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Sitting down at his computer, switching monitors on, booting up processors, calibrating his mouse, adjusting his chair, Izuku took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
Never be a hero.
It was a solid proven fact now, failed entrance exams behind him, not just one, but five.
Mama did her best to get him ready, he did his best to pass at least one of them, but he really wasn't good enough.
He’d signed up for online highschool as a tiny reward to himself for at least trying, something at least to look forward to, not having to deal with anyone his age thinking they have a say in what he does and doesn’t do or opinions on his place in life or in the fucking food chain, and sworn to make some money to pay mama back for all the help.
He only had two skills really, or maybe four if he was being extra kind to himself; hacking, tinkering with tech, tutoring, and analysis.
And of the four, tutoring was it for making any money, BUT he was quirkless, who'd come to him for tutoring! Shoving his inhaler into his mouth he pressed the plunger and sucked the life giving sweet mist down and once again hated his departed and not missed at all sperm donor.
Scorched lungs and a tiny frame (a lingering left over from his father trying to kill him and only succeeding in burning down the entire apartment block, injuring Izuku for life, and managing to be the only one to actually die in the fire) and quirkless, yeah.
Life sucked, but he had to make money, so think think think!
Settling in with the nibble of an idea, he began to not hack, but to -
Adapt programs he’d acquired across the past few years, programs he’d written himself, to twist and shift and warp them into something new.
And then he marketed it, but aimed at a targeted market.
Because yes he couldn't go to UA, testing anxiety had him scoring too low for gen ed, he’d not actually failed anywhere he’d tried but he just wasn't good enough to get in, and he’d bombed the entrance exam, run out of inhaler mixture with how much he had to use in the panic and running and finally had to be rescued, a bitter shame he was still trying to come to terms with.
And bad as UA's exams had gone, everywhere else was even worse!
Running through his program, checking his equipment, it took him six weeks to be happy with it.
Two weeks of further testing and he was sitting in a cafe across the huge expanse of UA plaza, across from the main gates of the school, hat on, shades giving him not just protection from the glare but a heads up view of all the data he needed to reach his new goal, and he checked out the first years heading into school for the first day.
So many of them but he could click on and then swipe away every one of them not in the hero course, leaving him with only eighty students, classes A, B, C, and D.
Eighty names.
Once inside those walls it was impossible for him to reach them, but outside the walls their pitiful phone security programs fell to him at a touch.
Eighty names.
Paying his tab he moved on, this time to the nearest library, where he used their internet to do a deep dig on his names.
Eventually he had a short list of kids to try.
‘Today is monday,’ he thought, ‘I’ll go live on friday.’
Looking at his names Izuku smiled, he could do this.
*
Denki could NOT do this!!!
Only one week in and his grades were tanking.
Well, maybe not tanking but, they were going to, he just knew it.
Math, a nightmare ALWAYS!
English, fucking stupid as shit and a misery!
Quirk history, people fine, dates bad, and even bloody art was a nightmare, it all just *BING* was going to go wrong and he was going to fail and be laughed out of a school he in no way should have gotten in and, oh, his phone binged at him.
“That's weird.” Looking at an add on an unlocked screen he looked around, but with no friends yet he didn't have anyone to ask so he asked himself instead, "That is weird right?”
Because it was an online chat AI tutor, and it was cheap, well, not like super cheap but his folks had plenty of money, they’d blown heaps of it on him with shit like this so he clicked on it as he strolled through the gates, reading the testimonials.
Maybe it would help?
*
Sucking in a shocked gasp, because holy fuck he was in already?
“What an idiot!” he muttered but with this kid's entire educational history already in his possession, Izuku knew he would leap on the app, and that he could help.
The kid was pretty good, had several undiagnosed learning difficulties which made Izuku think their home life might not be the best, was using his quirk totally wrong, and had just about as much self esteem as Izuku himself had.
Grinning as he kept the line open between his phone and his new client’s, Izuku settled in to see how a day at UA actually went.
*
By the end of it Izuku wanted to scream.
Instead he sucked a puff or twelve of his inhaler and made sure his app was open and ready for homework.
Sitting in his room, knowing his program intentionally made him sound like an older fusion of old england and feudal japan, cultured yet he’d made sure to add a layer of modern word usage and was sure to use slang every now and then when he spoke.
He wanted to sound like he knew exactly what he was doing yet was fun too.
Seemed to work when Denki opened the app (already and always open from Izuku’s end) and said, “Right, help me with math!”
Cracking his knuckles Izuku said, "Alright, let's get started!”
Two hours later, app powered down at last, Izuku sucked a breath of relief and nodded, because he really could do this.
But one wasn't going to be enough, he needed at least four more to subscribe and pay for it, so he set about figuring out a good mix for his needs.
*
Denki wished he’d gotten this app years ago, because suddenly…. shit made sense.
And it wasn't cheating, no matter how it felt, because it had a listen in feature, and in class now it would vibrate if he needed to pay extra attention, and he could say Note and then come back to that bit and listen to it again, and he could use a red filter for math, and a green one for english if he pulled the work up online, and the figures stopped wriggling around and that awesome voice would walk him through them as many times as he needed to understand.
In loads of different ways as well, trying until he got it!
Tai, Denki’d started calling him that, Teacher AI, never ever got frustrated with him, was always calm, was always ready to try a different way, and had the best suggestions for using his quirk he'd ever been given, as well as schoolwork!
And Denki could see some others struggling as he watched his classmates during the day, and on the day's recordings when doing homework.
Wondering if they’d want to join him, he chickened out on suggesting it and went home.
It was next week they all would move into the dorms, a way to do heroics classes early, late, and in the middle of the night even and he was excited, and frightened, all in one, but this way he’d be able to get to know them all so much better, and see if anyone wanted to get in on part of the online teacher help gig.
*
Dorms!
If he’d passed even gen ed he’d have had the option, but for heroics course students they were mandatory, it let the teachers have access to twenty four hours of the day, and they usually used it to the full.
It was why he had to get his hooks into at least one student, getting him inside UA before that door closed.
Listening to Denki panic packing as he got ready to move, Izuku pinged with the text suggestion, Please, do a mindfulness exercise, perhaps number three?
“Oh, huh, okay!”
‘Aaaaaand he isn't even gonna ask how I know he’s panicking.’ Feeling a weird mix of affection and wanting to hit his client with a baseball bat, Izuku hit send on his own assignment, freeing him up for the rest of the day.
His coursework was insanely easy, shamefully easy even, and he’d be bored out of his ever loving mind if it was all he had to do but Denki was a constant box of surprises and Izuku was enjoying being Tai, his AI friend, as Denki called him, very much indeed.
And with how many of the class was struggling, he was sure to have his numbers up soon enough.
Handing over his first week's pay, mama had handed it right back to him, saying, "No, you don’t owe me anything, but!” She held up a hand to his protests, “If you are determined, once you hit three figures a month I’ll take twenty percent.”
He’d fought hard to get her to take fifty but she’d held firm, letting him bargain her up to thirty and not a yen more.
Thirty percent wasn't much, it wasn't enough for all he felt he owed her, but he needed five subscribers to take him over the three figures threshold and he was sure to hit that soon.
Idly doing a search for the date of Japan’s having finally decimaled their monetary system, he whistled, three hundred years ago, yet still one of the last holdouts on the planet? Jotting that down he organized a project around it and then laughed at Denki seeing the dorms for the first time.
Only having audio for this bit was a bitch, but he’d fix that soon enough.
For a being as clever as Nezu was, Izuku had found a fantastic and utterly unexpected flaw in that person's defenses.
Once in, Izuku was in.
All the defenses faced outwards, but once he was inside the castle he had access to so much!
His bandwidth to get it out to his own equipment was narrow though, so he focused on making a map - happily adding to it as Deni dragged reluctant feet up to the dorm building, clearly afraid of the teacher waiting for him.
Izuku admitted, the man was a touch terrifying so he’d started following him right on day one to make sure he was safe, but only a little bit of following so far because with all Izuku had going on now, the day was suddenly not long enough.
But izuku’d gotten a hook into the teachers break room on day four, was avoiding Nezu’s areas like the plague, had all of Denki’s classed visible to him now full time, and as soon as -
“YES!!!”
Latching hooks deep into the dorms security system Izuku opened it onto the big rebuilt screen on his wall, sitting back to watch/listen to Denki fumble through greeting his teacher - who might look scary but Izuku knew for a fact now that the man was really nice and wished he could tell Denki that fact - take the stack of rules for living in the dorms, and drag his bag to his assigned room.
Splitting the screen now so he could keep an eye on Denki face planting onto his new bed, and on the students coming in for pretty much instant repeats of the greetings and pages and finding their rooms….
He did smile a bit at Katsuki stomping in, looking so angry it was no wonder everyone shied away from him, but Izuku knew it was fear, not rage, and wished he had any way to tell the boy to just take a few deep breaths and to relax, no one there was going to hurt him.
Well, okay, the pretty purple one who just got detention for brainwashing him might, but when Kats retaliated and got detention too, maybe it’d be a bonding moment for them?
His respect for the teacher ratcheted up though, because the talking too they both got was stern, but understanding as well, and Izuku too resolved to do better, just from having heard it!
*
Kids, damn.
Why was he being saddled with another class again?
But for the first time ever at dorm moving-in-day Shouta had his entire twenty, and now they were his full time for the next five bloody years.
Getting them all into their rooms to unpack, food delivered for dinner, walking the entire class through the list of dos and don'ts and how it all worked and tomorrow he’d make sure they all know how to do laundry, that they knew which shelf was theirs in the pantry, make SURE they put their name label on it, both the pantry and the walk in fridge, because kids would go to war over food, like, damn!
Cooking classes already part of the curriculum, dietary science and sourcing and basically just teaching them to feed themselves as a pro hero with a full on schedule once they graduate.
It was a five year course for a reason, and teaching them to manage work life balance was a huge part of it!
As was unlearning so much of what they thought they knew, both about heroics, their own quirks, and how the world worked!
By the end of the day they were all tucked in, he’d done two hours with Nezu, got his grading finished, checked over the dorms one final time and he collapsed in the bed, and moaned when careful fingers began to scratch his scalp.
“Tough day?”
“No, good kids really, and Nezu is his normal self just times a million with this op he’s working on, just, ugh!”
His heartless love laughed, but kept up the scritches so letting him live was a good plan.
For now anyway.
*
The first day he’d gotten access to the teachers area Izuku watched frightening teacher heroes morph as they walked into the huge room into little better than children!
Staring with dropped jaw he watched Snipe hurl a bagel like a deadly weapon and Present Mic catch it with his MOUTH while being tackled by Midnight!!!!
And then a tussle as they fought over it, leaving most of it broken on the floor to be swept up as they were scolded by Recovery Girl for the entire thing.
And the no longer frightening at all Eraserhead laced Thirteen’s tea with salt when she wasn't looking and then POINTED at Vlad King and got him in trouble for it!
And Ectoplasm refused to go to class, sending a clone instead as he watched a fishing tournament on his phone while Present Mic surfed on the roomba that was trying to clean the room and …
Izuku didn't think he’d laughed this much in his entire life!
*
“Hey Kaminari?”
“Yeah Mina?”
“Whatcha listening too?”
“Oh, it’s my AI life assistant, he’s talking me through making biscuits, wanna help?”
“Sure!”
Funny how something as simple as fluffy biscuits could be messed up and complicated to stupid levels on the internet, but Izuku’s mama taught him to make them years ago, and now he taught Denki and Mina, and gained a second subscription.
He put a down-counter on the home page then for available slots, because he knew himself well enough to know he’d over extend if he didn't limit the number of the class he’d take on.
“NO, Denki, gentle, you are trying to make crumbs of the butter flour mix, not mash it into a paste, that’s it, good, a bit more like this!” - showing his own hands the last time he’d made them, recorded just in case - “Better, good, now, the milk is NOT tricky but it can go over or under making the mixture either sticky or dry, we’ll use most of the recommended amount to start with but all flour works slightly differently and we might have to adjust….
Watching a horde of kids show up for just eight biscuits, Izuku laughed to himself because they all looked like toddlers denied a treat!
*
“So, Denki, how did you answer number nine?”
“Nope.”
“Awwww come on, you’re doing so well and I just - ”
“Subscribe,” looking at the five people at the table doing homework with him, Denki repeated, “Subscribe dudes, like, whoever is making this AI needs the money too, and I know the counter is saying only three more slots left so you have time but they might fill up with someone not in our class and - ”
Izuku’s counter dinged to an end, and he was at his limit of subscribers but.. Ochako looked so sad, and he knew she didn't have the money to subscribe, and Ejiro was too slow to get in, and Shouto missed out by a split second and Izuku was typing before his brain even caught up.
Filled Subscription Numbers Bonus Offer, Two Free Study Sessions Twice Per Week For Subscriber Club
“Oh my gods, really?” Whispered Ochako, and Izuku swiftly finished up with TEN PERSONS PER SESSION, NO SUBSCRIPTION NEEDED TO JOIN!
And sat back with a sigh as they began fighting over who would be in the first one, finally settling with a roster written up by Ingenium's little brother when the entire class wanted to be in it.
Life in the dorms had brought them all together really fast, in a way Izuku resolutely did not envy.
*
Totally over prepared for the study session Izuku took a tiny break because his newest favorite thing was to watch the teachers at play which sadly they didn’t do enough of, Izuku even had camera access now to the training grounds and teachers gyms.... he’d even put some of them to music and would watch in a loop when the sads got too much for him to handle.
Sad was a thing that snuck up on him sometimes, but now he could fill the silence of the house with the sounds of UA, and even if he cried, at least half the tears were of laughter, and he’d take that win!
Watching them sit down, ten of class A, and a few of them watching on, Izuku got his game hat on and got to work, answering questions, keeping them on track, guiding them to the answers rather than giving them to them, yet letting them digress and go on tangents as well, and three hours sped past.
*
The nerd wasn't here.
Even knowing Izuku had zero chance of passing any entrance exam, not with his lungs more scar tissue than healthy working organs, even with being undersized, even with how anxious he was, somehow Katsuki expected him to be in class.
Like normal.
But he wasn't here.
Katsuki’d even spent days prowling the halls to see if he got into a different track but no, he just wasn't here.
In desperation he'd gotten his mum to ask Aunty and….
Online high school.
If the stupid fucker’d sat down and tried to figure out a worse option for his mental health he’d have failed to find one.
Easy to picture though, Izuku in his room, surrounded by computer shit, alone.
Alone.
Not just alone but never going out, oh, he would, at the beginning, but eventually he’d come up with excuses to not go out, to not talk to anyone, to hide.
Tears burned, because he missed the fucker!
He had the brains and heart of a hero, Katsuki’d thought surely that would be enough to somehow make it but….
Leaning against the wall, listening to the AI teachers assistant Lightning Bug’d suckered the class into trying, other than the tone it could be Izuku.
Maybe how he’d sound in twenty years or so, but turns of phrase, how subjects would ramble along, tangents not shut down the way Katsuki would have done but explored, followed, everyone down the rabbit hole rather than blocking it off.
Sighing in deepening misery, Katsuki left the room and headed for the gym, he needed to punch something.
And if he imagined that fucker Hisashi as the target, then even dead the bastard deserved it!
*
Running an op in the background of the new year, keeping that fool of a hero All Might on point, using him as bait while not letting him hurt any student while waving him in full view of the world….
Nezu wanted it on record that he was so fucking done with the man!
Honest to gods, he was spending more time keeping him from hurting someone, pitting students against each other? For god's sake, when Shouta nearly killed the man for it, Nezu almost didn't step in to save him!
Only the risk of losing his favorite human - one of a dozen favorite humans really but special beyond belief - had Nezu putting in the effort of preventing Shouta from committing homicide.
Now, finally sitting back on the first day of the second month of school, a full weekend of fighting behind them, the biggest villain of them all defeated and burned to ash, entire organization being dismantled by several hand picked teams and so much more work still to do because the students had been a bit neglected up till now, Nezu was taking a brief breath of fresh air before leaping back to work, his defenses solid, his people safe, students alive and well.
Tossing his tea back like a shot, Nezu got back to work, grateful he’d gotten the school's defenses solidly in place for this very moment so he wouldn't have to worry about them as he did so much else!
*
Sitting at the table where he’d been badgered into joining, Katsuki was staggered with how much the AI was like his once friend.
If you discounted the actual voice, it was him!
Not a single other person felt that, or even thought of it’s being a person rather than AI, and of course they wouldn't, because they didn't know the nerd.
Alone, nerd was alone, Aunty worked all day, stupid fucker was alone, Katsuki wished it was Izuku he was talking to, arguing the difference between commiserate and excessive force, because Nerd’d love this shit!
And then, something, a turn of phrase, and Katsuki was the one who was insane.
But listening to an AI voice talking Shouto through a quirk experiment, not flames but heat, discussing how heat was useful, no one even needed flames on the job, how -
Totally silent as he tracked how blazingly useful this AI was, how personable, how -
Multi-talented it was!
Like, he got an education based AI, or a quirk advice based AI, or a cooking AI, or loads of other AI assistants, but this one did it all?
Seriously?
Aaaand now it just laughed. No, it didn’t laugh, it giggled!
Midoriya Izuku now did online school, and was alone all day long. He was smart and insane and talented and damaged beyond repair and Mum said he’d tried not just one but loads of entrance exams….
So if Katsuki was Izuku, and all alone, and genius level shitpile crazy…..
Holy fuck, Izuku was an AI!
*
The teachers were really tired.
Looking at them draped around the room, yawns and grimaces and winces as they shifted tiredly, something big had gone down, clearly.
Injuries clearly tended, chilling now in comradery, most of them touching in some way, a foot propped on a thigh, fingers around a wrist, heads on laps, leaning shoulder to shoulder….
They’d all been distracted, Izuku now realized, all of them, from the very first time he’d seen them!
Doing their teacheryly jobs, (if that was even a word he laughed to himself) just fine, handling the press disaster that was All Might simply existing and a new school year and hundreds and hundreds of students, yet looking back it was like window dressing.
Distracted, and now clearly recovering from an op.
An op!
Lunging into the search, Izuku found very little, but what he did had his eyes opened wide, and a breathy sound of relief that the situation hadn't gotten out of control! And that they all seemed okay, even if really really tired!
*
Shouta had been distracted, he admits it.
Freely admits it.
For weeks Nezu’d been setting up that op, keeping that moron on target, keeping him as much away from the kids as possible, keeping them all training in any spare moments, and now at last it was done, All Might sent away to rest and recover or what the fuck ever, Shouta did not care and if he never saw the man again it’d be too soon!
But
His class, the one he’d only kept half an eye on, made sure they were eating and drinking and keeping up their schedule and class work and no one looked too upset at living in the dorms, the kids that had come in ragged like all first years did….
Now they were focused.
Intent.
Now he was looking properly they were doing astoundingly well across the board.
Even the ones with learning difficulties, or a past history of being bullied, or low grades due to being not fucking pretty enough to waste resources on or any of the rest of the fucked up shit they had to deal with with firsties.
All of them were miles ahead of the other first year classes.
Miles!
“Cheating?” Hizashi asked from beside him in the dark as they both tried to get some sleep, even a week after the big fight they were still on high alert, easy sleep a thing of the past.
“No signs of it.”
“What else?”
“No idea, but I’ve heard three of them say the word “Note!” when I’m giving a lecture, and it’s been in portions most kids struggle, so I asked - ”
“Oh my gods, you ASKED?”
“Shut the fuck up you goop, of course I did! It seems they have an AI education tutor helper of some kind on their phones and computers, and all of them use it, even if it only had five subscription places open, it seems they have a ten person help circle twice a week that they share.”
“Ummmmm, babe?”
“Yeah, I know. AI doesn't work like that.”
“Poor Nezu,” Hizashi said, “he was so happy to have some time off!”
*
Someone was inside his defenses!
Not just inside, but they had eyes-on almost everywhere!
Not bothering to hide his rage, or bridle it in any way, Nezu instead slid down a chute in his floor, landed on all fours in his private gym and attacked the first thing that moved.
The speed of his entry had kicked off a series of reactions from the room itself, he was attacked from all corners and he let go, savagely attacking and defending and burning off the mind clouding rage.
By the time he was done over a dozen human sized attack droids were down in rubble, he was picking flesh analogue material from between his teeth and out from under his claws and was MUCH calmer.
A simple text to Higari would reset the room, ready for the next time he needed it.
Tired indeed as he climbed back up to his office he accepted the cup of tea from Ryou, sat down when instructed because his big dog would not take no for an answer, and calmed down even more with each sip.
Eventually they settled in to figure out who was inside their castle, and what to do about it!
*
Something was wrong.
It was a feeling, rather than a knowing, yet it shivered along Izuku’s nerves like fine plucked wire.
Flip flip flip through his views, everyone was acting the same as ever, other than -
“Oh, perhaps that’s it? I know they were all distracted with that big op bad guy villain All Might thing, so maybe this is how they act normally?”
But it was scary, watching the teachers totally engage now with the students, and Izuku began prepping an exit strategy.
Because if they were all this attentive now, then he’d be found out in a little while, was sure to be.
Nothing he was doing was illegal as such, but, looking sadly at the monitor that showed class A, Izuku gave up trying not to cry and simply wiped his tears away, fumbling his inhaler into place, he didn't have any friends at all but they'd been as close as he’d gotten in years.
Katsuki’s been close, they had been friends once, but with how focused he got the older they became, trying to hold that friendship in place was like trying to hold snow in your hands, it slipped away faster than he could keep it safe.
“Damn,” Izuku whispered, “I’m going to miss this.”
Resolutely getting a drink, he set to work, each student would receive a packet tailored for them, education resources, quirk advice, costume suggestions, best combinations for team ups, special moves, everything Izuku could come up with.
Good thing it was the weekend, he’d have plenty of time to get it all done, considering it was half done already.
His notes alone would be enough, he just wanted to make it that bit more special, because they all deserved it.
*
Something was fucking wrong with the nerd!
Somehow Katsuki’d gotten into the Friday group session, weeks of it now, and he hated to admit it but it was helping, so much.
Stupidly helping, but something was wrong.
Yes the idiots tone and word choice and peppy helpfulness was the same but there were lags between subjects, a breathiness sometimes when Katsuki’s closest friends started to play around…..
Denki’d spotted it too, was looking worriedly at his phone as he sat in the common room where most of the class was hanging out.
Just because only ten of them were involved with a group session, almost everyone listened in, joined in sometimes too, if they had something to add.
Looking around Kats was interested in who was looking concerned, Tsu was, but she would, she had siblings, younger ones, had some kind of ninja sixth sense for anyone in trouble.
Denki and Shouto as well, and Ochako of all people.
She was bubbly and bright and fierce but she also had a keen eye, and a frighteningly suspicious and cunning nature.
Coupled with the fact she wasn't shy at all, so she was the one who asked, “Hey, Tai, what’s wrong?”
Hating the fact they called Izuku that stupid name, Katsuki listened hard for clues. “Wrong?”
“Yeah dude,” and damn, it was Ejiro asking and he was blind as a rock most of the time, "You seem really down today!”
A short pause, clearly for trying to figure out what to say, “My apologies if I have seemed less than my usual self, I am experiencing an upgrade currently and that might be what you are picking up on, well done for noticing, I thought I had it covered yet have worried you instead. I should have told you, extra credit for spotting something out of the ordinary though, well done.”
A rush of questions and Katsuki had to give the nerd credit, he covered his ass like a pro!
Texting Aunty because his mum had fired herself as a go between, said if Kats wanted to know, then HE had to ask! But her return text showed she didn't know what was up with Izuku, and almost grinding his teeth in reluctant frustration, he resolved to reach out to the nerd in person if his stupid AI interface thing kept being weird.
He wasn't a hero student, or even in UA, but Katsuki wasn't blind, the fool was helping, in ways even the teachers missed, they all needed him.
*
“Midoriya Izuku, quirkless.”
A picture of a sickly looking teen, bright grin and deeply shadowed eyes, clearly thin and in the next picture deeply distressed.
“He took our entrance exam, had to be rescued.”
“It was a risk even allowing it, but he provided a health cert that said he was fit enough, and we don’t like to discriminate against….”
“Anyway,” Nezu sighed, “he passed neither the practical nor the written, although I went back last night and watched our footage of him….”
A long pause before Shouta said, “Well?”
“No, not really, not well at all.” Nezu said, “Watch, I’ve isolated a ten minute segment, tell me what you see.”
In silence they watched a child deeply focused on a test suddenly jerk and flip back, correcting something, then resume the test, then jerk again and flip back and….
“He never finished, did he?” Hizashi asked.
“No,” Ryou answered, “he didn't, yet he did get enough to almost pass, even with not having finished.”
Watching the child start again from the beginning, make it part way before beginning to flip back again, repeatedly taking puffs from a medicated inhaler, “Anxiety disorder?” Chiyo asked.
“No, not diagnosed anyway, yet when I checked his school records his grades all drop sharply due to test results.”
“I can see why,” Shouta said as he watched shaking fingers rake through frizzled green hair, “what I don't understand is why it isn't on his chart?”
“Quirkless?” Hizashi guessed, and Nezu agreed, “Quirkless.”
“Fuck!”
They all agreed with that assessment.
*
“Listen now to a study session with the entire class.”
“He’s tutoring all of them?” Shouta asked in shock.
“Yes, although officially he is only doing five personal students, and twice weekly group sessions, ten participants tops, yet they almost all are present.”
Listening to a week ago, a bright engaging fun educational group session clearly helpful for all, Nezu then said, “Listen to this one.”
Less than ten minutes in, Hizashi asked, "What's wrong with him?” only to laugh when one of the kids asked that same question shortly after.
Nezu sighed, patting a large file box beside him, one of a stack of four.
“He sent these to me, bright and early this morning.”
“He what?”
It was the clearest of the jumble of questions and protests, and Nezu tipped the lid off, fished out a package that needed both hands to lift, and tossed it to Shouta.
“Individual packets for each and every one of your students, along with an apology that he hadn't done the rest of the first years, not, he says, properly, but he did include notes on them all if I wanted them.”
“A heartfelt apology for trespassing was also included, coupled with a reminder he wasn't doing anything illegal, other than impersonating an AI program, which is a non-crime.”
“Said as well that he felt it was better to end things this way before he was kicked out, that it was fun helping but now everyone is paying proper attention to the students it was time to go.”
Ears folded back so hard it must hurt, Nezu growled, and then said, “He is enrolled in an online mediocre high school course aiming for a mediocre placement in a free online college, and then a niche job of tutoring, online only.”
“Shut in?” Ryou asked in concern.
“Not yet, but if this trend continues he will be.”
“No,” Shouta said clearly, “he will not be!”
“Hey,” Kan protested an instant before all the rest chimed in, “I want him!”
“Fight you for him!” and Shouta was up and ready when Ryou pushed him back down into Hizashi’s arms, “No one is fighting for the pup, he is….”
Looking around the room, Ryou laughed and finished, "Clearly MINE!”
The battle was epic, trashed the entire room, and Ryou, who’d been sensei to every younger hero in the room who lept into fight for possession of the green haired help-gremlin, wiped the floor with them!
Ryou wanted this pup, and no one was going to get between him and the bundle of awesomeness that was Midoriya Izuku!
*
A knock at the door signaled a melancholy sigh from Izuku, and he listened to his mama cross the apartment and open the door.
Her high clear exclamation of shock as well was expected, although he’d hoped sending the packets and his apology letter might stave off a home visit.
But, well, he’d done the not a crime at all so he may as well face the music.
Taking three deep puffs of his mister, he patted himself down, made sure he wasn't too bad to look at, he’d been coding rather than rebuilding so with a brief moment to summon his courage he stepped out into the main room.
His heart stopped, because Aizawa-sensei was expected, as was Nezu, but Present Mic and Hound Dog were total wild cards, and every part of him wanted to ask, his hands actually reached out and picked up and then put DOWN his autograph book, but it was too late.
Yamada-sensei played a happy go lucky front, but Izuku knew he was sharp as a needle, had in fact warned the entirety of class A to NEVER underestimate the man, so he handed over the little hard backed book, and his lucky pen, with a whispered, “You don't have to.” when the hero made grabby hands at it.
“No," Shouta said, "but it’s the least we can do for someone who helped my class as much as you have, especially at the beginning of the year when we all should have been paying more attention to them all.”
Dark eyes blinked in surprise when Izuku fired up, “NO, don’t say that! You kept them safe! And you lived and no one got badly hurt but are you all alright now, I know you all did get hurt, but you won and I looked into it and I didn't find much,” (‘Thank gods!’ Ryou thought to himself) “but what I did find was….” sucking a gasp, “was….”
Hands held his shoulder, and he would have used the inhaler again but, “No pup, it’s okay, you’ve already had three,” - he’d heard them as they were invited in - “let it work now, breathe with me, good, in and out and in and out and it’s fast I know but it’s alright to start off fast, even panting is fine as long as you slow it down breath by breath and that's it, good, just like that - ”
Leaning in for a brief hug because Izuku missed hugs cause his mama gave good ones but that was all he got now, had in fact paid a few times at charity Have-A-Hug booths to get a hug and an autograph and he’d been right, Hound Dog gave great hugs!
*
Tea was a miracle.
Of all the things humans had invented, tea took the top slot and had for thousands of years!
Settling them all down with a fairly mediocre brew the boy's mother had brought in, Nezu settled in to ask questions, not just of the boy but the woman as well, because he had to know it all.
Parental rights came first, the kitten was only fifteen, she had a say in what her son did from this point onwards for a few years still.
And as he manipulated them both into honestly answering his questions, not sheltering behind half truths and politeness - the quirked interrogation pill slipped into their cups really helped with that - Nezu got the entire story.
Not just the AI disguise the kitten had been using to get into his school, but the why of it. The entire story of the attack that led to the child being disabled, the trauma of the school system he’d struggled through as a quirkless handicapped student.
The tinkering, computer hacking, coding, working not just pages but entire YEARS ahead, the crippling fear that woke him at night, choking on remembered smoke and flames burning his lungs into charred tangled mats of scar tissue.
The mother’s struggle to make ends meet, making a note to see why she wasn't getting paid properly, he knew she was a hard worker, in a solidly secure company, and why was this dump of an apartment priced so much higher than it should be?
Point by point Nezu got it all, even the fact the kittens father’d been a villain, a fact the mother had clearly kept hidden for a long time.
Easily using a command suggestion to wipe that inadvertently revealed fact from both of their memories of the visit, because the villain was long dead, no risk at all to his school and the boy didn't need that burden to add to what he already delt with on the daily.
No, not only was this not a risk, this was a solid win.
And no, he wasn't going to let anyone monopolize this little one, but he was very busy and sharing was caring as it were, so as the interrogation drug wore off Nezu just kept talking, describing a multifaceted study track, involving not just support and heroics but all the various teachers and what they could bring to the table.
And while their new student would never be physically able to fight on the streets, there were more ways to be a hero than civilians ever guessed.
In the back of his mind Nezu was working on a new algorithm to spot the next kitten like this that might come along, but all the rest of his mind was setting Izuku up to move into class A’s dorm…
“You already know them all, in fact, one of them already asked me to intercede for you.”
Seeing surprise and then a half grin, Nezu expected the question, “Katsuki, right? Stupid butthead, I knew he’d spotted me but when he didn't say anything I thought he was gonna leave me alone, prat, what’d he say?”
Nothing would ever have Nezu revealing how worried one of his students was that someone he’d grown up with was in danger of turning into a hermit crab or a villain - “Don’t know which is gonna happen first, fucker wanted to be a hero but failed, shitsake, he’s got more brains in that busted ass body of his than most people gain ina lifetime! Someones gonna notice Principal Nezu, someone's gonna notice and just take him and break him and use Aunty as a tool to make Izu do bad shit and he’ll be the most dangerous person you’ve ever met! Fucking hell he got into UA, got past all of you! And he’s got the entire class eating out of the palm of his hand and it's a good thing, Lightning Bug and Frog Spit and Stick-up-his-ass and all of them, Icy Hot too, they all needed someone like him!”
“Save him!”
The stark command from the desperate youngster had Nezu baring his teeth in a grin, "Of course I will Katsuki, he already belongs to me, and I always protect my own!”
What was a surprise was how the blond rose to the challenge, baring his teeth right back as he did his best to growl, “Good!”
Kittens were sooo sweet at that age, growing into their claws so nicely.
******
Standing with his hand in Aizawa-sensei’s, looking up at the slight smile the man was wearing, no idea how smug the hero was to have Izuku as his home room student, or how hard he’d fought, not with his body or weapons but with words, which were not his weapon of choice but Ryou'd laughed and agreed that the pup needed a homeroom with friends and he’d be spending time each day with Ryou and Nezu so Izuku may as well join a class he would be comfortable in and "Well done Shouta-pup he’s yours!" - and won him!
Hand in hand with one of his favorite heroes in existence, Midoriya Izuku stepped into the room and greeted his friends in real life at last.