasn’t much to worry about with them. Sure the kids were strange at times, he’d assume they were extremely dedicated to pulling his leg if their offhanded comments weren’t so consistent, but they were hardly a threat.

He arrived at the apartment, giving a friendly wave and a smile to another tenant of the building who spotted him as he moved to knock on the door. Before his fist made contact with the door it swung open bringing him face to face with Jazz. She wasn’t paying him much attention. She looked exasperated while mid conversation with Present Mic. Not really the expression he was expecting from her when her brother was kidnapped.

“-he tried to accuse me, Snipe of all people . Can you believe that?  As if I would orchestrate the kidnapping of my own son!” 

Jazz rolled her eyes, gesturing Hawks inside. “He was making a point. But it’s not unheard of if you’re trying to throw people off your trail. I’ve done it.” 

Hawks was busy making sure to take his shoes off before the cat pounced for the laces, but he certainly heard that wrong. “Sorry, done what?”

“Well I didn’t kidnap him, but I did fight him in a battle to the death to convince someone I was on their side.” Jazz accepted the bag Present Mic handed her while he rushed frantically about. Stopping his rushed movements as she talked. “Obviously it wasn’t an actual fight to the death, I’m still alive.” 

“We’re going to have to talk about that later.” Present Mic looked at her, his eyes were hidden behind the sunglasses of his hero costume but Hawks could give a good guess on what they looked like. That was nothing if not a concerning statement, and Hawks wasn’t even their parent. Present Mic turned to Hawks pulling a wad of cash from his wallet and shoving it towards him. “Here you go, should be enough to pick up some blankets and such. A bit more as well for watching her.”

Hawks looked down at the money he was handed, brows raising as he counted it. It was more than what any sidekick and even a lot of Pros made as their monthly salary. “I can’t take this. This is way too much.”

Present Mic was already out the door after hugging Jazz, before Hawks could voice any more protest. Hawks looked back down at the money in his hand, convinced he had to have miscounted somehow. 

“Don’t try to argue about it.” Jazz shook her head. “He could quit any two of his three jobs and we’d still be living fine.” 

Hawks peered out a window. “Why do you live in an apartment then?” 

“Apparently it is extremely difficult to find a house, especially one they like, close enough to U.A.” Jazz shouldered her bag and grabbed Laika out of the air. “Alright, let’s get going.” 

“You’re bringing Laika?” He eyed the blob who seemed slightly larger than normal.

“They pillaged the fridge and ate almost all the food Danny had prepared for them. I’d like to keep an eye on them for any side effects. They’ve also apparently picked up the habit of eloping, they followed Danny to camp.” Jazz looked down at Laika like someone who just caught their cat about to knock a glass off of a counter. “So how are we getting to your agency?”

Hawks hummed. “Right. Well I flew here. You can’t fly though.” 

“I’ve flown with Danny before, so as long as you don’t drop me it should be fine. If you do drop me I’m coming back as a ghost and haunting you.” 

Hawks laughed. “I’d have to believe in ghosts for that to be a real threat, regardless you don’t have to worry, I won't drop you. I’m a pro at this after all.” 

Jazz stared at him for a moment before shrugging. Not voicing any protest as she followed him outside. 

Unsurprisingly, he didn’t drop her. He even made sure to fly extra smoothly.   They stopped at a home goods store close to his agency. He felt a bit bad arriving just before they were going to close, but none of the employees seemed to mind when they saw it was him who entered. They mainly just wanted autographs, though one of them tried to get a bit handsy with his wings. It was something Hawks was used to even if he wasn’t a fan, thankfully one of the other employees stepped in and put a stop to it pretty quickly. 

Jazz finished up her shopping while he was preoccupied with the employees, hauling three of the softest looking blankets he’d ever seen and two giant pillows to the front. He quickly excused himself and followed her to the checkout, paying with the  money Present Mic had provided. 

He dispatched a few of his feathers to carry the large bag before lifting off with Jazz once more. They made it to his housing in little time, entering in from the balcony attached specifically so he could enter and exit quickly. 

Hawks shucked off his jacket, sending the blankets to the couch, and removing his hero gear as Jazz looked about the apartment. “You weren’t kidding, you have a pretty small place.” 

Hawks shrugged. “Don’t really need much. I’m usually out busy with hero work anyway. Bathroom’s there, and you can put your stuff wherever. If I am called out on work please say put. Your dads will have my head on a platter if anything happens to you.”   

Jazz nodded, rummaging through her bag with a frown. She pulled out a metal pocket watch by its chain with an exasperated sigh. “Laika.” 

Laika blinked at her before they swiftly lunged for the watch, absorbing it.  

Hawks stared at the pocket watch now floating within them. He’d seen Laika consume the food the kid would feed them, but that dissipated within them almost instantly. The watch though just floated inside of them suspended. Like those weird gelatin dishes with fruit inside. 

He watched as Jazz went to grab them, but they simply flew out of her reach. She huffed as she sunk into the couch, not bothering with the effort needed to chase after Laika. She grabbed for her bag once more, pulling out a notebook and pencil. “Well, while I’m here do you mind answering some questions?” 

“Does it involve violent revolution again?” He asked, peering down at the notebook, it didn’t seem like there was anything written in it yet. 

“It was only violent revolution if you chose that method, but no. I’m working on my thesis. It’s a look into the psychology of how people end up as heroes and villains. They’re pretty simple questions since I’m going to have to compare them with various others.”

“Why not just one or the other?” Hawks grabbed the remote, turning on the news. The raid might only be known about by a few select people, but the moment the students were safe, the news would break almost immediately. 

“That’s the whole point of the thesis. I don’t think the mentality of people who become villains are all too dissimilar to those who become heroes.” Jazz explained.

Hawks wasn’t too sure about that, but there probably wasn’t much harm in answering a few questions. “Sure, hit me with them.”

Jazz got an excited look in her eyes before steeling herself into a more professional demeanor. It reminded Hawks of rookie reporters. “Okay, what made you want to become a hero?”

Thankfully, she wasn’t lying. It was a pretty simple question. He wanted to be a hero even before the Hero Commission got their hands on him. “I wanted to be able to help people who didn’t think any will come. Give hope to people who don’t know hope is an option.” 

“Did you have any heroes you looked up to when you were younger that inspired you?” 

Hawks nodded. “I suppose I looked up to Endeavor quite a bit when I was younger. Not so much now, he’s a colleague and all.” His attitude could certainly use some work. It was no wonder he always placed behind All Might. He never seemed to realize that nowadays it wasn’t just saving people that mattered, but how you acted as well. Endeavor was still the hero who had saved him though, even if his attitude was a bit gruff. Honestly the flame hero probably didn’t even remember that day.

Jazz took a moment to ponder his answer before she wrote down his response before continuing. “And what about now, what’s your long-term goal as a hero?”

“Well, saying I want to save everyone I can would be a bit cliche wouldn’t it? So I guess I want to help create a world where even the top heroes can take it easy.” He’d been working himself nonstop since he started training after all. The times he spent at the kids place was nice and definitely much easier than fighting villains all day, but at the end of the day it was still work. Even if it was something he had come to enjoy. He wasn’t the only one worked to the bone either, being one of the top heroes came with plenty of fame and adoration. But it also came with immense responsibility where if he faltered all the heroes behind him would to. That wasn’t something that could happen when lives were on the line. 

“Would you say your mutation quirk has effected any of these goals? And if so how and how have you overcome that obstacle?” Jazz was still looking down at her notebook thankfully, it gave Hawks enough time to school his expression back to normal. 

“Not particularly, once you reach a certain level most people just focus on how strong you are. Plus, a guy who happens to have wings isn’t too much of an extreme for most people.”  

“I suppose you don’t interact with people in the public long enough for your birdlike mannerisms to be noticed. You do tend to jump from scene to scene pretty quick after all.” Jazz nodded.

“What?” By all accounts he didn’t have any such mannerisms. Shouldn’t at least.

“Your tendency towards meat, you hardly ever do much more than pick at non meat foodstuffs when you have dinner with us.” Jazz tapped the eraser of her pencil against her chin. “Though it does seem to be more of a preference of taste than a full dietary restriction, you don’t seem to get sick after you do eat such foods. But I do wonder if your digestive system is also designed to get more nutritional benefits from meat than other foods. You also move your entire head to look around, specifically while flying in, your range of motion in your eyes is that of a normal human though not a birds so I assume it’s more so you can pinpoint the location specific sounds when you’re not wearing your headphones. Things like that.” 

“Well, I guess most people don’t pick up on small things like that?” Hawks turned his attention to the television while Jazz continued to write. Not wanting to delve into that topic any more. Still nothing on the news however. It looked like Eraserhead, Vlad King, and Nezu were having a press conference but Hawks wasn’t too inclined to pay much attention to it. He could always ask Eraserhead about it next time he saw him, but he doubted he’d need to. It was all to ease the public after all.

Jazz seemed to be done with her questions, closing her notebook and rummaging through her bag. Whatever it was she was looking for it didn’t seem like she was finding it as she dug deeper and deeper, taking out items as she did in a panic. “Shit.”
“Hey, no need for us to be swearing. What’s up?” Hawks leaned over to peer into the now empty bag.

She gave him a look before shoveling everything back into her bag. “I forgot to bring my phone, and I didn’t think to bring my laptop. Do you think I could borrow your phone really quickly? I promised I’d text Hizashi with updates and Nezu wanted me to keep him updated on my thesis.”

“You forgot your phone? Who goes anywhere without their phone? And can’t you give him updates once you get back home?” Hawks furrowed his brow. 

Jazz opened her mouth for a moment before speaking. “Sorry, I’ve had a few other things on my mind lately. My phone hasn’t really been my top priority these past two days, and things with Nezu tend to be pretty time sensitive and I was already cutting it close not sending in the update yesterday.”

Right, he felt like an ass now. Her brother had been kidnapped. Just because she was putting on a brave face didn’t mean it wasn’t actually effecting her. She was probably just acting fine so people didn’t worry more. It was probably the same reason she actually took Laika with them for, who had flown off…somewhere in the apartment. He took his phone out with a sigh, not like he had anything on there she shouldn’t see. The Hero Commission would call for things they needed, never text. Made it harder to pretend he never saw them. “Fine, here you go.”

She took it with a small thank you before shutting herself inside the bathroom. Hawks glanced at some of the papers she left out of her bag while she was gone. He didn’t really understand much what he was looking at. It was all support schematics, one looked vaguely gun shaped and another just looked like a tube of lipstick. The diagrams were practically incomprehensible to him. Quite a bit of time passed with no sign of her emerging so Hawks turned away from the papers and to the television.

From the looks of it the raids had gone extremely south. Endeavor was fighting those nomu creatures alongside Edgeshot and Kamui Woods but there was no sight of either of the students. If Hawks was closer he would have rushed over there as soon as possible to help. 

The camera shifted scenes and, oh god.

Oh god, was that Kamino Ward? 

It was completely leveled. 

The camera zoomed in onto the kid and All Might fighting someone in a mask. It was shocking either of them were standing if that was the sort of damage that whoever that villain was could cause. His eyes went wide as he watch the kid get hit out of view of the camera. He quickly lunged to grab the remote turning the television off as he heard the bathroom door open. 

Jazz didn’t need to see that. 

“Why’s the tv off?” She handed him his phone back as she looked around the apartment with a frown.

“Eh, just a bunch of nonsense from the press conference. Sick of hearing all those reporters talk shit.” Hawks waved his hand. “Don’t repeat that.” 

“Teens swear all the time, why are you like this?” Jazz shook her head. “Anyway, have you seen Laika?”

Hawks looked around, even peeking his head into his own room to no avail. “Hmm. Can’t say I have. You said they’ve been eloping?” 

Jazz looked up at the ceiling with a groan. “Danny’s gonna be pissed if they don’t show back up.” 

According to the news the kid had a lot more going on than his sentient slime going missing. Hawks was actually pretty worried for the kid, but his job at the moment was to make sure Jazz stayed safe. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to keep her in place if she saw the fight going on. “They couldn’t have gotten far.”

“They can turn invisible, fly through walls, and fly. They could be at the other end of Japan by the morning.” Jazz said. “Good news is they’re most likely just on their way back home.”

“You don’t seem all that worried?” 

“They consumed enough ecto-inufsed food to sustain themself for a month. Worst case scenario Danny has to hunt them down once he gets back. They’re naturally drawn to him anyway, it’d only take a week at most. Just super inconvenient." Jazz shrugged wrapping herself in one of the blankets with a yawn. It was pretty late. 

“If you say so. Sleep well.” Hawks turned towards his room only to be assaulted with a pillow and blanket thrown at him. He turned back towards Jazz with a questioning look on his face.

“Turns out two blankets and one pillow is more than enough. I didn’t realize how warm they’d be and how thick the pillows were. Go ahead and use them, I won’t. They’re super comfy.” Jazz had already made herself comfortable, not even lifting her head up as she spoke.

Hawks just sighed and continued on  his way to his room. He didn’t have it in him to fight over such a small thing, especially as his worry for the kid continued to build. That was why he was fighting so hard to be part of the raid team in the first place. Sure the kids quirk was strong but he’d only been fighting with it since he entered U.A. and only experienced actual combat a handful of times. 

He collapsed into bed, Jazz was right the blanket and pillow were comfortable. If he had more energy he’d rearrange his bed’s layout but that could wait. He opened his phone to check if there were any updates on the raid. Squinting at the screen he was met with the website of a bank he’d never heard of instead of Present Mic’s contact like he was expecting. 

Strange, he’d have to ask Jazz what that was about in the morning. In his tired confusion, checking the news completely slipped his mind as he was overtaken by sleep nestled in the blankets and pillows around him. 

Notes:

Back to your regularly scheduled programming next chapter

Fun fact this was originally planned to be a Jazz POV way back when I was first planning this whole ordeal but she Knows Too Much at the moment for that.

Chapter 40: An Invasive species

Summary:

An Invasive Species: A non-native species that out competes the native species of the area.

Notes:

This fic is now officially four years old, that's crazy. I was younger than Hawks when I started this. Thank you so much for everyone who's read this far.

Danny wasn’t really sure what he was expecting to feel like after dying, but it wasn’t this. He felt pretty normal actually, other than the notable absence of the pain from being crushed by a building. Maybe he was just used to dying at that point. Third time’s a charm and all, even when it came to dying apparently. 

Looking around he was in a black void not too dissimilar to where the vestiges in Midoriya’s quirk stayed. But there were no vestiges in sight, and something just felt off. It felt pretty uncomfortable actually, not that the vestige space could be considered comfortable. Well, the vestiges themselves made him feel comfortable, but that was them not the space itself.

Danny wasn’t alone, however it wasn’t anyone he recognized straight away. There was a man in the closest approximation of a corner for wherever they were, completely covered in some sort of purplish black smoke from the neck down. Actually, it almost seemed like the same stuff Kurogiri was made out of. The man looked like he was maybe in his late twenties or early thirties, with bright blue hair. 

He couldn’t shake the feeling of familiarity looking at the man, or the feeling of something pulling at his consciousness. The man was staring at Danny in shock, his brows knitting together  lips slightly parted. 

Danny stared back, doing his best to figure out where he’d seen him before. But nothing jumped to mind. He didn’t exactly know many men with blue hair. The man looked exhausted, barely a hint of light behind his eyes. 

Danny stepped toward the man, trying to get a closer look at whatever he was being restrained by. If they were going to be stuck together for the rest of what Danny could assume was both their afterlives the least he could do was try to get him out of those restraints. Shame he didn’t have that deck of cards on him when he was kidnapped. Eternity was going to be pretty boring stuck in a black void. 

He’d probably start to have a freakout in a few days once his brain fully processed his new reality and everything sunk in, but at the moment compartmentalization was winning out. Currently he was just occupied with wondering if he’d get his own spot on the wall at home or if they'd put his picture next to Oboro’s.

Wait.

Danny’s focus returned back to the man's face slowly putting the pieces together. The man was certainly older than the photo up on the wall back home, but it had been fourteen years since it was taken. He also looked a lot less jovial, understandably given the situation. But despite the differences the similarities were unmistakable. “Oboro Shirakuma?”

Oboro’s eyes went wide as he spoke. “You can’t be here. If All For One gets you…”

He was going to retort that he didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter. But before he could, the tugging sensation against his consciousness increased tenfold.

Danny woke up with a gasp, his heart stuttered a few times before falling into a semi-normal rhythm. There was pain radiating throughout his entire body and a metallic taste in his mouth. He looked around frantically, his thoughts too jumbled to form any cohesion. Where was he? How’d he get there? What happened? Why did he feel so angry?

His memories started to slot into place. Right the last thing he remembered was a building falling on him, was going to fall on him, had already fallen on him. He was pretty sure he was dying at some point, or already had? Whatever was going on he was absolutely brimming with energy, as if someone had injected him with pure adrenaline. 

Slowly sitting up an open silver pocket watch tumbled off of his chest. Danny quickly snatched it off of the ground, closing it. No wonder his thoughts were so erratic, the thing was radiating time magic. Even if it did seem mostly drained of its energy it was still too much for his brain to comprehend, there was a reason Clockwork was the only one able to actually watch over all of the possible timelines. Even the glimpses that Danny was able to comprehend were of timelines that would almost certainly never come to pass in Amity. Why would Danielle be living with Jack and Maddie of all people? 

He had bigger things to worry about than improbable time stuff. How’d he get out from underneath the rubble? He heard fighting in the distance so All Might was probably still preoccupied with All For One. His heart sank as his eyes landed on a small green blob laying on the ground a few steps away from where he woke up.

As gently as possible he scooped Laika up in his hands, their size was drastically reduced. Where before they were about as big as a grapefruit they were now the size of a golf ball. By all accounts they should have destabilized before coming even close to that size. The remnants of the handcuff that was still around his wrist when the building fell could be seen dissolving inside of them as they absorbed the ectoplasm out of it. 

Regardless of the how it didn’t take a genius to figure out the why. Clockworks watch had plenty of energy but it didn’t have the pure ectoplasm like what a ghost was made from. They were stable though, and that was all that mattered. But he didn’t have the time to ponder it any longer, he was well aware that the only reason he was up and functioning was the adrenaline coursing through him. The moment it wore off he’d be down for the count for sure.

His first goal was to get Laika to safety, they might be stable now but any small disturbance would no doubt change that. He cupped them in his hands and flew out of the ruined building. He just needed to find a hero he could trust enough to watch over them until the fighting was over. He didn’t think he was out for too long and there were plenty of heroes on the sidelines. He just hoped he actually knew one of them

He spotted Mirko first, at the same time she spotted him. Her posture went stiff and her ears flicked downwards towards the ground. But his attention didn’t stay on her long, as his gaze turned to find Yamada and Aizawa both dressed in their hero costumes. They were abnormally close to each other for being on the job. 

Danny rushed over to them. Obviously they were the best option by far, but Danny wasn’t sure why they were there, they were pretty far from home at the moment. The anger Danny couldn’t place increased as he saw them, but it wasn’t directed towards them, more for them then anything. “I need you to watch Laika while I fight.” 

He pushed the small ghost into Yamada’s hands as the two stared at him. Yamada rapidly blinked, moving Laika into one hand and grabbing Danny’s wrist as he tried to turn and fly off. “You’re not going anywhere.”

Danny turned back to the two of them, confused. It was no secret between them that All Might wasn’t exactly in perfect condition. He could only stay in his muscle form for a little under three hours nowadays. “I can’t just leave All Might alone.”

“You can and you will. He can handle himself. Look at yourself! You’re covered in blood and ectoplasm!” Yamada looked like he was on the verge of tears, his grip tightening. 

Danny looked down at himself with a scoff. He wasn’t even actively bleeding anymore. He was fine, mostly. Would be fine at least. Give or take a few days. He phased out of Yamada’s grip with ease.

“Daniel. Don’t.” Aizawa’s voice cracked as he spoke. His eyes had changed color, hair floating as he activated his quirk. “Please.”

Oh he got full named. Danny didn’t really get why they were freaking out over him so much, his injuries were a lot worse than they looked and they didn’t even know that. He did feel guilty but not enough to overcome his burning urge to punch All For One into next week. “I’ll make it quick, then you can ground me or expel me or whatever. Promise.” 

They looked like they were going to protest again but Danny flew off towards the battle before they could say anything else. He had limited time before the adrenaline wore off. And he was not too fond of the idea of collapsing mid battle. Again.

All For One was preoccupied with All Might, they were fighting pretty evenly matched. A moment of distraction of either would give the other the upper hand. Which meant neither noticed his approach. He couldn’t exactly go all out in the state he was in without risking over exhausting his already depleted core, but not all of his abilities were created equal in terms of energy usage. 

So he settled with a simple solid kick to the head, causing the rest of All For One’s mask to crumble and sending him forward towards All Might. Part of him really wanted to draw out the battle and get a few really good hits in. It would be some much needed catharsis. But he did promise he’d be quick. 

“All Might, up or down?” Danny asked, grabbing the back of All For One’s neck, turning all his body except the parts of his hand making contact with the man intangible now that he had full access to it without the handcuffs. 

“Danny you’re alive! You need to get out of here, you’re hurt.” All Might wiped blood from his mouth looking relieved, eyes flicking between Danny and All For One.

“Depends on who you ask. No less alive than I was yesterday at least. But no. Now choose. He’s your nemesis and all.” Danny shrugged as All For One attempted to turn and grab him, his attacks simply phasing through him. “Can you chill? You should just be glad I’d totally lose my license if you died on live TV. I worked way too hard for that.” 

“You should be dead.” All For One said through gritted teeth. He wasn’t actively trying to attack Danny anymore but he had no doubt he was just trying to think of a way to actually land a hit.

“Once again very dependent on who you ask. And I’m not talking to you Raisin Bran wanna be. It’s within your best interest to shut the hell up, because every single instinct inside of me is screaming at me to get rid of you.” He tightened his grip. Danny’s protection obsession hadn’t been that bad since Aizawa was injured by the nomu. He didn’t know exactly why it was suddenly going wild, but All For One was being targeted by it at full force. It wasn’t like anyone he cared for was in active danger at the moment. 

Danny sighed as All Might stayed silent. Guess it’d be up to him to choose for him. “Up it is, be back in however many minutes he’s able to last.” 

Danny shot straight up, using as much ecto-energy as he could spare to form restraints around All For One. With the added benefit of being able to hold on to those if he started wiggling again too much. “Y’know you suck, like a lot. Your brother is a much better person, I have no clue how you turned out so different.” 

“You talked my ear off before tossing me through a bunch of buildings so I guess it’s my turn. You get to learn some fun facts! Ever heard about the rule of three in survival?” Danny looked down at All For One who was still struggling in his grasp. “Look you’re going to fall if you keep doing that. And at that point it’s not on me if you haven’t picked up a flying quirk. Anyway the rule of three is mostly known for the last two, three days without water and three weeks without food. Depending of course on each person but for average. People tend to worry less about the first rule. For obvious reasons, most people don’t plan to go into space and all. But you got to know these things if you want to be an astronaut. Specifically the fact that humans can only go about three minutes without oxygen before some serious problems start happening. And without that mask of yours I have a feeling you’re going to last even less.” 

The air was getting colder and colder as he flew, not that it bothered Danny all that much. The Far Frozen was much colder. “But you can always prove me wrong, you are the one who is claiming not to be human and all.”

All For One forced out a laugh. “You’ll be dooming yourself too then, is that what it means to be a hero nowadays? All self sacrifice, dying for people who’ll never appreciate you?” 

Danny snorted. “I thought you were supposed to be this genius mastermind? You should start to look down, the earth from the stratosphere is really a beautiful sight.”

“The fact doesn’t change that you’ll run out of air just as I do. Humanity has truly fallen far if they must rely on a child to sacrifice themselves for them.”

“Well that’s the little detail you got wrong. I don’t need to breathe, I’m not even really human. Human enough, much to your benefit. That’s why you’re alive still. So I’ll be fine. But you will too right? I mean what sort of demon lord can’t survive a simple trip to the stratosphere. I’m actually surprised you’re holding up well enough with how cold it is, is that a quirk?” It probably was, but it didn’t seem like All For One was going to respond, or was able to.  It was for best he decided to not go underground for this, It would have been a lot harder to monitor the mans position. He looked rather pale and his breathing was shallow.

That probably meant he should start to head back down. He was starting to get extremely dizzy as the adrenaline started to run out and the pain started to sink in. He wasn’t too confident in his ability to survive that big of a fall if he ended up passing out mid decent.

He had no doubt that he had a serious concussion at the least, and more than a few broken bones. Danny landed less than gracefully beside All Might, or one of the All Mights. There were two Yamadas and Aizawas as well standing next to the All Mights. That wasn’t safe, they would have had to climb over a bunch of broken concrete to get there from where they were before. 

Danny stumbled slightly pushing the limp One For All towards the All Might on the left. Must have been the wrong one though as the one on the left quickly intercepted preventing him from splitting his head open on the edge of concrete. Wow he really was heroic. He probably needed to get out of there soon, there was no way he wasn’t almost at his limit and Danny could see blood in the corners of his mouth. 

“I forget that’s an option. Should have just done that in the first place. Turns out he’s human after all.” Danny swayed slightly before one of the Yamadas and Aizawas braced either side of him. He was expecting them to look angry but they just looked scared for some reason. He couldn’t help but think he needed to tell the two, or well four, of them something super important but he couldn’t place what. It didn’t matter much at the moment, his vision was starting to go dark at the edges. 

The toll of everything finally catching up to him. He was already exhausted from all the training when he was kidnapped, dying then coming back to life didn’t help. “I’ll probably be fine but you should probably take me to a hospital. I’m seeing double and I think I’m about to pass out, as soon as you can preferably.”

The next thing Danny knew was that he was staging at the ceiling of a dark hospital room. The beeping of various monitors hooked up to him was the only sound that cut through the quiet. Danny moved to look around the room but returned back to looking at the ceiling with a groan. His head was pounding. 

He felt the bed he was on dip slightly with added weight. “Hey bud, don’t move too much, You’re pretty roughed up and have one hell of a concussion.” Yamada’s face appeared in his field of vision, just one of him this time. 

“Yeah I’ve noticed.” Danny grunted, closing his eyes trying to ignore the faint ringing in his ears. “Is everyone okay? What happened to everyone else at camp? The villains?” 

Yamada sighed. “A few bumps and bruises but nothing you need to worry about. Laika’s fine too, a lot smaller for some reason but fine. Most of the League was captured by Gran Torino while All For One was preoccupied with Yagi. Other than the one with the patchwork face that Shota fought, ran the first chance he got. The rest were too busy trying to get that glowing floating girl to make a quick enough escape, even villains care about their friends I suppose. And I’m not sure if you remember but you took care of All For One personally, locked up in Tartarus now. News got most of it on camera if you want to take a look once you’re actually cleared to look at screens.” 

Danny didn’t care much about what happened to Dabi, his vendetta was against Shigaraki anyway. He still felt like he was forgetting something but thinking too much just hurt. 

“Go back to sleep Danny, you need it. We’ll all still be here when you wake up.” Yamada must have noticed the grimace on his face despite how dark the room was, lightly placing his hand over Danny’s eyes. Slowly lulling him back into sleep. 

Notes:

Big fish in a puddle that one is. That awkward moment when the enemies you were dealing with while learning to fight were basically gods so you forget most people actually need to breathe.

 

Dang I can't believe Danny getting shot three years ago is finally paying off with Oboro's first live(?) appearance.