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Shota hadn’t expected the peace to last. It very rarely did when it came to his students. And today was almost too quiet. A typical trip to the mall, the only pressing emergency being that Kaminari got stuck in one of the coin operated kiddie rides; so Shota had let himself believe everything would be fine and had taken up refuge under one of the mall benches as the children shopped. Of course, when the screaming started on the upper floors of the mall, he had no proof it involved his students. Just a learned suspicion. And when two figures jumped down from the balcony, Midoriya slung over the shoulder of the larger one, he knew his afternoon was well and truly ruined.
The man holding Midoriya was large and hulking, (though after half a year of working with Yagi, Shota wasn’t too intimidated) and wore a baseball cap; Shota could see sharp claws peeking out at the tips of his fingers. The other seemed much smaller in comparison but was in reality about the same height as Shota. Midoriya wasn’t moving and had presumably been knocked out, probably by a quirk. He could see several students following down from the upper level: Sero and Uraraka having leaped from the balcony in the same manner as the villains. The villains hadn’t noticed him and it was easy to shoot out his capture weapon and grab the smaller one around the ankles. He cursed as he missed the second man. Thankfully, whatever quirk had been keeping Midoriya down seemed to wear off then, as Shota could see his eyes snap open, quickly followed by the crackle of green lightning as he kicked his legs into the back of the man who had been holding him, shoving them in opposite directions. Midoriya landed somewhat gracelessly but he was far better off than the other man, who had been thrown clear across the hallway and came to a sliding stop in front of a crepe shop, completely unconscious. It was likely a bit excessive, but Shota wasn’t about to scold his student for fending off a kidnapping, especially when he had just been released from a quirk.
Sero and Uraraka both arrived then, Uraraka rushing to Midoriya’s side and Sero wrapping the larger villain in his tape before bringing him back to Shota and taking over on restraining the smaller man as well.
Once the villains were secured and the police had been called to handle them, Shota turned to Midoriya. The kid seemed out of it, flexing his hands and staring into the distance.
“Midoriya, are you alright?” Midoriya startled, staring at Shota as if realizing he wasn’t alone. Shota stepped forward and started checking him for a concussion.
“I- I’m alright, sir,” he muttered, though his attention quickly shifted back away from Shota, scanning the food court around them. Shota tried to follow his gaze, looking for any hidden enemies, but whatever Midoriya saw, it wasn’t apparent to Shota.
“What the hell! He can’t do that!” Shota turned around, leveling a glare at the smaller of the two villains who was now thrashing against Sero’s tape, face red with anger. Shota activated his quirk before approaching the man, he still didn’t know what his quirk did and he didn’t need to fill out any more incident reports tonight.
“What are you going on about?” He crouched down a few feet away from where the man was tied up.
“My quirk! He should be unconscious right now!”
“So, you’re saying you used your quirk on my student?” Shota almost felt bad for this man’s lawyer. Quirk usage would certainly elevate this from assault and attempted kidnapping to downright villainy.
The man froze up, as if realizing his mistake. “No, I’m not saying that.”
Shota raised an eyebrow, unimpressed, before standing and heading back to his student. He would need to do a more thorough check, especially if Midoriya hadn’t been planning to tell him he was hit with a quirk. Outside he heard sirens approaching the mall and felt himself relax a little, he would get the man’s file and figure out what the hell he had been trying to do to Midoriya.
—
While questioning didn’t reveal the villains motivations, they did find their identities rather quickly. The man who had used his quirk on Midoriya was named Karube Shintaro. His quirk, Blackout, was relatively simple. Capable of knocking the target out for up to a week and putting them in a comatose state. A classic five point activation to the target’s bare skin. The number of people he can affect at once is determined by how long he puts them to sleep and no one under its effects will dream. Once it’s been activated he can’t undo it.
At first, the detectives thought Karube had only put Midoriya under for a minute or so, but further questioning and a lie-detecting quirk revealed he had intended for Midoriya to stay down for the whole week. It was strange certainly, but it wasn’t the first time Shota had seen Midoriya break his way out of a quirk and as long as he was alright, Shota didn’t really need to question the strangeness that seemed to follow him wherever he went.
He only began to regret that decision later.
—
Deku had been attacked Sunday afternoon, snatched from where they had been standing in front of the hero merch store. He went down without a fight as soon as one of the villains touched him and Ochako had been quick to follow when they ran off. They only had him for a couple minutes before they had been taken down. Still, he had been targeted and hit with a quirk, so he was kept in Recovery Girl’s office for overnight observation.
All this to say, Ochako had barely seen Deku since the incident at the mall and she was really worried. So when he shuffled into World History with a hall pass, she didn’t immediately realize anything was wrong. She smiled at him and gave him a questioning thumbs up once Midnight turned her back. He smiled back, and though he seemed a little withdrawn she chalked that up to simple exhaustion from yet another villain attack. Ochako turned her attention back to what Midnight was saying, secretly counting down the minutes till lunch.
Once the bell rang, Ochako was out of her seat and heading for Deku’s desk, along with Iida, Tsu, and Todoroki. “Deku! Are you okay? I was so worried about you!”
“Ah! Thank you, but I’m okay,” he said, standing up from his desk. He seemed a little uncomfortable, not looking any of them in the eyes.
“Are you sure you’re alright Midoriya? We heard you got hit by a quirk, kero.”
“Yes, but it’s worn off now, it was just what they used to knock me out. So, you don’t need to worry.”
Ochako felt some of the tension leave her at the reassurance and grabbed him by the arm, ready to drag him to the cafeteria. As they were exiting the classroom she noticed it. Her feet stalled out beneath her and her friends stopped with her, crashing into each other.
“Um, are you okay?” Deku was looking at her, face drawn in worry, but she could only stare at him, confusion filling her mind.
“Deku, your tie,” she said. If anything, Deku just looked more confused.
“My tie?” He looked from Ochako to Todoroki on his other side for an explanation. Iida stepped around, glancing over Deku and smiling in approval.
“Midoriya! You finally learned how to tie your necktie properly?” Deku looked down at his perfectly tied tie, mouth opening in a small ‘oh’. “Well done, it looks excellent, very befitting of a U.A. student!”
“Ah, I guess so,” Deku muttered, though he seemed almost distraught by the realization that his tie actually fit the dress code.
“Sorry, Deku, I didn’t mean to upset you, I was just surprised. Your tie looks good though!” She was relieved when he smiled at her again, the same serene, reserved thing he’d been wearing all day. “Come on, let’s get to lunch before the line’s too long!”
—
Even though they all lived in a dorm together, it was pretty rare for everyone to eat together. Sure they had the same lunch block, but breakfast and dinner they would basically fend for themselves. They had the option to go to Lunch Rush’s canteen, but the school meal plan only covered so many visits a year so it was unrealistic to eat there three times a day. Eijiro ended up cooking himself dinner most nights and relying on protein bars for breakfast almost every day. He wasn’t the best chef, but he was certainly better than some of his classmates (no offense to Yaoyorozu or Todoroki, but their wealthy upbringings had clearly left them lacking in some more basic skills) and Bakugo had even taught him a couple tricks, so he was passable now.
He had started cooking pretty early in the night, barely even five and most of his classmates hadn’t even headed back to the dorms yet. He probably should have stayed behind with Iida and Shoji to get another workout in, but Heroics Training that day had left him wiped and he needed food. Now. He wasn’t making anything too fancy, just a simple seafood curry, but he had prepared enough that he could share with anyone who happened by the common area or simply eat the leftovers for the next couple nights. The meal was looking, and more importantly smelling, really good; though he had been forced to forgo the clams, as he had forgotten to pick any up last time he went out for groceries. Thankfully he had prepared the stock the previous night, so it had been a simple matter of throwing everything in the pressure cooker and cooking the rice. While he was waiting for the rice to finish, Midoriya wandered into the kitchen. He had a wide grin on his face, and his eyes were glinting in a way that would’ve looked mischievous on anyone else. Midoriya never really nailed mischievous though, or intimidating; Eijiro still didn’t know how he passed that personality switch assignment from Midnight, his Bakugo impression had been seriously rough.
“Hey, that smells good! What’cha cooking?” The way he was speaking was strange, completely foreign to Eijiro coming from his usually anxious classmate. In fact, now that he was looking, the grin on his face was less eager and more cocky; it didn’t look like anything he’d seen on Midoriya’s face before.
“Uhh, seafood curry. Are you feeling okay Midoriya?” For a moment Eijiro could swear Midoriya looked almost panicked, but it was gone so fast he had to have imagined it.
“Oh, yeah I’m fine!” It was like a switch had been flipped, and he was back to his normal self. “Sorry if I’ve been acting weird lately, it’s just,” Midoriya seemed to struggle for what to say next and Eijiro nodded sympathetically.
“That abduction attempt freaked you out, huh?” It made sense that Midoriya would be a little shaken up, as far as Eijiro was aware they still hadn’t figured out why Midoriya had been targeted. Eijiro turned back to the pot, lifting the lid to take a look at the rice. He got a face full of hot steam, but the rice looked fluffy and perfectly done. He looked back at Midoriya, “You want some curry?”
Once they had their plates dished up, they sat down on the couch, and turned on the T.V, landing on something they could both enjoy. It was a documentary on old school heroes, several generations before even All Might’s debut. It was also one of the few documentaries that covered Crimson Riot, and Eijiro had been meaning to watch it since its initial premiere a couple weeks ago. Midoriya still seemed out of it at first, but once Crimson Riot showed up on screen he snapped to attention.
Eijiro smiled, “Isn’t he the coolest? I didn’t realize you were a Crimson Riot fan too, Midoriya!”
Midoriya smiled, small and soft, but somehow more genuine than anything Eijiro had seen from him all night. “Yeah, he was a great hero.”
The documentary played on, it even had footage from one of Crimson Riot’s rescues, a team up with another hero with some sort of tendril quirk. It was a train derailment that had left a car full of passengers dangling over the edge of a bridge. The other hero was using his tendrils to support the car while Crimson Riot made his way through the sparking wreckage using his quirk to clear a path and then carrying civilians out. Once they were out, he passed them off to another one of the tendrils that lifted them back onto the bridge.
Midoriya spoke up again at that point. “That accident was actually caused by another hero duking it out with a villain and being a little too careless with the collateral damage, but that sort of thing doesn’t make it into the movies,” he explained.
Eijiro’s brows raised in surprise. “Woah, dude how’d you know that? Have you seen this rescue before?” He wasn’t sure how he could have, Eijiro was probably the biggest Crimson Riot fan around and he had never seen this footage before the documentary came out.
“Um, I read about it. Yeah, I read about the fight. Not the rescue. I recognized the name of the train, so I knew they were connected?”
Eijiro would have asked for more details but at that moment the train on screen shuddered just after the last civilian had been lifted to safety, leaving only Crimson Riot on board. Even though the video was probably a hundred years old, Eijiro couldn’t help the tug of panic he felt watching it. The tendril hero leapt from the bridge, wrapping one of his whips around the rail and reached out a hand to Crimson Riot. Eijiro couldn’t help the victorious whoop he let out as the two grabbed on to each other, the train falling away and leaving them hanging suspended from the black whip. He also couldn’t help the way he pumped a fist in the air, or the way that it caused the plate of curry to fall from his lap. Aw man, he was totally going to be on cleaning duty forever if that stained. He glanced down and almost choked, the plate was sitting perfectly on the ground, not a drop out of place.
“Woah! Talk about lucky! That’s kinda freaky though isn’t it?” He bent down to pick his dinner back up but stopped when he saw a shadow dart across his periphery and turned towards Midoriya, but he hadn’t moved; he was just sitting there, staring at his hands. His hands that had strange, small lashes emerging from the knuckles, casting an eerie green glow. Eijiro’s jaw dropped open and a pathetic squawk made its way out of his throat. And then he blinked and. Nothing. Midoriya was looking at him with concern and his hands were totally normal.
“Hey, you okay?” Midoriya was looking at him, concern clear across his face. He looked back down and found the plate of curry had landed good side down and splattered all across the carpet. He blinked again, but nothing changed this time. He startled when Midoriya placed a hand on his shoulder and started gently guiding him away from the couch. “How about you go lay down or something? I’ll clean this up.”
Eijiro found himself pushed towards the elevators before he could respond. He turned around again. Midoriya flashed him a toothy grin as he worked on cleaning the carpet. Training must have exhausted him more than he realized. He ran a hand down his face and stepped into the elevator. Hopefully he would feel better after a good night's sleep.
—
“Yagi, have you noticed anything strange about Midoriya lately?”
Toshinori looked up from the papers he had been grading to find Aizawa staring at him over the line of computer monitors.
“Strange? No, I don’t think so,” he said. “Why do you ask?”
“It seems ever since that incident at the mall, something’s been different about him.” Aizawa sighed. “If you haven’t noticed anything, I’m probably reading too much into it.” He dragged a hand down his face before grabbing his own stack of papers and leaving the lounge as the bell sounded for lunch.
Toshinori set down his pen and tried to think back on Izuku’s behavior the last couple days. He had seemed entirely normal, the only unusual thing Toshinori could think of was when he went to check on the kid on Monday after classes and his tie had been missing. Maybe he was trying out a new style. Other than that he had been the same as ever, if slightly more subdued, though that could certainly be attributed to the shock of a near abduction.
There was a gentle knocking on the door, and Toshinori smiled as he stood to answer it. As if summoned by mere discussion, Izuku stood in front of him, a nervous expression on his face. His tie was back in place, crudely tied as ever, and Toshinori couldn’t help an exasperated smile at that. It wasn’t uncommon for them to eat lunch together, but it was usually up to Toshinori to extend an invitation; he was glad Izuku was gaining some confidence.
“Midoriya, my boy,” he stepped aside, letting Izuku into the lounge. “How have you been feeling?” He busied himself with starting the kettle to make some tea before sitting down across from Izuku.
“I’m fine, thank you Yagi.”
Toshinori stumbled in his movements. No matter how often Toshinori told him he could call him by his name (or how inconvenient it was to shout his hero name in public) Izuku had always stuck to simply calling him All Might. He smiled to himself and, not wanting to make the boy self conscious about the sudden shift, continued preparing the tea.
The lunch period proved a good opportunity to check over Izuku, see if Aizawa’s worries had any foundation. By the time the first bell rang, Toshinori was pretty sure Aizawa was fretting for nothing. If anything, Izuku was better than ever, more confident and self-assured than Toshinori had ever seen him. Sure that was different, but it was far from a bad change. Toshinori had found himself worrying more than once about his successor’s high strung tendencies and apparent lack of self-worth. Some self-confidence could do him good.
Izuku stood, grabbing his bag from beside him, and headed to the door. “Thank you for eating with me, Yagi,” he said. Just as he was stepping into the hall, he stopped and turned back to Toshinori. “By the way, I was thinking I’d visit Gran Torino sometime this week, could you be my chaperone?” The second bell rang and Izuku startled. “Ah! I should go, I’ll see you in class!” He dashed into the hall and was soon out of Toshinori’s sight.
Toshinori stood in the doorway, dread and horror filling him. He reached for his phone; what he needed now was to tell Aizawa that all of his suspicions had been correct and they needed to get Tsukauchi to the school immediately. He took a deep breath and tried to push down his first instincts. Despite how traumatizing Toshinori’s own time under Gran Torino’s tutelage had been, Izuku had benefited greatly from his internship, perhaps he just wanted some tips now that he was working with new support gear. He would agree to chaperone, only if Izuku could get the go ahead from Aizawa; he just hoped the man would be too guarded after the last attack to agree.
(The next day, Izuku had gone back to calling him All Might.)
—
Hitoshi was not at U.A. to make friends. He was going to join the hero course and prove everyone who had ever called him a villain wrong. He didn’t have time to waste on friends, which Midoriya Izuku clearly did not comprehend. Every time they passed in the halls, Midoriya would smile at him or wave at him or sometimes even talk to him, no matter how disinterested Hitoshi seemed. It had become a routine at this point. Which is what made it so annoying when Midoriya just. Ignored him.
They passed each other in the hall Tuesday morning and Midoriya didn’t so much as look at him. Hitoshi figured it didn’t matter, he probably didn’t even notice him and he had heard about the villain attack on Sunday, maybe he was still shaken up. But then the unthinkable happened. Hitoshi found himself behind Midoriya in line at the cafeteria on Thursday and prepared to hear all about the new Gang Orca merch drop or whatever it was today and Midoriya. Said. Nothing. Didn’t even try to make conversation.
Had Hitoshi messed up? Maybe he offended Midoriya somehow last time they talked, but he thought they were in agreement on how poor the paint job was on the new Best Jeanist figure. He tried to convince himself that he didn’t care, that it was better if he didn’t have incessantly up-beat hero students distracting him, and, when that failed, prepared himself for confrontation. By which he of course meant being the one to initiate the interaction. Alright, he could do this. He just needed to get Midoriya started talking about heroes.
Midoriya grabbed his food and Hitoshi trailed behind him. He was a little surprised when they ended up at an empty table in the corner, rather than with Midoriya’s considerably large group of friends. He set his tray down, feeling a little guilty when Midoriya jumped.
“Midoriya,” he took the seat across from the boy, “Did you see that Airjet and Manual team-up?”
For a moment, Midoriya just looked at him, eyebrows furrowed in confusion, before he looked back down to his bowl and mumbled, “Oh, um, no, sorry.”
“Really? Here I’ll pull it up for you.” Hitoshi moved on autopilot, pulling out his phone and loading up the video. In all the time he’d known Midoriya there had never been a hero battle, merch drop, or debut that he hadn’t known about and been eager to discuss. He slid his phone across the table and watched Midoriya watch the video of Airjet and Manual working together to put out a fire and rescue civilians. Normally, when Midoriya watched these kinds of videos, he talked through the whole thing, usually very excited about the quirks and techniques displayed, even if he had seen it before. But now, he was dead silent through the whole video. It was only a couple minutes but it seemed to stretch on for ages as they sat in silence.
Hitoshi couldn’t help feeling a little relieved when it finally ended and he pulled his phone back. Midoriya said nothing, simply going back to his curry. Maybe Midoriya had a concussion. Or he was having a bad day. Or he just wanted nothing to do with Hitoshi anymore and he should leave him be and give up on the idea of friendship as a whole.
He stood up, grabbing his tray and preparing to leave this whole situation behind him, when Uraraka appeared behind Midoriya and grabbed him by the shoulder.
“Deku!” Midoriya startled again. “There you are, we were worried when you didn’t show up.” She threw a hand in the air and called out, “I found him!”
Across the room, Iida called back, even louder, “Please do not shout in the cafeteria, it is disrespectful to our peers and the institution of U.A!”
Uraraka turned back to them, “Did you want to come sit with us?” She seemed to notice Hitoshi then as well, “Oh, you can come sit with us too!”
Hitoshi shook his head, he had wasted enough time today floundering through conversation with someone who wasn’t interested, he didn’t need to add four more people to the mix. “No, that’s okay I was just leaving. But thanks.”
At Uraraka’s insistence, Midoriya picked up his own tray and started to follow after the girl, who had already headed back to their usual table. He stopped, turning back to Hitoshi, and gave him a small smile. “Thanks for talking with me, Shintaku.”
Hitoshi dropped his tray back on the table and stared after Midoriya, slack-jawed. Maybe he had a concussion after all.
—
Kaminari and Mineta were whispering about something as Yaoyorozu explained again how to solve a matrix, and Tenya was fairly certain their conversation wasn’t academically focused. He glanced at them and they fell silent under his gaze, but Kaminari failed to hide the magazine beneath his notebook before Tenya noticed. Tenya shot the both of them a disapproving glare. Kaminari in particular had no business goofing off during a study session when he had personally begged Yaoyorozu for her help after their last math test. He at least had the decency to look properly shamed, while Mineta ducked his head and scribbled furiously on his own worksheet. Satisfied, Tenya was about to turn his attention back to Yaoyorozus lecture when he heard a quiet gasp coming from Midoriya who was sitting next to him.
Frankly, it was impressive that Midoriya had been quiet up until this point. Typically he would be muttering under his breath no matter how well he knew the material, but today he had been almost completely silent. Tenya looked over his shoulder, ready to offer assistance or maybe congratulate him if he had made some breakthrough in his understanding. Instead, he let out a strangled, scandalized gasp at the sight of the comic book Midoriya was reading under the table.
“Midoriya! What on Earth are you doing?” Midoriya looked up at such a speed that Tenya almost started in on a warning about whiplash. “That’s incredibly disrespectful to Yaoyorozu, who took the time to arrange this study session, not to mention distracting our fellow students!” He was vaguely aware of the attention of their classmates now and the way Yaoyorozu had fallen completely silent.
Kaminari leaned across the table to sneak a glance at what had distracted Midoriya and started laughing when he saw the comic in his hands. “Aw come on, man, it’s Midoriya! Of course All Might comics would take priority here.” Uraraka snickered from her place on Tenya’s other side.
“All Might?” Everyone turns to look at Midoriya, who had lifted the comic up and flipped it closed so everyone could see the title on the cover. “No, these are Captain Hero comics.”
Ashido was the one to ask, “Who’s Captain Hero?”
Midoriya’s eyes light up in a way Tenya had previously only seen when his friend was discussing All Might trivia. “He’s the protagonist of these pre-quirk comics! He’s got a ton of powers he uses to fight his nemesis the Demon Lord and he never gives up no matter how bad things seem! He’s even better than-” Midoriya cut himself off for a moment, the excitement in his eyes replaced with a brief panic. “I mean, not better than All Might, because obviously All Might is my favorite hero of all time, fictional or not and everyone knows that. But if there were a hero better than All Might, it would definitely be Captain Hero.” Midoriya stood abruptly and headed for the elevators without another word. He took his comic, but his math notebook was left abandoned on the table. Tenya frowned at his friend's hasty exit and turned to the remaining group.
“That was weird right?” Kaminari asked.
“Oh yeah, super weird.” Mineta agreed.
Tenya grabbed the notebook from the table. He would return it to Midoriya in the morning and check in with him then. His brows furrowed as he looked at what little information Midoriya had written down that night. He flipped between the most recent page and one from the previous week in confusion. The handwriting was completely different.
—
Hizashi had assigned the project the day before the incident at the mall, but given Midoriya's clean bill of health he had seen no need to offer an extension and Midoriya hadn't asked for one. He was starting to regret that now, as he had been staring at the paper and chewing on a pen cap for at least five minutes before Aizawa made his way into the common area. The man was clearly exhausted, although Hizashi couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen him well rested so that wasn’t incredibly noteworthy. What was unusual was the fact that instead of heading to his own apartment or even laying his sleeping bag out on the floor, Aizawa slumped heavily in the seat beside Hizashi and leveled him with an almost soul piercing stare. It only lasted a moment before he turned his gaze to the student essay Hizashi had been grading, or trying to grade anyways. Whatever he saw, he clearly wasn’t happy, as he threw his head back in frustration, only stopped from slamming his skull into the wall by Hizashi’s hand which had flown up to soften the blow on instinct.
“Hey! What gives?”
“Midoriya,” Aizawa muttered, glaring daggers at the ceiling. “Why is it always Midoriya?”
“Did something else happen? Should I get Yagi?” Hizashi started to get up, so he could go alert the principal or All Might or maybe the kids mother to whatever trouble Midoriya had found himself in now.
“No, sit down.” Hizashi slowly lowered himself back onto the couch, abandoning the stack of papers on the coffee table in front of them. If Aizawa was here rather than hunting down a villain or holding a press conference, then all the students were probably fine.
“Then what is it?”
Aizawa’s gaze slid back towards the essays and his expression grew darker. “What about that paper had you so torn up?”
Hizashi blinked at the apparent non-sequitur. Okay, might as well see where this was going. “I’m just not sure how to score it, that's all. I mean, technically it’s all great.”
“So?” Aizawa raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know how to explain it. His syntax and word choice, they all read like a pre-quirk novel. I’m almost convinced the plagiarism check missed something.”
Aizawa sat up at that. “You think he cheated?”
“I know that doesn’t sound like him, but I’ve been reading these kids' essays for almost a whole year and this just isn’t written in Midoriya’s voice. But I also have no idea why he would start plagiarizing all of a sudden, I mean he scored pretty high in your class’ midterms, right?” Aizawa gave a quick nod. “I hate to say it, but is it possible he’s been cheating the whole time?”
Aizawa snorted. “Absolutely not. You haven’t read his papers for General Heroics; with the way he shoehorns All Might into every essay he writes, there’s no way they’re anything but original.” The levity faded away quickly. “There’s something strange happening to Midoriya.”
Hizashi hoped Aizawa was overreacting, that this was just an overwhelmed kid making a bad decision in the face of the stress of heroics, but there was something about what Aizawa had said that had a heavy weight settling in his gut. He put his pen down. The kids could wait a few days to get their papers back, just until things were sorted out.
—
It all came to a head on Shota’s one day off. He had denied any requests for students to leave the campus that Sunday, including an odd one from Midoriya requesting to visit the hero he had interned with of all people. He had felt a little bad when he saw Midoriya’s reaction, but Yagi had let out a sigh of relief when he heard and Shota wasn’t about to let any of his kids out until they knew why they were being targeted by villains, especially not Midoriya. Honestly it was like the kid had no self preservation; if Karube’s quirk hadn’t failed when it did, it was very possible they wouldn’t have recovered him. With no class in session and no chaperoning duties, he had thought he would have one day where his students weren’t making his life difficult. And yet come Sunday morning, he was woken by a banging at the staff quarters door.
He hadn’t quite made it to his bed the night before, instead rolling his sleeping bag out on the kitchen floor as soon as he finished his jelly packet dinner. So he was the only staff member in the common area to hear the pounding at the ungodly hour of, he checked his phone, 11:43 am. Disgusting. But it explained why no one else was answering the door, probably all out doing actual hero work. He shed the sleeping bag and shuffled his way to the door. If Yamada had lost his I.D. card again, he could stay outside for all Shota cared.
It wasn’t Yamada, he wished it was. Instead, Iida was standing outside with no jacket despite the chill and house slippers in the place of proper shoes. His pants had been hastily hiked up to the knee and his engines were so hot that they created a fog in the brisk November air. Shota felt an awful weight settle in his throat, the same feeling he had when he saw Shigaraki with all five fingers on Asui’s face or when he found out Bakugo had been captured by the League. Something was truly, horribly wrong. He exited the building, slamming the door closed behind him. And his co-workers said it was stupid to wear shoes while he slept; at least it meant he was never caught off guard.
“Where?” He asked.
“Sir-” Iida started, clearly surprised.
“Where’s the problem? We’re going, you can debrief me when we get there.” He took a guess and started off running towards the dorms, Iida keeping pace with him easily in order to continue the conversation.
“The dorms, sir. But, well-”
“Villains?”
“I don’t think so, no.” That almost stopped Shota in his tracks, but he wasn’t going to let his mind interfere with his body right now.
“You don’t think so?”
“It’s something about Midoriya. We’re not sure what but he may have been… Replaced.” Iida sounded almost sick and Shota felt the lump of dread graduate to sheer terror. They hadn’t figured out those villains' plans and the League had a shapeshifter. All week he had thought there was something wrong with Midoriya, but he had brushed it off as a trauma response or just average teenage weirdness; and the League had a shapeshifter. He stopped the thought there, he had seen Midoriya use his quirk several times since the incident the previous weekend, based on what they knew about Toga’s quirk, there was no way he could’ve been replaced. But that didn’t rule out a clone, the same kind he had fought at the training camp. Did they follow orders or did they behave the same as the original person? He didn’t have enough information to rule anything out.
The distance between the staff quarters and the student dorms wasn’t long, not even a quarter of a kilometer, but at that moment it was far too much. If he was too late, if he arrived to find Toga standing over his student’s bodies, or some clone melting away and leaving them with no leads, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself for ignoring that little thread of doubt that had followed him all week. As much as he wanted to rush in and throw himself between his students and any possible danger, he needed to approach this logically. Iida had said there were no villains, so aside from the obviously malicious act of abducting and replacing one of Shota’s students, there had been no acts of aggression. He could take a moment to perform reconnaissance and strategize.
He slid to a stop below the windows next to the front door that looked into the dormitory common area and glanced inside. He could see a chair in the center of the room, legs encased in ice, and all eighteen of his remaining students standing around it, seemingly unharmed. He let some relief soothe the anxiety that had been building since he woke up, but couldn’t relax yet. He turned to Iida who had followed his lead and crouched beside him. Good kid.
“What did he do?” What was the tipping point? What had his kids noticed that he had missed?
“He called Bakugo by his family name.” Despite the circumstances, a faint blush crept into Iida’s face. “I recognize that restraining him would of course seem like an overreaction, but it wasn’t just this. All week, Midoriya has been acting-”
Shota cut him off. “Out of character.” Iida seemed surprised that he had noticed, and Shota tried not to be offended by that. “I should have realized it was something more sinister before we got to this point. Has he been at all hostile since he was subdued?”
“No, he didn’t try to use his quirk at all before I left, and seeing as he’s still in the same spot he probably didn’t do anything while I was gone. He seemed confused at our actions, but also unaware that he had done anything out of the ordinary.” Iida clenched a fist at his side. “I don’t know who that is in there, but he isn’t Midoriya.”
“We’ll take care of it.” Shota placed a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “Now, I need you to go find All Might and inform him of what’s going on. He’s likely in the staff lounge, but if you can’t find him there, check with Recovery Girl.” Iida nodded and in the blink of an eye he was gone. Now Shota needed to face whatever was inside.
He headed to the door, capture weapon poised to strike and ready to activate his quirk at any moment. When he entered the common room, it went eerily silent for a moment before everyone started speaking at once. He raised a hand to silence them and honed in on Midoriya. He could see now that Midoriya had indeed been taped to a chair which had then been frozen to the ground, but the ice avoided any skin, only covering up to his shoes. His mouth hadn’t been taped over, but he didn’t say anything as he looked Shota up and down with open curiosity. Whoever this changeling was, they had clearly given up any pretension of being the real Midoriya. Or they were just a piss-poor actor. He activated his quirk, hoping it would be as simple as canceling out the transformation and extracting information on Midoriya’s location. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to change and ‘Midoriya’ simply blinked at him, unfazed.
He looked back to his students who were glancing between the two of them as though watching a duel. His first priority had to be protecting the kids he had in front of him.
“Everyone clear out.” He said. There was a frenzy of protests, but Shota wouldn’t be persuaded. He wasn’t going to fail any more of his students. “That wasn’t a suggestion, you have three minutes to grab anything you need and get out. We’ll send out an announcement when we’ve resolved the issue.” Assuming this was something they could fix today, but the kids didn’t need to hear that right now. Most of them had fallen silent, but no one moved. He gave himself three seconds to run a hand down his face and sigh deeply. And when those three seconds were up he looked again at his students and glared. “Now.” That finally spurred them into action and there was a bustle of movement as the rest of the class moved around each other, heading between the couches, the elevators, and the kitchen. Shota kept his eyes locked on ‘Midoriya’ through it all, ready to activate his quirk if he tried anything.
The three minutes passed quickly and soon everyone was out the door except for Uraraka and Todoroki who were still hovering in the foyer of the building. He sighed again. This whole situation was so difficult already, he just wanted his students to listen to him for once and stay out of danger.
“Go. We’ll keep all of you updated once we figure this out.” Uraraka wasn’t looking at him, instead staring at Midoriya behind him. Her eyes were shining and for a moment Shota was afraid she was going to cry. Instead, she set her shoulders and nodded, turning towards the door. Shota glanced at Todoroki, but he could honestly never tell how that kid was feeling. Still, he must have seen something he trusted in Shota’s face because after a moment he followed behind Uraraka. When the two left the building, Shota could see the rest of the class huddled around the front steps. He shot them his strongest glare as the door swung closed, and he was satisfied to see at least Kaminari and Yaoyorozu flinch under it. Hopefully Yagi would clear the rest of them out when he arrived. With everyone else gone, he had nothing left to distract him from the person wearing his student’s face tied up in the middle of the room. ‘Midoriya’ still hadn’t spoken since Shota’s arrival and it was beginning to get creepy. He made no move to break out of his restraints, just sat there and tracked Shota with his eyes. He really hoped Yagi would arrive soon.
—
After the attack on the USJ, Toshinori had decided he could go the rest of his life without ever again seeing one of his students hunched over and terrified, as he relayed a message of a villain attack that Toshinori should have been able to prevent. Unfortunately, the universe didn’t seem to care much what he wanted. Still, he didn’t have time for self-pity or loathing, not when Izuku had somehow been spirited away without anyone noticing. Without him noticing. After thanking young Iida for delivering the news, he had called Tsukauchi; they weren’t sure yet that Izuku had truly been replaced and his quirk would help them confirm it. There was still the chance that rather than a replacement Izuku had been placed under some form of mind control, but Toshinori wasn’t in the habit of getting his hopes up.
Tsukauchi had arrived about ten minutes after Toshinori met Aizawa at class 1-A’s dorms. He was grateful for his friend’s sense of urgency, the sight of his successor tied down and watching Toshinori with an appraising gaze was unnerving to say the least. While Aizawa called the principal to inform him of the situation, Toshinori had taken the time before Tsukauchi arrived to make sure all of the other children had truly left, and he was glad he did; he found no fewer than twelve students hiding around the perimeter of the building with ears pressed to doors or windows (or in young Jiro’s case, a jack plugged directly into the wall). He sent them off with a gentle smile and a promise to take care of Izuku. It was no empty promise either, he wasn’t going to let anything happen to that boy, no matter what he had to do.
Now, they were all gathered in the dorms common area, Aizawa, Tsukauchi, and Toshinori standing in front of Izuku, who still hadn’t moved; though he would surely be capable of breaking his confinement easily. If anything, he almost managed to look bored. Nedzu had given Tsukauchi the go ahead to lead the interrogation, though it hadn’t become official police business yet.
“Alright, we’ll start simple.” Tsukauchi didn’t much look the part of a police officer at the moment; his posture was relaxed and he had pulled up a chair across from Izuku, a table between them. If it weren’t for the tape binding Izuku to his chair it would look as though they were simply having a casual conversation. “What’s your name?”
“Midoriya Izuku.”
Tsukauchi tensed and something in Toshinori seized. He knew his friend well enough that he didn’t need the confirmation that followed, but he still almost crumpled when Tsukauchi said, “Lie.”
Beside him, Aizawa’s knuckles went white where he gripped his capture weapon.
Tsukauchi didn’t stop though. “What’s your name?”
This time, he didn’t get a response. The villain wearing Izuku’s face simply pursed his lips and stared, as though daring them to continue this line of questioning.
Aizawa strode forwards and slammed a hand on the table, quirk activated and scarf poised like a snake ready to strike. “What’s your quirk?”
For the first time since Toshinori’s arrival, the boy’s face showed something besides bland disinterest. His eyes flickered between the three men in front of him, hesitating on Aizawa the longest.
“Well?” Aizawa was clearly irritated, the hand that wasn’t placed on the table curling into a fist.
“Super power,” he said. This person clearly did their research if they had dug up Izuku’s quirk registration.
Tsukauchi shook his head. “Lie,” he said. “What’s your quirk?”
“Gearshift.” That was such a turn from the obvious lie that Toshinori was sure he had to be telling the truth.
But Tsukauchi simply said, “Try again.”
For a moment, Toshinori thinks the villain isn’t going to respond, as confusion and something bordering on rage plays across his face; but then he says, “One For All.” Tsukauchi stiffens again and for a brief moment Toshinori is so hopeful that he’ll turn and declare it a lie.
Instead, through shaking breaths, he whispers, “Truth.”
Aizawa barely blinks, though that was likely only because he didn’t understand the full gravity of the situation. Toshinori is sure that his heart stops then and there. The fact that this impostor knows about One For All is worrying enough, but to claim he has it is terrifying. All For One may be locked up in Tartarus but Shigaraki was still out there somewhere, as well as who knows how many forces. Izuku never would have given his quirk to All For One willingly, but Toshinori’s mind was spiraling with all the ways the situation could have been manipulated. He thought of his Master telling him the story of how she obtained One For All; how she stumbled across a bloodied hero hiding in a warehouse, stalked by some all-powerful force. How he had rushed out the story of two brothers before shoving bloodied fingers in her mouth and pushing her away, covering her retreat with a cloud of smoke. He thought of the burden of the legacy he had passed down to Izuku, the way his successor so often broke himself for everyone else, and he hoped with everything he had that he hadn’t lost his boy.
Aizawa pressed on, ignorant or perhaps just uncaring of the heavy atmosphere that had fallen over the room. “One For All? Is that-” Aizawa stopped himself abruptly, instead pinning the villain with a glare that would leave most cowering. Information about All For One was still fairly sparse for average citizens, and he had no way of knowing just how intertwined the two were. “What does it do?” He asked instead
Tsukauchi moved to do. Well. Something, probably to stop the conversation before anything else could get out; but Toshinori shook his head. So much had already been revealed, and if Aizawa learning the secret of One For All was the price of finding Izuku, Toshinori would gladly pay it.
“It’s a strength stockpiler,” The impostor answered easily.
“Strength?” Aizawa spluttered and stepped back from the table. His eyes narrowed, “You expect me to believe that? Did someone else use a quirk to change your appearance?”
“No. Nothing about my appearance has been changed.”
“Lie.”
“Oh god, you’re nitpicky.” The villain actually had the nerve to roll his eyes at Tsukauchi. “Fine, nothing about this body’s appearance has been changed. By quirk or otherwise.”
It was a strange way to phrase it, but the villain seemed satisfied with himself, showing a smile small and sly and so foreign to Izuku’s face that Toshinori almost shuddered. And then the implication hit him fully and he felt like he was going to be sick.
Toshinori couldn’t restrain himself anymore. “What have you done to him?” He stalked forward, not entirely sure what he was going to do; but he didn’t have a chance to figure it out as Aizawa gripped his upper arm, pulling him back. Of course. He was almost trembling with rage, but he couldn’t do anything, couldn’t touch this villain that had stolen his successor’s body. Anything they did would only hurt Izuku in the end.
Thankfully Aizawa was staying calm enough for the both of them. He dropped his grip on Toshinori and turned an icy stare back on the villain, “Where is Midoriya then? His mind?”
“He’s in here too,” the villain said. “Just not in the driver’s seat right now.”
“Get out of his head,” Toshinori growled. He knew they should be pressing the villain for information, find out if the League was behind this, try to learn their motives, their numbers. But he couldn’t bring himself to care enough about that to leave his student in danger for another moment.
“If I could put him back in control I would, but it’s out of my hands.”
“Alright,” Tsukauchi took back command of the interrogation. “Who did this then?”
“That moron at the mall,” the villain scoffed.
“That’s impossible, I read both of their files.” Aizawa said. “One had a slight mutation quirk that gave him bear attributes, and the one who used his quirk on Midoriya had it registered as Blackout.”
The villain hummed. “He was trying to put him under for a week, right?” Aizawa nodded, clearly suspicious. “Well, then hopefully Nine should be waking up soon.” Toshinori’s breath hitched. “Likely within the next couple hours.”
If Aizawa noticed Toshinori’s sudden stiffness beside him, he didn’t let it distract him. “Nine? Who’s Nine? One of your accomplices?”
“Yes, I suppose you could call him that.” The man laughed.
Aizawa seemed frustrated, even more so than he had throughout the whole interrogation. “I’m not playing games. Tell me what you’ve done to my student.” He had activated his quirk, likely more for the intimidation factor than any practicality, and was nearly shaking with how tightly his muscles were clenched.
This time, it was Toshinori’s turn to keep a cool head. “Aizawa, I believe I’ve figured out what happened.” Both Aizawa and Tsukauchi stared at him incredulously, but he didn’t pay them much mind as he headed around the table to let the man free from the tape. The ice encasing his feet had long since melted away. “What should we call you then?”
The man grinned, “I should have known you would put it together, Eight.” He stretched his borrowed arms above his head, shoulders popping. “Second is fine.” Toshinori wanted to push for more, so much information about the previous holders had been lost when his Master received it, but he let it go for now. It wasn’t the first time he’d been forced to do his own legwork.
“All Might, what the hell are you doing?” Aizawa was glaring at both of them now, quirk flared. Oh how he was not looking forward to this conversation.
“It’s alright. We can trust him.”
“And how do you figure that?”
“It’s a long story,” He grimaced. “I’ll explain soon, but please just trust me for now.” Tsukauchi nodded readily; he obviously hadn’t fully grasped the situation, and yet he allowed Toshinori to continue unimpeded. For a moment he thought Aizawa was going to tie them all up with his capture weapon, but instead he nodded and dropped his quirk.
Toshinori looked back at Second. “Now, what happened exactly?”
“When Nine was grabbed at the mall, it wasn’t the same as just putting him to sleep.” He glanced at Aizawa. “Aikura,” Aikura? “Gave us the details on the quirk afterwards, but it prevents the target from dreaming as well, meaning we couldn’t contact him to force him awake.”
“Us?” Aizawa asked. Second continued as though no one had spoken.
“We couldn’t let those villains get away with him and with Nine unresponsive, it left a sort of vacuum. A space that we were able to fill. Six assumed control and took out the one carrying Nine.”
Toshinori hummed, bringing a hand up to his chin. “But why continue pretending? Why didn’t you just leave him unconscious after the villains were captured?”
Second huffed. “We thought that would raise unnecessary questions and by the time we realized how awful we were at blending in, it would’ve been even more concerning to just pass out.” The way he was speaking… Toshinori paused.
“You keep saying ‘we’, have you all been taking turns?” Behind him, Aizawa threw his hands up and fell heavily into the chair beside Tsukauchi.
Second grimaced. “Yes, we didn’t realize at first, but it’s incredibly tiring for a vestige to exert control over a body. If I had a choice, I never would have done this, but the others are still too weak to take over again.”
“Does that mean…” He stopped. A strange fluttering of hope started in his chest.
“Seven invited herself to eat lunch with you, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
Toshinori felt tears begin to well up and slammed his eyes shut before they could fall. Of course. “Why wouldn’t you tell me? Any of you?” He thought again of the conversation he and Izuku had shared that day. He wished she had said something, it had likely been the last chance he would ever get to speak to her face to face and he had squandered it.
“We thought about it.” He said plainly. “We probably should have, but we hadn’t been planning on getting caught and we didn’t want you to worry for Nine’s safety.”
“When you go.. Back.” That was likely the best word he would find. “Would you let her know,” He hesitated. There was so much he wanted to tell her. He wished it was her here, instead of Second. How could he possibly condense everything he needed to say to the woman that had been like a mother to him?
“She’s proud of you, you know?” Toshinori’s gaze snapped back to Second. He was staring him down with a serious expression that looked odd on Izuku’s young face. “You stopped that monster. Even if it should’ve been by death, you’ve achieved what we all worked towards.” He tilted his head. “Though, she was raving about you long before you smashed his face in. She loves you.” The words were said easily but they took all the wind out of Toshinori. This time, he couldn’t stop the tears rolling down his face.
There was the sound of a throat clearing, and Toshinori startled. Aizawa was staring at him, one questioning brow raised, and Tsukauchi had a pained expression as he looked in the other direction. Ah. It had been years since another person had seen Toshinori cry, and he felt embarrassment flush through him. He ran a hand down his face to clear the tears away. Once he was sure there would be no more crying he grabbed one of the chairs and sat down across from the two men, elbows resting on the table and fingers steepled in front of his face.
“I suppose I should explain. This is the story of two brothers.”
—
When Izuku woke up, he didn’t actually wake up. He opened his eyes and was greeted with the familiar yet mysterious void that housed the previous One For All holders, all of whom were staring at him with concern blatant on their faces. Well, except for the Second and Third holders, they seemed to be ignoring him as usual. Still, why was he here? Come to think of it, when had he fallen asleep? The last thing he remembered was hunting for the new True Form All Might holofoil trading card at the mall and then... And then what? A tap on his shoulder, no, more like a shove. Oh god, had he died? Was he dead right now? His mom was going to be inconsolable.
He tried to speak, to ask someone what was going on, but his mouth was still covered in that black smoke. For once it comforted rather than frustrated him, if he had died and been fully incorporated into One For All, he would definitely have a full form. Still, why did the past holders look so pained?
Yoichi frowned as he said, “I’m sorry, Nine. I believe we’ve made things difficult for you.”
Izuku felt his brow furrow, but before he could get any further explanation, he felt the tug of consciousness and the void started to fall away. When he opened his eyes, he was laying on the floor of the dormitory common area. His head was throbbing and his eyes felt heavy, as though he had slept too long the previous night. He sat up in a daze. Across the room, Mr. Aizawa, All Might, and Detective Tsukauchi sat at one of the tables, All Might and the Detective staring at him in bewilderment. All Might was the first to react, standing from the table and rushing to Izuku’s side. He crouched beside him and placed a large, comforting hand on his back.
“Take it easy, my boy. How much do you remember?”
“Remember? Um, we were at the mall and then…” Across the room, Mr. Aizawa heaved a sigh. His teacher looked exhausted, even more so than usual, and as All Might helped Izuku to his feet he made no move to stand. Dread pooled in Izuku’s gut. “What happened?”
All Might had a pained expression on his face that did nothing to soothe Izuku’s building panic. “You were hit with a quirk, it knocked you out for a week.” A week? He couldn’t afford to miss a week of school, especially with their joint training with Class B fast approaching. But then…
“If I’ve been unconscious, why did I wake up on the floor?”
“Ah, that was our fault,” All Might said. “We should have insisted that Second sit down.” Izuku gasped and his eyes flew to Aizawa, who seemingly hadn’t reacted at all to the casual mention of the second holder.
His panic must have shown on his face, because All Might started patting his back in what he must have intended to be a reassuring motion. “Right, I suppose we need to catch you up then.” He guided him back towards the table and sat him down gently. “To start, I should tell you that we had to tell Aizawa about One For All.”
“What?” Izuku looked at his homeroom teacher, who had dropped his head in his hands.
“I’m sorry, my boy. I know it wasn’t my secret to tell, but quite frankly it was the only way to reassure him that you hadn’t been replaced by the League of Villains.”
“Replaced? What happened while I was asleep?” He remembered what Yoichi had said just before he woke up, what All Might said about Second. “Does this have something to do with the Vestiges?”
Detective Tsukauchi laughed, small and surprised. “Perceptive as ever, Midoriya. The way it was explained to us, the previous holders were able to keep you moving even after your mind was put to sleep.”
“But why-”
Mr. Aizawa cut him off, finally looking at him. His gaze was heavy and Izuku got such a strong sense of disappointment that he was forced to look down at his hands as his teacher spoke. “We can discuss this later. For now, we should have Recovery Girl check you over and make sure there are no side effects from this nonsense.” Izuku heard the scrape of metal on vinyl as Mr. Aizawa stood to leave. “You two wanted to keep this secret, so you can figure out what you’re going to tell your classmates when they ask what happened.” All Might coughed and quickly brought a hand up to cover his mouth.
“And Midoriya,” He continued. Izuku looked back at him, not sure what to expect. “You’ll want to speak to Present Mic, he thought the essay those…” He seemed to struggle for a moment before a sort of tired acceptance settled on his face. “Ghosts wrote was plagiarized. Now, if that’s everything, I’m going back to bed.” With that, he turned and exited the dormitory.
“What? Wait, Mr. Aizawa!” Izuku stood to try and follow him, to hopefully ask more about the classes he had missed, but All Might stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
“Aizawa is right, my boy. Let’s get you to Recovery Girl; I can tell you everything once she clears you.” Izuku wanted to protest, but All Might continued. “Plus we should really start thinking of a cover story. You’ve been acting very strange these last few days.”
“Strange? Strange how? What did I do?”
“Well, if the way Second acted was any indication, I believe you’ve been calling people by the wrong names all week.” Izuku groaned and All Might simply chuckled, slapping him on the back. “It’s alright, I’m sure they’ll be so happy you’re back to normal, I doubt they’ll be upset with you.”
As they exited the dorms, Izuku was surprised to see Mr. Aizawa still standing there. He thought he would have headed back to the staff dorms by now. And then, he saw what he was staring at and felt his stomach drop. Wrapped in Mr. Aizawa’s capture weapon were Jiro, Uraraka, Todoroki, and a furiously blushing Iida. Their teacher’s eye was twitching as he glared daggers into the students.
“Anyone else? Come out now, or you’re all expelled.” He growled.
Izuku’s jaw fell open as Kirishima dropped from one of the trees that stood outside the dorms, shortly followed by Kaminari.
“I told you assholes to leave!” This time, Izuku let out a yelp as Kacchan came slinking up the path towards them, a scowl etched on his face. “What part of ‘mind your business’ do you idiots not understand?” His quirk started crackling, but quickly died out when Mr. Aizawa turned his glare on him.
All Might stepped forward, standing beside the other teacher. “How much did you kids hear?”
Uraraka blushed and averted her eyes. “Um, all of it.”
“We’re sorry, we were just worried about Midoriya!” Kirishima cried.
“You should have trusted us as your teachers to handle it.” Mr. Aizawa snapped. “Detention. For all of you. And a three page essay on the importance of following orders in the field.” He turned back to All Might, ignoring the groans from the students in front of him. “You can deal with them from here, this is your business and I don’t want to be caught up in it anymore.” He dropped his capture scarf, letting the four teenagers fall to the ground, and finally stalked off.
Izuku turned to his friends, who were all looking at him with varying degrees of confusion. Todoroki in particular looked as though he had just solved a puzzle, but Izuku ignored that, “Um, right. If you all know everything," He turned to face Iida. "Then can I borrow your notes from this past week?”
—
Omake: Immediately after the “Bakugo” Incident
Yoichi: Okay, I could excuse En messing up the tie, I could excuse Bruce writing that out of touch essay, I could even excuse Hikage getting that Shinso kid's name wrong, but that? That was fucking stupid.
Kudo: I have too much self respect to call anyone such a cutesy nickname
***
Omake: Alternate dialogue for the interrogation
tsukauchi: what’s your name?
kudo: izuku midoriya
tsukauchi: lie. what's your name?
kudo: that's my story and i'm sticking to it
aizawa: what's your quirk?
kudo (inside you are two wolves, one says gearshift the other says ofa):...
tsukauchi: well?
kudo: I'M THINKING
***
Omake: The real reason they didn't tell All Might what was going on
Nana: Well, we should go tell Toshinori what's going on so he can cover for us if we slip up.
Yoichi: Wait, think of the comedic potential if we leave him in the dark.
En: Hmm, you have a point. Plus we would lose a lot of dramatic tension in the final act if he was in the know.