Chapter Text
Day three, things are going alright but.....
Closing his journal with a snap because so what if he was on day three?
He’d managed to get into UA, but, just, not like he’d dreamed of for so long.
By his count he got more than enough to get into heroics, but he was guessing a bit, and maybe he’d just gotten it wrong. Or everyone else just did that much better than he did?
Yeah, and maybe un-quirked pigs could fly!
Sitting in the front row - don’t want the quirkless kid to not be front and center, so much easier to torment them that way - bored blind, at least now they were getting into some actual meat of the subject rather than simply reviewing last year.
Quirk history, his favorite, a subject so good he read it for fun, never mind something useless like a grade.
Suddenly frowning, he raised a hand.
“Yes Midoriya?”
The sharp question was just like every other teacher he'd ever had, as if it offended them he’d dare to ask something, and he suppressed the gut churning reaction (because he'd vowed to be braver now he was older) as he said, “Mahmorto-sensei, I think you got the date wrong, the Utama uprising actually started two years earlier than you just said? And it was started by the charismatic leader Sasaki Sumiko, not the one you just attributed it to, he did take over when she was assassinated but - ”
He was just hitting his stride when the teacher sucked in a harsh hisss and said “How dare you!”
Ah, so, UA was going to be just the same despite it’s lovely hopeful handbook. However, he had to try, couldn't let the dream of an unbullied school life die without some effort to save it on his part, “But Principal Nezu said - ”
“Be silent!”
The target of may glares in his life, Izuku graded this one pretty high for how horrible it made him feel, because UA was like his last school, hands on as it were, and he wanted to duck down and hide but what was the point, he knew this, the teacher was wrong, if he just tried harder then maybe….
“How dare you talk about a subject as complex as this one, as if you understood it you quirkless little disruption!” The teachers face twisted then in satisfaction and Izuku wanted to beg, to do anything, because the man was about to -
“Come with me, I’ll teach you not to talk back to a teacher! I’ll teach you not to disrupt my class!”
On script, this was so on script, just like his last school where he’d learned fast, week one even, to keep his head down, to do anything to keep them from hurting him again, yet he'd tried again like the fool he was, the day one orientation lecture had said UA was zero tolerance for bullying and sold it so well Izuku’d opened his stupid mouth when he knew better, zero tolerance the school might be but of course, that was for students with good quirks, no one could talk back to them never mind pick on them, ever.
Clearly for the teachers too who always had zero tolerance for Izuku’s very existence and he was about to find out how badly this was going to go but then the script went, well, off script when the phone on the desk rang.
The entire class looked at it.
So did Izuku and the teacher, as if it was some strange new thing, rather than a simple communication device.
It rang six times before the teacher grabbed it with a “Yes? I’m really rather - "
“Oh... sorry.... Principal Nezu, if I could just - ”
An indignant expression to what must have been a question, “Of course I've read it, I’ve read all of them, he is - ”
“ - Oh… no…. I didn't - ”
“Very well, of course, if you insist but I do not see why this student - ”
“Of course, no Nezu-sama, I’d never question - ”
“Of course, I’ll head to Hound Dog’s department this minute, I just fail to see….”
Hanging the phone up with clear puzzlement, the man studied it for a moment and then, eyes squinched with anger that clearly over rode his confusion, went behind his desk, snatching out a discipline slip, and, glaring at Izuku the entire time, put five black marks on it!
Holding it out, he said, “Your disciplinarian is waiting for you in DR7, get out.”
Carefully taking the slip, knees wobbling in terror, Izuku got out.
He had no idea what was going on, but it was bad!
And he did know what five blacks meant on a D-slip, so his heart, already trembling at how bad it’d all been while actually in the classroom, evaporated along with his stomach as he started the long walk, just to provide room for all the dread that flooded in.
*-*
Nezu’d been waiting for this, and it only took two and a half days, nice and fast.
Over time he’d managed to get rid of the commission’s teachers in his school, one by one replacing them with his own people, fudging the notices and bio’s of the replacement staff to look like Commission approved people.
One by one he’d gotten changes in place to protect his students, cleverly crafted to - at first and second glances anyway - look like the party line.
One by one his plans had paid fruit and now he was one final department away from being sole controller and owner of UA, the most powerful school in all of Japan.
This teacher had just managed to step over the invisible line into getting his ass fired, because tenured teachers were almost impossibly difficult to get rid of but, they had just put FIVE black marks onto a discipline slip of a child who was listed as a single disciplinarian student.
After ranting at them!
After having been clearly ready to be unkind in more physical ways!
Five marks, on day three of school.
It took five marks to earn a physical discipline session, and this student had earned nothing more by their actions than a sweetie and a good job for being so smart and so brave.
Certainly NOT a spanking!
Rubbing his paws together, already transferring this particular student to the second of the five first-year gen ed classes, Nezu alerted the second person most affected by this.
Well, watching the tiny green haired child ghost down the huge empty hall to the Discipline Room farthest from his classroom, hugging the wall on their soundless way to a dreadful place indeed, one final unkindness by a teacher Nezu would be enjoying firing in about an hour or so, depending upon how long it took for Hound Dog to provide a lesson in receiving what one intended to inflict upon the innocent, an unforgettable lesson indeed!
Nezu sighed with a touch of regret, Midoriya Izuku, quirkless, and the perfect tool to get this particular job done.
Shame it was going to hurt the child as well but the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few…. Or the one.
Nodding, he picked up the phone.
*-*
Answering his phone was his first mistake, listening to his boss the second, and he asked, “You what?” with a morbid kind of confusion.
The words from on high made Aizawa Shouta, pro hero Eraserhead, consummate professional and totally grown up person -
Want to bang his head against his desk until sweet darkness took him.
Because he was clearly target zero for his boss today.
Scraping himself up, looking out at his class busily working on a How Much Do You Know On This Subject worksheet he said, "A single word from anyone and we'll see how creative I can be in making sure it doesn't happen again!”
Leaving them behind easily because even this early in the year, they knew to behave if he stepped out of the room, he smiled at Nemuri who was just headed his way to watch over them, hearing the first tentative murmurings from the class.
A fist bump and he was off, hurrying now, it would never do for a student to reach DR before the teacher.
Sole disciplinarian status for a gen ed student?
That was strange enough to raise the hair on the back of his neck, but gen ed was the far side of the main building, it would take a firstie ages to walk that distance.
Day three? What, the kid had to go all that way to just stand in a corner or do some lines? How stupid could their teacher get?
Or was the kid an incorrigible delinquent?
But if so they’d not have gotten into UA so Nezu was up to something.
Gen ed.
Shit.
Trying not to let it, Shouta’s heart hurt for a kid, a firstie, scared and alone as they walked a long lonely way to meet a total stranger who was supposed to discipline him.
Been there, done that, burned that fucking t-shirt!
*
Looking up at the door his long long walk’d brought him to, Izuku tried to make his heart slow down but five black marks were on the page that was shaking in his hand, clenched so tight it was crumpled around his white knuckles so he knew what was waiting for him behind that door!
But nothing about this would get better if he made the teacher wait.
Raising his hand he gave three of the softest knocks the world had ever known, only for the door to open instantly.
Looking up at the unfairly tall masc who’d opened the door for him, Izuku felt his heart break.
Shatter.
He'd been sent to DR to be beaten by one of his favorite heroes of all times.
Because five marks ment a mandatory spanking.
Izuku’d learned long ago to keep his head so far down in class he was invisible, just to avoid something like this.
The last time was two years ago, he still woke sweating in fear at the memory.
Believing the first day's lecture so much he'd actually spoken up in class? He was so stupid!
Handing the slip up he vowed to himself, if he survived, he'd never say another word in class again as long as he lived.
*
Looking down at the kid, firsties were always so tiny, but this one was -
Shaking.
He caught the slip, waved the kid in, said, “Shoes off and on the shelf.”
The first step to anything in DR was shoes off but the kid shook even harder, kneeling in what was nothing more nor less than a controlled fall to start fumbling his shoes off and, baffled, Shouta looked at the slip, hoping it might tell him why the kid was so clearly terrified.
Five marks, in bold black, met his eyes.
Wanting to curse Nezu to every level of hell available, but the fucker ruled the damned place so it’s be a wasted effort on Shouta’s part to just send his boss home!
Instead he motioned to the couch, pointing to the end.
“Sit there.”
The kid cringed as he passed him, fear, so thick it was a stink on the air.
Right, several other things stunk as well, so on silent feet Shouta went to the shelf of supplies and lifted down a blanket.
Passing the kid as he headed to the other side of the room, the kitchenette area his goal, he gave one flap to unfold it, and dropped it on the kid, covering him utterly.
The fact the kid made no noise at all was just one of about a zillion red flags, all waving merrily at him!
*-*
He was going to die.
His heart was going to stop, or his brain exploded, or the hero was going to beat him to death and save his bullies and teachers the effort but, trying to breathe, tiny gasps of breath all he could manage just then, Izuku took off his shoes, put them on the shelf, and sat where instructed.
Entire body shaking, he was only not sobbing because he was actually too frightened to cry.
Too frightened to watch the hero either, so he was shocked even more speechless than he already was when a blanket dropped over him.
The words, “Tell me about your day, from the moment you woke up to the moment you walked into this room, go.” easily made it to him under the soft fabric.
Sitting in the dark warm pocket the blanket created, Izuku sucked in a few breaths, not understanding anything other than the order.
Not the order itself, but how to do it, so he tried to speak, failed and then, with maximum effort, his voice wobbled into action.
*
Carefully simmering hot chocolate on one of the burners available in the tiny kitchen area, Shouta agreed, this kid could talk for the world.
Could give Hizashi a run for his money.
Might even be able to out-talk Tensi and Oboro when they got together to binge on cola icies and gummy candies.
Idiots.
But the word was fond in his heart, even if the twinge of nausea at the memory of being right there with them the last time, drink for drink and eating sour candies in a race to see who could -
Damn, had he been sick!
Focusing back on the kid who was not talking in a way a kid would to avoid a spanking.
Five marks, day three.
But as if he was trying with every bit of him to follow the order.
It might have been just to get the kid talking and maybe relax a bit but so far he'd learned the kid was living alone in a shed out back of the house of a family that, despite being related to him, didn't like him much.
Oh, that wasn't what the kid’d said, no, this kid should go into advertising because he was spinning it for all he was worth, insisting he had his own room, a little house really, and he'd timed going into the house this morning to avoid bothering his cousin who got headaches so was grumpy early in the day but that was okay because ….
This kid could probably put a good spin on where he was now if he wasn't still shaking with fear.
Switching the hob off Shouta carefully poured two mugs of chocolate syrup, because that was how he liked it, stirring a pinch of cayenne dust into his and made his way to the couch.
Sitting down he said, “Good, now, I need to see your face and hands, please.”
Midoriya Izuku, quirkless, five marks on a discipline slip on day three, had wound down to reaching the door of DR7 and was trying, clearly trying, to come up with something nice to say now.
That bastard of a teacher had made a terrified kid - and any kid was afraid going to DR, it was unavoidable, the place was fucking scary no matter how old you were - walk what must have felt like miles, just to torment him that little bit more.
Yes Shouta knew the plan, but his heart hurt for this little slip of a kid who was….
Staring at him with eyes drowning in tears, and dread.
“Here, take this, and be careful.”
“It's hot.”
He might have just as easily handed the kid a live grenade or rattlesnake for how shocked he was, but obediently he took it.
And that was it, other than staring at it that is.
Not able to help it, Shouta chuckled, “Kid, Midoriya, I promise I did not poison it.”
He almost wore it at that point when the kid flinched and started to deny anything like thinking that and and and -
“Stop.”
The kid froze, eyes exactly like a terrified rabbit.
Setting his mug onto the floor, Shouta reached out, very slowly, adjusting the blanket to wrap comfortingly around thin shaking shoulders, making sure it wouldn't slip down if the kid moved, and said again, “Drink. Careful. It’s hot.”
Quietly then, for a moment, they just shared the space.
*-*
Looking at the slip on the couch between them Shouta said, "My approach to DR is the one every teacher in UA is supposed to have, yet clearly the one who sent you here hasn't gotten the memo.”
The no shit expression was swiftly hidden but Shouta agreed.
“So, first, tell me again exactly what you did to make that teacher send you to me and we’ll go from there.”
*-*
Feeling slightly sick from the cocoa sludge but loving it anyway, Izuku told again how the teacher was mistaken, that the information would come up later in tests as it was a pivotal moment in history, so he’d just tried to….
“Correct the teacher?”
Nodding Izuku sighed, “Yeah, I’m…. I’m….. I’m sorry, really SORRY but it's important!”
And then cringed, because even with a blanket and cocoa and being so nice and moving carefully and slowly so as to not make him jump, this was a teacher, and dangerous.
“I agree.”
Blinking as the meaning of those worlds trickled through his brain, Izuku looked up in shock, “You do?”
“I do, I agree, you were not just right to do as you did, but the teacher was absolutely wrong to behave as he did.”
“To give you what is essentially a demand that you be spanked, simply for drawing notice to their mistake, is so wrong as to be inexcusable.”
“This is why you were given a single disciplinarian, many students are in that category, don’t feel singled out by it, any student that needs a single person they can learn to trust in that role is given one.”
A simple way to protect a student being maliciously targeted by those wishing him harm, in other words.
It was also why, although Shouta wouldn't tell him, the child wasn't in Shouta’s class and was in gen ed, because the commission still had juuuust enough power to force them to not let him into the place he’d earned with a stelar run in the entrance exam.
Without any super power at all he’d used his admittedly tiny body, his admittedly sharp mind, and his clear to all, deeply insightful and caring nature, to not just take down robots but to achieve almost all of the hidden objectives, including how many many people he’d helped and inspired along the way.
Unlike the explosion kid that in no way earned a spot in his class yet was there anyway.
It was only how close they were to the plans grand finale that had Shouta not screaming the place down, the way he still wanted to do, because this kid was caught right in the middle and didn't even know it!
Saying softly, “Midoriya, remember this, if you earn it, I will give it to you, be it hot chocolate or a trip over my knee, and if you do go over my knee I will give you every single spank I believe you deserve.”
“No one in existence however will EVER force me to spank you for shit that doesn’t even deserve a cross word, never mind an actual spanking.”
Watching their eyes blink slowly, green haired head nod as their flight or fight reflex powered fully down at last and tiredness hit like a stick, Shouta remained totally silent from that point on, letting himself fade from perception, a handy skill, and one this kid knew how to do as well at an instinctive level. Useful, yet it was almost exclusively a trait of savagely bullied or abused children.
Making mental notes to investigate their home and previous education fully, Shouta simply existed while a child curled up and slept.
*-*
Izuku knew something was up when he went back to class and there was a different teacher in it.
His pratt of a homeroom teacher also taught this period, but it was Midnight-sensei, and while the boys and even a few of the girls predictably were drooling over her, Izuku settled in to listen, to watch, and to enjoy.
Because this was the face of feminism in heroics, and as such, she was a powerhouse indeed!
*-*
But he’d been right in his guess, and his heart sank right down to his toes and beyond at the end of class, because he took the change of homeroom slip with a carefully blank face, making sure to not touch anything but the paper, and bowed.
He had gotten into UA, and he was training for the sports festival as his single remaining chance at heroics, but now….
Now he was being used.
In a good way, he guessed, it just might have been nice to be asked!
*-*
It took three weeks to wind back up in DR, again it was the one as fucking far as possible from his main classroom so he walked the lonely halls, feeling small…. and stupid.
This teacher had insisted he do the introductory speech thing his first morning in their classroom, quirk, name, and a fun fact about himself and when he protested talking about his quirk she’d smiled with a sickening sweetness and said, “Yes, I’d heard you were a troubled child, sadly you just proved it but I am prepared for that, and for you.”
A discipline slip with his name in bold was tacked onto the board along with class notices and the bitch used a sharpie to make a bold black line on it.
“Now,” she smiled back at the class, “this is Midoriya Izuku, he’s quirkless, and as you see, a bit of a trouble maker so it might be best to just give him some space.”
Shuffling to his chair, rage and shame at war in his guts, at least no one tried to trip him up on the way and this teacher sat students alphabetically so he wasn’t sitting right in front of her.
Tiny mercies, always focus on the good lest the bad drag you down and drown you!
*-*-*
Izuku had found and was using the smallest, most out of the way gym to practice for the sports festival in, and had expected to just do more of his usual training method, looking at videos and trying to do it himself but….
Sparing droids!
UA had sparing droids!!!
He’d thought they were a work of fiction when he first heard of them, and they certainly felt like it when he saw one for the first time, but using one was a dream come true!!! Despite knowing how limited his only way of training himself was he was fully prepared to keep doing it but, he’d come on so far since he’d gotten access to them, finally having someone to use his hard earned moves against.
And they had a fight-dirty setting!
Three days in a row, right when school started, he’d used the precious three hours after classes when students were allowed to work on self study before having to go home, to simply read and practice with a unit, the keying in time it was called - according to the booklet anyway - and then, squaring up against it for real, on level one, proceeded to get his ass kicked to hell and back.
“Student needs to rehydrate and cool down.”
“Yeah, no shit.” Izuku gasped, starfished onto the ground as he tried to catch his breath, which seemed to be hiding somewhere near Neptune!
His eyes closed and he existed in aching limbo for a long mo - “Student needs to rehydrate and cool down properly.” - ment…. “Fuck.”
Debating on how long he could delay, but the spar-bots would absolutely call a teacher on him - page nine said so with no room for doubt - so he rolled with a groan and began stretching, forcing himself through the entire cool-down routine.
Then got a drink from his now room temperature bottle of water, a container he’d had forever, faded Present Mic decal just a hint of a line here, touch of color there, if you didn't know who it was, you'd never guess.
But Izuku loved it, it was his oldest reassure.
A long time he’d had it, pretending the hero was there for him, cheering him on, giving him a drink and care when no one else would, or did.
Swiping his thumb over the almost gone artwork, wondering if it was possible to do something about it, the way he usually did when he started feeling like this, he sighed.
“The gym must be returned to original settings by students whose session is about to terminate.”
“Yeah, I know.” Staggering over to start putting the mats away to the stacks where they belonged, Izuku paused and smiled and then bowed, deeply and with heartfelt gratitude, "Thank you sensei-bot.”
Setting the space to rights, wiping down each mat as it was stacked, wiping down and cataloging any new scuffs or dents on the bot, one final glance cast at the room he pronounced it good enough and headed out, not seeing the bot's eyes powering down as it settled into place.
******
“He bowed to you awwwww Shouta, he is such a sweetheart!”
Shedding the exosuit letting him link to a training bot Shouta grunted, it'd been like a punch to the guts when the kid bowed and said thank you to what was, to everyone else, just a piece of equipment but the kid radiated sincerity.
“How is he still such a nice person?”
“No idea, but with you as a teacher, sneaky thing that you are, he at least has a hope of getting what he deserves!”
Running Shouta’s remaining class through his head, the explosive blond he’d kicked out day four, that one was in gen ed now, in the class with the replaced teacher, one that was handling the brats just fine now.
Handling them properly!
Knowing for a fact Bakugou’d been to DR a time or three already, he gave a huff of satisfaction, Echo-sensei was a hard ass, took no prisoners, he and Mic’d both interned with her twice as students, loved the hero so much, were still afraid of her a little bit too but liked to insist it was just respect for a formidable hero.
Yeah, that Bakugou kid was on his last chance but might make it yet with her in charge of him.
But Midoriya Izuku was still a worry, the kid had already spotted and used some of the loopholes in the training bots programing to work harder and longer than allowed, and they needed to get more food into him, underweight, undersized, quirkless, and the commission solidly against him.
Well, other than that he was doing just fine.
“So, how’re the rest of the probies doing?”
“Not probies Mic, shut the fuck up.”
Shouta’s long time friend and pain in the ass laughed and said, “Until they are your students for four months at least, they are sooo on probation!”
And, well, as he was already six students down, that really was kinda fair.
*-*
The alert to his phone had him out of the class room in an instant, and it was almost a repeat of the first time, except now….
When Midoriya glanced up in a lightning flicker, his eyes showed hope.
Not much gods knew but it was there.
So, just as before, Shouta silently indicated where he wanted the kid to sit, and again dropped a blanket on him, heading over to make a hot drink while the kid calmed down a bit.
Shouta already knew the kid had five marks on his slip, he’d seen it on the board, in plain sight of everyone in the classroom, a breach of the privacy regulations that had him fuming yet…..
As Shouta was dealing with Izuku, Nezu was firing one more of the commission's lacky’s, using her breaches of conduct against this student as the club to bash her with. After, of course, having her too visit Hound Dog for a dose of what she’d sentenced an innocent kid to receive.
Almost like a going away gift, UA style!
This kid who was shaking under a blanket but was brave enough to peek out and take the hot cocoa with trembling fingers, obeying the order to tell Shouta his entire day, from waking up to now.
They didn't have enough against the ones caring for him to just take the child, but it was clear neglect, he’d gone himself to see the shed that was his bedroom, and it brought back enough memories he too had to visit Hound Dog, but for him it was a cozy visit to get his head back on straight, rather than an unforgettable spanking like the fired teachers received.
Emotional abuse, even if the damage was invisible, was as bad as physical, but the situation was in play, he had to stay out of it and trust the system would do its job and as he listened to a morning spent alone, a family who never talked to him, just a bit to eat because, "The school gives me breakfast now, so I don't like to take anything more than a meal replacer drink, I can get a big can of the powder once a month with the little bit of my trust fund payment I get to keep cause keeping me does cost money so it’s only fair I pay what I can and if I just use one spoonful with hot water then it’s as good as a full meal and - "
It wasn't, Shouta thought to himself, it wasn't as good as a meal. He remembered that, the taste of mostly hot water with a hint of flavor, the tang of it against the back of his mouth, the way a chipped mug felt in his hands, warm, like comfort, even if it was as filling as drinking hot tap water….
Shoving the memories away, Shouta listened, and nodded, and asked the odd question here and there, and eventually they got to the reason he was sitting in DR waiting to get his ass handed to him.
“So, you corrected another teacher?”
White knuckles on a pristine mug, and the kid nodded, once, jerky and afraid.
“Go on.”
“It was the first law of thermodynamics, as applicable to quirks, she got it wrong.”
“Like, sooooo wrong.”
“So you told her all about it?”
Shouta knew exactly what the kid had done, because he’d had a moment to talk to Nezu as the kid made his lone way across the huge building to a destination no one ever wanted to arrive at.
“Yes, ummmmm, sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?”
This time he got to see green eyes study him, not long, just a moment, and then another gut punch to the emotions, “Because you have better things to be doing than wasting time on me. And I knew it was gonna be another black mark, the final one, but….”
When Izuku paused for a moment, frowning, Shouta braced himself and was right when he got, “I’m not worth your time. I failed to get into heroics, hardly even made it into gen ed. I just waste people's time but the other kids needed to learn the right stuff, the right way, education is important, even for people like me, but it’s doubly so for the rest of them.”
Bowing slightly, “I really am sorry for taking up your time, we can just get it over with if you want.” The kid's hands were so tight on the mug now Shouta feared stress fractures to the delicate bones in his fingers!
“Do you remember what I said the first time we were here, Midoriya?”
“Huh?”
“What I said about being your disciplinarian?”
“Oh, that if I earned it you’d ummmm, well, you’d ummmmm….”
Having mercy on the kid, Shouta finished for him, “Spank you if I believed you deserve it?”
“Yeah,” clear relief at not having to say the word had Shouta hiding a grin, “but, ummmmm Tara-sensei said…. And it took ages to get….” (three weeks, it should take months at least, even for proper delinquents, which this kid wasn't) “to g-get five marks, and I did earn it so…..”
“No you didn't, and you know it, now, tell me about each black mark and why it wasn't deserved.”
Holding up a hand, Shouta said, “No, better idea, I want you to write it for me, in essay form, two pages for each mark you were given and why you did NOT earn them, handed in to me on Friday, so you have four days to do it. Now, I don’t know about you kid, but I got zero sleep last night, rotten patrol, had to,” - he yawned and stretched, cracking his neck both ways for good measure before sliding down in a boneless heap - “sub in for someone, now, shush.”
Watching through mostly closed eyes as the kid goggled at him for a moment, suddenly grin and snuggle down in their own blanket Shouta though, maybe, just maybe, even with all the shit storm going on, this kid would be okay.
He’d do his best to make sure of it!