Mind over Matter

by YourLocalSadNerd

Summary:

“It means,” The doctor said “that you have something special. And if you keep working at it, Izuku… you’ll be able to do amazing things.”

In one world, Izuku was born quirkless, his dream shattered before he even had a chance to shine.

In another world, he was blessed at birth, or perhaps cursed, with a stronger version of his mothers quirk.

Forced to live life as one of the strongest, Izuku navigates the world with his responsibility weighing heavy on his shoulders...

Well? This is that world. Buckle up, we're in for a rough ride.

Chapter 1: Izuku Midoriya : Telekinetic Origins

Notes:

Sup, welcome to my first attempt at a long fic. This fic was pretty much born from me not finding any Telekinetic Izuku fic with everything I was looking for (not that I'm saying I'm a better author, I just want a very specific story).

Feel free to comment your thoughts on the chapter, any and all feedback is appreciated :3

(Also, ik its a corny chapter name, just bare with me)

They say it started with a single glowing baby.

 

Qing Qing City, China. A newborn shimmered with light in his mother’s arms, his body radiating an otherworldly glow. No one could explain it. Doctors were stunned. Cameras flashed. And just like that, the world began to change.

 

They called them Quirks, abilities that defied logic and reason. At first, they were rare, miracles really. But within a few decades, they were everywhere. Powers that once belonged only to comic book pages and legends became everyday realities. People could fly, bend metal, manipulate fire, regenerate, or warp space. Society scrambled to catch up, reshaping itself around these new abilities. Governments fell. New laws were written. Crime took on new, terrifying forms.

 

But in the chaos, hope appeared. People stood up. People who didn’t want to rule, but to protect. People who chose to be better.

 

They were called heroes.

 

Over time, they were given licenses, rankings, status. They became the frontline of civilization’s defense, public servants, celebrities, and warriors all rolled into one. The top heroes were idolized, worshipped, and scrutinized in equal measure.

 

But all good things come at a cost.

 

Not every quirk was equal. Not every child was born with something useful, or even with anything at all. For every star, a hundred were left in the shadows.

 

And in the middle of it all stands one person whose story has yet to be written, a student, a dreamer, a fighter. Someone who will shape the future of hero society in ways no one can predict.

 

This is not just a story about powers.

 

This is a story about what it means to be a hero.

 

---

 

The television in the waiting room buzzed softly, the screen flickering with a commercial for All Might brand vitamins. A foam cutout version of the Symbol of Peace posed heroically, shouting something about "Plus Ultra bone growth!" while holding a colorful bottle of pills.

 

The hospital was quiet except for the humming lights and the sound of someone coughing far away. Izuku didn’t like it here. Everything smelled funny, and the walls were too white.

 

He held his All Might backpack on his lap, hugging it to his chest as he swung his feet back and forth with a mixture of boredom and nervousness.

 

“Mom,” Izuku whispered, tugging at Inko’s sleeve “Do you think I’ll have a cool quirk?”

 

Inko smiled down at Izuku “Of course, baby. Whatever it is, it’ll be special. Just like you.” She said before ruffling his fluffy green hair.

 

Izuku smiled back at her as she ruffled his hair, before going back to staring at the nurse, hoping that his name will be next.

 

Kacchan already had his quirk, he could make little explosions with his hands. The teachers said that it was super strong.

 

Izuku looked at his own hands, he didn’t explode, or glow, or float. He tried, He even jumped off of the couch once and shouted “Detroit Smash!!”...all he got was a scraped knee.

 

“Izuku Midoriya? Is there an Izuku Midoriya here?” The nurse called out, snapping Izuku out of his thoughts.

 

He and his mother stood up, and followed the nurse into the doctor’s office. “Doctor Ts-Tsubasa?” Izuku whispered to himself, trying to sound out the doctor’s name.

 

They were met with a short bald man in a doctor’s coat with a fluffy grey mustache, and green goggles on his face. “You must be Izuku and Inko Midoriya, correct?” he asked as he looked up from the folder in his hands.

 

“Y-yes.” Izuku squeaked out nervously, feeling like a swarm of bees were flying around in his stomach.

 

His mother looked down at him comfortingly, before turning to the doctor “Yes, that’s us, Dr. Tsubasa.”

 

“Come in, take a seat.” The doctor said before placing the manilla folder on the table in front of them “I have Izuku’s quirk results right here” He said as he pointed to the folder.

 

“S-so... What quirk do I have Doctor Ts-Tsubasa?” Izuku asked nervously as he stared at the folder in front of him, swinging his feet back and forth impatiently.

 

“No need to be so nervous kiddo.” Dr. Tsubasa said to Izuku with a kind smile, before explaining. ”You have a pretty simple telekinesis quirk, basically just a stronger version of your mom’s quirk.”

 

“Tele- Tele-what?” Izuku asked, his nervousness forgotten and replaced by confusion.

 

“Telekinesis.” Dr. Tsubasa repeated, still smiling. “It means you can move things with your mind.”

 

Izuku’s eyes went wide “Like- Like in the cartoons? Like when the person stares really hard at a spoon and it floats up?” He asked excitedly as he leaned forward in his chair “I can do that?”

 

Dr. Tsubasa chuckled good naturedly “Well, not right away. Your quirk just started to develop, so it’ll be weak at first. But with practice, and if you work hard-”

 

But before he could finish, Izuku’s eyes locked onto the manilla folder laying on the desk in front of him.

 

He wasn’t even thinking, just trying to feel the folder through his mind. His fingers curled around the edge of his seat as his face scrunched up in concentration.

 

‘Move.’ He thought to himself, staring as hard as he could at the folder.

 

And move it did.

 

The folder lifted off of the desk slowly, wobbling a little at the start before smoothly rising up into the air.

 

Inko gasped in shock as she stared at the manilla folder, which was now hovering in the air, right above the desk.

 

Dr. Tsubasa’s sentence caught in his throat as he watched his folder hover about a foot and a half above his hard wood desk, completely still in the air.

 

A huge grin broke out in Izuku’s face. “I did it! I did it!” He shouted with glee as he pumped his fists up in the air.

 

The folder wobbled as Izuku lost concentration, before dropping back onto the desk with a soft thump.

 

“That… you weren’t supposed to be able to do that yet.” Dr. Tsubasa muttered, blinking.

 

Inko stared at her son, her eyes wide with shock “Izuku… How did you do that?”

 

“I- I just thought about it” Izuku said as he looked at his mom with confusion, as if he didn’t understand their shock. “D-did I do something wrong?” He asked as he looked around worriedly.

 

Dr. Tsubasa leaned back in his chair, clearly impressed “Did something wrong? Kid that was amazing. You have very strong early control. That kind of precision right after learning about your quirk is incredibly rare, especially with a quirk as difficult to use as telekinesis.”

 

Izuku grinned so wide his cheeks hurt. “Does that mean that I’m strong?”

 

“It means,” The doctor said “that you have something special. And if you keep working at it, Izuku… you’ll be able to do amazing things.” Dr. Tsubasa told him with an encouraging grin.

 

Inko smiled radiantly at her son “You’re going to be such a wonderful hero one day baby… I just know it.”

 

Izuku jumped at his mom and hugged her tightly, unable to contain his excitement and joy.

 

Because it wasn’t just a dream anymore. His story had already begun.

Notes:

So... How did yall feel about this chapter? I thought I did alright. If you haven't guessed from this chapter, I'm setting Izuku up to be on par with the likes of Bakugo and Todoroki with the quirk he was born with.

Also, I'll be adding more tags as the story progresses, rather than all at once.

Adios!

Chapter 2: An Impossible Legacy Quirk

Notes:

Here's chapter 2! It's about 3.3k words, so I hope you enjoy!

Feel free to comment your thoughts on the chapter, any and all feedback is appreciated :3

(Again, ik its a corny chapter name, just bare with me)

Ten Years Later

 

“This is your third and final year in Junior High. It’s time for you to start thinking about your futures and what Highschool you want to go to!"

 

A middle aged man said while grinning at his students. He was dressed in a well-worn beige suit, with his arms propping himself up as he leaned on his desk.

 

"So, I prepared some career aptitude tests.” He pauses for a moment as he holds up a stack of papers, before tossing them up in the air, “Ahh, what the hell! We all know you want to go through the hero track!”

 

All the students in the class excitedly used their quirks, showing off their unique superpowers. All except two people that is, one with green hair and the other with blonde.

 

The blonde can be seen sitting leisurely in his chair, his head thrown back as he propped up his legs on his desk.

 

While the green-haired boy can be seen with his cheek propped up on his hand as he stared at his notebook intently, sketching the figure of a new Pro-Hero, who's made of and can control wood.

 

“Hey, teach! Don’t lump me in with these worthless extras. I’m the real deal, while these losers would be lucky to be the sidekick to some washed up D-lister.” The blonde-haired boy says confidently, an arrogant smirk spreading across his face.

 

“You think you’re better than us? Huh?!” One of the guys in the classroom yells out, while the rest of them glare at the blonde.

 

“Hmph- Face it, you’re all playing catch up. I’m the one that's made for this.” The blonde says with an arrogant cadence, while leaning back on his chair.

 

He then jerked his thumb towards the green-haired boy. “The only one who can keep pace is him. The rest of you are just dead weight.”

 

“Cmon Katsuki, that’s not very nice, is it?” The green-haired boy chastised lazily, not bothering to look up from his notebook.

 

Katsuki Bakugo :-

Quirk: Explosion

Through his modified sweat glands, Katsuki secretes nitroglycerin-like sweat from the palms of his hands and ignite it on command, to create explosions of varying severity.

 

“Am I wrong though, Izuku?” Katsuki asks as he turns back to look at his best friend with a knowing look in his eyes.

 

Izuku Midoriya :-

Quirk: Telekinesis

Izuku can move objects of varying sizes and mass using his mind, up to 10 objects weighing 200 kilogram (440 pounds). The weight he can lift and the number of objects he can move are inversely proportional, but the maximum number of objects he can control at once as of now is 10.

 

“Yeah yeah, just don’t keep this up when we’re in UA.” Izuku said lazily as he looks up from his notebook, his eyes glancing over to Katsuki.

 

“UA? They’re trying for the premier hero school in Japan?! But they only have a 0.2% acceptance rate!” A random student shouted while the others turn to look at the two in shock.

 

“We aced all the mock tests, and we’re pretty good at using our quirks. I think we have a pretty good chance.” Izuku said with a shrug before he waved his hand, his stationaries automatically making their way into his bag.

 

“Ahh, that feels good.” He said as he stood up and stretched his back.

 

“Pretty good chance? Don’t pretend to be humble Izuku, we both know that we have the best chance of getting into UA than anyone else in this country.”

 

Izuku shrugged in response before slinging his bag over his shoulder and turning to leave.

 

“Welp, there’s my cue to leave. Could you tell my mom that I’ll be home a bit late today, Katsuki?”

 

“Sure, where’re you going though?” Katsuki asked with a raised eyebrow as he packs up his stuff, not paying attention to the other students that are leaving the classroom quickly.

 

“I heard that they released some new hero merch, so I thought I’d go check it out.”

 

Katsuki perked up as he heard Izuku mention hero merch. “If you find that new Mirko figurine… Could you buy it for me?” He asked with a small blush.

 

“Sure, I’ll buy it if I can find it, just don’t put it in a jar yeah?” Izuku responded teasingly before running out of the classroom faster than Katsuki can respond.

 

“FUCK YOU, IZUKU!”

 

 Izuku grinned as he got the exact reaction he was looking for as he sprinted out of the school, his legs taking him towards his destination, Coruscant Hero Merch Store.

 

---

 

“Damn good haul today! The limited-edition Silver All Might figurine, and the Luna Fall Mirko figurine, all for 50,000 yen too.” Izuku said as he looked down at the plastic bag he was carrying, in which 2 Signed Silver All Might figurines and 2 Luna Fall Mirko figurines jostled with each step he took.

 

“Huh? What the hell is that smell?” Izuku exclaims as his nose crinkles with disgust, as he walked under the Naboo bridge.

 

He turned around as he felt something move behind him, only to be met with a large creature made of sludge, with only it's eyes and mouth being solid.

 

“A medium sized skin suit, PERFECT TO HIDE FROM ALL MIGHT!” The sludge creature yelled out with maniacal glee as it threw itself at Izuku in an attempt to grab him.

 

“What the fuck?” Izuku sounded out confusedly, before jumping back, evading the sludge creatures attempt to grab him, as he looked around for anything he could use against the sludge creature.

 

‘A couple of 2 liter bottles, perfect.’ Izuku thought to himself as he noticed 2 discarded soda bottles, before floating them towards the sludge monster.

 

“STOP MOVING YOU BRAT, JUST STAY STILL ALREADY!” The sludge monster yelled out angrily as it continued to throw its sludgy body towards Izuku, not noticing the plastic bottles float behind him.

 

‘Alright, now for the hard part.’ Izuku thought as he jumped back, avoiding another arm of sludge before taking a deep breath.

 

He then thrusted his arms out towards the sludge creature, his face adopting a look of extreme concentration.

 

“Huh? HEY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING KI- UGH!” The sludge creature choked out as he got compressed and sealed inside of two plastic soda bottles.

 

Izuku panted as he fell to one knee, before capping the bottles and setting them on the floor.

 

“I swear to god, if my figurines are broken, I’m killing someone.” He said as he checked the plastic bag in his hand, making sure that none of the figurines or their boxes are damaged, before sighing in relief.

 

Izuku then looks up as he feels a gust of wind hit him. His eyes widen as he saw All Might standing in front of him, posed heroically.

 

“I AM HERE TO- Oh, I thought that villain would be here.” All Might looked around confusedly ‘I swear that I saw that villain go here, where the hell is he?’

 

“HOLY SHIT, IT’S ALL MIGHT!” Izuku gushes excitedly, his exhaustion forgotten as he goes starry eyed at his favorite hero.

 

“Ah a fan, are you? Are you ok kid?” All Might asked with his titular megawatt smile, crouching down to Izuku’s level as he checked on him.

 

“Did you see a villain pass by this bridge? Like a large sludge like person with normal pair of eyes and mouth?”

 

“Huh? Oh, that sludge guy was a villain? Yeah, I saw him… He’s in those bottles.” Izuku said while clutching his head as a massive headache sets in ‘Fuck, I hate how annoying fluids are to control.’

 

“Those bottles? Young man, did he try to attack you? Do you need me to get you to a hospital?” All Might asks as he looked at Izuku worriedly as he saw him clutch his head, before grabbing the bottles and stuffing them in his cargo pants.

 

“Yeah, he tried to… possess me, I guess? I have a telekinesis quirk, so I managed to seal him in those bottles without being touched by him.” Izuku said before getting up and dusting his pants, managing to ignore his prodding headache.

 

“A-All Might… If you’re not too busy… Could you sign something for me please?”

 

“You managed to defeat the villain? Without getting damaged at that? That’s pretty impressive young man! And sure, show me what you want me to sign.” All Might told him with an encouraging grin, barely holding back a wince as he felt his torso constrict uncomfortably.

 

‘I’m already past my limit, but I’m sure I can last a few more minutes.’

 

Izuku excitedly set his bags down before grabbing an All Might themed notebook, with the words ‘Quirk Analysis For The Future : Vol 1 (Remastered)’ written in marker.

 

“Please sign here, sir” He said respectfully as he flipped to his entry on All Might.

 

“Hmm, this is some very advanced analysis, young man!” All Might said in an impressed tone as he flipped through his entry.

 

"There isn’t much info on his quirk, but I theorize that it’s a stockpiler quirk. Most probably he was born with a crazy amount of energy rather than building it up from scratch."

 

‘Huh, this kid is actually pretty close to the truth…’ All Might thought to himself. “Tell me, are you planning to be a hero?” He asked curiously as he looked at Izuku.

 

“Yes sir. I actually plan to apply to UA and take their entrance exam next year!” Izuku said with a grin, making his passion for heroics apparent.

 

“Is that so? It’s good that you’re keeping your mind sharp, one too many heroes ignore their ability to analyze a situation in favor of power!” All Might complimented, commending Izuku on his analysis.

 

“Now, where do you want me to sign this, young man? And do you have something I could sign with?”

 

Izuku blushed at the praise, before getting on his tippy toes and pointing out a blank space next to a realistic pencil drawing of All Might.

 

“C-could you sign it there, sir? A-and here you go.” He said as he handed him a sharpie, feeling slightly nervous around his idol.

 

“AHAHAHA Of course, young man! And no need to call me sir.” All Might said with a grin before signing Izuku’s notebook, and handing it back to him. “Now, I must be going, although you didn’t get hit by the villain, I’d still recommend you get yourself checked out.” He advised Izuku as he prepared to jump through the city before stopping.

 

“Before I go, what’s your name, young man?” All Might asks Izuku, looking back at him from his crouched position.

 

Izuku blinked, caught off guard by the sudden question before he straightened his back out.

 

“Izuku Midoriya, sir”

 

“My name is Izuku Midoriya”

 

“Izuku Midoriya huh? I’ll look out for your name in 4 years, once you graduate UA.” All Might grinned at him before leaping into the sky with a loud BOOM , creating a gust of wind that ruffled Izuku’s curly green hair.

 

“He me asked for my name…” Izuku said to himself softly “HOLY SHIT, ALL MIGHT ASKED FOR MY NAME!” He yelled out, the moment finally setting in for him.

 

Izuku grinned with elation, his whole body feeling warm with pride “I’ll make sure he never forgets it…”

 

…

 

“Wait no that sounds like something from a villain monologue.” He said with a sweat drop, before starting his walk back home.

 

---

 

‘Damn, this shit goes hard!’ Izuku thought to himself as he listened to Odo by Ado, bobbing his head with his eyes closed as he leisurely walked to his home.

 

Izuku tilted his body just enough to avoid a woman rushing past him in heels, barely registering her presence.

 

Izuku opened his eyes as he felt a kid run after his ball that fell onto the road, before thrusting his free arm out and pulling both the kid and his ball back onto the sidewalk, right as a car sped past them.

 

“Hey, you ok, kid?” Izuku asked with a smile as he crouched down to the boy, handing him his ball back, as the music in his headset paused automatically.

 

The boy nodded, his eyes wide as he reaches out and takes his ball back. “T-thank you, mister!”

 

Izuku just grinned and ruffled the kid’s hair. “Don’t go running into traffic again, ok? If that car hit you, you could’ve been seriously hurt.”

 

The kid nodded quickly before running back to the park, greeting his friends with a grin as he throws the ball.

 

Izuku looks at the kids with a smile, before going to resume his music.

 

“Nice going kid, but you know that public quirk use is illegal right?”

 

Izuku turned his head to the side, before his eyes widen in recognition.

 

'Wait… Is that All Might?... He looks so… gaunt.’ He thought to himself as he looked at a tall gaunt man clad in a baggy white shirt and baggy green cargo pants, the exact attire that All Might was wearing when he took away the sludge villain.

 

‘Hell, he has the same eyes and hair too… He even feels the same.’  Izuku thought to himself before standing up “H-hey uh- You wouldn’t happen to be All Might would you?” He whispered so only he and the gaunt man could hear him.

 

“All Might? I don’t know what you’re talking about kid… Call me Toshinori Yagi.” Toshinori said as he looked down at Izuku with a knowing look, before putting a finger to his lips to discretely ask him to keep quiet about this.

 

Izuku nodded, understanding the gesture as he played along.

 

“Right, sorry. I don’t know what got over me… And I’m pretty sure I’m protected under the Good Samaritan law right?

 

“That you are… Good on you, saving that kid I mean.” Toshinori said as he watched Izuku get up from his crouched position. “Mind if I walk with you?”

 

“N-no no, not at all.” Izuku said with a slight stutter, blushing from the praise from his idol before taking his headset off, letting them rest on his shoulders.

 

“Tell me kid… Why do you want to be a hero?” Toshinori asked him curiously, walking along side Izuku.

 

“I…” Izuku took a deep breath, “My father died when I was 10.” He breathed out, his voice shaking ever so slightly as he tries to keep himself calm.

 

Toshinori’s eyes widen, but he stays quiet as Izuku continues.

 

“It was a bank robbery, run of the mill stuff, dad was cashing in a check when the robber held him hostage… The guns safety was off and he accidentally pulled the trigger.” Izuku recounted, wiping off a stray tear from his face as he continued.

 

“Seeing him getting his head blown off that day made me realize… Life’s unfair, anything and everything you adore can be taken away from you when you least expect it.”

 

Toshinori listened intently, his attention solely on Izuku as he continued to speak.

 

“Until that point, I always thought that the heroes would save the day, that they’d make sure no one was hurt... But that day I didn’t have a hero, the one day I desperately needed someone to save my dad I didn’t have a hero…”

 

“I don’t want anyone else to go through that, I want to be a hero who saves people with a smile on my face, and be the hero I desperately needed that day.” Izuku finished, his eyes burning with passion as he declared his goal.

 

Toshinori stopped in his tracks, taking a long, quiet look at Izuku. Memories resurfaced, of a beautiful woman, stretching her lips into a wide smile using her thumbs.

 

 ‘A true hero saves not only their lives, but also their hearts... That's what I believe. So no matter how scary things get, give 'em a smile, as if to say, "I'm a-ok". The people in this world who can smile are always the strongest.’

 

'This kid! He reminds me of…’ Toshinori thought to himself, One for All hummed beneath his skin approvingly. ‘That fire, that… That unshakable resolve to smile through despair… Nana… I think I’ve found my successor.’

 

Toshinori looked around and noticed that they were standing in a quiet and empty neighborhood, before exhaling.

 

“…You remind me of her.” Toshinori said softly, his voice barely above a whisper.

 

Izuku tilted his head in confusion “Her?”

 

“My mentor,” Toshinori clarified, his eyes wistful as he stares up at the setting sun “Nana Shimura. She used to say that the strongest people in this world are those that can smile, no matter what.”

 

His eyes turned back to Izuku “I see her in you… And that’s why I have an offer for you.”

 

Izuku blinked, unsure what to say, but Toshinori continued.

 

“There’s a power I carry, young Midoriya. A power that isn’t mine alone. One for All, it’s a sacred torch passed down from generation to generation, from one hero to another. A legacy quirk built up for the past 200 years, from the very Dawn of Quirks...”

 

Toshinori buffs up to his muscle form, filling out his clothes properly and staring down at Izuku with his expressive blue eyes.

 

“And I believe you’re worthy of inheriting my power!” All Might offered, his voice booming as he holds out his hand.

 

“I-I WHAT? YOU’RE TELLING ME THAT YOU CAN PASS DOWN YOUR QU- uh- I shouldn’t yell that out, but holy shit this is crazy. A quirk that can be passed down? I didn’t even think that was possible!” Izuku muttered to himself in disbelief, keeping his voice as low as he possibly could. 

 

“Well, you know what they say young man… Quirks are bullshit!” All Might said with a grin, before deflating and coughing up some blood.

 

“Oh, shit. Are you alright?” Izuku asked worriedly, his confusion about the logistics about All Might’s quirk forgotten as he rushes to him, offering him a handkerchief.

 

Toshinori motioned him to calm down before lifting up his shirt, showing a gruesome purple scar on the left side of his torso.

 

“Pretty gross right? I got this in a big fight 5 years ago, my respiratory system was basically destroyed, I lost my whole stomach… At this point, I can only do hero work for about 3 hours a day.”

 

“A villain strong enough to do that much damage to you? Who was he?” Izuku asked while looking at his scar with wide eyes.

 

“The villains name was All for One, born at the Dawn of Quirks, he had the power to give and take quirks… If you’re wondering if he’s still alive, he isn’t. I made sure of that.” Toshinori said with a solemn tone.

 

Izuku stares at Toshinori for a couple seconds before nodding understandingly “A villain with a power like that… I get why you killed him… Is uh- Is One for All Related to All for One by any chance?”

 

Toshinori lifts an eyebrow, surprised at Izuku’s reaction “Yes, All for One had a brother, the brother was thought to be quirkless, and whether out of some twisted form of love or to control him, All for One gave him an energy stockpiler quirk…”

 

“But as it turned out, the brother had a hidden quirk, which have him the ability to transfer it to someone else. The two quirks combined to form One for All.”

 

Izuku stood there in shock for a couple moments “I-I don’t know what to say…”

 

“And that’s alright, go home and think it through, then meet me at Dagobah Municipal beach tomorrow, at 5 in the morning. I’ll be waiting for you.” Toshinori told him before walking away, his silhouette disappearing into an alley way.

 

Izuku stood still for about 15 minutes after Toshinori had left, before shaking his head “I… I accept.” He said to himself softly, before continuing his walk back home.

Notes:

I hope my characterization of Katsuki and All Might were good, I tried to make Katsuki overconfident, just without the bullying and abusive tendencies.

Also, I remember reading a couple fics with Bakugo having a crush on Mirko and thought that was hilarious, so I used that in my fic too (Incase it wasn't clear, Katsuki was blushing because of Mirko, not Izuku.)

Also, I'm sorry, but I'm not gonna make Izuku call Katsuki "Kacchan" unless it's a flashback to them as kids, it's just a REALLY childish nickname (which makes sense in canon cuz Izuku is holding onto Katsuki because he thinks of his childhood friend, not his bully, but that doesn't make sense in the context of my fic :3)

I got the idea of All Might talking to Izuku after the sludge incident without the rooftop stuff from the fic The Strength of a Son by Swedish_LightBringer . Check out that fic, its great!

(Also, Izuku is an Ado fan now, and she exists in the universe of MHA. Do what you will with that piece of info)

Chapter 3: Public Service

Notes:

Basically just the chapter where Izuku gets One for All, just thought I'd lay this out now so I can work on the UA entrance exam when I'm free later this month.

“Mmm~ You’re a such good boy for me, aren’t you Izuku?”

 

“Y-yeah! I-I’m your go-“

 

“THE MORNING IS HERE! THE MORNING IS HERE!”

 

“Huh?” Izuku sounded out confusedly as he rubbed his eyes.

 

“God fucking damn it! It was just getting to the good part!” Izuku yelled out in frustration before slapping his All Might alarm clock.

 

“Why did I even set an alarm for 4 in the morning?” He asked himself before remembering the events of the previous day.

 

“And that’s alright, go home and think it through, then meet me at Dagobah Municipal beach tomorrow, at 5 in the morning. I’ll be waiting for you.”

 

“Oh… Right, One for All.” Izuku muttered to himself before getting out of bed, dutifully setting his bed before taking a shower and getting dressed in a random t-shirt and some running pants.

 

He grabbed a protein shake and a couple bottles of water, and stuffed them into his workout bag and made his way to the beach.

 

---

 

Izuku’s nose crinkled in disgust as he walked into Dagobah Municipal beach, the scent of trash overwhelming his senses ‘Why the hell did he want to meet me here?’

 

“Ah, young Midoriya! You’re early.” Toshinori said as he pulled up in his well-worn pick-truck. “I assume this means what you accept my offer?”

 

Izuku looked down at his watch for a moment.

 

4:35 AM

 

“Yeah, I’m really pumped up for this!” Izuku said with a grin, before looking back at the tens of piles of trash on the beach. “Why here though?”

 

“This, young Midoriya, is where you’ll be training to accept One for All!” Toshinori said with a grin as he got out of his pick-up truck and walked towards Izuku.

 

“Train how? By cleaning up the trash?” Izuku asked as he motioned towards the gigantic heaps of trash.

 

“Correct! While it is clear that you exercise,” Toshinori motioned towards Izuku’s lean figure “One for All requires a high amount of muscle mass to deal with the backlash caused by the quirk.”

 

“If you were to use it right now… I’d say you could handle about 5%, but usage at 100% would likely kill you almost instantly.” Toshinori said seriously, making Izuku’s eyes widen with surprise.

 

 “So, before I give it to you, I want to make sure you can at least use 15% and be able to survive a single use of 100%, just in case you accidentally use it.”

 

“R-right… So, I’m guessing you brought me here so I could clean the beach?” Izuku asked while he reached out with his telekinesis, lightly brushing across trash on the beach to get an idea about how much trash was present here.

 

“Correct! As you clean this beach, you’ll gain not only bulk on the major muscles, you’ll also get stronger stabilizer muscles. As a bonus you’ll be helping out the community by cleaning up this beach!”

 

Toshinori told him before tossing him a clean pair of thick work gloves and a face mask. “Wear that, I don’t want you to hurt yourself… Speaking of which, you are up to date on your tetanus shot right?”

 

“Yeah yeah, I’m up to date with it… Can I get started then?” Izuku asked as he put on the gloves and the face mask, before stretching his arms and legs.

 

“Knock yourself out! I think a good goal would be getting this section of beach clean before the UA entrance exam, so about 10 months.” Toshinori said as he marked out an area of the beach, containing about 20% of all the trash in the beach.

 

“Oh, and try not to use your telekinesis, you’re allowed to use it if trash falls on  you or something, but do most of the work with your muscles.”

 

Izuku nodded before finishing his stretching and getting to work on the beach.

 

---

 

Ten Months Later – 3 days  before the UA Entrance Exam

 

Toshinori couldn’t suppress the grin on his face as he drove to the beach. After all, he had just gotten back from an emergency recuse operation that kept him away from his successor for 2 months.

 

The thought of his successor brought a smile to his face. The kid was one of the hardest workers he’d ever met, not a single complaint about cleaning up the beach. The kid just seemed happy to help out the community.

 

‘Wait… It can’t be!’ Toshinori thought to himself as he saw Izuku carrying a car on his back.

 

While that wouldn’t be surprising on its own, what did make him go slack jawed was the fact that the entire beach was clean, not a single piece of rubble or trash on the beach.

 

Izuku Midoriya had not only finished his task within the time limit, but he had also cleaned the entire beach rather than just 20% of it.

 

“Holy… Stinking… SUPER CRAP!” Toshinori exclaimed as he got out of the car, buffing up to his muscle form in excitement.

 

‘I knew I made the right choice with you, young Izuku’

 

“Huh? Oh, hey All Might!” Izuku greeted with a tired grin, dropping the car and compressing it into a dense cube of metal, placing it near the other dense cubes of trash using his telekinesis.

 

“Young Izuku! You cleaned the entire beach! Within the time limit too!” All Might exclaimed before proudly patting Izuku on the back.

 

“Hehe, thanks All Might… Honestly I just forgot where you drew the line and ended up cleaning the whole beach.” Izuku said with an embarrassed blush, before taking a seat on a side wall.

 

“You… You did 5 times the work I told you to because you forgot?” All Might asked incredulously, not believing his ears.

 

“Mhm… But it feels nice to see the entire view of this beach. You know, this is where my parents first met, mom used to tell me all about how beautiful the view of the ocean was from here.” Izuku said with a smile as he looked at the sunrise.

 

“Tell me All Might… Do you think I’m ready now?” Izuku asked with conviction, staring dead into All Might’s eyes.

 

“You did good kid!... There’s a long way ahead of you until you can use the entirety of my power… But it starts today!” All Might said as he plucked a strand of his hair from his long blonde bangs.

 

Izuku’s eyes light up in excitement as he hops off of the side wall, standing in front of All Might. “Alright! How do I get One for All?”

 

“Eat this!” All Might said as he held out a strand of his hair while looking at Izuku expectantly.

 

“Huh? I… All Might, I’m not gonna eat your hair.” Izuku said with a deadpan look.

 

“To gain my quirk you need to consume a piece of my DNA, so unless you want to eat my flesh or drink my blood, this is your only way.” All Might said as he continued to look at Izuku expectantly.

 

Izuku looked at  All Might for a couple of seconds, before sighing and grabbing his bottle of water and taking All Might’s hair, gulping it down in one go.

 

“Jesus Christ, how much product do you use?” Izuku said, sticking his tongue out in disgust.

 

“You don’t get these Plus Ultra Bangs without them, young Izuku!” All Might said as he posed heroically, flashing his smile and holding his arm out in the universal ‘Ok’ sign, before coughing up some blood and deflating.

 

Izuku absentmindedly handed him his bottle, already used to All Might’s gory condition. “So… Uh- How is One for All supposed to feel? Because, I don’t feel different at all.”

 

“It takes some time between your body digesting my DNA and assimilating One for All, it took me only a day or two. So, it will likely show itself around the entrance exam.” Toshinori said as he wiped the blood off of his chin.

 

“So, just go home and rest up, revise for the written exam while you’re at it.” Toshinori advised as he handed Izuku his bottle back. “I have full faith in you, my boy.”

 

Izuku blushed from the praise. ‘No matter how often I hear it, it will never not be amazing to hear that from All Might.’

 

“Say… Could I uh- tell my mother about this? A-and my best friend, they’re the most important people in my life. I don’t want to hide something like this from them.” Izuku asked nervously, fully expecting to be shot down due to the secrecy of One for All.

 

Toshinori looked at Izuku, before shrugging “It’s your quirk now, it’s not up to me who gets to know about it and who doesn’t”

 

“I’d recommend being careful about who you tell, and that you give me an heads up about who it is you revealed it to. But, other than that, it’s your choice. Just make sure you trust them to keep quiet about it."

 

“Oh, great! I- uh- could you… could you be there when I explain this to my mom? I’d appreciate you helping me explain.” Izuku asked nervously, not wanting to take too much of All Might’s time.

 

“Help explain it to your mother huh? Well… I’ll be quite busy for the next two weeks, so if you can wait till then, then sure!” Toshinori answered with a smile, reaching out to ruffle Izuku’s hair.

 

“You don’t have to be so nervous asking me for something young Izuku, you’re my successor now. I’ll do anything I can to help you out, in whatever way you need it.”

 

Izuku’s eyes teared up at the affectionate display, before squeezing his eyes shut to stop himself from crying. “Thank you Sensei… I-I really appreciate all you’ve done for me”

 

Toshinori chuckled. “You don’t have to thank me, my boy. As my successor you’re my top priority… Now why don’t you get going? I’m sure you could use another revision for the written exam t”

 

Izuku nods and turns around to walk back to his house, before turning around “Uh- Sensei, how do I use One for All when it assimilates? Like-how does it work?”

 

“Good question, I… I’m not too sure exactly how to answer that, One for All was much weaker when I received it, so I was always able to use 100% of it right off the bat…” Toshinori trailed off, before continuing.

 

“But that obviously won’t be the case for you, but as a rule of hand, never enhance only one part of your body, that puts an uneven amount of pressure on that part of your body and will probably cause massive amounts of damage to that part of your body, so always enhance your whole body.“

 

“Oh, gotcha gotcha, and I assume I should start off with a tiny amount of one for all at the start?” Izuku asked with an arched eyebrow.

 

“Correct, try to use as little as possible at the start and slowly build up the amount of energy you use, and stop when it starts to hurt. Don’t go past that unless it’s a life or death situation ok?” Toshinori cautioned, looking at Izuku seriously.

 

Izuku nodded, acknowledging Toshinori’s warning “I’ll be carefu.l” He promised sincerely.

 

“Good.” Toshinori said with a warm smile “Remember, pain is your warning, not your enemy.”

 

Izuku nodded before starting his walk back home, before pulling out his phone.

 

He dialed Katsuki’s number and held the phone to his ear. “Yo, I… I have something big I need to talk to you about, mind if I swing by?”

 

“Huh? Don’t tell me you’re not going to UA!” Katsuki says angrily over the phone, instantly assuming the worse.

 

“What? No! It’s nothing like that… Hell it’s something that’ll make me a much better hero.” Izuku said into the phone.

 

“Fine, just bring snacks while you’re at it.” Katsuki says before hanging up.

 

---

 

Bakugo Household

 

Izuku tossed Katsuki a bottle of Crocoassist as he sat on his bed.

 

Katsuki caught it and took a sip, before sitting on his swivel mesh chair and leaning back. “Alright, nerd. Spill it.”

 

 Izuku stayed silent for a moment, looking down at the carpet covered floor of Katsuki’s bedroom, the site of countless arguments, late night gaming sessions, hours upon hours of studying for UA.

 

“I wasn’t just training these last 10 months.” He said quietly, still staring at the floor.

 

Katsuki leaned back in his chair while arching an eyebrow at Izuku. “No shit, you disappeared every morning before sunrise. What were you doing?”

 

“Cleaning Dagobah Municipal Beach.” Izuku answered simply.

 

Katsuki frowned. “That trash filled beach downtown?”

 

“Mhm.” Izuku then proceeded to explain the details of All Might training him, and the secret of One for All.

 

“You’re a moron.” Katsuki said with a deadpan voice.

 

Izuku blinked “Huh?”

 

“You wake up at the crack of dawn, hauling trash off of a beach, without using your quirk mind you, all because a half-dead skeleton version of All Might promised you his quirk.” Katsuki continued, gesturing with his bottle. “You realize how insane that sounds?”

 

“Yeah, no shit. Honestly, I’ve known this for the past 10 months and I’m still flabbergasted by this. Like- Now I have the power of a fucking nuke inside of me.” Izuku said while he leaned back on the bed, lying down with his legs dangling down off of the bed.

 

Katsuki laughed out loud at the absurdity of the situation “You’re a walking disaster, you know that?”

 

“I mean, are you even allowed to tell me about this?”

 

Izuku sat back up and looked at Katsuki with a deadpan look “All Might said that it was my secret now, I get to choose who gets to know it… But, let's be honest, even if I wasn’t allowed to, I wouldn’t hold this back from you once I got it.”

 

Katsuki’s face broke out in a wide grin, before he chugged down the rest of his Crocoassist bottle, and tossing it into the trashcan. “This One for All thing, it’s a power stockpiling quirk right?”

 

“Yeah, a power stockpiler, you down to help me research this?” Izuku asked with a knowing grin, finishing his own drink and tossing it into the trashcan.

 

“Let’s get to it then, we only have 3 days until our entrance exam.” Katsuki said with a matching grin.

Notes:

I hope you guys liked this! Izuku can feel the world around him using his telekinesis, so he has pretty good situational awareness. I hope I made the closeness between Izuku and Katsuki clear with this chapter, they're ride or die homies fr. And dw, this won't devolve into smut, but I'll still have Izuku be a hormonal teenager.

Chapter 4: The Start of One Path, and the End of Another

Notes:

New chapter time! Sorry for taking almost a week.

This is my longest chapter to date, about 3.6k words!

TW :- Driving Accident (Is that a valid tw? Eh, I'm not taking chances)

‘Jeez, how much funding do they have.’ Izuku thought to himself as he and Katsuki walked into the front gates of UA.

 

“We’re in different exam rooms, right, Katsuki?” Izuku asked as he looked at his UA guest pass.

 

“Mhm, I’m in room 2 and you’re in room 3.” Katsuki said before peeking over at Izuku’s guest pass. “When do you plan to change your quirk registry? Because of… you know.”

 

Izuku shrugged “I don’t know, probably after the UA results come out, he is busy for the next two weeks and I need his help to change it without suspicion.“

 

Katsuki nodded understandingly as they walked up to the exam rooms. “Gotcha, see you after the written exam. Good luck, nerd.” He said as he walked into his exam room.

 

“Good luck!” Izuku said back with a wave before walking into his exam room.

 

---

 

‘Seat number 2… Seat number 2…’ Izuku thought to himself as he walked into exam room 2, his eyes scanning across the room, before his eyes landed on the desk next to the window, with the number 2 stamped on the top left corner.

 

‘Aha! There you are!’ He thought to himself with a grin before sitting down, tossing his pencil pouch on the desk and sitting down.

 

Izuku shifted in his seat uncomfortably, staring down at his desk with apprehension for the test. He tilted his head up instinctively as he felt the exam room door click open.

 

‘Damn.’

 

A girl stepped into the room, walking with steady steps, her smooth black hair tied into a ponytail, with a large strand framing the right side of her face

 

Her face was kind, with her black eyes sweeping across the room, before her eyes widened. She then hurriedly left, her spiky ponytail flying behind her.

 

Izuku blinked for a moment before going back to looking at his desk, absentmindedly spinning his pen. ‘She’s… Just… DAMN… Why do I feel like I know her from somewhere?’

 

‘Alright Izuku, enough being horny, you got a test to crush!... She really is pretty, though.’

 

He thought to himself as a couple clones of Ectoplasm walked into the classroom, one clone started explaining the rules of the test, while the other clones handed them their question papers and answer sheets.

 

‘Huh, this is gonna be easier than I thought!’

 

---

 

Izuku walked out of the exam room, stretching his arms above his head with a slight yawn.

 

‘That was surprisingly easy, wasn’t this exam supposed to be hard?’ He thought to himself as he grabbed his bottle of water and took a sip, his eyes scanning across the UA courtyard as he tried to find his best friend.

 

His eyes landed on a familiar head of spiky blonde hair. “Yo! Katsuki! How’d you do on the exam?” He asked as he reached up and swung his arm around Katsuki’s shoulder, hanging off of him as they leisurely walked towards the massive UA auditorium.

 

Katsuki pushed Izuku’s arm off of him “Stop doing that! My neck hurts.” He said with mock anger before dapping Izuku up, clasping their palms together. “It was weirdly easy, the mock tests were way harder.”

 

“Right?! Anyways, lets get to the auditorium, we need to be there in 10 minutes.” Izuku said before running off towards the looming UA auditorium.

 

“Hey! Wait for me damn it!” Katsuki yelled out to Izuku before running after him.

 

---

 

UA’s auditorium was a massive chamber with 3 huge projection screens at the front, and large speakers fitted all around the room.

 

But the best part about this was the person standing on the podium near the screens.

 

Standing in the center of the stage was the tall haired, and small mustached blonde form of the Voice Hero : Present Mic.

 

“FOR ALL YOU LISTENERS TUNING IN, WELCOME TO MY SHOW TODAY! EVERYBODY SAY ‘HEY’!”

 

Izuku grinned. “HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!” He yelled out, before blushing in embarrassment as he realized that he was the only one who yelled out.

 

Katsuki started to quietly laugh at Izuku’s predicament.

 

“Shut up!” Izuku whispered to Katsuki before poking his ribs with his elbow.

 

“THAT LISTENER KNOWS WHATS UP! NOW, I’LL QUICKLY GIVE YOU THE BIG RUNDOWN ON THE PRACTICAL EXAM! SO… ARE YOU READY?” Present Mic asked as he pulled back and pointed his remote at the projector screens.

 

“YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Izuku yelled out excitedly, his previous embarrassment forgotten as he cups his hands around his mouth to amplify his shout.

 

Katsuki tiredly rubbed his face. “You’re embarrassing, you know that?”

 

“I’M ROOTING FOR YOU LITTLE LISTENER! Now, on to the practical exam! We’ll  be conducting a ten-minute mock battle in an urban environment!” Present Mic said as he pressed a button on his remote, making the screens show top-down views of 8 fake cities, along with a map of UA with instructions on how to reach each of them.

 

“After this presentation, you’ll head to your battle center, after changing into your track suits of course.”

 

Izuku looked down at his exam ticket ‘Battle Center C...’ He read out in his mind before tilting his head towards Katsuki’s exam ticket.

 

“I guess people from the same school are meant to be separated.” He muttered out as he read the words ‘Battle Center A’ in Katsuki’s exam sheet.

 

“Looks like it.” Katsuki nodded at Izuku’s assessment, as he looked at Izuku’s exam sheet.

 

“I wonder where I know her from.” Izuku quietly muttered to himself as Present Mic started to explain the point system, the large screens flashing with pictures of the robots.

 

“There are 3 different types of faux villains in each battle center, you earn points based on their level of difficulty. Your goal, my dear listeners, is to earn points by breaking, disabling, or otherwise rending the faux villains unable to attack! And it goes without saying, you are forbidden from attacking or sabotaging your fellow examinees!”

 

Katsuki turns to look at Izuku incredulously “Her? Who the fuck are you talking about?” He whispered to Izuku with a raised eyebrow.

 

Before Izuku could answer, a blue haired boy sitting in front of him raised his hand. “May I ask a question?”

 

“Sure! Go for it, little listener!” Present Mic said enthusiastically as a stage light shined down on the boy.

 

The blue haired boy stood up and raised the exam printout. “On the printout, there are four types of villains! Yet, you have only mentioned three! If this is a misprint, then UA, the most prestigious school in Japan, should be ashamed of that foolish mistake. We examinees are here in this place because we wish to be molded into exemplary heroes!”

 

The bespectacled boy then turned around and pointed at Izuku and Katsuki. “And you two! You have been talking this entire time! It’s distracting! If you’re here to have fun, then you should leave immediately!”

 

Izuku just raised an eyebrow at him “Jeez man, chill out. I’m sure we whispering to each other is sooo much more distracting than you yelling at us.” He retorted, his voice oozing with sarcasm.

 

But before the bespectacled boy could respond, Present Mic interrupted “Okay! Okay! That’s enough you two! The fourth type of faux villain is worth zero points! It’s simply an obstacle. One that isn’t impossible to destroy, but there is no reason to either!”

 

“Now! Off you go, little listeners! You only have 30 minutes to get to the battle center!” Present Mic said as he turned on the lights in the auditorium and ushered them out of the auditorium.

 

Izuku looked at Katsuki as they both walked out of the auditorium “I’ll tell you more about it later. Good luck!” He said with a grin before running off towards Battle Center C.

 

Katsuki nodded before leaving for his own battle center “Good luck, nerd.”

 

---

 

 Izuku stood just outside the gates of Battle Center C, stretching to make sure he wouldn’t pull a muscle.

 

‘This is gonna be the first time I’m using One for All… Hope I don’t end up killing myself!’ He thought to himself morbidly, rolling his shoulders and bouncing on his toes.

 

“TEN, NINE…. GO, THERE ARE NO COUNTDOWNS IN REAL LIFE! GO, GO, GO!”

 

Izuku blinked. “Wait, what?”

 

Too late, the gate had already dropped and a wave of examinees surged forward. But he didn’t panic, he just grinned.

 

Izuku grinned as he felt the warmth of One for All spread throughout his body, making red veins appear on his skin and green static electricity arc from skin.

 

‘Holy fuck! Only at 15% and I already feel incredible!’

 

The world slowed down for Izuku, blurring as he shot towards the open gates, vaulting right over his fellow examinees in one massive leap.

 

He scanned through the fake city block, looking for any robots as he fell through the air. His eyes locked onto a hulking Three Pointer, moving through a road haphazardly.

 

Izuku extended his arms towards the road underneath the Three Pointer, grabbing it with his telekinesis, before yanking himself towards the robot.

 

And a split second later, both of his feet smashed into the side of the Three Pointer’s head.

 

 ‘Gotcha.’

 

Izuku landed on his feet behind the smoking remains of the robot, before his eyes latched onto a Two Pointer, his arm reaching out and grabbing a sharp shard of metal from the destroyed Three Pointer.

 

And he swung his arm, making the shard shoot at the Two Pointer’s head, making it explode into more shrapnel… more ammunition.

 

---

 

A large wall of monitors showed footage of each of the 8 battle centers, showcasing the examinees that were performing the best.

 

“Ohhh~ It looks like we have quite the exciting batch this year~” The R-Rated Hero : Midnight purred as she leaned back in her chair, crossing her legs.

 

“Especially that green haired kid… The hell kinda quirk does he have?” She continued with an impressed tone as she watched monitor number 15 with interest.

 

“The green haired kid? Yeah, it’s insane. Kid’s throwing around robot debris like its precision artillery, whatever quirk he has, he has crazy control over it for his age.” The Blood Hero : Vlad King commented with an equally impressed tone.

 

Toshinori grinned as he heard the impressed words of his fellow teachers “He has a telekinetic quirk with a stockpiling ability fueling it.”

 

“The physical enhancement is part of that stockpiling function. He’s only just started using it in direct combat.”

 

Aizawa’s eyes narrowed at Toshinori “Only just? You say that as if you know the kid.”

 

“Of course I do! I helped him train his body up to use that stockpiler after all!” Toshinori said unflinchingly as he met Aizawa’s stare.

 

“That’s irrational, if you’ve been training this kid, then you should have had this kid in the recommended exam.” Aizawa commented disapprovingly.

 

Toshinori shrugged “I offered the choice to him. Young Izuku turned it down.”

 

Present Mic turned to Toshinori with shock “He turned it down?”

 

Toshinori nodded, leaning back on his chair “Mhm, said he didn’t want to deal with the attention that would come with being my recommended student.”

 

Aizawa blinked, mildly surprised “Huh, didn’t expect that.”

 

“He’s getting a good chunk of rescue points too, only person matching him in points is that blonde with an explosive quirk in Battle Center A.” Vlad King commented with interest.

 

Nezu grinned as he rubbed his hands “That’s all well and good… But lets see how they react when faced with an immovable object shall we?” He said before reaching out to press a large red button.

 

---

 

Izuku was having the time of his life. Who knew that letting loose and decimating a bunch of robots would be good stress relief?

 

’89… 92… 93… 94.’ He counted in his mind as he decimated every robot he saw, before he felt a shift in the air.

 

The very ground under him shook.

 

Izuku looked up as he heard a loud metallic groan and felt a large shadow loom over him and the other examinees.

 

'WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?’

 

“Is… Is that the Zero Pointer?!” He muttered to himself with clear surprise, not expecting what was supposed to be a worthless obstacle be so damn massive and imposing.

 

Not worth any points.

 

Izuku flared up One for All at 15%, feeling the warmth bloom in his chest as he prepared to run away from it.

 

Then he heard it.

 

“HELP! PLEASE!”

 

His eyes shot to the source of the voice, a brunette with her feet stuck under a piece of rubble in the path of the colossal Zero Pointer.

 

Izuku instantly ran up to her, his body moving before he could even think of a course of action “Hey, it’s fine. I’ve got you!’ He said with a comforting smile, before wincing as he noticed the fact that one of her feet looked broken underneath the rubble.

 

The brunette looked up at him appreciatively but her gaze quickly turned fearful as she noticed the large hand of the Zero Pointer right above them “H-hey it’s about to-“

 

Izuku looked up, he felt his heart beat even faster than before. But instead of running away in fear, he grinned, his cheeks flushing as the blood rushed to his face.

 

Flashback Start

 

“Hey Katsuki, watch this.” Izuku said as he lazily floated an empty soda can from his position on his bed.

 

Katsuki looked at the lazily floating can before he turned back to Izuku “Yeah? You could do this shit when you were 4, I don’t know what so special about this.”

 

“Just wait and watch.” Izuku said before he activated One for All, spreading it throughout his body at about 15%, before pouring more power into the telekinesis… Except this time, instead of controlling the object, he bent the fabric of space.

 

Suddenly, the can got squeezed into a smooth aluminum ball, before it started spinning in a vortex, emitting a blue glow as it continued to spin.

 

“What the hell is that?” Katsuki asked as he got a little closer to the blue vortex, before backing off as he felt a pull towards it.

 

“You know how everything exists in the space-time continuum? And how massive objects curve the fabric of space-time around them? I’m that massive object! I bend the fabric of space-time, and since there isn’t any matter there to resist being compressed, it becomes a gravity well that I can move around!”

 

Izuku explained with a grin as he haphazardly moved the blue orb around the room, before cancelling the technique and panting exhaustedly. “It’s really taxing though, I can’t use it for more than a couple of seconds before my head starts to hurt.”

 

“Damnnn, an ultimate move before even giving the UA entrance exam? Good shit nerd, what’re you gonna call it?” Katsuki asked curiously, thoroughly impressed by his rival.

 

“Hmmm, I don’t know why… But I have an urge to name it.” Izuku looked down at his hand, where he created a smaller blue vortex, feeling One for All bloom pleasantly in his chest as he thought of the name.

 

“Lapse Blue”

 

Flashback End

 

Izuku snapped his fingers in front of the brunette’s eyes “Hey, eyes on me, ok? You’ll be fine.”

 

“In fact, wanna see something cool? I recently figured out that I can create little wells of gravity by bending the fabric of space-time… What do you think happens when something, oh I don’t know, a colossal robot, touches that bend in space time?”

 

Izuku held his arm above him, his fingers curling into the classic finger guns sign.

 

A large blue vortex formed in front of his finger guns, about the size of a Wiffle Ball, before he pumped even more of the stockpiled power of One for All into it, maxing out at 50%, making it grow to about the size of his torso.

 

“Lapse… Blue.” He muttered to himself as he released the vortex.

 

The air whipped around them as the vortex chewed through the metal of the colossal Zero Pointer, its metallic body being consumed by the hungry vortex.

 

Izuku’s muscles tensed, his nose leaking like a broken faucet, pouring blood onto the concrete floor, his vision tunneled, but he held it together.

 

I mean, if you’re gonna cause untold amounts of property damage, might as well see it through the whole way, right?

 

The other examinees watched from afar, frozen in awe as the colossal robot folded into itself, the sound of screeching metal and loud explosions deafening as it got compressed into a smooth metal ball.

 

After a couple seconds, Izuku snapped his fingers, canceling out his technique, causing the gigantic smooth metal ball drop to the ground and kick up a massive dust cloud.

 

Izuku coughed before creating another, albeit much smaller, gravity well to get rid of all of the smoke.

 

“It implodes.” Izuku finished with a grin, answering his own question as the girl looked up at him with awe.

 

---

 

“What… What the fuck?” Midnight muttered out in awe as she witnessed the large scale of destruction caused by Izuku’s attack.

 

“Was this part of your training too?!” Vlad King rounded in on Toshinori with pure disbelief.

 

“I… No, this is all him.” Toshinori said in a soft tone, unadulterated pride shining in his eyes.

 

“Jesus Christ, that level of power at the age of 15?” Aizawa shook his head, feeling an incoming headache. “He’s going to be in my class, isn’t he?” He asked with an exasperated tone.

 

"My class, you mean" Midnight corrected with a deadpan stare. "You're not gonna be in charge of any first years after what you pulled last year."

 

"Listen, if they can't understa-"

 

Nezu grinned at the screen as he tuned out his faculty. ‘Spatial manipulation huh? You’ll be one interesting subject… Izuku Midoriya.’

 

---

 

“ALRIGHT, TIMES UP! EVERYONE GO UP TO A MEDI-BOT AND GET YOURSELF CHECKED OUT BEFORE LEAVING!”

 

And with that announcement, the weight of what he’d just done crashed down on him.

 

“Ohhhh, fuck me that hurts!" Izuku groaned in pain as he fell to one knee, cupping his nose to stop the bleeding as he felt his head explode in pain.

 

Izuku took a couple deep breaths before he looked back down at the brunette “You good? I’m Izuku Midoriya by the way.” He said with a strained smile, his head still throbbing with pain.

 

“O-Ochako Uraraka.” She said back with a worried look “I-I think my ankle is sprained, but that’s about it… Are you ok?”

 

“Uh- Probably?” Izuku answered before he quickly turned his head around as he felt the new presence behind him, his sensory abilities not nullified despite his fatigue.

 

“HOLY SHIT, IT’S THE YOUTHFUL HEROINE : RECOVERY GIRL! Oh fu-“ Izuku gushed before quickly keeling down in pain, before shooting out a blood slug from his still bleeding nose.

 

“Are you ok sonny?” She asked before puckering up her lips, stretching it out and kissing him on the forehead, instantly healing the damage on the blood vessels in his nose.

 

“Y-yeah, I’m alright… Over using my quirk makes the blood vessels in my face get strained, most of the time, overusing my quirk makes me get a nasty nosebleed and a headache.” Izuku smiled sheepishly at Recovery Girl, before moving to remove the piece of rubble on Ochako’s leg, allowing Recovery Girl to heal her.

 

‘I feel… Completely fine actually, not even exhausted, isn’t Recovery Girl’s quirk supposed to make me exhausted?’ Izuku thought to himself as he tossed the rubble aside.

 

‘Did her quirk feed on One for All rather than my stamina?’ Izuku thought to himself before he shrugged, walking away from the large wreckage and off towards the male lockers.

 

---

 

“YOU DESTROYED THE ZERO POINTER?!” Katsuki yelled out in disbelief as Izuku told him about his practical exam, as they both walked away from UA, the afternoon sun shining down at them.

 

“Mhm, turns out… I don’t have a stroke when I push myself to the limit!” Izuku said with a grin, his face not reflecting the morbid nature of his words.

 

“You… You have one weird ass sense of humor you know.” Katsuki said as he shook his head with exasperation.

 

“Oh, come on. You’ve known me my entire life, you’d think you’d be used to it by now.” Izuku said teasingly before he heard his phone ring. “Wait a sec.”

 

Izuku pulled his phone out of his pocket, a smile appearing on his face as he noticed who it was from. “Hey mom!” He spoke into the phone as he pressed it against his ear.

 

“Sweetie!” Inko said in a warm voice, slightly muffled by the sound of her driving. “I left work a little early today and I’m on my way home! How was the exam? Are you ok? Did you do well?”

 

Izuku chuckled into the phone “I’m fine mom, me and Katsuki did well on both parts of the exam.” He said happily before his tone turned slightly serious “But mom, are you driving right now?”

 

“I just got on the highway, but don’t worry! I’ve got you on speaker.” Inko responded as Izuku heard a honk.

 

“Yeah? Eyes on the road mom.” Izuku said worriedly “Seriously mom, don’t be that person. When you get back home, I’ll tell you everything.”

 

“Aww, but just a little preview-“

 

“Mom” Izuku said in a resigned tone “Please.”

 

Inko signed, before relenting “Alright, alright. You win, I’ll focus on dri-“

 

CRASH!

 

All Izuku heard before the line went dead was the sickening screech of metal and shattering glass.

 

“…Mom?”

 

Nothing.

 

“MOM?!”

Notes:

So... Uh- I suck at writing Mom-Son interactions cuz personal stuff, so I decided to just merc Inko <3

Anyways, on a more important note. Izuku is literally Gojo now (not really, he's a lot weaker cuz the plot wouldn't exist if Izuku was as strong as Gojo. AFO doesn't stand a chance against Gojo in his weakened state so 0 plot)

I'm not gonna give Izuku something as busted as Infinity, and I'm gonna make the use of Blue VERY VERY taxing in a large scale.

(Oh and Izuku got the urge to name that technique after Gojo's technique because... Well pre quirk era comic book nerd or smth)

Chapter 5: The Way We Handle Grief

Notes:

New chapter! It's literally all character interaction, I can't instantly jump into UA right after killing Inko can I? I wanna show that Izuku's affected by her death, so expect moderately traumatized Izuku!

I don't like writing Inko, but I can't just ignore the implications of her death.

Have 4.4k words worth of uh- fluff and my attempt at writing feelings post parental death!

Izuku and Katsuki ran down the highway, their eyes locked onto the large wreckage.

 

“Holy shit.” Izuku muttered to himself, his heart nearly beating out of his chest as he walked up to the wrecked form of his mom’s car. ‘Please be ok, please be ok.’

 

Katsuki winced as he saw the gory sight of Inko’s mangled body before Izuku “H-hey, maybe you shou-“

 

Izuku’s eyes widened, he felt his vision blur, his ears pick up nothing but the sound of his heart beating, his mouth hung agape as he saw his mother’s corpse lying on the broken car wreckage.

 

He knew he should look away… And God knows he wanted to… But he couldn’t, he couldn’t look away from how his mother’s head was hanging limply to the left, her neck clearly broken beyond repair. Or how the blood from her crushed right side soaked the grey car seats.

 

“Mom?”

 

Izuku woke up with a start, his skin glistening with sweat as he clutched his bedsheets. He was panting, looking around in panic for a moment before sighing in resignation and falling back onto his bed.

 

Izuku stared up at the ceiling for what seemed like hours, his breath still shaky. He then turned to his side, looking at his All Might themed alarm clock, his fingers tapping reaching out and tapping the alarm clock, turning on the backlight.

 

5:42 AM

 

Izuku looked around the relatively unfamiliar room ‘Then again, this used to be the Bakugo Family’s guest room.’

 

The Bakugo’s… Though they were as caught off guard by his mother’s death, they took him in with open arms. And since his mother’s will had them listed as her preferred guardians for him, the process had been expedited.

 

Although they were currently just his temporary guardians, and unless he, for whatever reason, didn’t consent to them being his guardians, they would be his guardians until he turned 18.

 

Izuku was brought out of his thoughts as he heard a knock on the door “Hey nerd, you awake?” He heard a muffled voice through the door.

 

Katsuki Bakugo.

 

Izuku loved his surrogate aunt and uncle more than almost anything, but… his best friend had a special place in his heart.

 

Because, unlike the others, Katsuki didn’t treat him like a fragile shard of glass, he just treated him like normal. Simply offering a shoulder to cry on if need be.

 

Izuku yawned. “Yeah, come in.” He said as he tried to rub the sleepiness from his eyes, sitting up on his bed.

 

Katsuki opened the door, walking into Izuku’s new room, before taking a seat on the office chair near Izuku’s desk. “Hey, you looking forward to getting our results?”

 

“Our results?” Izuku sounded out confusedly, before his eyes widen in realization.

 

“It’s already been a week?” He asked tiredly, the bags under his eyes making it clear that he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a while.

 

Katsuki looked at Izuku with concern. “Jeez, you really haven’t been getting enough sleep, have you?”

 

Izuku shrugged, before he pumped 5% of One for All through his body, instantly waking up at the familiar euphoric rush of 200 years’ worth of stockpiled energy.

 

Katsuki’s worry only increased at Izuku’s response. “You should really stop doing that you know? You’re using it almost like a drug, just taking a couple quick hits of it during the day to keep you awake.”

 

“Cmon Katsuki, chill out.” Izuku said in a carefree tone, his voice jittery and energized, a stark contrast to his previous tiredness.

 

“I’m almost at a breakthrough here. One for All… It does weird things to my body, every time I use the stockpiled energy, I feel more… free. The more I use this beautiful quirk the sooner I can figure it out.” Izuku said, while looking at the open notebook on his desk.

 

He stretched his palm out, making the notebook fly into his hands before he showed Katsuki the contents of his notebook.

 

“Besides, One for All isn’t an Opioid or something, it doesn’t make high, it just… makes my body feel like I’m going to fight someone, thus waking me up! See? Completely safe!”

 

Katsuki raised an eyebrow at Izuku’s insane declaration. “Makes you feel like you’re gonna fight someone? Dude, that doesn’t exactly make it much better, you know?” He said before reading the words on the pages in front of him.

 

“Recovery girl’s quirk? Why the hell are you showing me this?” Katsuki asked Izuku as he read the first couple lines on the page.

 

“Because Katsuki… Recovery Girl’s quirk didn’t just heal me using my stamina… It MADE One for All heal me, her quirk doesn’t actually use your stamina to heal you, it gives your body the ability to use more of your vitality at once!”

 

“Of course, this is just an assumption based on a single use of her quirk on me, but once we’re in UA, I’ll get a lot more opportunities to feel the effects of her quirk… And if I’m right…”

 

Izuku tossed the book back onto the desk, looking at Katsuki with a slightly manic grin “I could heal myself using the stockpiled energy of One for All!”

 

“You’re insane you know that? One interaction with someone’s quirk and you instantly go into how you could use that to your advantage.” Katsuki commented, his worry masked by the fond exasperation.

 

Izuku turned off One for All, his expression significantly calmer now that he wasn’t being fed with nigh on infinite energy. “Honestly? I think you could do something similar too!”

 

“Huh? How? I don’t know if you forgot, but I don’t have the power of a nuke in my back pocket, you know?” Katsuki said sarcastically, thinking that Izuku was rambling in his sleep deprived state.

 

“Dude, you literally create gigantic fucking explosions from your palms. If I had such a large explosion on my hands, they’d literally rip apart because of the backlash, not to mention the heat.” Izuku then pulled his notebook back towards him, turning to a different page and showing Katsuki the calculations he’d done before he went to bed.

 

“Now, these aren’t exact of course, I’m basing this from memory, but if the force is anywhere near this powerful, your wrists would NOT survive. More durable arms notwithstanding.”

 

Izuku then turned another page, turning to a diagram of Katsuki’s hands. “I think… That you absorb a lot of the backlash from your explosions! Now, I really wouldn’t think of something this insane, if it wasn’t for the fact that I met Uncle Masuru’s cousin, the guy with that minor energy absorption quirk.”

 

“Now, again, without proper testing I cannot confirm this, I don’t even know how you’d store it, whether it’s your bones, muscles, or even some special kind of cells that are unique to you.”

 

Katsuki just stared at the incredibly detailed drawing of his palm, with theoretical cells or theoretical cell mutation in his muscles or bones that might allow him to absorb and store some of the backlash from his explosions.

 

Izuku blinked as Katsuki stayed silent, fearing that he went a little too far and sounded weird “S-shit, too much? Sorry du-“

 

Katsuki interrupted him by placing the notebook on the space between him and Izuku, before he pointed at the diagram of his hands. “You think we could find a way to test your stuff at UA?”

 

Izuku’s fears melted almost instantly, his look of panic morphing into a wide smile. “I have no clue, either way, maybe I could ask Toshi if he knows someone that would help us with this.”

 

“Speaking of All Might… Does he know about, uh- you know?” Katsuki asked slightly wearily, the sight of Inko’s bloody corpse haunted him almost as much as it did for Izuku.

 

“Does my mentor know that my mother died in a car crash? No, no he doesn’t.” Izuku said straightforwardly, not beating around the bush about the reason he was currently under the custody of the Bakugo’s.

 

Katsuki winced a little at the direct phrasing, before saying. “Really? I’m surprised, considering how much you gushed over him, I thought you trusted him enough for something like this.”

 

“I trust Toshi more than enough to talk to him about it, but it isn’t really something you talk about over the phone, is it? And either way he said he’d be really busy for a bit. I don’t want to bother him with this.”

 

Katsuki raised an eyebrow at his wording. “A bother? Dude you just lost your mother, if All Might thinks you telling him about it is such a ‘bother’ then he’s a fucking dickhead!”

 

“Cmon Katsuki, you know what I mean, I’m not exactly jumping at the bit to tell everyone I know about how I’m an orphan now. He said he’d ca-“

 

A PHONE CALL IS HERE! A PHONE CALL IS HERE! A PHONE CALL IS HERE!

 

Izuku looked at his phone, slightly irritated that he was interrupted before he noticed the caller ID. “Well… speak of the devil, give me a second Katsuki.”

 

Katsuki nodded understandingly, staying quiet as Izuku picked up his phone and held it up to his ear.

 

“Hey Toshi! Good Morning!” Izuku said in a slightly cheery voice, although it was considerably dampened compared to the morning of the UA Entrance exam.

 

“My boy! Did I wake you up?” Toshinori said through the phone, his tone fond as he got to talk to his successor after almost 2 weeks of no communication.

 

“Nah, you didn’t wake me up… Say, what were you busy with Toshi?” Izuku asked curiously, leaning back against the headboard of his bed.

 

“What I was busy with? Well… You’ll find out today my boy! Just wait and watch, you’ll understand what I mean later today.” Toshinori said with a chuckle, his voice brimming with mirth.

 

Izuku took a deep breath, bracing himself before he spoke.

 

“Oh… Alright then… S-say Toshi… Could we talk? Like, in person.”

 

“Meet up in person? Sure! We could even meet up right now at the beach!” Toshinori replied instantly, before his tone turned into more worried one.

 

“But why? Is something wrong?”

 

“Yeah… Yeah I guess you could say that, I’d prefer telling you more in person though.” Izuku said with a weary tone, making it clear that it was something that weighed down on him.

 

“Of course, my boy, I’ll leave for Dagobah immediately, take your time though.” Toshinori said understandingly, with some rustling sounding through in the background, making it clear that he’s already getting ready to get going.

 

“See you there Toshi.” Izuku said before hanging up the call, tossing his phone back onto the bed with a heavy sigh.

 

“You sure you’re gonna be ok Izuku? I can come with you if you want.” Katsuki offered in an uncharacteristically caring tone, his hand reaching up and grasping Izuku’s shoulder comfortingly.

 

Izuku smiled at Katsuki appreciatively. “Yeah, I… I’ll be fine, I need to do this alone.” He said resolutely.

 

“Anyways, I’m gonna go take a shower, brush and leave go the beach. Uh- Tell Aunty and Uncle for me?” Izuku asked Katsuki as he got up from his bed, stretching his back before walking towards his bathroom.

 

Katsuki nodded before he got up left the room, closing the door behind him.

 

---

 

Dagobah Beach -  6:32 AM

 

“Hey Toshi!” Izuku shouted out as he entered Dagobah Beach, walking towards his mentor.

 

“Sorry if I made you wait for too long.”

 

Toshinori shook his head. “I just get here myself, my boy! I didn’t wait for long.” He said before looking at Izuku in a worried tone.

 

“Tell me, my boy. Is everything ok? Is this about telling your mother about One for All? It’s ok if you told her alrea-“

 

“My mom’s dead.” Izuku interrupted suddenly, clamping his eyes shut to hold back the tears.

 

Toshinori’s eyes widened “I… Izuku, I didn’t kno-“

 

“She was coming home early. She called me right after the exam to know how I did… So happy... So proud… But a moment later, all I was met with was her broken and mangled corpse.”

 

Toshinori stared at Izuku for a couple moments, before stepping forward and grasping Izuku’s shoulders comfortingly. “I’m so, so, sorry, my boy. You shouldn’t have to carry that alone.”

 

“It’s funny, you know? I thought I’d break down telling you this. But honestly?… I just feel hollow, empty.” Izuku said with a bitter chuckle.

 

“I understand how that feels, to lose someone you hold so dearly, their life taken in  gruesome way right in front of you…” Toshinori said understandingly, his eyes shining with sympathy rather than pity.

 

“Your mentor?” Izuku questioned curiously, raising an eyebrow at the taller man.

 

Toshinori nodded, confirming Izuku’s suspicions “Mhm, All for One killed her right in front of me right after I graduated from UA.”

 

“Jeez, that’s rough.” Izuku said with a wince, understanding the pain and powerlessness that comes with losing your loved ones in sudden gory ways.

 

Toshinori shrugged. “I’m over it, but it’s not about me now. It’s about you.” He said, emphasizing his statement by pointing at Izuku’s chest.

 

“I want you to know, Young Izuku, that I will always be there for you. As long as I continue to live and breathe, I will help you with anything and everything.”

 

Izuku felt his eyes water, his vision blurring slightly as the water clouded his eyes. “F-fuck... You’re an asshole, you know that? Making me cry like this.” He said as he wiped the tears from his eyes, before grinning up at Toshinori.

 

“You know… About that helping me thing, I have a couple things I wanna test out with One for All and Katsuki’s quirk.”

 

“Testing out your quirks huh? I’m listening…” Toshinori asked with an intrigued tone, wondering where Izuku’s going with this.

 

“Alright so…”

 

---

 

Bakugo Household Livingroom - 6:02 PM

 

“He told me enough! He told me you killed him.”

 

“No, I am your father.”

 

“I will never get tired of this movie, shitty CGI or not, this is peak fiction.” Izuku said to Katsuki as he levitated some cheesy nachos into his mouth, his eyes not leaving the large flatscreen TV.

 

“Right? Shit was made in the 1980s and it’s still better than a lot of the slop they make now.” Katsuki nodded in agreement, before taking a sip of his Crocodile Assist bottle, sighing in contentment as he did so.

 

“Man, I bet I could pull off a mean ass Darth Vader cosplay.” Izuku said absent mindedly, his eyes still trained on TV.

 

“You’re just saying that because you have a telekinetic quirk, you’re wayyyy too short to pull off a Vader cosplay.” Katsuki responded teasingly, knowing that Izuku gets worked up over the fact that he’s shorter than him.

 

“Oh, fuck you too.” Izuku said with mock annoyance, before continuing. “I mean, OFA is kinda like the Force, right? Ancient, mysterious, impossible to fully comprehend… I mean, if I start hearing voices, then you know what happened.”

 

“You already hear voices, there’s no other explanation for the crazy shit you come up with at 3 in the morning.”

 

That comment got a small laugh from Izuku, the first genuine one since the incident.

 

They sat in silence for a few minutes, the light from the TV flickering across their tired faces. Katsuki eventually reached for more nachos and offered the bowl toward Izuku, nudging his shoulder. “You got to eat more man. You’ve been running on caffeine and adrenaline for days.”

 

As Izuku chewed a mouthful of cheesy nachos, he and Katsuki heard the doorbell ring.

 

“I’ll go get it.” Katsuki said before quickly getting up and walking towards the door, opening it only to find to envelops on the porch, both stamped with the UA symbol on the seal.

 

“Who was it, Katsuki?” Izuku asked as he saw Katsuki just stand still in the doorway, looking down at something in the porch.

 

“Yeah, who was it, brat.” Katsuki’s mother and the Bakugo matriarch, Mitsuki Bakugo called out as she came down from her in home office.

 

Katsuki closed the door and turned around with an exited grin, before showing them the two UA envelops in his hands. “Our results are here!”

 

Izuku sat up instantly, his body flashing with One for All for a millisecond just to energize him. “What’re you waiting for! Gimme!”

 

He said before he held his hand out, the envelop with his name on it shooting out of Katsuki’s hand and into his.

 

“Your results are here? Masaru! Get over here! The kids have their results!” Mitsuki called as she walked into the living room, before plopping onto the couch next to Izuku.

 

Katsuki walked back to the couch and took his seat next to Izuku, his face holding the same excited. “Who’s opening it first? Me or you?” He asked as he looked at Izuku.

 

Izuku smiled at both Mitsuki and Masaru as they joined him and Katsuki on the couch, before turning back to Katsuki. “Uh, I don’t know… Since we’re at your house, why don’t you go first?”

 

Mitsuki and Masaru looked slightly saddened at the fact that Izuku didn’t accept their home as his yet, but Katsuki just have Izuku a dry look.

“Cmon dude, you’re a part of the family now, this house is yours too, but sure, I’ll go first.” Katsuki said seriously before ripping open his envelop, making a small circular projector drop on the coffee table.

 

Mitsuki nodded, taking Izuku’s hand into hers. “I know it’s only been a week since that horrible accident Izuku, but always know that we’re here for you.” She said seriously, with her husband nodding, offering his support silently, before both of their attention is brought to the small projector.

 

“Huh?” Katsuki said, before the projector suddenly turned on.

 

“BOOYAH! I AM HERE, AS A PROJECTOR!” They heard from the projector as All Might, dressed in a striped, yellow suit stood in frame, with a TV behind him.

 

“What the fuck? Why is All Might here?” Katsuki said confusedly as the other 3 stayed quiet, each of their faces sporting a look of confusion before Izuku’s flashed with realization.

 

“You, Young Bakugo, did exceptionally well on this exam!” All Might stated as the TV behind him showed Katsuki’s test results.

 

“You scored 95% on your written exam! Which leaves you at around the 97.5^th percentile of all test takes this year!” All Might said as the TV screen shifted to  show the bell curve of the written exam grades.

 

Katsuki’s parents looked at him proudly, with Masaru reaching out to ruffle his hair before All Might continued.

 

“Now, that score would easily get you into the General Education course, but that’s not what you’re here for are you?” All Might said with a knowing grin, before pressing a button on his remote.

 

The screen started to flash with clips of Katsuki quickly exploding the combat robots while occasional clips of Katsuki helping people by destroying robots that caught them off guard interspersed in between.

 

“You got an even 100 points by destroying the combat robots! While that’s very impressive, that’s not all, after all, what kind of hero school wouldn’t reward for heroic and helpful behavior?” All Might asked rhetorically, as the screen flashed with the number ‘100’ under the words ‘Villain Points’.

 

“For helping your fellow examinees, you have been rewarded with 55 Hero Points! Leaving you with 155 points in total! Making you one of the 4 people who’ve gotten scores above 150 in the UA entrance exam!”

 

“The other 4 being, me, Endeavour, and another examinee from this batch! Well done, Young Bakugo! And welcome… To your hero academia! You’ve been assigned to one of the two hero course classes, Class 1-A!” All Might said with a grin as the screen behind him flashed with the words “1-A”.

 

“Adios! Good luck on your journey as a hero Young Bakugo!” All Might said before the projector turned off

 

Mitsuki grinned and reached out to ruffle Katsuki’s hair, much to his annoyance. “Good job brat! I had no doubt that you’d do well, but you’ve really outdone yourself!”

 

“Mhm! Putting yourself in the very high end of both the written and practical exam! Well done son! I’m proud of you.” Masaru stated as he laughed at the annoyed face that Katsuki wore.

 

“Hell yeah! You did fucking great dude!” Izuku said excitedly before hooking an arm around Katsuki’s neck and pulling him into a side hug.

 

“Of course I did! I bet I got the highest grade in the practical exam!” Katsuki said with a huff, but his face sporting a grin.

 

“Nah, I think I’ve got you beat there, no way that batshit insane move I pulled on the Zero Pointer didn’t net me a fuck ton of points.” Izuku retorted with a competitive grin.

 

“Well? Let’s find out then, open yours Izuku.” Katsuki urged impatiently, nudging Izuku’s ribs with his elbow.

 

Izuku nodded before looking at the unopen envelop on the coffee table, taking a deep breath before opening it. ‘I hope Toshi didn’t make a personalized message for me, that’d force me to explain to Aunt Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru about him mentoring me.’

 

‘But then again… Am I really that opposed to telling them about this?’ He thought to himself as he placed the projector on the coffee table, before throwing the envelop into the trashcan nearby.

 

“BOOYAH! I AM HERE, AS A PROJECTOR!” The projector sounded out at it started playing, All Might appearing again in the same yellow suit in the projection.

 

“I know it’s been a while, but with great power comes great paperwork!” All Might said jokingly, lamenting about the ridiculous amounts of paperwork that kept him busy for the last two weeks.

 

“My apologies, Young Izuku! You, are looking at the newest hero teacher of UA!” All Might revealed with a wide grin, before a man behind the camera says something unintelligible.

 

“Who’s showboating? Wait… How many of these do I have to do?!... Oh god.” All Might said with a horrified look on his face, before clearing his throat.

 

“This seems far more personalized than the one for Katsuki.” Mitsuki mumbled confusedly, with Masaru agreeing.

 

‘I’m fucking cooked.’ Izuku thought to himself as he held his best poker face, with Katsuki giving him a look that said ‘You’re fucked’

 

“So, moving on! You got a score on the 99.999999 and a lot more 9s percentile! The reason there are so many decimals, is because you got a perfect score! In fact, only One other student got such a high grade in your batch! And that student is a recommended student!”

 

Izuku’s jaw dropped, with the other three people on the couch also staring at him in shock.

 

“A perfect score?! That’s amazing Izuku! We’re very proud of you.” Mitsuki said as she reached out and ruffled his messy green hair, making him blush in embarrassment.

 

“That’s seriously impressive kiddo! Good job!” Masaru said with a proud smile, agreeing with his wife.

 

“Good shit nerd, way to go!” Katsuki congratulated him, bumping his fist against Izuku’s, who still looked flabbergasted.

 

Izuku nodded with a small smile, his brain still processing his ridiculously high grade.

 

“Now, that score would easily get you into the General Education course, but that’s not what you’re here for are you?” All Might repeated with the same knowing grin on his face before turning around and pressing the button on his remote.

 

The screen then started flash with clips of Izuku mowing down the combat robots using their own parts, with some clips showing Izuku pulling people out of the range of some of the robot’s attacks.

 

“You got 103 points by destroying the combat robots! While that’s very impressive, that’s not all, after all, what kind of hero school wouldn’t reward for heroic and helpful behavior?” All Might asked rhetorically, as the screen flashed with the number ‘103’ under the words ‘Villain Points’.

 

“For helping your fellow examinees… And that absolutely insane move you pulled on the Zero Pointer, you’ve been awarded with 82 Hero Points! Leaving you with 185 points in total! Making you one of the 4 people who’ve gotten scores above 150 in the UA entrance exam!”

 

“The other 4 being, me, Endeavour, and another examinee from this batch! Well done, Young Izuku! In fact, you hold the records for the highest villain, hero and total points  So, welcome… To your hero academia! You’ve been assigned to one of the two hero course classes, Class 1-A!” All Might said with a grin as the screen behind him flashed with the words “1-A”.

 

“Oh! And try not to pull off a new move at such a high magnitude without testing, I know for a fact you didn’t test your body’s reaction to 100%” All Might said seriously before the projector turned off.

 

“Holy shit.” Izuku muttered to himself, his eyes wide with shock. The Bakugo’s were clearly just as surprised, evident by their matching expressions of shock.

 

“Holy shit! You beat me by 30 points?!” Katsuki yelled out in surprise as he stared at Izuku, who still looked like he was going through a system reboot.

 

“Good job kiddos! You two seriously exceeded all expectations!” Mitsuki sounded out as both she and Masaru pulled both Katsuki and Izuku into a hug, showing their pride in them.

 

Izuku blinked before hugged them back with a grin on his face. ‘Mom… Dad… Are you proud of me?’ He thought to himself as small tears went down his face, making him taste the salty water as it drips into wide smile.

 

Mitsuki noticed Izuku’s tears, before she reached down and placed a kiss on his forehead. “They’d be proud of you kid, trust me, I knew them for longer than you’ve been alive.”

 

“Mhm, anyways… Am I the only one who thinks that All Might was weirdly friendly in Izuku’s video? He even used his first name.” Masaru said while tilting his head in confusion after they pulled away.

 

“Yeah, what’s up with that Izuku?” Mitsuki asked as she turned towards him, making Izuku rub his face with frustration before taking a deep breath.

 

“Look, what I’m about to tell you, you can’t tell anyone. Got it?” Izuku asked as he got up and sat on the coffee table, looking at the Bakugo family seriously, with Katsuki sporting a look of surprise.

 

“You’re going to tell them? Really?” Katsuki asked with a raised eyebrow as he leaned back on the couch.

 

“What are you two talking about? Is everything ok?” Masaru asked worriedly as he looked between Izuku and Katsuki.

 

Izuku sighed with resignation “Alright so… It all started 10 months ago…”

Notes:

So.... How was the chapter? Pretty boring ik. Also, my bad for not writing in the UA Practical Exam leaderboard, making that would be... Tedious, and I really don't want to do that.

Oh and if you haven't watched The Empire Strikes Back, then you should go watch it, its peak fiction.

Also, I understand that the first two chapters kinda made it seem like this story will be lightheated. It won't. I really like putting MCs through bullshit and MHA is honestly pretty damn dark, while it won't be misery porn, it's not gonna be light all around, but have a lil bit of fluff as an apology.

Anyways! Adios! I'll have the next chapter (First day of UA and smth 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨) in the next two weeks or so

Chapter 6: Izuku's New Home

Notes:

Alright, here's 7.4k words worth of yapping (slice of life or smth) as an apology for taking this long with this chapter.

I deleted the "Not an update" thing because it would make the chapters confusing, but I stand by what I said.

Chapters will generally take longer because I'm getting cooked with school work rn.

Anyways, enjoy!

(I hope I did the parent-child interaction well)

“でも遊び足りない 何か足りない” Izuku muttered to himself as he haphazardly threw his clothes in the general direction of his bed, before folding them using his telekinesis and neatly setting them inside the large suitcase.

 

“困っちまうこれは誰かのせい, あてもなくただ混乱するエイデイ” He sang to himself, bobbing his head as he got done packing his clothes, closing the suitcase and latching it shut.

 

Izuku tapped his headset twice, pausing the music. “Alright, clothes? check. Hero merch? Check. Quirk Analysis notebooks? Check. Ludicrously expensive gaming setup that I should NOT break during transport? Check.” He muttered to himself ticking the boxes of his mental checklist.

 

Izuku checked the packaging of his PC one last time, ensuring that every bit of free space was covered in bubble wrap. With his RX 19090 XTX packed in its original box. Before he wrapped the entire PC in a bubble wrap and placed it inside of a box.

 

“I swear to god, if there’s even a single fucking scratch.” Izuku muttered to himself as he telekinetically wrapped his two 520hz 32 inch 4K monitors with bubble wrap, then placing them back in their original boxes.

 

“Oi, nerd. You done packing yet?” Katsuki asked as he walked into the room, his hands lazily stuffed into his pockets as he watched Izuku meticulously tape the boxes shut.

 

“Almost yeah, just finishing up the setup.” Izuku replied, not bothering to look up at Katsuki.

 

“Jeez, how long do you take? You’ve been doing this shit for the past 3 hours.” Katsuki complained impatiently, having already finished his packing the day before.

 

Izuku shrugged as he finished taping up the boxes, before grabbing the hooded All Might jacket on his bed, pulling it onto his arms, wearing it over his black undershirt.

 

 “You know Katsuki, some of us have more than three tank tops and a stick of deodorant to pack.”

 

“Keep talking, Mr. ‘I have wet dreams about Midnight’. Go on, I dare you.”

 

“That’s a lot less of a gotcha when I know that you have wet dreams about Mirko, you know?” Izuku replied grabbing his backpack, which contained his stationaries, slinging it over his shoulders before grabbing his suitcase and three boxes, two containing his setup while the other contained his hero merch and quirk analysis notebooks, using his quirk.

 

“At least I have taste.” Katsuki shrugged, attempting to seem nonchalant, but the small blush on his face betrays his embarrassment.

 

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s get going, your mom will kill us if we’re late.” Izuku said before walking out of his room, his boxes and suitcase floating behind him, avoiding bumping into any obstacles.

 

Katsuki nodded, following Izuku and grabbing his own large box of hero merch, a suitcase full of his clothes and another box full of several folders of Pokémon Cards and his stationaries.

 

“You want me to float those too?” Izuku asked as he motioned his hand towards Katsuki’s belongings.

 

“Yeah, sure.” Katsuki said with a grateful nod, letting go of his belongings as Izuku floated them behind him.

 

The stairs creaked softly as they walked down to the living room, where both Masaru and Mitsuki Bakugo would be spotted.

 

Masaru looked up from the couch, where he could be seen sipping his coffee quietly, his face adopting a smile as he saw the two of them.

 

“About damn time.” Mitsuki said impatiently as she leaned against the front door to the house, her car keys jingling as she spins it around her index finger, fidgeting with it in boredom.

 

“You boys packed everything you need?” Mitsuki asked, and although the question was technically directed at both of them, she was pointedly looking at Katsuki, due to the fact that his packing was very minimal when compared to Izuku’s.

 

Izuku nodded, pointing back at the 2 boxes and the suitcase floating behind him. “I packed everything I’ll need… It helps that I didn’t unpack most of my clothes from the time I moved in here.” He said sheepishly, before yawning loudly.

 

“Yeah, yeah. I got everything I need, worst case scenario I’ll just come back during the weekend and grab it.” Katsuki said with a shrug, knowing that, unlike Izuku, he doesn’t have as much personal stuff that needs heavy packaging.

 

Mitsuki looked at both of them, attempting to look hard, but her slightly misty eyes betray her true emotions. She then suddenly moves forward, pulling both of them into a tight hug, each of her arms wrapping around Izuku and Katsuki’s neck.

 

Izuku froze for a moment, startled by the sudden show of affection, before he melted into her embrace, hugging her back with equal fervor.

 

“H-hey! Let go of me, you old hag!” Katsuki said with pretend annoyance, but rather than pulling away, he hugged her back with affection that contradicted his protests.

 

Mitsuki pulls back from their embrace, her hands lovingly caressing their cheeks as she looks at them with slightly misty eyes, her behavior a stark contrast to her usual explosive persona.

 

“Listen… I’m not too good with the sappy stuff… But you two are my boys now, so I’m gonna try.”

 

Mitsuki turned to her son, her eyes locking with his.

 

“You,” She said softly “You drive me up the wall. You’ve been mouthing off since you were three, and god help the teacher that gets assigned to you...”

 

Katsuki didn’t say anything, his mouth pressed in a thin line as he braced himself for a scolding.

 

“But... You’ve grown up so much.” She continued, her voice full of emotion. “You act like you’ve got it all handled, like you don’t need anyone else’s help… but I see it, Katsuki. I see how much you care, how much you care about your dream, how much you care about your brother.”

 

She glanced towards Izuku as she said the last part, before going back to looking at her son.

 

“I don’t always show it well, but I’m proud of you, kiddo. You’re the best kid I could’ve ever asked for.” Mitsuki said with watery eyes, reaching up and ruffling his hair. “I love you, Katsuki. Never forget that.”

 

Mitsuki finished before leaning forward and placing a kiss on his forehead, finally getting a reaction out of Katsuki, as he reached up and wiped the unshed tears from his eyes.

 

Mitsuki then turned to Izuku, her softened red eyes meeting his pale green eyes.

 

“And you. You went through so much… So, so much. And yet, you never stopped smiling, you never let go of who you are… I’m so proud of you Izuku, because you’re strong, not because of your quirk, but because of your tendency to never let go of yourself.”

 

Mitsuki leaned forward and placed a kiss on Izuku’s forehead, making him tear up at the motherly affection.

 

“I’m glad you’re here.” Mitsuki continued, her hand reaching up to ruffle Izuku’s curly green hair. “Remember Izuku, you aren’t just staying here, you’re a part of the household, the family. You always have a home here, don’t ever forget that ok?”

 

The dam finally broke, with tears freely flowing down Izuku’s face as he rushed to wipe his cheeks, his face splitting into a wide smile.

 

Masaru walks up behind them quietly, before reaching out and wrapping his arms around Katsuki and Izuku from behind them, pulling them into another hug.

 

“No matter where you go, no matter what you do, always remember that you have a home here. We’re proud of you, not just because of your talent, but because of who you are.” He said with a soft smile, his affection clear despite his more reserved nature.

 

Mitsuki wiped her face and let out a laugh “Alright. Enough sappy stuff, you two should get going so you can set up your rooms by tonight”

 

“Shoot us a text when you get there, ok?” Masaru said as he patted them both on the back.

 

“Yeah, will do… Love you both!” Izuku said with a cheery smile, before walking out of the front door, both his and Katsuki’s luggage floating behind him as he went to load it into the truck that UA had sent for them.

 

Katsuki cleared his throat, his voice cracking a little as he spoke. “Love you mom, dad.” He said in a soft tone before following Izuku, shutting the door behind him as he left.

 

Mitsuki watched them go, her chest blooming with both pride and worry, a concoction stronger than any psychedelic on the planet. She then muttered, more to herself than anyone else.

 

“Don’t grow up too fast, alright?”

 

---

 

Izuku quickly shot a text to Katsuki’s parents as he and Katsuki walked up to the UA campus, the gates opening for them when Katsuki slid his student ID on the keycard reader.

 

“You texting mom and dad?” Katsuki asked Izuku as he took a sip of water, his free hand stuffed in the pockets of his green cargo pants, which he wore along with a plain black shirt.

 

“Mhm.” Izuku answered, before stuffing his phone back into his pockets and walking up to the main gate, which opened automatically as it picked up the signal sent by Izuku and Katsuki’s student IDs which were both in their pockets.

 

“Now where the hell are we supposed to go?” Katsuki said out loud as he looked around, trying to look for the building 1-A.

 

Izuku shrugged, before he noticed a tall blonde boy wearing the UA uniform, with a backpack slung on his shoulders. “He looks like a 3^rd year, maybe we should ask him?” He said before walking towards the older boy, not waiting for Katsuki to respond.

 

“Yo! Senpai! I’m Izuku Midoriya, do you know where first year hero students are supposed to move into?” Izuku asked with a bright smile, looking up at the blonde, who looked down at Izuku with his beady blue eyes.

 

The blonde returned Izuku’s smile “I’m Mirio Togata! I’m a 3^rd year hero student!” Mirio introduced himself, before pointing left, and towards a set of 3 buildings a couple meters to their left.

 

“The hero student dorms are those buildings right there! The first-year dorms have a large sign with the number ‘1’ and the letter of your section on it!” Mirio said before he checked the time. “Oh crap, I gotta go! Cya kohais!”  He said before running off towards the main UA campus, kicking up dust with each step.

 

“Thanks Togata-Senpai!” Izuku called out to Mirio before turning to Katsuki.

 

“Let’s get going?” He asked while pointing his thumb at hero student dorm buildings.

 

Katsuki responded with a nod, before walking towards the buildings.

 

---

 

Izuku swiped his student ID over the keycard reader, unlocking the large double doors for them as he and Katsuki walked in. “Holy fuck, this place looks more like a 5-star hotel than a dorm system!”

 

“Yeah, holy fuck. But then again, UA has basically unlimited funds. So, I’m not all that surprised.” Katsuki said with barely hidden awe, his eyes roaming over the large lounge area.

 

The lounge consisted of a spacious living area, with a pristine kitchen at the back, occupied by a large boy with spiky brown hair and a smaller boy with blonde hair, the brunette was inspecting the oven while the blonde was rummaging through the fridge.

 

The living area consisted of a large dining table at the back, with a couple seating tables scattered across the living area.

 

The walls had repeating rectangular windows with a rounded top, giving the lounge ample amounts of natural light.

 

The natural lighting was further amplified by the rectangular section of foliage in the middle of the lounge, separated by large panels of glass that stretched to the ceiling, with a glass door on the glass panel facing the entrance.

 

To the direct right of the entrance, there was a large TV with a long L-shaped couch, a coffee table, and a couple round ottomans surrounding it.

 

And on the couch were two people, one of them was a brunette with a bob cut, she was animatedly explaining something to the other girl, who was a black-haired girl with long black hair, which she had tied into a spiky ponytail, who was listening attentively as the brunette gesticulated a finger gun with her right hand, before pointing up.

 

Next to the kitchen Izuku could feel a set of sta-

 

Wait Momo?!

 

Izuku’s did a double take, his eyes widening in recognition. ‘No fucking way, no fucking way, no fucking way.’

 

‘What are the odds that we both go to UA, and both get placed in the same class?!’

 

Momo turned around as she heard the door open, her eyes moving to look at the source of the sound.

 

“Yo… It’s been a while huh?” Izuku said with a grin, his excitement apparent as he looked at the Yaoyorozu heir.

 

Momo’s eyes lit up in recognition, before her face broke out in a surprised smile “Izuku?!”  She exclaimed before getting up from the couch, quickly walking over to Izuku and hugging him tightly, throwing her arms around his neck.

 

“I thought I’d see you here, but I didn’t expect us to be in the same class!” She said excitedly, pulling back and looking down at Izuku’s eyes.

 

Izuku reciprocated, hugged her back just as tight as he wrapped his arms around her waist, before pulling back.

 

“Same! I knew you’d apply but being in the same class? They’re really loading this class up huh?” He said with a grin as he looked up at her, his hands going back to being stuffed in his All Might jacket.

 

Katsuki stepped behind Izuku, his eyes flickering between Izuku and Momo. “Wait... You two know each other?”

 

Momo nodded, smiling softly “Our dads used to be close, so we used to see each other a lot whenever they brought us to work with them”

 

Izuku nodded, before throwing an arm around Katsuki “Momo, this is Katsuki. Katsuki, this is Momo. Play nice please.” He introduced them, whispering the last part to Katsuki.

 

Katsuki shrugged Izuku’s arm off, before tilting his head at Momo and nodding “Yeah, I remember you, Funeral, right? I remember you wearing a big ass bow.”

 

Momo blinked before letting out a small laugh, her hand moving to brush a strand of hair behind her ear. “Oh, come on, I was 10. My mother insisted.”

 

“Yeah? Well, you looked like a fucking cake topper.” Katsuki shrugged, crossing his arms as he looked at Momo appraisingly, a gesture that was strangely protective of Izuku.

 

The brunette giggled  from her spot on the couch, before walking up to them. “Are you two always like this? I’m Ochako Uraraka by the way!” She said with bubbling excitement as she bounced on her heels.

 

Izuku turned to look at Ochako with a grin “Unfortunately, it’s gotten  worse since I moved in with him. How’s the ankle, by the way?”

 

Ochako’s cheeks flushed at the mention of her ankle “Y-yeah, it’s fine. Wait, moved in with him? Are you two roommates or something?” She asked curiously, her previous embarrassment forgotten.

 

“Nah” Izuku said casually, shaking his head “I moved in with his family after some stuff happened.”

 

Momo looked at Izuku in confusion at that statement, but didn’t pry further as she heard some footsteps.

 

“Hey! I recognize you!” A voice called out from behind them.

 

Izuku turned around as a redhead confidently walked into the lounge, wearing a tank-top and an unbuttoned flannel, along with a pair of shorts.

 

“You’re the guy that did the crazy vacuum thing, right?” He said, pointing at Izuku. “Like- you folded the entire Zero Pointer!”

 

“Mhm, that’s me! Izuku Midoriya, nice to meet you!” Izuku replied with an outstretched hand, grinning up at the taller boy.

 

“Eijiro Kirishima! Pleasure to meet you!” Eijiro replied with a matching grin, flashing his sharp white teeth as he shook Izuku’s hand.

 

“Yo! New dudes! You guys in 1-A too?” The blonde from the kitchen asked as he walked up to the group, with an opened can of BlueCow in his hand.

 

“I’m Denki Kaminari- quirk’s Electrification! Pretty shocking, huh?” He said with a grin, before laughing at his own pun.

 

Katsuki looked at him dryly “You workshopped that one, or was it spontaneous? Because, I don’t know what’s sadder, not being able to improv or just being unfunny in general.”

 

“Pfft- Nah, I’ve been using that one for like- 3 years. Pretty good ice breaker, all things considered.” Denki replied with a wink, completely unfazed by Katsuki’s dry response.

 

“Nice to meet ya, I’m Izuku Midoriya and the grumpy guy’s Katsuki Bakugo” Izuku introduced himself, before his eyes were drawn to the caffeinated beverage in Denki’s hand. “How stocked is the fridge?”

 

“Dude, there’s so much stuff, it’s insane. There’s like 4 cases of this, along with several jugs of milk and a shit load of raw food for us to cook with.” Denki said before jerking his thumb towards the kitchen. “That big guy’s Sato by the way,  he likes baking so he’s getting familiar with the oven.”

 

“We gotta cook? Damn it.” A violet haired girl mumbled as she walked into the lounge, the light reflecting off of her hair in a way that makes it look like a sound wave.

 

She was wearing a baggy white off-shoulder shirt, the straps of her sports bra peeking through the top, along with a pair of black skinny jeans and black high-top boots.

 

Although the most interesting part about her was the two earphone jacks that were hanging out of her earlobes.

 

“Wait we have to cook ourselves? I mean… I know how to make some basic stuff but not too much, I can make some killer mochi though.”

 

“I don’t think I can cook either, I usually just asked my cooks to do it for me.” Momo admitted with an embarrassed blush.

 

The violet haired girl turned to look at the Yaoyorozu heir, her eyebrows raised “You had cooks? Like plural?”

 

Momo nodded slowly “Yeah, seven to be exact… I’m Momo Yaoyorozu by the way… you are?”

 

“Oh, right. I forgot to introduce myself, I’m Kyoka Jiro, quirk, Earphone Jack, I have enhanced hearing.” Kyoka said before pointing at the earphone jacks dangling from her ears “I can plug these into things to create soundwaves too”

 

“Nice to meet you Jiro, I’m Izu-“

 

“Izuku Midoriya, yeah, I could hear you guys talk when I was looking for the dorms.” Kyoka said while giving Izuku and appraising look. “You’re the guy in Centre C that basically made the Zero Pointer into scrap metal, right?”

 

Izuku’s cheeks flushed at the repeated mention of his showing in the entrance exam, before throwing his hands up in exasperation “Oh come on, why does everyone know me as the Zero Pointer guy.”

 

“I mean, you dropped a black hole on it. What’d you expect?” Kyoka said with a shrug as the rest of the group laughed at Izuku’s predicament.

 

“I mean, if I could actually create a blackhole I’d be significantly stronger than I am right now.” Izuku said with a shrug, before holding up his right hand and opening his palm, making a blue spinning orb appear.

 

“This is just the result of me bending the fabric of space-time, tugging on it to mimic the way objects with incredibly large amounts of mass do, making a large gravitational pull. So, no compression of mass”

 

The group stopped laughing, looking at Izuku silently as the process the implications of what he just said.

 

“Ref, the nerd’s explaining shit no one asked for. Someone stop him.” Katsuki said with a teasing grin, before grabbing his bottle and taking a sip.

 

 Izuku closed his fist, making the spinning blue ball collapse and fizzle away. “You say that like you didn’t beg me to explain Simple Machines to you for the third time last semester.”

 

Katsuki glared at Izuku “That worksheet was worded like a goddamn riddle, I still don’t know how you got a 5 on that.”

 

“I don’t know how you didn’t get a 5 on that, but then again, you did just circle the diagram and wrote the word ‘bullshit’ on it.”

 

“Because it was bullshit!”

 

Denki choked on his drink, looking at Katsuki in disbelief “You actually turned that in?”

 

“He still got a 3 on it,” Izuku muttered “That’s the real crime.”

 

“Justice for the smart kids.” Ochako said with mock solemness as she raised her glass of water.

 

“I hate all of you.” Katsuki grumbled, crossing his arms.

 

Izuku yawned loudly before stretching his back languidly “Welcome to the club.”

 

Denki raised his hands like a referee “Alright, alright. Science time’s over. What we really need is,” He looked down at his empty hands. “A snack drop.”

 

Izuku sighed before stretching his arm out towards the fridge, making it open and have several cans of soda and a couple bags of chips floated themselves to the group.

 

“Thank you, oh great snack taxi.” Kyoka said appreciatively as she grabbed a bag of Laid chips,  tearing it open and popping one into her mouth.

 

“I’m not your snack taxi.” Izuku grumbled as he took a seat on one of the ottomans, popping open a can of BlueCow and taking a large sip, clearly enjoying the caffeinated beverage.

 

“Yes, you are.” Kyoka said with a teasing grin.

 

“Absolutely.” Ochako added with a nod, opening her own bag of chips to eat from.

 

“I do appreciate the efficiency.” Momo chimed in politely as she took an experimental sip of her BlueCow can.

 

Her face instantly scrunched up as she felt the acidic taste, recoiling at the feeling and setting the can on the coffee table. “God, that tastes horrid.”

 

Denki looked at her sympathetically “It’s… an acquired taste.”

 

“Mhm, you get used to the acidic taste after a while… And the 250 milligrams of caffeine in a 250ml can is worth it.” Izuku said with a nod, before chugging the rest of his drink and tossing the empty can into a trashcan.

 

“250 milligrams?! Why the hell do you need this much caffeine?” Momo asked in alarm as she looked at Denki and Izuku, her eyes laced with worry.

 

“I like the jittery feeling.” Denki said with a shrug, finishing his own can of BlueCow and tossing it into the trashcan.

 

“I haven’t been getting good sleep lately and this helps me stay awake… Although I’m pretty sure I’ve built up a tolerance to it by now.”

 

“That can’t be healthy.” Momo said with worry as she looked at Izuku, noticing the faint dark circles under his eyes.

 

“Yeah, caffeine addictions are a real thing Midoribro.” Kirishima said as his face adopted a look of worry.

 

“Midoribro? Either way, I’m fi-“

 

“Pardon me!” A voice called out as they heard the double doors open.

 

The group turned towards the entrance to get a look at the newcomer.

 

A tall boy, dressed in a pressed and spotless UA uniform marched inside with the straightest posture known to mankind. He stopped exactly five feet away from the group, straightened his back out even more (how the fuck did he do that?) and bowed.

 

“I am Tenya Iida, first-year Hero Course student of Class 1-A!” He declared, still bowed down before standing back up. “I apologize for the intrusion, but I hoped to introduce myself properly.”

 

Izuku blinked for a couple seconds ‘Do I know this guy?”

 

“And you two! You have been talking this entire time! It’s distracting! If you’re here to have fun, then you should leave immediately!”

 

‘Oh right.’

 

“And you.” Iida turned towards Izuku, looking down into Izuku’s eyes sincerely, before bowing down once more. “I misjudged you that day.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“I thought your carefree attitude in the auditorium was a show of arrogance.” Iida continued, his voice steady. “But I now realize that it was nothing of the sort!”

 

Izuku blinked, his face contorted into an expression of pure confusion “Oh… Uh- Thanks?”

 

“You were focused.” Iida said, nodding to himself as he stood back up. “Calm under pressure. Not disinterested but rather composed. I made a poor assumption, and I apologize for my behavior that day.”

 

Izuku chuckled awkwardly ‘I was neither composed nor calm, I was just thinking about Momo.’

 

He thought to himself with a slight blush before holding his hand out to Iida “It’s fine man, it was a stressful time, no hard feelings.”

 

Iida straightened up at the gesture, reaching out with his own hand to firmly clasp Izuku’s in a handshake. “Regardless, I felt it important to apologize directly. I’m glad we could continue forward as hero students without animosity.”

 

Izuku shook his hand before stuffing it into his jacket pockets, flashing Iida an embarrassed grin. “You didn’t have to say anything, but I appreciate it.”

 

Iida gave a sharp nod, doing chopping motions with his hands as he released Izuku’s hand “I believe in accountability. If I intend to be a hero, then my words must follow my convictions.”

 

“You rehearse that in the mirror? Because it definitely sounds like you do.” Katsuki said, his arms crossed as he raised his eyebrow at Iida.

 

“I strive to speak with clarity.” Iida replied as he turned towards Katsuki, completely unfazed.

 

Katsuki scoffed. “You sound like you’re about to hand out parking tickets.”

 

Kyoka snorted into her bag of chips “Oh god, he totally does.”

 

Kirishima leaned towards Ochako, before whispering “How long do you think it’ll take for him to print out dorm regulation and post them on the fridge?”

 

“I’d give it a week, maybe two.” She whispered back.

 

“I heard that.” Iida said, not even turning his head to look at them.

 

“We’re not saying it’s bad.” Momo added quickly, stepping in diplomatically “It’s good to have structure. Especially with, well… this group.”

 

“I can hear all of you, you know?” Izuku muttered from his seat, lazily slumping against the couch as he felt the tiredness from the caffeine crash.

 

Katsuki gave Izuku a mock glare. “Don’t act so high and mighty, the only reason you aren’t nerding out about quirks right now is because you’re too tired.”

 

“And the only reason you didn’t blow a hole through the door is because I stopped you from stubbing your toe on the stairs.”

 

Katsuki rolled his eyes “Oh come on, that was one time, and I was 12.”

 

“Do you guys always argue like this?” Kirishima asked amusedly as his eyes flickered between Izuku and Katsuki.

 

“This isn’t arguing.” Kyoka said with a smirk. “This is flirting. Violent, exhausted flirting.”

 

Both Izuku and Katsuki instantly snapped their heads towards her.

 

“W-what? That’s not-“

 

“Say that again and I’m throwing your phone in the microwave.”

 

Before Kyoka could respond, the group was hit with the aroma of freshly baked cookies.

 

“Hey, what are you guys talking about?” A large boy asked as he walked up to the group, holding a plate of freshly baked cookies that he placed on the coffee table.

 

“Damn, that smells good!” Izuku said, his embarrassment forgotten as he sat up on the couch. “Sato, right?”

 

“Yeah, I’m Rikido Sato. You guys don’t need to introduce yourselves through, I could hear fine from the kitchen.” The large boy said with a smile, before motioning to the plate of cookies.

 

“Feel free to have some, I made those for you guys after all.” Rikido said as he reached out to grab one of his cookies, and biting into the soft buttery flour construct.

 

Denki instantly reached for the cookies. “Oh my god.” He mumbled, his voice muffled as he chewed, moaning softly as the chocolate craters melted in his mouth.

 

“God damn, these slap!” Kyoka said as she held up her half eaten cookie, before going for another bite.

 

“Holy crap.” Ochako said, her eyes wide as she munched down on the cookies. “These are the best cookies I’ve ever had!”

 

Hearing the praises, Katsuki reached for a cookie, looking at it suspiciously before reluctantly taking a bite.

 

And another.

 

“Alright, this is unfair. How the hell did you make cookies this good?”

 

Sato laughed at the praise. “I bake a lot, so I picked up a thing or two, here and there.”

 

Momo nibbled at hers delicately “What flour did you use? The texture is really refined.”

 

Sato blinked for a moment before answering “Uh- all-purpose flour?”

 

Momo looked at Sato in disbelief “That’s it?”

 

“It’s the love.” Denki said dramatically, finishing his cookie and immediately reaching for another one.

 

“You can taste the love.” Kirishima agreed with an equal amount of dramatism, as he continued to nibble on his cookie “These are really good Satobro!”

 

Izuku leaned back on the couch, letting out a soft sigh of contentment as he plopped the last bit of his cookie into his mouth, before opening another can of BlueCow and washing it down.

 

“I don’t even like sweets that much, but this is fucking amazing!”

 

“You don’t like sweets?” Kyoka asked with a raised eyebrow as she finished eating her cookie, sitting down on the opposite end of the couch to Izuku.

 

“Nah, I’m more of a savory and spicy kinda guy.” Izuku replied with a shrug, before taking another sip of his drink.

 

“Figures” Ochako muttered as she sat down next to Izuku. “You seem like the type of guy to like savory and spicy things.”

 

Katsuki snorted as he sat down on one of the ottomans. “You trying to flirt with, or insult him? I genuinely can’t tell.”

 

“A little bit of both.” Ochako relied with a wink as she leaned back against the plush couch cushions.

 

Izuku sputtered, choking on his soda slightly before finishing his can and tossing it into the trash. “Y-you just had to say that while I was drinking something, didn’t you?”

 

Ochako giggled at Izuku’s flustered response. “Gotta keep you on your toes~” She replied in a singsong voice.

 

“That was payback for the ankle comment.”

 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Izuku muttered, trying to play it cool, but his flushed cheeks gave his embarrassment away.

 

Katsuki looked at the large clock on the wall, noticing that it was 4pm. “Oi, Izuku. Maybe we should cook something? I don’t know about the others, but I wanna eat before we get to setting up our rooms.”

 

Izuku looked down at his watch before nodding “You guys ok with Katsudon?”

 

He was met with a resounding yes as he stood up, dusting his pants.

 

“Alright then, me and Katsuki are gonna go cook, peace” Izuku said before walking towards the kitchen, with Katsuki following him.

 

‘I hope to god I don’t fuck this up’

 

---

 

'Today was surprisingly fun.’ Izuku thought to himself as he laid sprawled out on his bed, staring up at the ceiling aimlessly.

 

He expected chaos, new faces, clashing energies, awkward silences, and yeah, most of that did happen, it wasn’t that bad. It was the good kind of chaos, the kind that hinted at a good friendship spawning out of it.

 

He felt his eyes trace random patterns in the ceiling, his mind drifting as he felt the soft bed beneath him, the foam molding to his body.

 

His classmates had made pretty strong impressions on him, he wasn’t really sure what he expected at the start, but whatever it was, he was pleasantly surprised at how cool his classmates were.

 

The first person that came to mind was Momo Yaoyorozu, and oh how he missed her. They didn’t really... fall out, perse, but they didn’t really interact after his father’s death, since he only really interacted with her when his dad took him to work with him. But still, she was a nice addition to his life, having another person to nerd out with was a blessing he’d never overlook.

 

And her quirk was damn cool, he wondered how it would pair with One for All the stockpiling function of his quirk. Would it consume the stockpiled energy? Or was it hard coded to only use her lipids? And why couldn’t she make organic matter? Maybe it’s because of a sizing issue? He should ask her about that later.

 

And… Uh- she’d really grown since the last time he saw her, that’s all he was going to say.

 

The next person that came to mind was Mina Ashido, hard to miss her really. Pink skin, golden eyes and black sclerae, pretty interesting mutation for someone with an acid quirk. He should ask her more about her quirk, maybe her skin had that color because of some sort of resistance?

 

She had this chaotic and bubbly energy that somehow didn’t feel overwhelming. Just… fun. She was also a bit pervy, which made sense considering the fact that she called herself a ‘romance guru’.

 

Then there was Tsuyu Asui- or as she wanted us to call her, Tsu. She wasn’t too talkative, but she was pretty straight forward, along with a weirdly refreshing dry sense of humor. It was nice to have someone that would just be upfront with you, less guess work to do when talking to them.

 

Oh, and her quirk was pretty cool too, he wondered if she could secrete poisons from her skin like dart frogs if she ate the right things.

 

He could hear the idle scratching, the sound of his pen scribbling away at a fresh notebook was pretty loud when nothing else made a sound after all.

 

Where was he? Oh right, his classmates.

 

Ochako Uraraka was really nice, she really had the ‘nice girl next door’ type vibe. She had a way of teasing that didn’t feel mean, more like she was inviting you to play along. He really liked that about her, she liked to joke around, but she genuinely cared about how others felt, which was pretty refreshing.

 

She was also really good at gravity physics, which made sense considering her quirk. He wondered how it worked, did it remove the property of mass that made it bend space-time? Did it simply add a counter force to the object on the opposite direction to gravity? That would probably make more sense considering objects seemed to levitate up rather than float.

 

He should probably ask her about her quirk, maybe it would help him figure out how to create a repelling orb.

 

Kyoka Jiro had a kind of quite sharpness to her. Dry humor, fast reactions, what’s not to like? She was pretty quick to tease, but it never felt mean-spirited, more like she was testing people to see if they could take it. He got the feeling that she was a lot softer than she let on, but she didn’t seem like she was in a rush to prove it.

 

And he could respect that, some people wore their personalities like neon signs, Kyoka seemed to be content in letting you notice her in pieces.

 

And her quirk was pretty cool too, he wondered what size her jacks were, 3.5mm? Maybe 4.4mm? And could she connect herself to a phone and listen to music that way? He should really ask her that later.

 

Toru Hagakure was… energetic to say the least, one would think that someone with an invisibility quirk would be a bit further on the shyer side of the scale, but she more than made up for her invisibility with her bubbly personality. Her laugh was pretty nice too. She brought levity without trying too hard. He hadn’t even seen her face, but her presence lit up the room anyways.

 

Her quirk was pretty interesting too, an always-on invisibility quirk was pretty insane, most ‘invisibility quirks’ were just camouflaging abilities of varying success, while hers was just straight up invisibility. Was it her body bending light around her? Or could her cells project light and mimic her surroundings?

 

Hanta Sero had an easy energy to him. Not loud, not quiet. Just… Cool and relaxed. He cracked a couple jokes, laughed along with the group, and to top it off, he was a Spider-man fan! He seemed pretty reliable too, the kinda guy you’d want in a group project that counted for half your grade.

 

His quirk was pretty unique, having projectile tape dispensers for elbows was really up there in quirks he thought he’d never see. He wondered if he could swing around using his tape, that would be pretty cool.

 

Izuku’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of a page turning. He blinked, his eyes focusing again as he looked around the dark room… It was quiet, too quiet. He didn’t like it, usually he at least had the white noise of the fan or the AC.

 

But that made collecting his thoughts a lot harder, so he’d persevere.

 

Yuga Aoyama was… flashy to say the least. He introduced himself with a dramatic flip of his hair and an exaggerated wink, even said something about ‘sparkling justice’ and nearly blinded Denki with his belt. He really wasn’t sure if the guy was serious or was just playing it up for shits and giggles, but either way, he was committed to the bit, and he could respect that.

 

‘Anything for the bit, I’d sacrifice my life for the bit.’

 

He wasn’t really sure about his quirk, but if he had to guess it was something flashy, maybe something that sparkled?

 

Denki Kaminari was chaotic, but endearing. His brain was moving 3 different directions at once, half of them weren’t the best, but his heart was always in the right place. He made stupid jokes, almost fried his phone trying to charge it with his quirk, and somehow still made everyone laugh.

 

Izuku respected the confidence, or maybe it was a lack of shame? Either ways, he added something important to the group dynamic, a kind of levity. He was the kind of guy who brought snacks along with bad ideas.

 

His quirk was a dime a dozen electric quirk, but his output was seemingly very high, along with his control over the current and voltage. Although he wasn’t really sure if he was joking or not about being heavily concussed after going over his max voltage.

 

Rikido Sato didn’t talk much at the start, but he didn’t need to, not when his cookies did all the heavy lifting. The second they hit the table, the mood changed. Everyone relaxed a little, leaned into have a bite. He wasn’t loud or flashy, but the gesture showed that he cared.

 

The way he watched their reactions proved that. He didn’t look smug, just quietly pleased that something he did made things better. That was a personality he could respect. He wondered what kind of quirk he had. Maybe something to do with food?

 

Koji Koda was a pretty cute guy, he was clearly shy and anxious, but he seemed to slowly get more comfortable with the group. He was glad his dad taught him sign language when he was younger, it meant that he had to translate what Koji said to everyone else, but he didn’t mind too much.

 

He wondered about his quirk though, maybe a strengthening quirk? I mean, the guy was pretty built.

 

Eijiro Kirishima felt like a warm breeze. Big energy, big heart. He talked to everyone like they were already friends. Like the ice didn’t need breaking, because for him, it never existed. He and Katsuki would probably clash, or maybe not. Maybe they’d just yell a lot and bond over the volume. Either way, he liked Eijiro, you didn’t need to guess where you stood with him, you just stood.

 

And his hardening quirk was pretty cool, he was the only transformation type quirk user in their class- and one of the few he met out of his dads work, so that was also a plus.

 

Fumikage Tokoyami was dramatic to say the least.  But he was polite. He called Katsuki ‘Volatile but principled’ which was pretty cool, got a big laugh out of the group too. He was almost comically emo, and the funniest part was that he didn’t even seem like he was pretending, he really was just that dramatic.

 

His quirk was ridiculously cool too, Dark Shadow he called her, was a sentient quirk, a shadow attached to Fumikage that was completely different in personality to him. Dark Shadow was the first sentient quirk he’d ever seen, and oh my god they’re so cool!

 

Oh, and he has a bird head because uh- why not I guess.

 

 Moving on, Tenya Iida was an interesting character, he was really intense for almost no reason. All straight lines and sharp edges. Polite to a fault. Loud even when he wasn’t shouting. All in all? Pretty overwhelming, but that apology? That was real, unprompted, but honest.

 

Tenya was clearly not used to interacting with normal teenagers, especially considering he went to a private school full of snobs, but he was trying. Trying to get used to them. And he could respect that. Also, holy fuck, his last name is Iida, he’s probably related to the pro hero Ingenium! That’s so cool!

 

Mezo Shoji gave off a kind of calm that made people feel safe. Not because he was quiet, he wasn’t- not really, but because he was steady. Warm. Friendly in a way that didn’t ask for anything back. He laughed at Kaminari’s dumb jokes, helped him do the dishes after dinner, helping some of them set up their rooms.

 

He really expected him to be guarded, maybe it was because of the mask, but he was just… kind. Big frame, cool quirk, and a calming presence. There was also something about him that screamed that he gave the best hugs.

 

His quirk was also insanely cool, being born with 4 tentacles which he could manipulate into different body parts? Holy fuck that is the coolest heteromorphic quirk he’d ever even heard of, much less seen!

 

Oh anyways, Mashirao Ojiro was… well he was just normal. Seriously, he was just a normal ass guy. He was pretty level headed too. Oh! And he seemed to be into martial arts, which was pretty cool too.

 

His quirk was also a massive tail, he was pretty curious about the weight and force output about such a thick and girthy tail… Yes he’s still talking about a tail, please keep up.

 

Minoru Mineta was pretty alright, he didn’t get to interact with him too much, but he seemed to keep to himself, cracked a couple jokes that landed decently. He was watching the room, not in a calculating way, but more like someone trying to figure out where they fit in. He could understand that, being in a room full of people that know each other but don’t know you is pretty overwhelming.

 

And something about how he brightened whenever someone laughed at his joke made it clear that he wasn’t too popular in middle school, so the shyness made sense. He also seemed to look at the girls kinda… kinda pervily, but he didn’t really make anyone uncomfortable so that wasn’t really his problem, he could understand the attraction.

 

He wondered what his quirk was though, maybe it had something to do with the purple balls on his head? Meh, he’d ask him later.

 

Shoko Todoroki was, well- cold. There was no other way to describe her, because he didn’t know her.

 

“No thanks I’m not here to make friends.”

 

She was incredibly reserved, clearly only here to become a hero and nothing else. He could respect that, sure, but it didn’t sound too healthy. Then again, he wasn’t in any place to judge.

 

He was also curious about her quirk, maybe something regarding fire? It would make sense considering she’s Endeavor’s daughter, but it could also be something she got from her mom.

 

Izuku exhaled softly through his nose, before turning around in his bed and stuffing his face into the soft grey pillow, turning it vertically so he could hug it. Before telekinetically turning on the fan and the large AC above the window.

 

He telekinetically closed the notebook, the words ‘My Hero Journal Vol. 7’ being faintly visible in the dark room, before floating it towards his bookshelf, sliding it in front of the previous volume of the same series.

 

‘I hope you guys are watching me, mom and dad. And I hope you guys are proud.’

 

He thought to himself as slowly he fell into the cold embrace of sleep, curling his thick weighted blanket around him in a comfortable cocoon. The constant presence of One for All becoming more pronounced as its warmth spread across his body soothingly, making his muscles relax.

 

‘Goodnight One for All…’

Notes:

So... What did you guys think about this one? I thought I did alright, the last part was weirdly long but I couldn't not talk about every character (except Katsuki, the thing about him journaling was for him to process new faces (and momo and him reuniting) so having Katsuki there would feel misplaced.

And I plan to do some interesting stuff with Hisashi's character. Bro might be dead but I want to give him some lore to go along with how Izuku behaves.

And Izuku's an overthinker, obviously, not to the point where he's super anxious like in early canon, but more like someone who devolves into rants. The healthy kind of overthinking thats not an issue.

And I'm gonna be doing Sentient One for All, I always felt like that was such a cool concept that I just had to do something about it.

And (4th 'and' in a row, ik for a fact my English teacher is crying rn) Shoto's now Shoko, why? Idk, I wanted to pad out the male/female student ratio and turning one of the heavy hitters of 1-A into a girl seemed like a good idea.
(No, this is not just for shipping, I honestly don't know what I'm gonna be doing shipping wise, I might not even do anything too major with it for a bit)

And (last one I promise) about Mineta's character, him being a gag character seriously harms the character writing (kinda like Katsuki, where him being angry being a gag made his redemption feel cheap) so I'm gonna not use him as a gag, and considering that Izuku's kinda pervy (literally just a teenage guy) too, there will be no white knighting bullshit here, I'm gonna be earning that "No character bashing" tag.

(The song Izuku was singing at the start is Ussewa by Ado btw, go listen to her, she's peak)

Chapter 7: Fighting His Peers

Notes:

Alright! Almost a month long wait this time! Pretty short wait huh?

Alright, aright, jokes aside, sorry for the long wait time, I have exams coming up soon and just wanted to get this chapter out before then.

So buckle up for 7.5k words of uh- honestly this chapter has a bunch of stuff happen in it, so me saying "low level horror elements, awkward teens talking at night, nerds, 1.2k words of cult formation and an alright fight sequence" would be the most accurate way to describe it.

I hope you enjoy!

Edit (16 hours after posting) :- I accidentally posted the unedited draft version, I corrected it now, so it should all make A LOT MORE sense. If you've already read this chapter, then you don't have to re-read it, the general plot didn't change, only some of the formatting, wording and a couple continuity issues.

The bar slid into the rack with a satisfying clank.

 

Izuku exhaled through his nose as he sat up slowly, before raising his hand to catch a towel that sped towards him.

 

His shirt clung to his torso, sweat dripping down his collar as he began to wipe down the bench.

 

The gym was quiet. Dim lights buzzing overhead, shining down on the gleaming metallic equipment.

 

All he could hear was the quiet hum of the air conditioning and the faint clicking of the clock on from across the room.

 

‘3:17 AM’ He thought to himself as he checked his watch, before grabbing a bottle of water and chugging it down, relaxing as he felt the cold liquid run down his throat.

 

Izuku tossed the bottle aside, the object course correcting midair to go rest on a stool near the water cooler.

 

He sighed as he sat back down on the bench, taking slow deep breaths as he felt his heart rate steady, plateauing at a calm 80 beats per minute.

 

He’d been awake for around an hour and a half, most of it was spent exhausting himself in the pristine gym that UA provided them.

 

Now, the logical assumption would be that he woke up from another nightmare, and that was technically correct… Except it wasn’t exactly a nightmare.

 

Well, unless you called vague images of broken landscapes, horrifying amounts of blood and gore along with…

 

A tall, muscular white-haired man, towering over him.

 

The man was saying something unintelligible, before his dream was interrupted by a thin, frail looking shadow, its piercing blue eyes being the only thing he could see.

 

‘We’re close… Just wait a little longer, Nine.’

 

Izuku shuddered as he remembered the dream, with One for All blooming protectively in his chest.

 

The dream wasn’t too bad, he’d had worse. What really shook him was…

 

The undying hatred he felt for every microsecond he was forced to look at the man.

 

Hate. Hate so unimaginably potent that it made his body feel numb, each and every single cell in him vibrating with utter and absolute disdain. He never thought of himself as a hateful person, but in that dream…

 

All he wanted was to kill him, to hear his screams as he ripped him apart. All he wanted was to bring justice to the world and rid of it a parasite that plagued it for centuries.

 

Izuku took a deep breath, calming himself down as he clutched his shirt, the sweat-soaked cotton bending to his touch as he rid himself of the foreign thoughts.

 

‘…bring justice to the world and rid of it a parasite that plagued it for centuries.’

 

That… That was something to go off of, he supposed, better than being left completely in the dark. It told him that his subconscious mind knew something that he didn’t consciously understand.

 

“Or these aren’t really my thoughts, rather this is what On- Stockpile feels.”

 

He said to himself quietly before standing up, quickly gathering all of his stuff into his gym bag and opening the gym door with his keycard, ready to begin the walk back to the dorms.

 

Izuku walked into the dorms, his feet hitting the floor lightly as he stayed quiet to make sure none of his classmates could hear him… That was until he noticed that the kitchen lights were on.

 

‘Did I forget to turn them off?’ He thought to himself before he felt a person in the kitchen.

 

‘Oh, right. I’m not the only one with shitty sleep.’

 

At the head of the large dinner table sat Shoko Todoroki, wearing a baggy white shirt, her hair pulled into a ponytail as she slurped on a bowl of soba noodles, her face expressionless but the slight dark circles under her eyes betrayed her tiredness.

 

“Yo.” He said softly, walking into the kitchen before grabbing a can of BlueCow from the fridge, knowing that he’d need it to keep him awake for the day.

 

Shoko didn’t respond verbally, choosing instead to nod in acknowledgement, her eyes looking at Izuku’s sweat drenched form reach for the heavily caffeinated beverage.

 

He cracked open the can and took a sip, the acidic taste washed over him as the cold carbonation hit the back of his throat. It didn’t wake him up, but it did give him something to lock on to, and that was enough.

 

“You couldn’t sleep either?” Izuku asked as he lowered the half empty can, his eyes peering curiously at Shoko.

 

“No.” She said flatly as she continued to eat, the room filled with nothing but her soft sounds of chewing and Izuku’s slightly labored breathing.

 

“Right.”

 

Nothing else came up. No follow-ups. No small talk.

 

She ate and he drank, with nothing but the humming of the fridge between them.

 

“You always up this early?” Izuku asked as he tossed his can into the trashcan under the sink, leaning on the kitchen counter.

 

Shoko stopped chewing for a moment, before swallowing.

 

“Sometimes.”

 

He didn’t push further, her responses made it clear that his attempts at small talk were meaningless.

 

Eventually, she finished her bowl, before rising from the table and dropping it into the sink.

 

She then rinsed her bowl, before tossing it into the drying rack and strode towards the stairs.

 

On her way out, she paused.

 

“You should stretch, Sensei told us that we’d have our first heroics class today.”

 

Then, she walked away, her bare feet nearly silent on the hardwood floor.

 

Izuku blinked, before his face lit up with a soft smile.

 

“Sleep well Shoko.” He called out to her, before heading towards the backyard to do some stretches.

 

---

 

Izuku stared dead into the center of his desk, his eyes drooping slightly as he finished his pencil sketch of Spider-Man, in the classic upside-down position.

 

He then turned towards the window, before instantly looking back at his desk, wincing slightly at the bright light as his tired eyes adjusted to the sensation.

 

‘Huh? Is Sensei saying something to me?’

 

“…Aww, my favorite student isn’t paying attention in my class.” Midnight purred softly, walking towards him with an exaggerated sway of her hips.

 

The sound of her heels clicking on the tiled floor was almost deafening, Izuku noted as he blinked confusedly, looking up at his homeroom teacher as she stopped just shy of his desk.

 

“Have you gotten bored of dear old me, Izuku~?”

 

He could feel the entire class look at them, even Katsuki turned around in his seat, his grin showing that he was waiting for the embarrassed response from Izuku

 

Izuku blinked softly, usually he’d feel embarrassed… And god knew he was going to dream about this moment later. But the only thing he could think of was how every muscle in his body felt like they were about to snap.

 

‘Maybe maxing out the weight on every single machine wasn’t a good idea at 3AM.’

 

“Sorry Sensei.” Izuku replied after a couple seconds, breaking out of his tired stupor as he apologized to his teacher. “I didn’t sleep well today.”

 

Midnight’s smirk twitched, showing her amusement at Izuku’s unusually calm response. “Aww, and here I thought you were growing numb to my charm~”

 

A few chuckles rippled through the classroom. Katsuki shot Izuku a mildly confused look, like he couldn’t decide whether to be worried or amused.

 

Midnight turned around smoothly on her heel and sauntered back towards the front of the class, her hair fluttering behind her like a dramatic cape.

 

“Well then,” She said, addressing the room “Now that I have your attention.”

 

She shot Izuku a teasing look “You’ll find suitcases labeled with your Roll Numbers under your desks. Inside them are your hero costumes.”

 

Izuku looked down under his desk, and surely enough, there was a black suitcase with his Roll Number on it.

 

‘How the fuck did I not notice that?’

 

“Your next period is heroics training, so I’ll end this period a little early.” She said as she walked towards the door, opening it before pausing.

 

“And don’t be too naughty… Or else I’ll have to punish you~”

 

Izuku rested his head on the table the moment Midnight left, before sighing tiredly and standing up.

 

“Yo, you good man?” Kirishima asked worriedly as he looked at Izuku’s tired form.

 

“Yeah, you good Izuku? If you didn’t cum in your pants after that then there’s definitely something wrong.” Katsuki added as he turned around in his chair, his tone teasing, but his face betrayed the worry he felt.

 

“Bakugo! That was extremely inappropriate! Keep the sexual humor to private settings rather than academic ones. Iida reprimanded with a forceful chop of his arms, before turning to Izuku.

 

“Midoriya, are you sure feeling alright? You seem unusually sluggish today.” Iida asked as he looked in concern, clearly worried about the contrast of Izuku’s energetic demeanor for the past two school days and today.

 

Izuku didn’t reply, simply looking out the window before stretching his arms above him and yawning loudly.

 

“Thanks for asking, but I’m alright. I just didn’t sleep well and over did it at the gym this morning.” He reassured them before moaning contently as he felt the bubbles in his back pop loudly.

 

Izuku then sat down on his desk, before grabbing the can of BlueCow that conveniently floated up from his bag, popping it open and taking a swig.

 

“If you’re sure…” Momo said with concern before letting it go, knowing by now that there was no way to get Izuku to have a healthy sleep schedule.

 

“So... Do we know who the heroics teacher is?” Mina interjected as she voiced her question, her tone curious as she fiddled around with her suitcase.

 

“Nah I don’t think so, we haven’t gotten any information on that yet.” Ojiro chimed in, the martial artist already stretching as he prepared for their first heroics class.

 

“I hope it’s Midnight…” Mineta said with a dreamy tone, almost drooling as he imagined their sexy homeroom teacher ordering them around in heroics class.

 

“Me too man, me too.” Denki agreed before dapping Mineta up, the crisp clapping sound filling the room as they clasped their hands.

 

“My man!”

 

Some of the students sweat dropped at the scene, while Izuku nodded in an uncharacteristically serious manner.

 

“I hope Sensei’s our heroics teacher too… But something tells me we’re getting someone better.” He said with a knowing grin, already having an idea of who their heroics teacher was.

 

His motions were still fatigued, but both the excitement of their first heroics class and the truckload of caffeine he had hit at the exact same time, energizing him enough to join the groups perversion.

 

Kyoka raised an eyebrow at Izuku. “You know something we don’t know, Green?”

 

“Green? Seriously?” Izuku asked her with a deadpan look, clearly unimpressed by her nickname.

 

“Would you rather me have me call you broccoli instead?” Kyoka asked him teasingly, her chin resting on her arms as she propped up her head on her table.

 

“Nope, Green works perfectly fine” Izuku responded quickly, not wanting to be called broccoli ever again.

 

‘I had enough of that from Aiko in 5^th grade.’

 

“You still didn’t answer my ques-“

 

Before Kyoka could finish, everyone’s gaze was drawn to the door as it slammed open, their eyes widening at the towering figure man at the door.

 

“I AM HERE! To be your heroics teacher!”

 

“Holy crap! It’s All Might!”

 

“He’s wearing his Silver Age Hero costume too!”

 

“Oh my god! All Might is our heroics teacher!”

 

Izuku’s face split into a wide grin before he jumped up from his table, landing on his feet before grabbing his suitcase.

 

“Yo! Sensei! Perfect timing!”

 

---

 

Izuku fiddled with the gas mask around his neck as he walked into the streets of Gym Beta. His red sneakers softly thudding on the road with each step.

 

‘How much fucking money do they even have? This is straight up just a city.’

 

Izuku thought to himself before stretching his arms, the sleeves of his forest green hoodie riding up to his elbows, revealing the arms of his black padded compression shirt, which were hooked onto his thumbs.

 

“Darker costume than I was expecting, Green. You seemed like the type to like brighter colors.” Kyoka said as she walked up to him, her index finger fiddling with her Earphone Jacks as she looked up at him.

 

Izuku’s hands found their place in the pockets of his cargo pants as he looked down at Kyoka, his eyes trailing over her form.

 

“Really going for the punk motif huh? Gotta say, it looks good on you.”

 

Kyoka blushed before coughing into her fist, before changing the subject.

 

“I wonder what we’re doing today.”

 

“Yeah! I’m really pumped!” Kirishima said as he walked in, flexing his chest for a moment and hardening his skin, before letting go of his transformative quirk.

 

“Nice costume nerd. Could do without the bunny ears though.” Katsuki said as he walked up behind him flicking Izuku’s hood to emphasize his point about it.

 

Izuku blushed softly before replying “They’re not bunny ears you ass, they’re supposed to be an homage to All Might.”

 

Kyoka gave him a once over, before nodding “Nah, they’re just bunny ears.”

 

Izuku shook his head, before turning to Katsuki “I’m glad you got rid of the huge grenades from your original design.”

 

What was going to be large grenade-like canisters of his sweat were now replaced with considerably smaller canisters, this time designed to look more like a flashbang.

 

 If someone really looked close, they could see metallic tubes running up his arms to his back, where a medium size container could be seen.

 

Katsuki flexed his wrists before toying with the safety pin of his right grenade. “I lost a bit of fuel capacity, but this is a lot easier to carry around.”

 

 “Well, well, well… Would you look at that?” A smug voice suddenly interrupted their conversation, prompting the little group around Izuku to turn towards it.

 

“It’s our inferior sister class.” The blonde finished with a smug grin, his arms spread wide as if he was posing for a photoshoot in an anime con.

 

“Who the hell do you think you’re calling inferior, you fu-“ Katsuki started as he stepped towards the smug blonde, only to be stopped by Izuku.

 

“Chill out Katsuki” Izuku said as he placed his hand on his shoulder, effectively holding him back before turning to give a dry look to the smug blonde.

 

“I’m guessing you’re from Class 1-B? Either way, I’m Izuku Midoriya, nice to meet ya.” Izuku said with an outstretched hand, completely unbothered by the blonde’s taunts.

 

The blonde blinked, caught off guard by Izuku’s civil response. His grin faltered for a moment before returning, his eyes gaining a look of realization.

 

“How charming…” He said with an overly sweet voice, his words flowing like thick syrup. “Trying to throw me off with good manners, how very Class 1-A of you.”

 

Izuku’s hand returned to his pockets, before he shrugged. “Dude we’ve been in this school for 3 days, this is literally the first time we’re meeting. Why are we beefing already?”

 

He blinked again, caught off guard by Izuku’s bluntness.

 

“Because Class 1-A thinks they’re better than everyone else.” He said eventually, standing straighter and falling back into his performative arrogance.

 

“So, someone has to put you all in your place, and who better than me, Neito Monoma!”

 

Izuku stared back at the boy, who introduced himself as Neito Monoma. “Dude, I offered you a handshake, where is all of this coming from?”

 

Mineta laughed from beside Izuku “Is this bros villain origin speech?”

 

“I’m not a villain!” Monoma snapped with genuine anger, making it seem like that comment actually got to him.

 

Izuku noticed the sudden change in tone, before stepping in “Alright, alright. Let’s just shake hands and forget this happened alright? I seriously don’t wanna be beefing with our sister class.”

 

He then turned to Monoma “Listen man, I’m not sure what gave you that impression, but can we not? We’re all in the business of heroics, it’s probably better that we get along.”

 

Monoma huffed, crossing his arms annoyedly “Of course, diplomacy. How very… sanitized.”

 

Before Izuku could respond, a hand chopped the back of Monoma’s neck, making him stumble a little and instantly lose all the wind in his sails.

 

“Monoma…” A sickly-sweet voice called out from behind him, the voice belonging to a redhead wearing a teal qipao and a double-breasted corset.

 

“We talked about this, why are you already antagonizing 1-A?” The girl asked Monoma, who sputtered at her words.

 

“B-but Kendo! These Class 1-A clowns need to be-“

 

Kendo just sighed, turning Monoma out for a moment before turning to Izuku. “Sorry about him, he’s taking the hero course rivalry a bit too seriously.”

 

“You’re alright. Appreciate the apology though.” Izuku said with a polite smile as Kendo walked away, dragging Monoma by his collar.

 

Izuku’s eyes curiously watched Kendo walk towards the group of Class 1-B students, his eyes trailing over each and every individual student with intrigue.

 

‘They all look so cool, I hope whatever we do today gives me more information about their quirks.’

 

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud clap, which gained the attention of every student in Class 1-A and 1-B, making them all turn towards the Symbol of Peace.

 

‘That suit is so fucking cool.’

 

“Alright! Now that I’ve gotten all of your attention! We will be doing Hero VS Villain mock drills…”

 

---

 

’Ten 15 minute, 2v2 indoor battles, heroes have to find the bomb and defuse it, which takes around 2 minutes, before time runs out while the villains need to hide and protect the bomb… Randomized teams and randomized match ups.’

 

Izuku thought to himself as he sat down in the viewing room of Ground Beta, before tilting his head up to look at the large screen above them.

 

‘Somehow I don’t believe the randomized part.’

 

Villain & Villain VS Hero & Hero

 

Tenya Iida & Koji Koda VS Itsuka Kendo & Manga Fukidashi

 

Shihai Kuroiro & Kojiro Bondo VS Hanta Sero & Rikido Sato

 

Ochako Uraraka & Ibara Shiozaki VS Minoru Mineta & Sen Kaibara

 

Juzo Honenuki & Momo Yaoyorozu VS Denki Kaminari & Kyoka Jiro

 

Yuga Aoyama & Hiryu Rin VS Reiko Yanagi & Yosetsu Awase

 

Mashirao Ojiro & Mezo Shoji VS Neito Monoma & Pony Tsunotori

 

Fumikage Tokoyami & Nirengeki Shoda VS Jurota Shishida & Mina Ashido

 

Kosei Tsuburaba & TetsuTetsu TetsuTetsu VS Tsuyu Asui & Togaru Kamakiri

 

Eijiro Kirishima & Kinoko Komori VS Setsuna Tokage & Yui Kodai

 

Katsuki Bakugo & Shoko Todoroki VS Toru Hagakure & Izuku Midoriya

 

‘Either way, I’m eating good tonight.’ Izuku thought to himself with a grin as he imagined the literal truckload of information he was going to get on his classmates quirks.

 

Despite his attentive staring at the screens in front of them, he was broken out of his thoughts when he felt a hand grabbing his shoulder, but when he turned around, all he saw was a dismembered hand with a purple scaly glove on it.

 

“Looking for me, handsome?” He heard from beside him as he felt someone sit down on the seat to his left.

 

Izuku turned towards the voice, only to see a body whose head, and hand were missing, before looking up to see a floating head staring down at him.

 

“Yo, you’re Setsuna Tokage, right?” Izuku asked calmly, not too bothered by the sight of her floating and detached head.

 

“Right on the nail. I gotta say, it’s nice to meet another person with green hair.” Setsuna replied before reattaching her head and hand to the rest of her body, the separated flesh and the detached suit melding back together smoothly.

 

“Right?! For a superhuman society with all sorts of variety in appearance, you’d think you’d find a lot of green haired people, but you’re seriously only the second person, other than my mom, who I’ve met with green hair.”

 

Setsuna chuckled as she stretched languidly in her seat. “Right? In a society full of people who breathe fire or can bend space with their minds or explode their sweat, you’d expect more representation.”

 

Izuku propped up his chin with his hands with a thoughtful expression, before turning to look at Setsuna with an excited grin. “Think we should start a cult?”

 

She blinked, clearly surprised before laughing “Only if I get to be the co-founder.”

 

“Of course, of course.” He replied, gesticulating wildly “We’ll call it the ‘Cult of Chlorophyll’“

 

“Oof,” She mock winced, her grin still on her face “Terrible name. I’m in.”

 

“We can meet in abandoned classrooms, hand out cryptic pamphlets.” Izuku added, his gesticulation becoming more excited with each word “The initiation rite is simple.”

 

“You stand in the morning sun, and recite the plant chant, and pledge loyalty to the hidden root system.”

 

Setsuna blinked, not expecting the oddly specific initiation rite. “The what?”

 

“The hidden root system.” He nodded as if it made perfect sense “We are one root, many stems.”

 

She covered her mouth to hold in her laugher, before deciding to entertain Izuku’s unhinged suggestions “Okay, but that’s the chant?”

 

Izuku looked at her with grave seriousness before clearing his throat.

 

“We bloom in the morning light,

 Growing beneath ordinary sight,

 May our enemies choke on pollen,

 May their sins be mulched, not forgotten.”

 

Setsuna couldn’t keep it in anymore, she laughed out loud, the melodious sound echoing through the room before she stopped herself.

 

She doubled over, leaning closer to Izuku so she could whisper. Her grin so wide that it looked like it hurt, her sharp white teeth glistening in the florescent lighting of the room.

 

“There’s no way you came up with that on the spot.”

 

“I’m very good at improvising. In fact, I’m workshopping the fall and winter versions right now.” Izuku said completely straight faced, somehow not breaking under the absurdity of their conversation.

 

‘Thanks Dad... For teaching me how to hold a poker face, even if you almost gave me a gambling addiction.’

 

Setsuna grinned up at Izuku “Alright Mr. Cult leader, you got any members in mind?”

 

Izuku looked around for a moment before his eyes landed on a girl with thorny vines for hair. “What about her? She seems perfect for this.”

 

Setsuna followed his eyes before shaking her head “Nah, she’s a devout Catholic, I don’t think she’d like being invited into a cult.”

 

“Damn.” Izuku muttered under his breath before turning to look at his classmate with the frog mutation quirk.

 

‘She has green hair too… I’ll ask her later.’

 

“Say… We need a secret signal, something innocuous, maybe a phrase?” Izuku suggested, his eyes focused on no one but Setsuna, the screens forgotten as All Might announces that Kendo and Manga’s prep time is almost over.

 

“Hmmm.” She hummed as she thought, her chin resting on her palm as her face adopted a thoughtful expression.

 

“How about… The moss has eyes.”

 

“Perfect, it even sounds kinda creepy.”

 

“Now we need to find a secret lair.”

 

“I remember some of the teachers saying that there’s an unused classroom right above yours, which would be next to Class 2-A.”

 

“Fuck yeah, this is coming together perfectly.” Izuku said with a satisfied smile as he leaned back on his chair, his eyes shifting to the screen where he could see Kendo and Manga talking, although he wasn’t sure what they were saying since their intercoms weren’t connected to the speakers.

 

Setsuna matched his smile, before stretching her arms over her head. “It’s honestly insane that this whole thing escalated from green-haired solidarity to a secret cult in like- 10 minutes.”

 

“We make a good team.” Izuku said with an easy shrug, his eyes moving back to meet Setsuna’s as the Hero team continued to strategize.

 

“You always get this intense about dumb ideas?”

 

“Only the good ones.”

 

A beat passed, her eyes lingered on his for a second longer before flickering back to the screen.

 

Their attention was borrowed for a moment as they heard All Might’s booming voice.

 

“Match One begins in 60 Seconds!”

 

The other students in the room sat up straighter at the announcement, all of their attention now on the screens.

 

Setsuna didn’t move though, instead she began to count off using her fingers. “So, we’ve got the name, the chant, the meeting spot…”

 

Izuku glanced at her, his face tilting slightly as he looked at her curiously.

 

“We’re missing one last thing.”

 

“Which is?”

 

“A secret handshake.”

 

“No, absolutely not.”

 

“Like a cool one. Think elb-“

 

“No.”

 

Setsuna pouted “You’re no fun.”

 

Izuku sweatdropped at that “That’s childish.”

 

Setsuna shrugged off the comment “I’m just through.”

 

“You mean annoying.”

 

“Tomato, tomahto.”

 

Izuku grinned down at her for a moment, before reaching into his pockets and pulling out his phone, unlocking it and handing it to her.

 

“Alright, we need to discuss cult logistics later. Let’s make this official.”

 

“Wow.” She said as they swapped phones “And here I thought we were just bonding over our hair color.”

 

“We’re multitasking.” Izuku said with a shrug before he noticed the character on Setsuna’s phone wallpaper.

 

“Oh shit, is that Gebura from Lobotomy Corporation?” Izuku asked, clearly surprised by the sudden appearance of a Pre-Quirk Era video game character.

 

Setsuna stopped typing on Izuku’s phone, before turning to look at him in shock. “Wait you know who that is?”

 

“I mean, kinda? I’m a Pre-Quirk Era nerd, and apparently there was this thing called the GGC… Where there was a woman, who was definitely not a lesbian, who used to obsess over this character.”

 

“The GGC huh? Something tells me that it’s full of the most wonderful people on the planet.”

 

“Mhm. Anyways, here you go.” Izuku said as they exchanged their phones again before he glanced down at his phone, reading her contact name.

 

‘Chlorophyll Cult Co-founder 🦎’  He read out in his mind, not even bothering to hide the large grin forming on his face, scrunching his freckles together as his cheeks lifted.

 

“Gear up! Match one begins in 3… 2… 1… Start!”

 

As Izuku’s eyes locked in on the screens in front of him, he didn’t notice Denki and Mineta stare at the back of his head in awe.

 

“He’s him… The man of the prophecy.” Mineta muttered to himself in awe.

 

Denki nodded in agreement “We must get him to teach us his ways.”

 

---

 

Izuku yawned loudly as he plopped down on his chair, leaning back against the mesh back of his chair as his mini fridge opened, an ice-cold bottle of water floating towards him.

 

‘Telekinesis my beloved… I don’t know how normal people go about their life without this.’

 

He reached out to his bookshelf, grabbing the notebook with the words ‘Fight Analysis For The Future : Vol 9’ written on its spine.

 

‘Alright, Match 1. Tenya Iida & Koji Koda VS Itsuka Kendo & Manga Fukidashi.’

 

In his opinion, this was a worst-case scenario for both Iida and Koda. Koda didn’t have any animals for his quirk and Iida didn’t do well in tight spaces. So, it was a pretty easy win for Kendo and Fukidashi.

 

Kendo’s quirk was pretty basic, a general transformative quirk that allowed her to enlarge her hands. But by the looks of it, it hugely boosted the strength in her arms, considering the fact that she literally blew away Iida to avoid a direct hit.

 

All in all? Decent quirk, skilled user. Kendo herself was pretty confident in her abilities but allowed her partner to shine.

 

And boy did Manga Fukidashi shine, his quirk was a versatile one.

 

By the looks of it, he could say onomatopoeias that came out as speech bubbles from his face, and when they hit their target, they apply the effect that the onomatopoeia represented.

 

Interesting quirk, but the guy seemed to rely too much on it, his body wasn’t really up to hero course levels and in a close range fight he’d get beat pretty easily.

 

Now, onto the losing team, he didn’t get too much information on them sadly, he blamed that on the mismatch.

 

‘Although I did get some decent information on Iida and Koda.’

 

Iida’s quirk was highly similar to his brother, the Pro Hero Ingenium (which was so fucking cool), except unlike his brother he had the engine vents in his calves rather than his forearms.

 

He his engine apparently had several gears, considering he announced that he was using ‘Gear One’ in his fight, it could be assumed that there was at least two gears.

 

Right before and after his match he drank a lot of orange juice, so that’s likely what fuels his quirk (considering that Ingenium uses grape juice as fuel, it makes logical sense that his brother would have a similar requirement)

 

Iida seemed to be pretty well rounded, despite the area disadvantage he managed to knock out Fukidashi, even if he did get caught right after by Kendo.

 

Koda on the other hand, he barely got any information from. All he knew about his quirk was that it had something to do with speaking and controlling animals. No clue about it’s limits or if it had any other requirements for working.

 

All he knew about this behavior was stuff he knew from the start, the guy was shy and didn’t like talking, preferring instead to use ASL for communication.

 

‘Oh well, it’s only the 3^rd day. I’ll learn more later. Now, onto match 2.’

 

Very good matchup for the villain team, slightly bad matchup for the hero team.

 

Kuroiro had a really good quirk for stealth and considering that he jumped Sero and pushed him into a glue trap, he knew how to use it well too.

 

He seemed to be decently athletic, but he could use more muscle, but his skill with his quirk made up for it.

 

Bondo was easily the MVP of this match though, his quirk let him shoot out quirk drying glue from his face. Which was basically made for situations like this, his glue traps were very good for this exercise and since he’d sealed the room in which they kept the bomb, the heroes couldn’t have won either way.

 

He was pretty big, had a good amount of muscle and carried himself well. Although this is the best-case scenario for him, he could only really get a good showing if he was put in a bad spot.

 

Now, just because they lost, it couldn’t be said that Sato and Sero weren’t good.

 

Sero was literally Spider-Man… If Spider-Man had average physicals, couldn’t stick to walls and shot out his adhesive material from his elbows rather than wrist.

 

Sero had a pretty good showing in this exercise, he avoided all of Bondo’s glue traps and even managed to trap Bondo into his own glue.

 

He had an average level of strength, but he made up for it with reflexes.

 

‘I wonder if he could swing around using his tape.’

 

Sato was fucking coked up during the match, there was no other way to put it.

 

His quirk allowed him to increase his strength and musculature by around 5 times for 3 minutes by consuming 10 grams sugar. Each 10 grams of sugar consumed would increase the time boosted by 3 minutes.

 

Pretty cut and dry, except that the longer his body was boosted, the more his brain was nerfed, basically capping him to a certain time limit before he started to make horrible decisions.

 

At 30 grams consumed, he seemed to still be in control so there was a good chance his limit was a good chunk above that, or maybe his quirk nerfed his mental state an exponential amount rather than a linear scale.

 

‘Done, now onto match 3…’

 

---

 

‘Alright, match 9 is done… Time for my match.’

 

Izuku flexed his fingers as he thought about his match, his eyes slightly unfocused as he intimately recollected the events of his match.

 

FLASHBACK 5 HOURS AGO

 

Izuku stretched his arms over his head as he walked into the bottom floor of the building in which his match was being held. He turned around as he felt his invisible teammate walk up behind him.

 

“Hey, Chef! I heard you’re analytical, you got a plan for us?” The excited girl asked as she looked up at him, her hands behind her back as she leaned forward slightly.

 

Izuku looked down at her with a slightly curious expression, truth be told, the only reason he even knew where she was, was because of his quirk, without that he’d have no clue about her location.

 

“I mean… Kinda? Depends on how thermally insulated your suit is.” Izuku said with an honest shrug, looking up at the ceiling for a couple seconds, trying to feel out for Katsuki and Shoko, but unable to feel anything past the first three floors, which were all empty.

 

“I mean, my suit’s made out of my own hair, so not all that insulated… And even if it was, I’m not sure how good I’d do in a fight with either of them.” She admitted with an embarrassed tone, the thick gloves on her hands suddenly becoming visible as she started to gesticulate.

 

“That’s fine, you’re not a combat-oriented person anyway…”  Izuku said before a plan started to form in his mind, a large confident grin appearing on his face.

 

 “Say, if I distract Katsuki and Shoko for long enough, could you sneak past them and touch the bomb?’

 

Toru seemed to think for a moment, her gloved hand seemingly holding her chin, before answering. “Yeah, I think I could do that… But are you sure you can take them both on?”

 

“If both Katsuki and Shoko came at me with full force… They might cause me some trouble.”

 

“But would you lose?”

 

“Nah, I’d win”

 

Toru looked at Izuku for a couple moments, before nodding “Alright… If you’re sure, then yeah. I’ll sneak past both of them while you distract them.”

 

“I’ll keep them off your back, don’t worry.”

 

“Gear up! Match one begins in 10 seconds!”

 

Izuku looked up at the speaker for a second before grinning down at Toru. “I’m counting on you Hagakure!”

 

“I won’t let you down Chef!” She said with an equally excited tone as they walked up to the entrance of the building.

 

“… 3… 2… 1…”

 

“The bomb isn’t in the first 3 floors though, so it’s either the 4^th or 5^th floor.”

 

“Gotcha!”

 

The sound of motors felt deafening to Izuku as he locked in on the large metal door, which had just begun to open.

 

'One for All : 10%'

 

“Start!”

 

He felt the tell-tale rush of One for All as he shot through the open doors. His red sneakers slamming against the concrete floor as he ran across the room, quickly making his way to the second floor as he bounced off of the walls around the stairs.

 

A grin split across his face as he heard loud explosions above him, each explosion sounding closer than the other as he felt Katsuki propelling himself through the 4^th floor using his quirk.

 

‘I guess Shoko’s staying with the bomb… I need to beat Katsuki fast enough to make Shoko feel like coming for me is the best move forward.’

 

He bounced up the stairs to the next floor, quickly rebounding on the ceiling of the 3^rd floor to land on the floor. His timing was perfect, since Katsuki made it to the floor at the exact same time he did.

 

“Hey, little brother. Ready to get your ass kicked?” Katsuki said with a maniacal grin as he stared down Izuku, his stance crouched as he prepared to blast off towards Izuku.

 

“Get my ass kicked? Tough talk from someone who can’t even land a hit… Kacchan.” Izuku replied with an equally excited grin, before flicking his hand towards a wall, making Katsuki’s earpiece suddenly fly towards that wall and shattering.

 

“Huh?”

 

“Sorry, can’t have you communicating when we’re fighting.” Izuku said with a shrug as he felt Toru sneak past Katsuki, giving him the signal to begin their fight.

 

Katsuki tsked in annoyance, before launching himself forward, the floor charring beneath him as he closed in on Izuku.

 

Izuku darted sideways, his sneakers skidding on the floor as he pulled himself towards the wall as he narrowly dodged a large explosion.

 

Katsuki didn’t give him space, spinning around mid-air with his palms pointed behind him, rocketing himself towards Izuku once again.

 

This time though, Izuku didn’t dodge wide, preferring instead to duck the subsequent explosion and gut punch Katsuki, launching him back and slamming him against a wall.

 

He immediately shot towards Katsuki, refusing to give him room to breathe as he went for the second hit.

 

Only for the room to drop by several degrees.

 

'15%'

 

Izuku looked to his right, before pulling himself towards the ceiling and jumping to his left, narrowly avoiding a large wave of ice.

 

‘Wait what? Why the hell is she here now?’ Izuku thought to himself before trying to feel out the 5th and final floor, his eyes widening as he realized that the entire staircase from the 4^th floor to the 5^th one was completely frozen.

 

‘Well fuck me I guess.’

 

“Yo! Shoko! I was hoping you’d join us!” Izuku said with an excited grin, his internal thoughts completely hidden as he tried to figure out a way to get Toru inside of the 5^th floor.

 

“Midoriya.” Shoko acknowledged in a breathy tone, her breath frosty as she shot another wave of ice at Izuku, this one wider and faster to ensure that he doesn’t dodge.

 

And he didn’t, instead he shot forward directly at ice wave, before telekinetically grabbing at the concrete beneath the ice.

 

The concrete cracked and buckled under his pressure, before suddenly shooting upward and piercing right through the 4^th and 5^th floor. All while he held up the rest of the floor together to keep it from collapsing.

 

‘There’s your opening Toru… Now I just have to deal with these two for the next 2 minutes.’

 

But in his distracted state, Izuku didn’t notice Katsuki coming from his left, leaving him wide open to attack.

 

BOOM!

 

Izuku winced as he felt his ribs crack from the impact of the explosion, his back bruising under his clothes as he slammed the wall, the wind rushing out of his lungs.

 

Despite his dazed state, he quickly latched onto a wall on his right and pulled himself out of the range of the expected second blast, giving him just enough time to catch his breath as he skidded on the cracked floor.

 

“Jeez Katsuki, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to kill me!” Izuku said cheerily as he felt his nose begin to bleed under the pressure of holding the floor together and fighting at the same time.

 

Katsuki didn’t stop, continuing his assault against Izuku. “Stop talking and fight me!”

 

He couldn’t keep this up, he could hear his heart beating, the weight of the pressure of keeping hundreds of kilograms of reinforced concrete together weighing on his brain like a ton of bricks.

 

‘I can deal with that usually, but I’m being tag teamed by the other two powerhouses in my class at the same time… It’s fine, only 1 more minute…’

 

He felt the floor under him freeze under a thick sheet of ice as Shoko tried to freeze him, getting him as still as possible to get her final shot.

 

“Thanks for the assist, Shoko! I knew I could count on you!” He said with a grin as he let go of the floor, his mind feeling significantly lighter and leaving his original quirk's output free for more immediate uses.

 

“Huh? What the hell are you talking about?” Shoko asked confusedly, before narrowly dodging several chunks of ice that were flung at her face, courtesy of Izuku’s now available telekinetic output.

 

He only responded with a wider grin, before swinging his arm in the general direction of Katsuki, shoving him away from him incredibly fast. Before throwing his roll of capture tape at Katsuki.

 

“Fuck!” Katsuki yelled out as he slammed against a wall, slumping down to the floor as he struggled to regain his breath. The roll of capture tape was hastily taped around him, requiring no human interaction due to Izuku’s quirk.

 

“Bakugo Katsuki has been captured! 4 minutes left!”

 

‘45 seconds.’ Izuku thought to himself as he turned to face Shoko, his nose bleeding so hard that it looked like a burst pipe, the warm liquid soaking into his hoodie as it flowed down his lips and chin.

 

Shoko took note of his condition, but she didn’t stop, instead she hastened her attacks, trying to take advantage of his damaged state.

 

“You’re pushing harder even though you’re injured.” She said coldly, her tone matter of fact as her heterochromatic eyes stared dead into his soul.

 

“You’re stalling, aren’t you?”

 

Izuku didn’t answer, instead he just offered her a crooked smile and flung a shard of her own ice at her.

 

She batted it away, her eyes not leaving Izuku’s as she continued to advance at him. Before suddenly looking up and launching a sharp pillar of ice through the ceiling.

 

“Hagakure is at the bomb, isn’t she?”

 

Izuku’s eyes widened before he grabbed the pillar telekinetically, stopping it just long enough for him to jump at Shoko, tackling her to the floor and disrupting her control over her ice.

 

“Sorry Shoko, I can’t let you do that.” He told her as he pinned her to the floor, before jumping back as she tried to freeze Izuku directly.

 

’30 seconds.’

 

She leapt back up to her feet, landing with a graceful slide across the icy floor.

 

“I’ve been watching how you compensate for your injuries.” She said, moving into a lower stance as she dipped her right hand onto the floor.

 

“Your left arm is burnt, so you’re favoring your right. Your ribs, at least one of them is broken, so you’re avoiding hand to hand despite you having an advantage over me.”

 

Izuku raised an eyebrow, his grin never leaving his face as he prepared for another wave of ice.

 

“You gonna ice my wounds or finish the job? I honestly can’t tell.”

 

A glint of amusement flickered in her eyes, before she continued.

 

“Neither. I’m letting you know, I’ve already won.”

 

Izuku’s eyes widened as he felt the floor shake, before a large ice spice formed right beneath him, shooting upwards with surprising speed as he attempted to move aside.

 

He winced as he felt the ice spike leave a deep laceration on his right forearm, as he was unable to move all of him out of the range of the spike in time.

 

But before Shoko could continue, a soft chime rung through the room.

 

“FUCK!” Katsuki exclaimed from his spot on the icy floor, having stayed quiet prior to this in respect of the capture.

 

“Hero team wins!” All Might’s voice boomed from the intercom making all the contestants freeze.

 

Shoko stood still in shock, her frost covered arm still outstretched towards Izuku, before she slowly lowered it.

 

Izuku laughed loud and piercing. The sound echoing through the broken room and amplifying his feelings of triumph.

 

His bloodied grin stretched ear to ear, sweat mixing with blood as he hunched forward slightly, his hands holding his flail chest as he spat out a large glob of blood.

 

“Fucking hell.” He wheezed through his laughter “That was awesome!”

 

“You’re insane.” Shoko muttered under her breath, despite her cold demeanor, there was still a hint of worry as she looked at him.

 

“You’ll get used to his shit soon, you haven’t seen his worst.” Katsuki said as he wriggled out of the capture tape, standing up as he lazily waved his hand towards Izuku, clearly used to his antics.

 

“Holy shit! Are you ok?” They heard from above as Toru jumped down from the hole in the ceiling, landing on the now stable floor and running up to Izuku.

 

“Peachy, never felt be- Actually that’s a lie, I’ve had better.” Izuku said with a smile, his grin receding as he felt the tiredness kick in.

 

“Night, Night.” He said softly before passing out.

 

FLASHBACK END

 

Izuku clicked his pen close and tossed it back into his pen stand, the notebook closing itself and moving back into the shelf on its own.

 

‘Today was fun… I want a rematch.’

 

He thought to himself with a smile, absentmindedly flexing his right forearm, the large scar running horizontally across his forearm conforming to his clenched muscles.

 

He yawned loudly, before stretching his arms and getting up from his chair.

 

He turned on the aircon before jumping into his bed and pulling his weighted blanket on top of him. He muttered something as the tender arms of sleep took ahold of him.

 

“Goodnight One for All…”

Notes:

So... Was the wait worth it?

I ended up choosing Midnight to be Class 1-A's homeroom teacher because I frankly hate Aizawa and I don't think I can write him without it accidentally going into bashing territory (I'm being completely real with yall, no point in pretending otherwise) and because I really loved the fic Build Me Up! by L3opard_Sp0ts (GO READ IT RIGHT NOW)

I introduced Class 1-B a lot earlier since I feel like it's kinda weird to ONLY have Class 1-A be taught by All Might (or have him exert twice the amount of his time rather than just combining the classes)

I ended up making Izuku a pseudo-masochist here because I think Izuku in canon is fucking insane for pushing through that much pain... So there's no way he didn't enjoy it AT LEAST a LITTLE BIT right? (No this is not setup for a Toga romance arc, if that's what you're looking for then you won't find it here).

But honestly it's less about him actually enjoying the pain and more of him laughing and smiling through it, this is his own version of the "Smile to show the world that it's a-okay" thing.

I mostly just made him call Shoko and Toru by their first names because he was too busy trying to win the 2v1 than to be polite (that and he was too tired in the morning)

And the One for All hatred thing, I wanted more setup for the vestiges appearing in the story (This will DEFINITELY be an early vestiges story, I'm not sure if I should tag it as that right now though, since it hasn't exactly happened yet)

Have a good day! (Expect the next update to take about as much time, since my birthday, exams AND school trip are happening back to back to back)

Chapter 8: The USJ Incident

Notes:

So... Remember how I said that this chapter would come out around August 15th? WELL I LIED (kinda, I just locked in a couple days ago and got this chapter done because writing the Nomu fight was almost constantly on my mind)

Next chapter is uh- Actually I'm not gonna give a timeline for this because August is either gonna be the busiest month so far this year or the least busy month this year.

But there will be a chapter in August, so don't worry about that.

Anyway, buckle up for 5k words of some slowburn content, and Izuku showing off!

Edit:- 08/08/2025 - I changed the Nomu fight a little bit, the beats are all the same but I added more emotional weight to it, so if you want, feel free to give it a re-read from "As the dust settled..."

Izuku yawned as he sprawled out on a large red couch, his eyes closing as he blocked out the fluorescent lighting of Toshinori’s office.

 

“This room is completely private, right?”

 

“Completely.” Toshinori assured as he sat down on a mech office chair, leaning back as he looked at his successor. “Nothing we talk about will be heard by anyone else…”

 

“You can talk about One for All freely.”

 

Toshinori looked at Izuku’s tired form with worry, leaning forward in his chair as he looked him in the eye.

 

“You sure you don’t wanna sleep some more, Young Izuku?”

 

Izuku opened his eyes, his eyes trailing over to the large clock on the wall.

 

1:28 AM

 

“Nah, this is important…”

 

Toshinori’s eyes were locked onto Izuku’s as he listened intently, his attention solely focused on his sleepless successor.

 

Izuku’s eyes trailed the second hand of the clock, his eyes moving ever so slightly with each minor movement before he took a deep breath.

 

“Say Sensei… Do you ever hear voices?”

 

---

 

Izuku bounded up the stairs as he made his way to the 2^nd floor. His face was calm, the complete antithesis to the disarray of his thoughts.

 

“Hmm… I’ve seen them once, during my fight with All for One, during the final moments of the fight, I saw 7 shadowy figures, pushing me past the edge to end the fight…”

 

Izuku shook his head as he thought about his conversation with his mentor, clearly confused by the recent turn of events.

 

‘Man, what the fuck, why do I have 7 ghosts in my head?’

 

Izuku took a deep breath as he reached his destination, going to open the door that led from the stairwell to the 2^nd floor dorm rooms.

 

‘Whatever, it’s not like I can do much… If the only cost of One for All is being haunted, then I don’t regret it.’

 

Izuku opened the door, his calloused fingers hooking onto the door handle as he pulled it open without a single sound.

 

Only for him to walk directly into someone.

 

“Shit- Sorry.” Izuku muttered as he stepped back for a moment, instinctively reaching out with his quirk to stabilize the other person, applying just enough to stop them from falling.

 

Izuku looked down for a moment, only to see cyan and gray eyes looking up at him.

 

“Todoroki?”

 

She blinked up at him, her eyes bleary but steady as she stood up straight. She looked more confused than mad, like she hadn’t expected company, let alone a collision.

 

“Midoriya.” She acknowledged with a nod, her voice low as she looked dead into his eyes, her height almost exactly the same as his.

 

“I didn’t expect to run into anyone.” Izuku said, keeping his voice low as he leaned on the doorway. “Sorry about that.”

 

“It’s fine.” She replied simply, not bothering to elaborate further.

 

They stood in awkward silence for a couple seconds, before Shoko spoke up again.

 

“Why do you keep bouncing between calling me ‘Shoko’ and ‘Todoroki’?” She asked with a curious tone.

 

Izuku blinked for a moment before letting out an awkward laugh.

 

“Yeah… Sorry, I haven’t really figured out what I should call you yet,”

 

Shoko tilted her head in confusion, but remained quiet as she watched him continue.

 

He glanced at her for a moment, before looking away.

 

“We’re not exactly close, so calling you ‘Shoko’ feels kinda… personal? Like I’m overstepping or something.”

 

He shifted uncomfortably, his thumb fiddling with his pant pockets in a rare show of nervousness.

 

“But every time I call you ‘Todoroki’ you look like you just bit into a lemon.”

 

Shoko stayed quiet for a few moments before speaking up.

 

“I don’t like my father.”

 

“Yeah…”

 

They stood in complete silence, world around them felt still. Just the soft hum of the lights and the sound of air rushing through the central AC unit of the dorms.

 

“Hey.” Izuku suddenly prompted deciding to change the topic, not liking the awkward quietness.

 

“If you have time later this week… Wanna have a rematch? Just you and me.”

 

She just raised an eyebrow at him.

 

Izuku continued, not flinching under her deadpan gaze.

 

“I won’t hold back this time.” He said in a confident tone, nodding to himself as he spoke.

 

“Yesterday I had to deal with the floor, Katsuki and helping Toru at once… This time I’ll have my full focus on you.”

 

Her posture changed at his words, her gaze changing to something akin to challenging.

 

“Alright.”

 

She nodded at him, before moving to walk past him.

 

Izuku moved aside, letting her walk into the stairwell as he walked towards his dorm, understanding that she wasn’t one for meaningless conversation.

 

Right before she started to walk down the stairwell, she turned around, her ponytail swaying behind her.

 

“You can call me Shoko if you want. It doesn't bother me when you do it.”

 

Izuku blushed at her words, before nodding with a smile.

 

“Only if you call me Izuku.”

 

She looked at him for a moment, before nodding, an almost invisible twitch of her lips being the only indication of her being pleased at the situation.

 

“Alright.”

 

She turned around to head downstairs.

 

“Goodnight, Izuku.”

 

He watched her walk down the stairwell for a moment, before smiling to himself.

 

‘I like how she says my name.’

 

---

 

Izuku moaned contently as he chewed on a crunchy strip of chicken katsu, his face contorted into a face of pure euphoria as he swallowed.

 

“You’re enjoying that shit too damn much.” Katsuki grumbled out as he looked at Izuku weirdly from his place beside him.

 

Izuku opened one eye, looking at Katsuki for a few moments before shrugging.

 

“It’s really crispy today, Katsuki.”

 

“You sound like you’re a good time alone from marrying it.” Kyoka said teasingly from across the table but silently agreeing with him.

 

“Leave him be.” Ochako giggled from beside her, before taking a sip of her miso soup.

 

“Let our class rep enjoy his victory lunch.”

 

Izuku hummed noncommittally as he chewed on another piece of crispy chicken.

 

“Still riding that Class Rep high, huh?” Kaminari grinned, nudging him with an elbow.

 

“Japanese man gets elected by surprise. Celebrates with deep-fried poultry.”

 

Izuku just sighed dramatically before turning to look at Momo “We can still trade if you want, I don’t really want the job.”

 

Momo smiled politely but shook her head.

 

“Tempting, but I think you’ve got it under control… I’m content being the Vice Rep.” She said before glancing around the cafeteria, searching for a certain someone.

 

“Has anyone seen Todoroki? I didn’t see her after Yamada-Sensei’s class.”

 

Izuku spoke without thinking, not even looking up from his bowl of Katsudon.

 

“Shoko said that she was gonna eat alone, something about the cafeteria being too noisy for her.”

 

.

 

..

 

…

 

Kaminari blinked. “Wait, Shoko?”

 

Kyoka turned to look at him with a look of surprise.

 

“Green. You just called Todoroki by her first name.”

 

Izuku paused, looking up from his bowl at the incredulous faces of his friends. His brain realizing his blunder a second too late.

 

“Huh? Oh yeah, she told me I could.” He said as nonchalantly as possible, knowing that even a tiny slip up would become a moment he’d never live down.

 

Ochako tilted her head in confusion. “Wait, what? When did that happen?”

 

Izuku scratched the back of his neck, his cheeks flushing as he remembered the events of the morning.

 

“This morning… We ran into each other in the stairwell."

 

Kaminari leaned forward, his eyes shining with intrigue as he prompted.

 

“And what? You just casually asked her if you could call her that?”

 

“Not exactly.” Izuku sighed, already knowing that he couldn’t get out of this one.

 

WARNING! LEVEL 3 SECURITY BREACH! WARNING! LEVEL 3 SECURITY BREACH!

 

‘Well never mind then. I guess I am getting out of this.’

 

---

 

The rest of the day felt like a blur to Izuku, but then again, that was to be expected.

 

Nothing engaging really happened until their Foundational Heroics class, where they were told that they were going to a rescue simulation facility in the far end of the campus.

 

‘I can’t believe that the campus is so unbelievably large that they needed a bus to get all of us here.’

 

He was the first one to get out of the bus, his head tilting up as he saw the huge dome of reinforced glass, with a light pink concrete bottom.

 

It had large blue gates at the front, which were open wide, revealing a person in a baggy space suit inspired hero costume, with large anthropomorphic eyes looking back at him.

 

“Holy shit it’s the Space Hero: Thirteen!” He heard Ochako squeal from behind him, feeling her bounce with giddiness as the rest of his classmates got off the bus behind him.

 

‘The Space Hero: Thirteen. Quirk: Blackhole - Allows the user to create a blackhole-like suction effect from their hands, the suction is so powerful that even light cannot escape it, and anything sucked into the blackhole will be turned into dust.’

 

He thought to himself as he and his classmates walked into the large dome, following their homeroom teacher through the large blue gates.

 

Kayama-Sensei went to stand next to her, prompting Thirteen to give her a questioning look.

 

Her only response was holding up three fingers.

 

‘All Might was supposed to be here… I guess he used up his 3 hours today.’

 

Izuku thought to himself with worry as he looked around for a moment, feeling uneasy for no apparent reason.

 

Thirteen was saying something, he wasn’t sure what though, the blood flowing in his head too deafening for her words to be properly audible.

 

Izuku felt One for All heat up in his chest, making him cough awkwardly as he felt his senses sharpen, the world around him fading for a moment as he heard a raspy voice.

 

‘Villains… Centre…’

 

His gaze instantly snapped to the Centre Plaza of the facility, his sudden movement startling the people around him.

 

“Midoriya, is there something wrong?”

 

Or at least that’s what he thought Midnight said, his lip reading might’ve been unreliable.

 

Before he could respond though, the disembodied voice was proved right, a large smoky portal opened, and from it, emerged hundreds of people who appeared to be villains.

 

But that wasn’t what bothered him, it was the person in the middle of the large group that really caught his attention.

 

He was decently tall, maybe around 175 centimeters in height. He was wearing a black full-length shirt and a matching pair of sweatpants, with red sneakers.

 

Despite his casual clothing, the dead preserved arms gripping his arms shoulders and head gave him a deathly aura, his bright red eyes doing nothing to make him appear less intimidating.

 

But… Something inside of him recognized him, there was something… Familiar…

 

Almost like he was-

 

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted as he jumped back, telekinetically grabbing several of his classmates and his teachers to pull them away from the sudden purple haze that overtook a section of the entrance.

 

 “It’s a pleasure to meet you… We are the League of Villains.”

 

Thin yellow eyes appeared from atop the haze, the smoky eyes connecting to the body in a way that made it seem like the smoke itself was the source of the voice.

 

“I know it’s impolite, but we decided to invite ourselves into this haven of justice to say hello.”

 

The smoky villain continued, the haze thickening with each word from his silky-smooth voice.

 

‘Is he seriously gonna monologue right now?’

 

Izuku continued to stare at the villain, but secretly he was feeling out the stairway behind them, his right eye twitching as he felt several villains climbing up to jump them.

 

’15 Villains and a guy with a warp quirk… I’d just Lapse Blue them but I don’t know the actuation speed of the warp guy…’

 

Feeling slightly to his left he felt Katsuki nod at him, instantly understanding the opening he needed.

 

“And besides… Isn’t this a fitting place for All Might…”

 

Izuku simply raised his eyebrow, wondering what All Might had to do with the current situation.

 

“The Symbol of Peace, to take his final breath?”

 

He felt several of his classmates stiffen beside him, some even shaking from the sudden appearance of villains and the threat to their lives.

 

‘I get the fear of death… But do they seriously think these nobodies can beat Sensei?’

 

Katsuki instantly flared up, his palms crackling with tiny explosions to heat up his body to produce more sweat.

 

“Oi! Who the hell do you think you losers are?”

 

He crouched down for a moment before shooting forward at the hazy villain, preparing to hit him with a moderately sized explosion to distract him.

 

All while this was going on, Izuku slowly moved to the back of the crowd before turning around to look at the staircase, his eyes catching the villains right as they jump up to attack them.

 

“Yo! You didn’t think we’d be caught off guard that easily, did you?”

 

He lifted his right palm, stilling the air around the 15 villains as he suspended them mid-air, before making finger guns with his right hand.

 

“Last time I did this, it took quite a lot out of me… But luckily for me, I gain a tolerance to my quirks damage each time I go overboard!”

 

Izuku grinned as he saw the look of startled fear in their eyes as a bright blue spinning ball formed at his extended fingertips.

 

“Lapse Blue.”

 

The spinning orb quickly grew to the size of an exercise ball before he fired it towards the villains, making them fly towards the ball and get propelled along with it right back to the bottom of the staircase.

 

Izuku didn’t waste time, turning around and pushing away a significant amount of the purple haze to reveal a man with a misty face in a bartender’s outfit, giving Katsuki the opening to quickly fire off an explosion into the villain’s solid body.

 

The villain was thrown back, rag dolling on the floor before trying to stabilize himself, only for a large sheet of ice to envelop him to prevent him from moving.

 

“You talk too much.” Shoko breathed out as she froze the villain, the right side of her body coated in a thin film of ice.

 

The villain coughed before speaking. “Impressive… Your reputation of the best hero school clearly isn’t an overstatement…”

 

“But that only makes it so much more fun to watch as my comrades rip you apart and torture you to death.”

 

Izuku felt a sudden pinging sensation towards the villain, his eyes locked onto the still smoky man as he readied himself for an attack.

 

The villain suddenly started releasing huge amounts of the haze, quickly enveloping nearly everyone standing near the entrance.

 

“Scatter!”

 

---

 

 

The first thing Izuku felt after the haze cleared was water.

 

‘Damn it… That bastard scattered us throughout the facility!’

 

Izuku instantly reached out with his quirk, feeling out the world around him as he stretched his sensory abilities to the very limit, almost covering half of the entire facility.

 

‘Asui and Mineta are with me… Denki, Momo and Kyoka are in the Mountain Zone…’

 

Izuku stopped his trail of thought for a moment as he looked at the villains around him, who were moving towards him and Mineta.

 

“Jeez, can’t even let a guy think, can you?” He said annoyedly before pushing away all of the villains close to him.

 

Right as he did that, Asui grabbed Mineta with her tongue and pulled him into the ship, before doing the same for Izuku.

 

‘Ojiro is alone in the Fire zone… And the Downpour zone has Tokoyami and Koda…’

 

“Thanks for the save Asui!” Izuku greeted her with a grin before standing up, looking out of the boat towards the Central Plaza to see what was happening there.

 

‘Kayama-Sensei, Thirteen, Iida, Ochako, Shoji, Sero and Sato are still at the Entrance…’

 

“Don’t mention it, and I told you to call me Tsu.” She responded with a soft ribbit, as she climbed up to the top of the boat, hunching down slightly as her arms hung low.

 

“Y-yeah, thanks Tsu.” Mineta muttered with chattering teeth, his body feeling cold as he dripped with freezing cold water.

 

Izuku snapped his fingers, making the water soaked into their hero costumes quickly leave their clothes, forming a spinning ball of water in front of them.

 

‘The only people left unattended are Katsuki, Shoko, Kirishima and Aoyama… Eh- I’m sure they can handle themselves.’

 

“Thanks, Midoriya.” Mineta said appreciatively as Izuku released the vortex, making a small puddle of water on the deck of the ship under them.

 

Izuku nodded in response before looking over the edge of the boat, his eyes trailing over the villains pooling around the boat, circling and surrounding the trio.

 

“Fifty-Eight.” He muttered to himself before turning towards Asui and Mineta.

 

“There are fifty-eight villains circling us right now.”

 

Mineta winced at that, his hands bawling into fists tight enough to turn his knuckles white.

 

“How they hell did they even know we’d be here?”

 

“Our class schedules aren’t public. This is supposed to be a secure facility in the UA grounds, so how they hell did they get here?”

 

Izuku shrugged noncommittally, his eyes trained dead on the large hulking monster in the Center.

 

“I don’t know… But they likely got ahold of the schedule, I mean… They even expected All Might to be here.”

 

“You wouldn’t know that without our schedule, right?”

 

Tsu’s eyes widen ever so slightly at Izuku’s words, her deadpan façade finally showing a sign of emotion.

 

“The Security breach…”

 

Mineta cursed under his breath, his breath becoming slightly uneven as the panic set in.

 

“I-It’s fine, right guys? All Might will come and save us all!”

 

“If he was then he would’ve been here already… Ribbit.”

 

Mineta’s eyes widened, his breath turning ragged as he started to panic.

 

“T-that can’t be right! He’s probably just being stalled or something, right?! H-he’s gotta be on his way, right?!”

 

Tsu didn’t even blink, continuing with her deadpan analysis.

 

“By the time he even gets here, we could all be dead.”

 

Mineta flinched at her words, the panic fully setting in for him as he began pacing back and forth.

 

“Shitshitshitshitshit! I don’t wanna die! What do you even do? They’re everywhere! I-I can’t fight sixty villains! I-”

 

Before he could spiral further though, Izuku interrupted.

 

“Hey, take a deep breath.”

 

Mineta froze mid-panic, his eyes darting to Izuku’s face.

 

Izuku gave him a reassuring smile, before continuing.

 

“We’ll be okay. I’ve got a plan, but I need you two to help me make it work.”

 

“What do you need us to do, Ribbit.”

 

She asked as she offered her support from beside him as he turned towards her.

 

“Alright so, the plan is. Tsu, you grab Mineta and jump ashore…”

 

Izuku then turned towards Mineta, the smaller boy paying complete attention to Izuku.

 

“And you, I want you to throw as many of your sticky ba- grapes, I’m calling them grapes from now on, into the water.”

 

Mineta let out a laugh at the ‘sticky ball’ comment, before tilting his head. “What about you?”

 

“I’m confident I can jump ashore by myself, but before that I’ll create a vortex in the water, so all the villains are funneled into the center along with the grapes…”

 

Mineta’s eyes widened in realization. “Making it so all of them are stuck together and out of our hair…”

 

“Exactly… Well, they’re still gonna be in your hair but you know what I mean.”

 

Mineta laughed at that, his panic slowly fading as confidence overtook him.

 

Tsu nodded at Izuku’s plan, agreeing with his assessment before wrapping her tongue around Mineta’s waist.

 

“Ready?”

 

He took  a deep breath before nodding, already grabbing a couple of his grapes in his hands as he prepared himself.

 

“Alright… Jump!”

 

Tsu instantly leaped towards the shore, arcing above the villains below as Mineta began to rapidly throw as many of his grapes as he possibly could into the water, his scalp starting to bleed at the heavy usage of his quirk.

 

Izuku stood still on the deck of the boat, closing his eyes as he blocked out everything around him, his focus on nothing but the water below.

 

‘Alright Izuku… Come on, you can do this… It’s the same theory as a Lapse Blue but created away from me.’

 

‘Telekinesis 60%’

 

The boat shook under him for a moment as he pulled the water down, trying to create a point in the middle of all of the villains to pull them in.

 

‘My output’s gonna be low for the next couple minutes…’

 

The hull of the boat cracked under the sudden change in pressure, before all of the villains were pulled into a newly created vortex, their screams of surprise pulling Izuku out of his stupor.

 

‘Stockpile 15%’

 

He quickly jumped off the boat as it collapsed, barely making it onto the shore beside Mineta and Tsu, kicking up some dust around him as he landed.

 

As the dust around them cleared, Izuku’s vibrant green eyes met maniacal red ones.

 

The pinging sensation returned, his vision focused as his pupils constricted, the world around him fading as his vision tunneled on the hand villain.

 

“Green hair, green eyes… That unmistakable feeling that Sensei mentioned… I knew I’d find you here!”

 

The villain grinned before rushing forward with a surprising burst of speed, his palm outstretched towards Izuku as he tried to grab him.

 

“You make it sound like you know me.” Izuku said as he quickly pushed away the villain away from him, Tsuyu and Mineta, his eyes never leaving the taller man’s form while he waved at his peers to get away.

 

“Know you? Of course, I know you.” He responded with a maniacal grin as he steadied himself, standing up while looking dead into Izuku’s eyes, almost like he was peering into his very soul.

 

“Your father was murdered in front of you when you were 10.”

 

The villain tilted his head playfully, holding his chin in a mock thinking pose before gleefully continuing.

 

“You trained for 10 months with a certain gaunt blonde man…”

 

Izuku’s breathing became slightly uneven at his words, but he stayed quiet as the villain continued, not bothering to stop his speech as it provided time for his friends to get away to safety.

 

“You’ve always been at the very top of your age range in both intelligence in power, constantly praised for your heroic nature and strength.”

 

Izuku’s eyes flickered from pale man to the large hulking monster standing beside him, before going back to eyeing him, his body tensed as he gave himself as much time as possible to regain his output.

 

“I know that your mother died at the day of the Entrance exam.”

 

“I know that you convince yourself that your strength makes you needed in this world to cope.”

 

“I know everything about you Izuku Midoriya… Or should I say… Nine.”

 

Izuku’s eyes widened as he heard those words, the world around him fading until the only thing in his field of view being the haunting red eyes.

 

‘So that’s why you felt familiar…’

 

‘All for one is still alive.’

 

“Since I know so much about you… You get to know my name… Tomura Shigaraki.”

 

Izuku’s eyes widened for a moment before he readied up his fists, his eyes laser focused on Shigaraki.

 

But he only smirked. “You shouldn’t be so focused on me you know…”

 

Izuku felt a felt an incessant pinging behind him, making him turn his head to look back.

 

“…I’m not the final boss today.”

 

The only thing he could make out was beady black eyes before he felt its huge fist coming towards him.

 

He tried to forcefully slow the fist by creating a telekinetic barrier between him and the bird-beaked monstrosity, but the barrier shattered without much effect.

 

He heard a sickening crunch as he felt his ribs on the right side of his chest shatter, his body being thrown like a ragdoll across the Center Plaza.

 

Izuku felt Katsuki and Shoko making their way into the Central Plaza as he landed on his feet, sliding back even further before crouching down.

 

Izuku crouched down as he coughs up large blobs of blood, holding his broken ribs as he nursed the wounds inflicted by the hulking monstrosity.

 

'Fuck me... I need to end this quick or we're all dead.'

 

Shoko and Katsuki moved to intervene, the former priming her hand to freeze the monster while the latter flared up his quirk to blast the monster to smithereens.

 

Only for both of them to suddenly stop, both of them unable to move as the second of stillness completely breaking their momentum.

 

Izuku looked at them from his crouched position, his hand outstretched towards his strongest peers as he stopped them dead in their tracks.

 

"Stay away... Neither of you have the speed nor reaction time to deal with this thing…"

 

He coughed up more blood, his outstretched hand falling limp beside him.

 

"So please... Let me handle this alone."

 

Shoko scowled before trying to attack the monster again, only for Katsuki to stop her.

 

“What the hell are you doing? Isn’t Izuku supposed to be your brother or something?!”

 

Despite the anger in her voice, Katsuki didn’t waver, instead he looked her dead into her eyes.

 

“You don’t get it… Izuku’s stronger than both of us combined, if we went in there, we’d just hold him back.”

 

His eyes left Shoko’s as he saw the mist villain warp back next to Shigaraki, his next target already in mind.

 

“If you really want to help him, then isolate this fight for him. Let’s take on the mist and hands guy so Izuku can focus on the bird face.”

 

Shoko glared at Katsuki, her hand gaining a thin sheen of frost before she relented, turning to look at the mist villain.

 

“If he’s back then one of our classmates probably escaped to get us help… We just have to keep them bogged down until All Might arrives.”

 

“Hmm… It would really break you to see your friends die, wouldn’t it Nine?”

 

Shigaraki grinned maniacally, his anger from Kurogiri’s failure to hold back the students forgotten as he stared at Katsuki and Shoko.

 

“Nomu… Kill them.”

 

They only felt a gust of air before they saw the Nomu stand before them, its fist raised above them as it prepared to crush Katsuki to death.

 

‘He was right… We don’t stand a chance.’

 

But before either of them could react, Izuku was already beside the Nomu, leaning back with his broken right arm outstretched, being held together by nothing but his telekinesis, as his fingers shaped themselves into the finger gun position.

 

‘With Blue I tug downward on the fabric of space-time, making objects act like there’s a gravitational pull towards a point, and to do the opposite I can pull it upwards…’

 

A small red orb formed at his fingertips, spinning with speeds so great that it created huge gusts of wind around them.

 

‘But it’s not that simple, due to how the upward tug works, I hold significantly less control over the orb, making it more explosive… If I fuck this up, then all of us well be nothing but a splatter on the pavement.’

 

The orb grew in size until it reached the size of a tennis ball, the forceful push slowly working on Izuku’s fingers to rip his skin off while simultaneously pushing Katsuki and Shoko away from the Nomu’s fist.

 

“Hey… Keep your eyes on me…”

 

‘Telekinesis 70%... Stockpile 70%’

 

“Reversal… Red.”

 

And with that, Izuku released the orb, shattering his extended fingers with the sheer shockwave of the powerful attack, which threw the Nomu across the Central Plaza until it hit one of the outer walls of the dome.

 

“That won’t work little hero… I had that thing made just to beat All Might… It’s quirk is Shock Absorption!”

 

Izuku barely registered Shigaraki’s words, his body already moving towards the Nomu before it could attack.

 

It tried to move, but Izuku just pushed it against the outer wall, slightly cracking the wall with the intensity with which he did so.

 

‘Shock Absorption huh? That’ll be annoying to deal with…’

 

He held the Nomu against the wall as he thought about a way to beat it, until he noticed how its flesh seemed to slowly bruise under the constant pressure.

 

‘Oh… So, it only nullifies impulses, leaving it weak to constant applications of pressure.’

 

He looked at the Nomu, his vibrant green eyes meeting the panic filled beady eyes of his opponent.

 

‘It’s alive… Isn’t it?’

 

“…I had that thing made just to beat All Might…”

 

‘That was someone… That was someone before whatever All for One did to it…’

 

Izuku felt his feet scraping backwards as the Nomu pushed back against the barrier, it’s hands bleeding as they got crushed between the monumental forces of the Nomu and his barrier.

 

‘Is this what it means to be strong? Is this what I have to do?’

 

A lone, bloody tear flowed Izuku’s cheek as he concluded what must be done. His thoughts clouded for a moment as he remembered the gory deaths of his parents.

 

‘To kill a husk of a person so others can survive?’

 

Izuku pushed back slightly, just enough to neutralize the Nomu’s resistance as he continued to push it against the reinforced wall.

 

‘I shouldn’t feel bad… I mean, I’m ridding it of its misery, aren’t I?’

 

Despite his attempt at reasoning with himself, the weight only felt heavier. His breathing haggard as his eyes dilated.

 

‘If I don’t do it… Someone else will…’

 

With that, Izuku pushed even further, erecting a barrier between him and the Nomu as he walked towards it, each step slowly crushing it against the wall.

 

‘Stockpile 80%... Telekinesis 100%’

 

The air around the Nomu condensed, the force so extreme that it was condensing the water around them.

 

‘This is my curse… My responsibility…'

 

The Nomu tried to scream, but it was muted out by the deafening sound of the wall crunching behind it, the pressure building up slowly as Izuku's nose leaked blood.

 

‘I’ll go beyond… So that no one else has to!’

 

Finally, it popped, creating a huge explosion of blood and guts, eviscerating the Nomu far past its regenerative capacity.

 

And he could feel every individual bone and muscle explode around him.

 

'Everything hurts... I feel so heavy…'

 

Izuku thought to himself as he stood there, his breath heavy as his chest heaved. The area around him was soaked in blood and viscera, the only place left clean was a circle around him.

 

He felt his legs buckle under his weight, his body too expended to even stand up straight.

 

'No… Not yet… Until All Might arrives, I'm the single strongest person here…'

 

He breathed heavily, but refused to let his broken body stop him from his fulfilling his purpose…

 

No, his duty.

 

‘It’s my responsibility to protect those around me.’

 

Izuku steadied himself, ignoring his body screaming at him in pain, he barely kept himself together as he held back from letting out a sob.

 

He coughed out a thick glob of blood, his teeth stained red as his eyes contracted to an unhealthy degree.

 

He felt the world around him darken, the worried shouting of his classmates fading away to the background as his body dripped with blood.

 

The world around him felt non-existent as both his eyes and his telekinetic senses failed him, but despite that... one man felt clear to him.

 

Izuku turned his head back, towards Shigaraki, contracted green eyes meeting widened red ones.

 

“Next.”

Notes:

So... I hope you guys liked that one.

I know I said that it was weird that All Might didn't teach 1-A and 1-B at the same time, and the logical conclusion to that would be to have 1-B ALSO be present in the USJ, but Imma be completely real, it would be so fucking hard to write 1-B into it with them doing something meaningful, because at the end of the day they'd just be another 20 names in Izuku's thoughts when he sensed where his friends were.

Again, I refuse to let Mineta be a gag or some coward (he isn't, it's not cowardice to be genuinely scared for your life in a situation like that) so I made his panic less comical and more realistic.

Gojo's kit is too damn good for me not to steal, but I need to add functional limitations so Izuku doesn't Hax-diff half the verse, so Reveral Red and his version of Infinity (well kinda, that telekinetic barrier thing MIGHT develop into a constantly on barrier thing)

This was the iconic Gojo moment I mentioned in the reply to KebabowyKrol's comment, it's the Disaster Curses vs Gojo fight moment where he killed Hanami (I changed it quite a lot with Izuku being completely fucked at the end)

Edit:- Alright, I've decided that the main pairing for Izuku is gonna be Shoko (Cmon, I just had to) so uh- peak?

Edit 2:- Chapter 9 might take a bit chat, I have another set of exams coming up 😭😭

Edit 3:- I wanted to make smth a bit clearer- I made this chapter have a lot more internal dialogue from Izuku because he unlocks a certain uh- ability lets say (for those of us who haven't picked it up or aren't familiar with the canon story), he's incredibly overwhelmed the whole chapter so he's more in his head. I meant it when I said that I wouldn't change the core characteristics of Izuku (his nerdiness, his niceness, and his tendency to overthink)

Anyways, Adios!

Chapter 9: A Strange Resistive Factor

Notes:

So uh- How's life?

Alright alright, my bad for taking 41 days with ts, I know I left you guys waiting for a while with this one. But I had shit to do, and I finally got some free time so I decide it to use it for this fic.

Also, I know that a "Resistive Factor" isn't actually a thing, but I think its a cool way of refering to the quirk resistance part of the quirk gene, so Imma call it that.

TRIGGER WARNING! TRIGGER WARING!

The upcoming chapter has mentions of PTSD, a PTSD flashback, and unhealthy outlooks on PTSD and emotional reactions to trauma in general (which immediately gets acknowledged as unhealthy) so if that is something that bothers you, then please just skip this chapter.

Now that that's out of the way, I hope you enjoy 5.5k words of (maybe) decently written PTSD and the emotional and physical fallout of the USJ Incident.

‘I’ll come for you again Nine… I’ll come for everything and everyone you care about… All so you feel just as empty as I do.’

 

It had only been a week since the USJ Incident, as the public called it, and only three days since Izuku woke up.

 

Izuku blinked, his vision fading back to normal as he forced himself back into the real world, his eyes zeroing in on the shiny metal bar as he racked it, his chest burning as he sat up on the bench.

 

‘That’s not right… There’s a small dent at the end of the bar.’

 

He closed his eyes as he took a deep breath, wincing as he nursed the scarred flesh on his right hand.

 

‘2.54 Millimeters deep and a Centimeter long… I wonder how that got there.’

 

“Hey… Thought I’d find you here.” A soft voice sounded out, breaking him away from his scatterbrained thoughts as he looked up.

 

Izuku blinked for a moment as he looked up at the worried heterochromatic eyes of his most elusive classmate, Shoko Todoroki

 

“Yo… We should really figure out a proper late-night meetup spot, this is getting out of hand.”

 

He smiled up at her before getting up, before stretching his arms, yawning loudly before letting out a pained hiss.

 

‘My right arm still hurts when I move it, the bones, muscles and tendons are mostly back to normal but the skin…’

 

He couldn’t see it because of the arm sleeves he wore, but the skin was warped, it couldn’t stretch as well, nor could it feel as well as the unmarred skin on the rest of his body.

 

“Izuku…”

 

Shoko wasn’t used to feeling worried about others, no, the only thing that was on her mind was surpassing her father, to show him that he was wrong to discard his mother by beating him using solely her ice.

 

But it felt wrong to be entirely apathic to the boy in front of her. After all, out of everyone in the class, she only really spoke to him.

 

‘Something tells me that he gets it, that he has a chip on his shoulder too.’

 

“Are you sure you should be getting right back into such an intense workout routine? You woke up only three days ago.”

 

As she said that, her eyes moved to look at the plates on each side of the bar, her eyes widening slightly as she realized just how much weight he was moving around.

 

“Huh? Oh, don’t worry. I’m going about half of what I usually do.” He said with a placating smile, leaning back on his left arm as he propped himself up on the bench.

 

‘Only half?! That’s 3095 pounds! Is he using his quirk?’

 

“I’m not too sure I can do 6.2k anymore, not with the state of my right arm at least.”

 

Izuku was staring down at his exposed right hand as he rested his arm on his thigh, his eyes tracing the scars marring the angry red skin on his index and middle fingers with something akin to morbid curiosity.

 

‘At that high of an output… This is actually a surprisingly acceptable level of backlash. I just need to find a way to make Reversal Red less volatile.’

 

“So, you’re planning to fuck up your other arm too? Surely it can’t be healthy to move around this much weight.”

 

Shoko asked questioningly, her fingers slowly trailing her index finger over the letters punched into the plates on the barbell.

 

Izuku was suddenly snapped out of his stupor as she spoke again, he looked at her with a surprised look as he processed what she just said.

 

“Was I not supposed to say that? I heard you talk to Bakugo like that, so I thought that’s how normal people talk.”

 

Shoko asked with a confused cadence, her head tilted slightly as she waited for his explanation.

 

“I… I wasn’t expecting that from you, dry snark suits you though. Keep it up.”

 

He said with a wide smile, before shaking his head ‘no’.

 

“But nah, I get why you think weight like that could fuck up my arms, but once again, my quirk’s resistance works to my benefit.”

 

Shoko tilted her head in confusion, before looking at Izuku questioningly.

 

“You know, I heard you say something similar in the USJ. But I don’t get it, you have a telekinetic quirk with a stockpiler function, right?”

 

Izuku nodded at her, moving over on the bench as he silently patted beside him, prompting her to sit next to him as they talked.

 

‘And a precognition quirk too, I guess.’

 

She gave him an appreciative look before sliding down next to him, the cold AC air making it, so Izuku wasn’t sweating in the least. But as she sat next to him, she could feel herself be gently slid a few centimeters away from Izuku, leaving exactly a meter of empty space between them.

 

‘Does he have that barrier active right now? But the air doesn’t seem any thicker… I must be imagining it.’

 

Shoko blinked silently for a moment, disregarding her thoughts with a slight movement of her head. It really didn’t make sense, Izuku didn’t sound like the person to be so paranoid that he’d always be on guard.

 

“Most telekinetic quirks have the secondary resistive function of having sturdier blood vessels, so the user doesn’t suddenly bleed out when going over their limits…”

 

Her eyes were trailing his arms, despite the sleeves, you could still make out the scar tissue on the right arm. Although that made it sound like the scarring was excessive.

 

It wasn’t. She’d know, she was one of the few people that actually saw his arm without the sleeves, she was there when Izuku removed his bandages in his hospital bed after all.

 

“And stockpiling quirks usually have some form of heightened physical durability, but you have neither at base. So, what even is your quirk’s resistance?”

 

Izuku puffed his cheeks out for a moment as he thought, tilting his head up to look up at the ceiling. His eyes traced the honeycomb lights that hung from the ceiling as he hummed quietly.

 

“My resistive factor is actually something akin to a healing factor actually.”

 

Shoko looked at him incredulously, resting her leg between them as she turned to face him completely.

 

“Seriously?”

 

“Seriously. You know stem cells?”

 

“Mhm, the basic cells that later grow into specialized cells, right?”

 

Izuku nodded before tilting his head down to look at her, holding out his left hand as if showing her something.

 

“Correct, there are actually two types of stem cells. Somatic stem cells, which are the cells present in adult bodies. They’re limited in their specialization capacity, so they can only specialize into a couple types of cells.”

 

Shoko nodded along, she was slightly confused about where he was going with this though. Was he implying that his resistive factor had something to do with stem cells? Or was he just going on one of his random rants about quirks and biology?

 

Izuku then held out his right hand, his speaking growing a bit more excited as he devolved into a nerdy rant.

 

“The other type of stem cells are embryonic stem cells. They’re pluripotent, meaning they can specialize into literally any cell in our body. As you can guess by the name, embryonic stem cells are only present in early embryonic development.”

 

He then squeezed his right hand. His face breaking out into a wide grin.

 

“That’s my resistance, rather than produce somatic stem cells, my body only produces embryonic stem cells. Allowing me to heal from injuries that others can’t even dream of. It helps quite a lot because I happen to give myself a lot of brain damage when I overuse my quirk.”

 

‘So, he was talking about his resistive factor being stem cells.’

 

“Huh, that’s cool. Must be nice to have a versatile resistance like that.”

 

Shoko looked at him with the same stone-cold eyes as she always did, she wasn’t sure why he wasn’t put off by it though. She remembered once that her brother told her she had resting bitch face.

 

‘And yet he always seems entirely in his element. I wonder what that’s like… Well, I guess I’m finding out, aren’t I?’

 

Izuku nodded with a significantly calmer smile this time, before he looked at the clock on the wall.

 

3:42 AM

 

“It’s really convenient, well worth having to wait longer to recover from injuries.”

 

He suddenly got up from his place on the bench, yawning softly before looking down at Shoko.

 

“Our classes start up again tomorrow, we should probably sleep.”

 

Shoko nodded, getting up herself and standing face to face with Izuku. Despite the cold air, she could still feel the warmth radiate from him. Which was weird, since she didn’t even know she could feel small changes in temperature like that.

 

“Today, you mean, not tomorrow.”

 

Izuku’s water bottle suddenly shot from the floor into his left hand, before he started walking to the exit. His right arm gesturing her to follow him back to their dorms.

 

“Yeah, today.”

 

---

 

“Hey, kids. Listen up, I have an announcement to make.”

 

The class felt weirdly empty to Izuku, usually there was a lot more chatter, a lot more… life.

 

He moved his head up from his desk, stifling a yawn as he looked up at his homeroom teacher.

 

He could feel some of his classmates’ eyes on him as he lifted his head from the desk, their worry seeping through in a way he could detect even without Danger Sense or Telekinesis.

 

But… That wasn’t what bothered him most. What actually bothered him most was…

 

The thinly veiled fear.

 

They were genuinely afraid of him after what he did in the USJ, and he wasn’t sure he could truly blame them.

 

‘I mean… None of them know the relevance of Shigaraki, or just how destructive that Nomu could’ve been if I didn’t kill it that quickly… To them, I just randomly killed a large guy after he hit me a little too hard. But…’

 

He signed into his hands, clutching at his face as he tried to ignore the frustration bubbling up inside of him.

 

‘That doesn’t really make it hurt any less, does it?’

 

These people that he nearly lost his arm for are the ones that’re now afraid of him. The same people he had nightmares for in any moment of rest are the ones that stay out of his way in fear that they’d be next.

 

‘And it’s made so much worse since I can’t even blame them… Fucking stupid ass nuanced situations. Why can’t life just be simple for once?’

 

He sighed annoyedly, his hot breath colliding with his hands as he let go of his face, the digits on his right-hand twitching slightly, the sudden application of pressure causing more pain than he was expecting.

 

He propped up his head using his left hand, leaning his cheek onto the palm of his left hand, his fingers curling into the back of his jaw as he tilted his head up to look at the worried gaze his homeroom teacher.

 

The silent question in her eyes was easy enough to discern, at least he hoped it was. Being wrong was never fun after all.

 

Are you alright?

 

He flashed the most reassuring smile he could possibly muster at that moment, nodding slightly without moving his cheek from his palm.

 

Thanks for asking.

 

He mouthed appreciatively, it didn’t do much. But it was nice to know that she cared enough to be worried about him.

 

“Alright, listen. I know you kids have been through an incredibly traumatic incident, and I hope you have been going to the mandatory counselling sessions with Hound Dog.”

 

She gave Izuku a pointed look at that, he never really went to his sessions, mostly just sighting the fact that he already had a therapist that he had been seeing for the past couple of years.

 

And while it checked out, something told her that Izuku wasn’t too comfortable being vulnerable past the surface level. Call it intuition, or maybe it’s just her looking too deep into it…

 

‘Oh well, if he doesn’t want to truly open up. Then we can’t really do anything about it.’

 

She took a deep breath, her voice slacking the usual sultry lilt nor did her body carry the same feline grace. Her body language was more relaxed, more welcoming and comforting.

 

Her demeanor had almost entirely lost the performative nature of her hero persona, resonating with her choice to come dressed in formal wear rather than her hero costume.

 

‘I guess she’s trying to connect to us person to person, rather than the overexaggerated demeanor of her hero persona.’

 

“So… While the Sports Festival will still be happening this year, it’ll be entirely optional for you.”

 

Midnight assured them that there wouldn’t be any consequences for them choosing not to participate, even telling them that the smart choice might be to sit this one out.

 

“But Sensei! Is it really wise to have the Sports Festival right after the… well, incident?”

 

Iida asked with a raised hand, his voice losing a little bit of its boldness as he referred to the harrowing events of the previous week.

 

“Nah, you don’t get it. If they cancel the whole Sports Festival because of this, it fuels the villains by making them feel like they actually did something. So, we need to show a strong front…”

 

Izuku replied before Midnight could, turning to his right as he lazily looked at Iida.

 

“I mean, if we don’t show a strong front from the get-go, can the civilians ever really place their trust in us?”

 

Midnight coughed, putting a pause to Izuku’s words as she gave him a concerned look, before turning to Iida.

 

“While Midoriya exaggerated the last part, he is correct in that we can’t cancel this festival.”

 

She then turned her head to address the entire class, leaning back to sit on her desk as she continued.

 

“And before any of you ask, the security this year will be ramped up, that along with the fact that likely the entire Top 100 heroes will be attending this festival, you won’t have to worry about villain attacks.”

 

Katsuki turned around in his chair, making eye contact with Izuku, his eyebrows raised as he considered his last statement.

 

“You still on about that? You’re not the only one here ‘Zuku, so don’t you dare think you’re so far ahead that you think you have to pick up our slack.”

 

His words were arrogant and dismissive, but it was clear that it was from a place of ill-expressed love, or maybe it was well expressed, because it still served its purpose of firing up Izuku.

 

“Yeah, yeah, you know what the final round of the Sports Festival is, right? It’s always some form of tournament style 1v1s. Let’s see if you can keep that up when I kick your ass.”

 

Izuku replied with a wide grin, his mood changing almost instantly as he and Katsuki got into their daily dick measuring contest.

 

“Hey, don’t forget me. If either of you think you’re winning this Sports Festival then you’re going to be severely disappointed.”

 

Shoko’s cold but haughty voice piped up, inserting herself into the conversation as she joined their dick measuring contest. The three of the biggest egos in the class clashing made the world around them feel like just background to their main show.

 

He and Katsuki were always close, they were friends from the moment they were born. So it wasn’t much of a surprise that they were closer than the usual set of friends.

 

But after the USJ incident, Shoko was a sudden and not entirely unwelcome addition to their group. After all, while how everyone saw the events of the Central Plaza, they three were the only ones that actually experienced it.

 

‘They held back the wrap guy and Shigaraki… I can’t think of better people to trust.’

 

“Ahem, as much as I love seeing this much sexual tension…”

 

Midnight purred out, her hero persona slipping out as she got their attention, the look in her eyes both teasing and encouraging.

 

He looked down at his arms, his forearms were tensed, the state of tension stretching the fabric of his arm sleeves enough for the color of his skin to seep through the top.

 

‘Why am I this tensed? Are the vestiges feeling something?’

 

He shook his head to clear his thoughts, his arms suddenly relaxing as he took a deep breath.

“You, my lovely students, have a free period right now. I’m supposed to be looking over you, but I’m sure you’d prefer some… private time, right?”

 

Despite his homeroom teachers sultry words, he didn’t feel any different, his heart rate still felt a little too high, while the muscles on his back felt strangely tight as he leaned back into his chair.

 

“I’ll be leaving you to your own devices now.”

 

---

 

“Listen, it’s not weird that I’m wildly attracted to women that can kill me.”

 

Katsuki gave Izuku an unimpressed look, leaning back on his desk as he turned in his chair to look at him.

 

“You’re just coping. What’s next? A woman that’ll crush your head between her thighs?”

 

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

 

Katsuki stared at Izuku with disbelief for a couple moments before sighing exasperatedly.

 

“You’re just a freak man, keep that shit to yourself.”

 

Mineta suddenly piped up, looking at Izuku like he just found his long-lost brother.

 

“Just when I thought you couldn’t get any better, you pull out the fact that you have exquisite taste too!”

 

Izuku turned to Mineta, a wide grin splitting his face as he moved to dap him up.

 

“I knew you’d be a fellow enjoyer of peak!”

 

But… as their right palms smacked together Izuku felt a sharp pain shoot through his arm, his fingers twitching violently as he tried curling them around Mineta’s smaller hands.

 

“Oh fuck, your hand is bleeding.”

 

Izuku winced, pulling his hand back as he curled inward, his hand held near his stomach almost as if he was folding into himself to protect himself.

 

As he felt the blood flow from the angry red skin of the joints on his fingers, his breathing became shallow, the world around him feeling hollow as his heartrate shot up.

 

He could smell the coppery smell of blood around him, the pressure of heavy blood-soaked clothing sticking to his skin. The way his arm was shattered and limp at his side.

 

Nothing made sense, his eyes darted around him, the air around him seemingly thickening enough to make stray droplets of water form on his forehead.

 

‘Is that a bone? Is that… I just killed someone. Oh god, I just killed someone. I just killed someone.’

 

He moved back violently from his place on top of his desk as he felt a hand reaching for him. Falling to the tiled floor as gravity violently pulled him out of his stupor.

 

He let out a shaky breath he didn’t know he was holding. Looking up to see the conserved faces of his classmates as Katsuki pulled away his hand from the general vicinity of where he sat.

 

Katsuki opened his mouth to speak, but Izuku was already up, dusting himself off as he forcefully stopped his hand from bleeding with his quirk.

 

“I’m alright, don’t worry about it.”

 

He wanted to leave, he needed to leave. The worried looks from his classmates felt suffocating in this closed room, the sound of the AC being too deafening to even hear his own thoughts.

 

As he telekinetically opened the class door in front of him, he expected to be met with a mostly empty hallway. The classrooms of different years and courses were pretty well separated after all.

 

But much to his unfortunate surprise and annoyance, he was met with a large crowd, blocking the way out of his classroom.

 

“Eh? What do you guys want?”

 

Before one of them could speak up, Katsuki walked up to Izuku, giving him a knowing but apologetic look before turning to the crowd with an annoyed look.

 

“They’re clearly here to scout the competition. We’re the class that survived a villain attack, after all.”

 

He moved past Izuku, standing right in front of the crowd as he fixed them with a glare that radiated superiority.

 

“Well? Now that you’ve gotten a look at what real Pro material looks like, are you gonna move aside?”

 

Slightly tilting his head up, he looked down at them, almost as if they were nothing but random bugs frolicking in the little patch of dirt they might call their world.

 

“Or do you like wasting our time that much?”

 

There was a beat of silence after Katsuki’s arrogant words, before a tired looking purpled-haired boy walked to the front of the crowd, pushing people out of his way uncaringly as he slithered through the crowd.

 

“I came here to see what the famous Class 1-A was like, but you guys just seem arrogant.”

 

He specifically looked at Izuku, his eyes  dipping down to the bloody red hand hanging limp beside Izuku.

 

“Hmph, one of you guys even got injured today, did you even have heroics class? Or are you guys just that incompetent.”

 

There were a couple shouts of protest from behind him, Iida moved to speak up while Katsuki hands started crackling with explosions as he walked towards the boy.

 

But Iida stopped himself as Izuku walked forward, placing his free hand on Katsuki’s shoulder to stop him. Before he made eye contact with his aggressor.

 

“Tough talk from a guy who couldn’t even make it into the hero course.”

 

That line seemed to get under his skin, making one of his eyes twitch before he opened his mouth to speak. But Izuku didn’t stop.

 

“Lemme guess, you failed the entrance exam and wanted to make some weirdly dramatic declaration about how you can replace one of our members through the Sports Festival?”

 

He only made him angrier as he flashed a condescending smile, his head tilted slightly as he looked at his hilarious attempt at intimidation almost amusedly.

 

“I hit the nail on the head, didn’t I? Well then, let me assure you. The hero course has no open spots for losers who can’t even pull their weight in that joke of an entrance exam.”

 

He straightened up, looking at him with a disinterested and dismissive gaze as he gestured the entire crowd to move aside. The dismissal along with the disrespect of not even directly telling him to move only served to make the boy angrier.

 

“So, move it. Some of us actually have important things to get to.”

 

The boy clenched his fists in annoyance as he moved toward Izuku aggressively, his anger and annoyance clearly showing at his clenched teeth.

 

“You fucking hero course assholes, thinking you’re better than the rest of us. What if I don’t move? Huh?”

 

Despite taking an instinctive step back, Izuku simply raised his left hand and clenched his fist, before swinging his arm to the left.

 

“You even got angry at that, I told you that you couldn’t hang with us.”

 

The effect was immediate, the entire crowd was immobilized and shoved to the empty space to their left, completely clearing up the hallway for Class 1-A to exit.

 

“Cmon, let’s go.” He said as he motioned his class to follow him.

 

Although he made sure none of them toppled over, he was generally uncaring about their startled expressions. Just walking forward without a single look back.

 

He didn’t need to turn to them to see their shocked looks, nor did he need to look back to know that they were following him.

 

‘Even if they’re a little weary of me, I’m glad they trust me.’

 

---

 

Izuku leaned back on a red couch as he stared up at the ceiling of Toshinori’s office. He wasn’t sure what he was feeling, despite going to therapy on and off for years, being vulnerable wasn’t something he wasn’t sure he was ever going to get used to.

 

He leaned back forward, reaching out to grab the bottle of water in front of him to quench his thirst. He wasn’t too sure if his throat felt dry because he just spent the last hour confiding in his mentor. Or if it was because he just confided in his mentor.

 

He set the bottle down on the coffee table in front of him, before turning to look at the gaunt blonde man sitting in front of him. There was a calming quality to him, despite his usually loud and boisterous demeanor, there was never really a time Izuku felt overwhelmed in his presence.

 

“I see, I’m sorry to hear that happened today… Before I say anything more, did you want to just rant, or do you want me to try and help you out?”

 

Izuku thought about the question for a moment, originally, he didn’t even come here to rant out, he just wanted to ask if Toshi had any more information on the vestiges. But the words just flowed out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

 

‘I don’t really know what’s going on… I guess some help would be nice.’

 

“I… I think I’d like some help…”

 

His voice was noticeably muted, his eyes locked onto the coffee table. He felt sick, the pit in his stomach was ever present, he wasn’t sure if it was something he ate, or if it was due to the severity of the injuries he sustained. But that feeling never faded since he woke up almost 4 days ago.

 

Toshinori looked at Izuku with a gentle look, almost as if he was gently caressing his hair with a loving smile.

 

“In my entirely unprofessional but slightly educated view with personal experience, I think you have some sort of PTSD.”

 

Izuku’s eyes immediately shot up to Toshi, his face contorted in confusion and incredulity.

 

“Are you being serious? Why?”

 

He wasn’t sure what to think, surely not right? He thought he was better than that… Just how weak was he that he couldn’t even deal with the consequences of his actions?

 

“Yes, seriously. I’m not going to diagnose you with anything, I’m not a psychologist after all. But you definitely have some sort of issues with anxiety after the incident.”

 

‘But… But that’s just Danger Sense doing its thing, right?... Right?’

 

“No way, I mean. I felt like this after my dad died too, and my therapist never thought that I had something like PTSD.”

 

At the mention of his father’s death, Toshinori looked at him with an even softer look. How that was possible? He wasn’t sure. But that wasn’t important.

 

“You might need a new therapist then, kiddo. You’re displaying the classic signs of someone with PTSD, or at the very least, it’s far worse now than that it was when your father died.”

 

He wasn’t sure if that was supposed to make him feel better, whatever the intention, he just wanted to puke. Why was he like this? Why couldn’t he just be strong?

 

“Are… Are you feeling ok, my boy?”

 

He shook his head no, having raised his left arm so his eyes pressed into his forearm, trying and failing miserably to stop himself from crying in frustration.

 

“God fucking damn it… Why am I like this? I knew what I was doing when I killed that Nomu, so why can’t I deal with that, why can’t I even be competent enough to deal with my own choices?”

 

His arm sleeve was growing wetter by the second. Toshinori’s heart went out for the boy in front of him, he understood the pain well enough to know that it was never easy to let go.

 

He reached out to place his arm on Izuku’s knee, but he was stopped by the invisible but firm wall of his telekinetic barrier, making him withdraw his hand and sit still to avoid startling Izuku.

 

“Hey, it’s not weak or incompetent to have issues with your feelings, especially not when you’re feeling guilty for killing someone.”

 

Izuku peered at the worried face of his mentor, but the words nor his demeanor served to calm him down, the previous attempt at touching him only making him more afraid and aggressive.

 

“Yeah? That’s real fucking easy to say when you’re not the one who can’t even get through a day without falling apart, huh?

 

Despite the disrespectful words, Toshinori’s demeanor didn’t change in the slightest, his voice staying calm and composed the whole way.

 

“Yes, it’s incredibly easy to say when you’ve also had issues with PTSD.”

 

That snapped Izuku out of his aggressive demeanor, suddenly making him feel extremely guilty for snapping at someone who was only trying to help him.

 

“O-oh, sor-“

 

“Don’t apologize. I get how you’re feeling. While I only ever ‘killed’ All for One, which is now under question I suppose, I did struggle with PTSD after my mentor died.”

 

Toshinori himself was barely holding himself back from reaching out and pulling Izuku into a bear hug, the only thing stopping him being the fact that Izuku would likely lash out extremely violently if touched without explicit consent.

 

“I know how you’re feeling. I know how it feels to just fall apart randomly during the day. I know how small it makes you feel when the most random things seem to trigger the worst in you. I know how guilty you feel after snapping at someone who reminded you of the wrong thing.”

 

Izuku stayed silent letting Toshinori continue as he wiped the tears from his eyes, he wasn’t exactly crying anymore. The sudden emotional whiplash of switching from anger to guilt being enough to snap him out of the emotional response.

 

“And that’s ok, you’re allowed to not always feel good. You’re allowed to not always be on top of things. It’s ok to feel emotions and be vulnerable. Because at the end of the day, there’s no point in pretending that you aren’t a person.”

 

His tone was mixed with a twinge of self-degradation, almost as if he was feeling like a hypocrite for giving his successor the same advice he should’ve taken decades ago.

 

“And I’m incredibly proud of you for trying your best despite that.”

 

And that broke the dam once more, now though, Izuku was sobbing. He wasn’t sure if it was his frustrations coming out, or if it was relief at being told that he wasn’t a failure. Whatever it was, it felt nice to let it out.

 

“Shh, let it out. Let it out. You’re doing good.”

 

After almost 5 minutes of crying while Toshinori coaxed him into comfort, he finally stopped, sniffling as he wiped the final stray tears away from his eyes.

 

“Thanks, uh- Thanks Toshi… I think I needed to hear that.”

 

Toshinori nodded with a kind smile, before grabbing another bottle of water and holding it out to Izuku.

 

“Don’t mention it, as I said before, you’re my main priority now. Anything you need, I’ll do my best to provide that.”

 

He didn’t trust himself to speak, so he just nodded with a grateful look, taking the water bottle and almost chugging the entire bottle in one go to take the excuse to be silent for a few moments.

 

As he set the almost empty bottle on the table, he looked up to see the mechanical wall clock.

 

’11:12 PM’

 

“I… I think I should try and get some sleep.”

 

Toshinori nodded understandingly, knowing that he himself should likely be sleeping to conserve more of his energy for tomorrow.

 

“That would be for the best, you need some rest after an emotional conversation, after all… Not that you don’t need more sleep in general.”

 

Izuku gave him a sheepish look, before he tried to take a couple deep breaths to compose himself, not wanting anyone else to ask unnecessary questions about his emotional state.

 

He stood up and walked to the door, but stopped just as his healthy hand gripped the door handle.

 

He then turned around to look at Toshinori, his throat suddenly feeling heavy as he swallowed his own spit.

 

“Can… Can I hug you, Sensei?”

 

Toshinori didn’t respond verbally, choosing instead to walk up to his protégé and wrapping his arms around the shorter boy. His arms tight enough to feel comforting but not enough to make him feel restrained.

 

He wouldn’t lie and say that he didn’t feel just a little satisfied when his attempt to reach his successor wasn’t blocked though… Only a little.

 

After a solid minute of Izuku quietly hugging his mentor back, he finally pulled away, grinning up at Toshinori in a softer, but genuine way as he telekinetically opened the door behind him.

 

“Good night, Sensei.”

 

Toshinori ruffled his hair before patting his back, smiling at his successor as he walked out of the door.

 

“Good night, my boy.”

Notes:

So... Was that worth the wait? I sure hope it was.

The PTSD there is a slightly altered reflection of my journey with it, but I apologize if it wasn't realistic to or similar to your experiences. All of us have different reactions to trauma, after all.

I've written Shoko's journey to be a bit more gradual rather than one mid fight conversation, so expect a lot more IzuSho content in the future (it's the main pairing after all).

Oh, and I'm sorry if you like Shinso. This wasn't me trying to bash him as much as it was me trying to write Izuku lashing out at the guy who poked him right after he snapped out of a flashback which left him rattled (although I'd be lying if my dislike for the character didn't shine through there. I won't be mindlessly bashing him though, his actions will have actual meaningful shit behind them rather than mindless debate/comeback prompting)

I also finally got to write All Might being a good mentor, he's a pretty shit teacher but he's still a good person who's incredibly empathetic, and I hope I showed that here.

Also, one last thing before I go. This isn't going to be the end of Izuku's journey with dealing with the traumas that come along with being the MC of a fic written by an author that like writing trauma, it's just beginning (although it won't be a center piece, more like a parallel arc going along with the main story).

Anyway, cya chat. I'll be back in a month or so with more slop for yall to enjoy.