Chapter Text
Despite Aizawa’s appearance at the beginning of class, he’d been called away to go run some errand for principal Nezu. Because of that, All Might was put in charge of their first hero lesson back from break. Iida had told them all Aizawa’s instructions were for a practical briefing to cover what all they’d learned, but All Might seemed to think showing what they learned would be better. The first group up to show their improvement was Mina, Toru, and Aoyama.
As the robots launched toward them Aoyama took the first few out with his new ultimate move Naval Saber. Then Toru used her abilities to redirect his laser, which was also a new ability she’d picked up. After the first wave of robots was crushed and the next appeared, Mina broke out her Max Viscosity Acidman move. Was Hinadori the only one who hadn’t made any significant progress?
“Wonderful job! It’s obvious your work study’s payed off. You kids learned a lot from Equiped Hero: Yoroi Musha!” All Might praised, as the robots melted.
“He had lots of advice for supercharging our offense and defense! So we figured out new attacks and combos to keep up!” Toru explained, excitedly. Damn…all Hina did was bully the Number One Hero.
“Wanna know a secret about ‘Acidman’?” Mina asked, skipping toward Kiri.
“Huh?” He asked, confused as she danced toward him.
“I got the idea from your ‘Unbreakable’!” Mina grinned, Kirishima gasped, looking genuinely touched.
“Nice!” He squeaked out, totally in love.
“Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!” Hinadori whispered, tugging on Hitoshi’s arm and pointing.
“Is someone finally making a move?” He asked, looking between them and Hina.
“Why are you so excited they're talking?” Shoto asked, confused.
“Because she’s nosy.” Katsuki bullied, just as nosy.
“Now, show me what the rest of you have learned!” All Might cheered, grabbing the squad's attention.
Ojiro had learned to use a flurry of attacks to keep their opponents off balance. Jiro and Shoji worked with Gang Orca and improved their scouting abilities. Hitoshi worked with Aizawa to get better with the capture scarf. Sero and Kaminari learned how to team up together for Sero to group opponents for Kaminari to shock. Iida had returned with Manual to learn how to take a ‘looser approach’ to leadership. Koda and Wash worked on his communication. Keigo and Fumikage worked on his overall speed and strength. Kiri worked on making his opponent ‘lose the will to fight’ whatever that means. Ochaco and Tsu worked on teamwork and decisiveness. And Momo worked on efficiency. She already knew how much work the boys had put in over their work study. Izuku apparently even mastered an entirely new quirk…in two weeks.
She won her practice battle against the robots all the same. But comparable progress was difficult to gauge. Everyone had come to UA at very different base power levels. Each with different field applications. During supplemental training the boys both felt like they were falling behind while she was making genuine improvements to her speed, strength, and approach. Now it seemed like the opposite. All of them had grown stronger, and yeah she was stronger and had more field experience now, but not in the same way they did.
Maybe next time she really did need to go make the argument for Rumi.
“Hey Bakugo! More comfortable with fighting in the winter now?” Kiri asked, excitedly after watching him show off.
“I used condensed shots! Winter’s crap!” Katsuki snapped, her poor sweet tsundere boy.
“Wow, Todoroki! You’re Hotter, Cooler, and Faster!” Toru cheered, running towards him.
“I don’t know? I’m still not able to catch up to Endeavor.” Shoto replied, absolutely missing the flirty cue Toru dropped.
“Get away from my boyfriend extra!” Katsuki barked, glaring at where Toru’s head should be.
“Your boyfriend?” She gasped.
“You heard me!” He roared, moving between them.
“Toru! Are you hitting on my boyfriends now?!” Hinadori gasped, turning around.
“You have two! Let a girl dream!” Toru whined.
“Go dream about Ojiro! You’re always flirting with him! Leave my boys alone!” Hina argued, pushing Toru back towards the rest of their class.
“Right.” She rushed off
“And it’s three now!” Katsuki growled, radiating scary dog energy.
“The love pyramid is complete?!” Mina beamed, jumping up and down.
“The hell is a Love Pyramid?!” Katsuki asked, looking down at Hina.
“A love triangle where everyone is attached.” Hinadori sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Just be glad she’s not still saying love square.”
“Hey Hina…can I talk to you?” Izuku asked, looking anxious.
“What do you want with her, nerd!” Katsuki groaned, glaring at Izuku.
“It's actually good that you’re here too Kaachan.” He mumbled, before looking up to Shoto behind them. “I’m sorry Todoroki, do you mind if I talk to them in private?”
“Okay, I’ll go talk to Hitoshi.” He nodded, turning to make his way over to their other boyfriend who was still showing off how much progress he’d made with the capture scarf to Kaminari, Fumikage, and Sero.
“Hina, I wanted to ask… since you know about One for All if you would help with my training?” Izuku rushed, nervously.
“You told her about your quirk?!” Katsuki asked, eye twitching.
“No, you did!” Izuku shot back, then his eyes went wide and he looked back at the ground.
“How the hell did I-“ Katsuki started but Hinadori interrupted him.
“Katsuki, I have super hearing, and you were yelling.” She explained, watching the realization hit him.
Katsuki’s mouth clamped shut as his face lit red. He simmered in silence. At the end of class the three childhood friends made their way to All Mights office. He sat awkwardly across from them.
“So. Young Takami, you’ve also come to know the nature of Young Midoriya’s quirk.” All Might stated more than he asked.
“Yes, but it wasn’t Izuku’s fault! I have superhuman hearing, and I haven’t told a soul. Nor will I!” Hina nodded, awkwardly. “I honestly should’ve put it together at the beginning of the year after that weird conversation between you and Aizawa but-“
“What did you hear?” All Might pressed, concerned.
“Nothing!” Hina squeaked out.
“You’ve already said you heard something.” He insisted, staring expectantly.
“It was so long ago…” Crap, she wasn’t supposed to bring that up. “You said Aizawa saw the same potential in Izuku you did. Then referred to the two of you as us, like a team, and I was like, huh i should keep an eye on that, then I kept noticing you two sneak away together, but Shoto kept being hot, and Hitoshi joined class, and Katsuki was Katsuki! So I stopped paying attention!”
“No way…Are you saying the only reason we got away with it so long was you got distracted by boys?!” Izuku asked, horrified.
“Can you imagine how cracked of a hero I’d be if I could stop watching the boys work out instead of doing it myself?” Hina asked, absentmindedly. “God Aizawa and Endeavor are right, I'm a whore.”
“Aizawa called you a whore?!”“Endeavor called you a whore?!” All Might, and Izuku gasped at the same time.
“Not directly by Aizawa, but it was very clearly the intent. I asked why everyone thinks I’m a whore, and he said because I flaunt my relationships. I feel like at that point he might as well have said it.” Hinadori explained.
“But Endeavor just called you a Whore?” Izuku asked, horrified.
“He called Shoto ’A The Gay Whore’! For dating us, which means he called all of us whores! Even if he hadn’t, he was fucking demeaning to her half of the time!” Katsuki growled.
“I can’t exactly say that’s out of character for Endeavor, but I feel like we’ve gotten off topic.” All Might stepped in. “We should start with why we’re here. Congrats on Blackwhip, Midoriya. And you too Bakugo, there seems to be no limit to your potential. Takami, I’m glad to see you’re no longer holding yourself back.”
“Thank you, sir!” Izuku and Hinadori bowed while Katsuki just huffed.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t figure everything out, but you have to keep moving forward.” All Might said, pulling out a blue notebook. “The next step is yours. Read closely, I collected as many details about One for All’s successors as possible. Unfortunately, I couldn't find so much as a whisper about the second or third users. Given the times that they lived through and the nature of the ability, the official records aren’t going to be helpful to us. I’m also not sure what they knew about the power. If they realized how it worked I assumed they’d want to help out future wielders?”
“Who cares about a bunch of dead old heroes?” Katsuki scoffed, bored.
“It’s super important to find out their quirks so we can make a plan for how to help Izuku.” Hinadori replied, flipping through the book with Izuku.
“I’m tired of wasting my time waiting for you guys to figure stuff out.” Katsuki groaned, pushing himself into the corner of the couch.
“Really? Why don’t you leave then? We can make a plan without you.” Hina smirked, knowing it would rally him to help.
“No chance, Birdie!” Katsuki huffed, moving in to look at the book.
“When it comes to Blackwhip, I can only maintain the power for about one second so far. I haven’t mastered any capture moves like Shinso and Aizawa.” Izuku explained, reading over the material. “But as a support ability, it’s already a useful addition to my move set.”
“You haven’t had any contact with the past users since last time?” All Might asked, seriously.
“No.” Izuku answered.
“The fifth user was called Lariat. Guess that makes sense. Real name: Daigoro Banjo. Quirk: Blackwhip. Thanks to the threads of energy he shot from his body, he excelled at capture and midair maneuvers.” Katsuki read aloud. “One thing is obvious. None of these people started with quirks that were even worth mentioning.”
“Well, yeah. If the quirk is a stockpiler though it adds additional power, even if the original quirks on their own weren’t anything special, added up together it creates a stronger and more versatile range of abilities and moves. From what I’m seeing he’s got everything from Ochaco to Sero covered just with this Float ability and Blackwhip. That’s not even touching the raw strength of All Mights quirk added in, or what the other heroes we don’t know the powers for could do.” Hina explained, thinking about the possibilities.
“What are you talking about? Their powers are amazing!” Izuku argued, looking up at his friends.
“Yeah! ‘Cause from the perspective of a loser like you, any quirk is amazing!” Katsuki spat, glaring at Izuku.
“That’s mean. You know how to hit me where it hurts.”
“What they said isn’t technically wrong. Though, I think Takami has a better understanding.” All Might started. “From what we know, All for One was obsessed with this quirk. From a time when evil had more power than you could possibly comprehend now, All for One crushed anyone who could be considered strong. That was made possible by his perseverance and wide ranging influence. As they died, in struggling, in terrible pain, the past users entrusted this power to the future, adding to its legacy. They weren’t ‘chosen ones’, they were just the people who received the power, and the people who passed it on in a fight that kept repeating itself.”
“Wow, that’s…sad.” Hinadori sighed, letting out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.
“Yeah that tracks. No wonder they all died young.” Katsuki said, pulling back and leaving the book.
“Katsuki!” Hina hissed. Why did he always have to be so brash?
“Yes, true.” All Might agreed, somberly.
“What quirk are you gonna make him learn next?” Katsuki asked, ready to leave.
“The next power he should manifest is Float. My masters ability.” All Might answered, before looking to Hina. “Since you’re aware of One for All now I hope you’ll be willing to help him as he learns to fly.”
“I’ll do my best.” Hina nodded.
“I WIN!” Katsuki roared, celebrating. “I use my explosions to fly! You’ll be wasting time learning something we all already know how to do! We’ll rocket ahead of you! Choke on my smoke!”
“Um, nu-uh! I’ll learn it fast and catch back up to you!” Izuku argued, while Katsuki continued celebrating.
He was so petty when it came to Izuku. She wanted her soft boy that’s awkward about cuddling back.