Chapter 7: In Hallowed Halls
She took a seat on the train, placing her bag on her lap as she rested her head on her hand. She'd just moved into her new apartment, but a majority of her things were still scattered around it in boxes and had yet to be unpacked. She'd given up when she noticed it was almost midnight, wanting to get a good night's sleep for the morning ahead. That said, she still felt a little drowsy. Trying to stay awake, she looked around the train.
Thankfully, now that she didn't have to get through rush hour every morning, the train was significantly less crowded. For the most part, she didn't recognize anyone on the train.
Doors closing. Please stand clear.
"Wait wait-" she heard yelling from outside the door, and then the next thing she saw was a familiar uniform slipping between the doors before they could close.
Another UA student had boarded the train, and one she was familiar with, if only slightly, as she looked at the fluffy, dark green hair above the uniform.
"Oh, it's you… Good morning."
It's happened too many times in the past few months for it to be noticeable. Izuku kept almost missing the train, to the point where he was starting to think that he was cursed.
At least he got to catch up with a friend. Probably. He didn't know if they were actually friends or not, but he'd heard that friends usually go to the arcade together, so that probably meant that he was friends with Kodai-san. That and they'd just spent the entire train ride talking about Hero course things, even though it was only a handful of minutes away from the stop.
Everything from their performances during the exam to their hopes for their hero costumes came up. Kodai-san had talked more than he'd thought she would, though given the topic, it was easy to see why. From what he'd heard, she made her hero costume based on Tokusatsu, giving it pouches to store items as "ammunition". Though… Asking about her hero costume led to her asking about his own.
His Mom had originally submitted an old drawing he had from years ago that he was trying to refine. Thankfully there was still time before they were due when it happened, and his Dad suggested working through it together.
Almost inevitably, the majority of the changes were to add armour onto the costume, changing out the mask for a helmet while keeping with the Iconic All Might theme, while adding bracers, gauntlets, and shin guards. They had, however, gotten off topic while making the costume, as Inko went off on a tangent on the legality of gauntlets in a hero costume, among other items like the heavy boots and the injuries they could cause.
On top of all of that, his Dad added a chest plate and wrote some weird six-digit code that he didn't understand. He could only guess that it was something to do with materials. Much to his amazement, the drawing still looked like his original design, if more bulky and taller to match his frame. There were also lots of items written down for the belt but Dad said that he'd find out what they were eventually, so he could only guess.
"Must be nice having a hero for a parent." she'd said so wistfully as if contemplating her choice with her costume. It was too late to regret those changes now, it was already the first day, and they were already in the halls of the school.
Izuku wasn't expecting that ranting about costumes would take so much time.
"Y-yeah, I guess…" he barely stopped himself from wincing. Between Kaachan's taunts and the other kids in middle school and junior high, the absence of his Dad had left a sore spot for him
"We're here. Remember, your class is right next to mine." Kodai-san put her phone down. They'd been following the map on it like a guide when they entered the halls. Izuku was partly glad, from both the topic change, and the fact that he didn't need to run around the campus looking for the classroom.
"Alright, I'll talk to you later then?"
"Mhm… I'll probably sit with you at lunch tomorrow, since after orientation we can go home."
"Ok. Um, see you then." He still didn't know how to talk to people well enough. He'd thought that he'd gotten decent at it because of all of the planning he and the other captives did to escape that facility, but apparently, none of that could translate to an everyday conversation.
Sighing, then taking in a deep breath, he walked towards his own classroom, as his companion walked through the door. It was almost time for class to start, and it would be bad luck to be late on the first day.
The new term had just started, and while Nezu would handle the orientation, somehow taking four hours for a single speech, he would take his students and put them to the test.
Ever since he was hired years ago, Aizawa had taken to testing his students in the first day, to see how far each of them would go, and to see how seriously they'd take the classes.
That was why he had wriggled in his sleeping bag, all the way up to the classroom where he could hear and see several students conversing. As well as a… rather creative string of curses.
He shuffled within the sleeping bag to get a better view of it, watching as the green-haired teen looked around briefly before his eyes locked onto him. Good. At least someone is aware of their surroundings.
That said, nobody else besides Endeavor's child had noticed him. He'd have to teach them about situational awareness later.
"If you're only here to make friends, then you can pack up and leave now," Aizawa spoke clearly, watching as almost everyone jumped in their places, fumbling to find out who had spoken.
With a sigh, he pulled out the nutrient jelly pouch he opened earlier and took a sip. If that was their reaction, then perhaps the situational awareness classes were more urgent than he thought.
Counting the seconds until silence fell, the tired teacher spoke again. "Ten seconds. It took you all ten seconds to shut up. We'll have to work on it." Shrugging off the sleeping bag and standing up, he stretched, ushering the rest of the standing students into the classroom.
"My name is Shota Aizawa, and I'll be your homeroom teacher for the next three years. Nice to meet you." he walked to the podium and pressed one of the buttons.
One of the shelves at the wall opened up, revealing dozens of coats, each one with a tag corresponding to the seat numbers.
"This is kinda sudden, but everyone, grab one of these and head to field Gamma." the kids all stared at him for a few seconds, but after one of them, Tensei's younger brother, if he remembered correctly, grabbed the uniform, everyone else followed behind him.
He watched all the students carefully as they walked out, keeping an eye on their personalities. Especially the troublesome ones. Already he could point out a few students to keep his eyes on. The purple-haired one would need to be disciplined, and the blond who got second place in the exam was glaring holes into the green-haired one.
Looks like he'll have his work cut out for him.
"A Quirk assessment test?!" The number of voices that all yelled at him would be enough to give anyone a headache.
"But what about the Orientation? At this rate, we're gonna miss it!"
Aizawa turned around to look at his students, before sighing and brushing loose hair out of his eyes. "If you want to be successful as a hero, don't waste time on pointless ceremonies."
This seemed to elicit some gasps from his class.
"Every year, Nezu holds the same speech, with slight changes based on recent events. It's recorded and put on the school's home page if you want to watch it that badly. That said, I'll be exercising the increased freedom that UA's teachers have, to make the most out of your time here." Truthfully, he was beginning to suspect that Nezu had created a robot to do the speeches for him. There was no way he'd willingly spend four hours saying the exact same speech each year.
He pulled out his phone, showing his class the tests that they'd have to do.
"You've all done these tests before during middle school. The only difference here will be that you're allowed to use your quirks. Your performance will be ranked accordingly with how well your classmates do." putting his phone away, he pulled a ball, roughly the size of a baseball out from his pocket, before looking back at the students.
Aizawa's eyes narrowed on the student who got first place.
"Midoriya, you placed the highest in the entrance exam. What score did you get during the softball throw?" Izuku nearly jumped when he realised the ball was thrown at him.
Upon catching it, he stuttered, "I d-don't really remember. Before doing the training I had for UA I didn't get any good scores so I didn't bother remembering them…" he looked between the ball and his teacher, ignoring the sound of someone scoffing while doing so.
"Then it doesn't matter. Step into the circle and throw the ball. Anything goes so long as you don't step outside of it."
Hesitantly, Izuku stepped into the ring, looking at Aizawa before looking out at the field. If someone told him he'd have to do tests on the first day of school, he'd have told them that they were lying, or at least he would have tried to. Oh well. At least he trained for this. Even if he never threw a proper punch at his limits, he still knew where those limits were.
Crouching into position, he raised his arm, loosely gripping the ball as he aimed for the horizon and channeled 10% into his arm. Thanks to the training with his dad over the past month, he knew that this was the point right before he started breaking down. He'd been thoroughly chewed out by both his doctors and parents when he mentioned the recoil of using so much power and wasn't eager to repeat that experience.
Lightning crackled and his veins shone as he aimed into the sky, throwing the ball as hard as he could.
With explosive force, wild winds swept through the field, with the ball leaving the students in the dust.
Even though using the highest safe limit left him somewhat winded, he couldn't help but be satisfied with that throw.
PING!
"One kilometer and almost three hundred meters."
'Huh?' that couldn't be right. Izuku thought that the ball should have gone way further than that.
But before he could go any further with that train of thought, a second explosive force shocked him, and everyone else into awareness.
"DEKUUUUUU! WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GE-MHHFF"
Thankfully, his aggressive childhood "friend" never managed to reach him. When Izuku looked, the blond was tangled in the off-white scarf which hung around their teacher's neck.
To be honest, he was surprised that a scarf of all things could hold him, but upon seeing their now red-eyed teacher glaring at Kaachan, Izuku realized.
"Wait- You're Eraserhead!"
"Don't make me use my quirk so much. It gives me serious dry eye." after giving a glare that could scare most into submission, the sleep-deprived teacher huffed. "Let's move on. We've wasted enough time here. Oh, and Midoriya. Next time you throw something, aim at 45 degrees."
Upon hearing that remark, Izuku realized why it didn't go as far as it could have. Almost dejectedly, he returned to where the rest of the class was standing.
"Dude, nice throw!"
"Yeah! You totally rocked it!"
Only to find himself immediately beset by a number of his classmates. His vision floods with red and pink. He could hear the rest of his classmates also chatting excitedly. He felt slightly guilty of his relief when the atmosphere suddenly died.
He could understand the reason why though. Aizawa-sensei was right in saying that Japan, no- the world was full of unfairness. He'd felt that unfairness firsthand, and was glad that nobody had died, not even the ones who were taken away.
Izuku clenched his fists and steeled his will. He needed to get stronger.
"Alright. The demonstration is over. Let's get started."
As his classmates each started doing the ball toss, he felt someone tapping his shoulder.
"Your name's Midoriya, right? Can we talk about something? Oh- and it doesnt have to be now, it can wait until after the day's over. I just wanted to talk to you about it." Upon turning around, he saw the same, spiky red hair which he was almost blinded by moments earlier, flanked by the pink, horned girl.
"Uh… Yes, I'm Izuku Midoriya. Um… I don't see why not. We can talk after Sensei's tests." He couldn't help but wonder what that was about as he waited for the next test.
"You're sure it's him?" Mina asked, looking at the back of a fluffy green mess.
"Yeah Mina, Emiya told me what he looked like, and Midoriya almost perfectly matches it" Eijirou tried to compare their classmate to the mental image his little sister painted. He looked taller than Emi said, but he definitely had the right hair and eyes, even the perfect diamond shape of freckles.
"Hmm okay, if you're sure…" She couldn't help but look skeptical.
"If it helps, we can ask him about it. I know I want to ask more about it too. Emi freezes up any time she thinks I'll ask about it..." He couldn't help but scratch at his head. He wanted to protect his sister, but he didn't know from what.
Oh well, He'd ask later. For now, they needed to make it through their teacher's gauntlet.
Thankfully, it seemed that the students had gotten their act together after his challenge. Aizawa could see potential in this class… for the most part. Of course, there were other issues too, but those could be dealt with as the year progressed.
As each student did each test, he made observations on the performances of each student. For the most part, it was what each student needed to work on the most, such as Iida needing to be more fluid or Kirishima needing to work on flexibility, but he also wrote about what he observed from their personalities too.
Midoriya lacks confidence and is slow to start up, but once he has momentum, he'll keep going until told to stop. Meanwhile, Bakugou is nearly the complete opposite, no hesitation, but with a penchant for aggression. Both of them have good potential, but both of them need to adjust their personalities. Hesitating could get you or others killed in the field, and the same could be said about rash actions.
That said though, a number of students this year produced better results than he was hoping for. In the break between the entrance exam and now, he could tell that some of them were pushing themselves to the limits.
With all of the students done with the ball throw, he ushered them on toward the next test. The 50-meter dash shouldn't take too long.
"Oi. Race me, you damn nerd."
"What-"
"I Said Race me! Then I'll beat you and whatever that shitty power is!"
Somehow, Izuku ended up crouching in a sprinter's position behind the chalk line. He'd tried to refute the explosive blond, but as usual, he couldn't get a word in at all…
And so, reluctantly, he waited for the odd-looking robot to fire, charging up seven percent in his legs.
As soon as the robot signaled to 'go' however, he was immediately met by an oppressive and familiar wave of heat and smoke.
With a cough, Izuku pushed past the burning smoke cloud, and past the starting line, One for All shattering the ground beneath him as he lept.
Soaring over Kaachan's head, and over the track, he sped forwards, nearly completely horizontal thanks to the starting blocks. Aizawa-sensei said to aim, so hopefully this was what he meant.
He whizzed past the machine too. Going faster than he could completely manage, and without any brakes, he slid to a stop over 10 meters past the machine.
He stood up again, after having completely stopped, trying hard to ignore the livid, red eyes trying to glare a hole through him.
It was only after asking Iida that he learned what his score was. Just over two seconds… His mind could barely comprehend it.
As hard as he tried to ignore it, he couldn't help but get the feeling that the glaring was getting worse as the tests went on.
Getting second for grip strength with over 300, doing the most sit-ups out of everyone in the class, and clearing the standing long-jump pit definitely made it worse.
He got a slightly above-average score for the seated toe touch and sideways stepping though, so at least it didn't get more intense.
At this point though, Izuku's legs felt close to burning because of One for All. He couldn't tell if this was a sign that he was overusing One for All, or if the bone breaking and bleeding was the overuse symptom.
He was probably better off not using his quirk for the last test.
For the endurance test, the students were made to run laps around the field, with a distance and place marked with their performance. The majority of the class was doing well for the first few laps, though after the eighth, students started dropping out of the test. Everyone was feeling the exhaustion of using their quirks all-day after all, so Izuku couldn't say that he was surprised.
Regardless, he continued running. Even with the slight burning in his legs, he still felt like he could run for hours. By this point, most of the class had dropped out. At some point, even Kaachan had to drop out. The only ones left were himself and the recommendation student, Yaoyorozu, who was struggling to keep her bike upright.
It was only upon hearing a loud whistle from Aizawa-sensei that the both of them stopped.
Or perhaps their teacher only whistled because Yaoyorozu had gotten off her bike and had nearly fallen over.
A sigh drew his attention towards where the rest of the class was either standing or sitting haphazardly around their teacher.
"Maybe I should have checked before we started this. Midoriya, your file includes some of the medical data you've had in the past few months, including the physical tests. How long can you keep running?"
He didn't know whether or not to feel called out. Nor did he know how to answer that question. He could only mumble and shrug as he answered, "I-I don't know…"
It took a few moments before another sigh was let out. "Right. Join the rest of your class. Yaoyorozu, take a seat and drink something cool. I'll show everyone the leaderboard in a moment. After that, everyone will go to homeroom and pick up their forms and go home."
After taking a seat with the rest of the class, there was another round of chatter as they watched some sort of billboard slowly wheeling its way over.
"Not only is your quirk strong, but your body too… Ahh, I'm jealous…"
"I must admit, having so much stamina as well as such a strong quirk does feel like cheating. I would have expected it of the recommendation students, or those who trained from a young age, but not someone who did the general exam."
Iida and Uraraka had sat close to him upon Aizawa-sensei calling him over.
He couldn't help but laugh nervously at didn't even know how to approach that topic, much less what to say to Kirishima-san and Ashido-san. He wracked his brain for the right words.
"What I went through to get to where I am… wasn't as fun as you'd imagine…"
"Huh? What do you mean by that, Midoriya?" Uraraka asked plainly. Iida also listened in, likely eager to know what kind of training he went through.
"My… quirk is too much sometimes. It's like this massive source of energy inside me, too much for me to control… If I go even a percent above my safe limits, it will start to break my body…" he couldn't help but raise his own hands to look at them. He could still hear Hisashi chewing him out after he had sat in on a session with All-Might and Gran-Torino.
"If I go even a single percent above it, it starts to rip apart my skin, and if I go even further, Recovery Girl said that it would start breaking my bones…" the day that he had gone far past his limit, he had been rushed to Recovery Girl with All-Might's help. Recovery Girl said she never wanted to see him break himself just to use his quirk, and the floor was inevitably coated with tears when his mom and dad arrived.
After a few seconds of silence, Izuku looked up at both Uraraka and Iida to see that both were pale.
It was Iida who recovered first. "Yes, I can see what you mean now. I imagine that possessing that much strength would make everyday life and training much more difficult. Still, I think it's quite amazing that that energy from your quirk turned into immense stamina too."
Before Izuku could comment any further, A whistle was blown again, as the scoreboard showed everyone's rankings in the class.
He got second place somehow. Probably because he kept breaking the floor any time he used One for All… The name in first place displayed Yaoyorozu, while in third and fourth were Todoroki and Bakugou.
Scanning the entire list, he quickly finds one name at the bottom. Mineta Minoru. Aizawa-sensei had said he would have the student in last place removed from the hero course, and given that their grape-themed classmate was shaking like a leaf, it looked like he realized it too.
It took a moment for him to realize, but an anxious silence settled upon his classmates, almost everyone looking towards their teacher. He waited for a handful of seconds, staring at everyone before he finally spoke. "Most of you did well today. You put your quirks and your bodies to the limit. However, well isn't good enough. We need to go Plus Ultra from here on out. Get changed and go back to homeroom. There are copies of the curriculum on everyone's desk that I want you to take home. After packing those up, you're free to leave."
Izuku watched as several people sighed in relief. He also wanted to head home, so he shared their sentiment. It seemed like everyone was safe for now.
"That said, Mineta Minoru." he froze on the spot, and several pairs of eyes, including Izuku's own turned to the grape-haired quirk user. "You stay here. We need to have a talk."
Izuku didn't know whether he was hallucinating, but he swore Aizawa's eyes gleamed red as he spoke.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Unless you all want to join Mineta in his punishment." that seemingly jolted the class back to attention, as everyone scrambled to make it back to the locker.
Izuku found himself giving a concerned look, before joining the rest of his classmates in the locker rooms.
Eventually, most of the class started trickling in and out of the classroom. He'd been expecting Kaachan to grill him after class ended since they haven't seen each other in over a month, but apparently, his childhood "friend" chose to storm home instead. Upon seeing him gone, he let out a sigh of relief.
He still had to tell Kirishima and Mina about what happened, and he had no clue what to say to them, or even how much he should say, what with Endeavor still investigating where half of the victims went.
Izuku idly checked his phone's messages while trying to think of what to say.
He'd gotten a message from Kodai again. Several messages actually. It looked like she'd sneaked her phone into the presentation, judging by the photos of… some sort of mouse? No, it had to be some kind of dog or bear at the podium.
For the most part, she had asked where he had been, because she didn't see him among the crowd of first years. Then the last message from her, not too long ago actually, was just a list of dot-points of what the principal (because apparently the mouse/bear/dog in a suit was the principal) had to say.
Sending her a quick "thank you" text, he put his phone in the pocket of his blazer, before turning and walking towards the red and pink-haired duo's seats.
If Izuku was to guess right, they'd be having a long, and arguably more complex conversation than he'd like.
Hitoshi stretched as the principal's presentation ended. He didn't know what to expect of orientation day, but it definitely wasn't four hours' worth of Principal Nezu's speech.
He had no idea how he sat through the entire orientation, much less how he managed to learn information from it. It was safe to say that he was incredibly glad that Present Mic told them to sneak their phones in.
Sighing as they all the students made their way back to homeroom. He was thinking about all the things that Nezu had said, trying to pick apart the important pieces from the formalities. He'd heard several pieces about booking training rooms too.
'I'll have to follow that up with Present Mic.' tucking that sliver of information aside, he entered the room. He wasn't the first person there, but he definitely wasn't the last either.
Their homeroom teacher was leaning back in his seat with his feet on the table. It looked like he was waiting for everyone to get back, so he made his way back to his desk.
He didn't have to wait long thankfully, as the last few students entered through the door the moment he sat down.
"Aaaalright ladies and gentlemen, apologies for keeping you in place for so long! Bet you're glad I told you to bring your phones ey?"
Silence reigned in the room for a moment, before Hitoshi saw Mic slump his shoulders.
"Ok, we can work on that response as the term goes. Anyways! I won't keep you long, just needed everyone here long enough to hand out the curriculum. Can the listeners in the back row hand these out?" he pulled out four stacks of pamphlets from under the podium. "Each listener will hand them out to their specific row, ya dig?"
After a few moments of groaning, a number of his classmates got up to hand out the curriculums. Opening the one offered to him, Hitoshi started skimming through it, ignoring the high-pitched announcer of a teacher as he dismissed the class.
None of the pages on it mentioned anything about booking training facilities, much to his dismay.
Looking around, he saw a majority of his classmates trickling out through the doors, the only ones still standing (or rather, sitting in some cases) being himself, Present mic, and someone who'd seemingly fallen asleep, with his companion trying to wake him.
Stuffing the pamphlet into his bag, he strode up to their idle teacher.
"What's up, little listener?"
"Mic-sensei, Nezu said something about booking training rooms earlier. Is that only for the Hero course? Or can others book them too." he hoped that he could book these training rooms, they'd be lots easier to afford with his allowance.
"Heh. Of course little listener. Nothing's stopping anyone from booking these rooms, it's just worded ambiguously because the rat likes to test people and find out who's willing to put in the work."
"..." It took Hitoshi a moment to process that. Present Mic answered his question, but what was that last part about?
As if the question was painted across his face, the teacher answered, looking smugly.
"Nezu tests the listeners who he notices during the entrance exams. Typically people who fall just slightly short from entering the hero course." feet slide off the top of the desk as the teacher stands up to his full height. Hitoshi had thought he was tall, yet Present Mic was easily taller than him, and that wasn't counting the cockatoo hairstyle.
"He gives them the hints, and himself, as well as us teachers, watch carefully to see what they do with them, and how hard they're willing to work. You, little listener, are already on the right track."
He looked at Present Mic calculatingly before finally asking a second question.
"In that case, where do I sign up?"
Chapter 8: Run from the Past
"Thanks for agreeing to this." spiky red hair was jostled as his classmate bowed steeply.
Izuku didn't know what to expect when he approached Kirishima and Ashido. "Uhh… No problem? You said you wanted to talk, so… Here I am."
He leaned on the table behind him. "So… What did you two want to talk about?"
His classmate looked up at him, before turning to his pink-themed friend and back at him.
"There's no easy way to ask this, so I guess it's better to rip off the bandaid." Kirishima pauses for a moment before taking a deep breath and looking Izuku dead in the eyes. "Were you involved in the kidnapping disaster near Shizuoka last month?"
Any pondering of what they were going to ask quickly left him as Izuku's thoughts froze.
He had wanted to leave that incident behind, out of sight, out of mind. Though that was only wishful thinking from him. With a sigh, he responds.
"... And if I say that I was?"
"Then I owe you, big time."
Izuku wasn't expecting that response. "What are you talking about…?"
Ashido cut through his confusion in a moment. "You saved his sister during that tragedy."
Oh. So that was what it was.
"Yeah! I wanted to thank you for saving my sister. That and… well I don't know if I can ask you this, since you were there, but I wanted to ask you what happened. Any time I ask my sister, she clams up, and the police don't know much either, even with Endeavor's entire agency on the case." he watched as Kirishima paced restlessly.
While it was true that Endeavor was finding more of the kidnapped victims, there was little to no information other than the states of the victims. Whoever orchestrated the entire event was still hidden in the shadows.
"So if you could tell me something about what my sister went through, anything at all, I'll be very grateful" They returned back to where they started.
Izuku was in a conundrum. On the one hand, he wanted to help if he could, but on the other, he didn't want to relive the memories of that dank and decrepit, room.
"It doesn't help that nobody knows who planned the whole thing. For all we know, the mastermind could probably strike again. So please, can you tell us what to look out for at least?"
She chimed in.
His brows furled as he contemplated his next action. With a sigh, Izuku decided to bite the bullet. "I can tell you what happened… or at least what I know. I don't know if it will help you though."
"Anything helps man, anything at all."
Sighing once more, Izuku pulled out a seat. "You two may want to sit down, this is a bit of a long story…"
It was a regular night after Izuku had finished training at the beach. He had gotten into bed a few hours after showering the grime off. He wasn't looking forward to school the next day, seeing as Kaachan would likely torment him for the entirety once again for even daring to enroll in UA.
Little did he know that the next day at Aldera would never arrive, as some time through the night, Izuku was jolted awake by the feeling of a damp cloth with an overwhelming odor being pressed to his face. He tried struggling against his assailant, kicking and trying to force the arms away before he succumbed to the chemical.
When next he woke up it was to the sound of an engine roaring. He was covered in a rough bag, and pressed against several other- what he could only assume was- people, likely in the same state as him. Several times people had tried to undo their bindings and free themselves, only to be met with a harsh foot to the gut.
Eventually, Izuku lost track of the time while they were in the car, piled together like sardines in a can. By the time the car stopped, they must have been on the road for almost three hours before they were ushered out of the trunk and bodily carried into a room.
They weren't the first in the room either. As more people were moved into the room, they were untied by their original occupants, one by one.
He sat anxiously as he waited for the dizziness to subside. His anxiety spiked however when he saw his mom emerge from one of the burlap sacks. He was glad that she was still alive, yet also fearful that the both of them were trapped in this situation. The both of them almost had panic attacks, if not for the purple-haired teen who forcibly calmed him with his brainwashing quirk.
Shinsou- he said that was his name when everyone was introducing themselves- told him the gist of what happened while they were being kept. Every day, at the crack of dawn they'd feed the abductees, then pull them into a room on the upper floor and start experimenting on them. Majority of the time they'd be strapped to a table while people in lab coats would inject various substances into their arms.
Sometimes the needles made him feel like his body was burning, other times he couldn't even feel the table, or the clamps holding him to it. No matter how much he struggled in the restraints, or even when they hit him for struggling, he couldn't feel a thing, only for the feeling of touch to return to his body hours later.
Let alone the fact that it trying to plan an escape of any kind in that condition was nearly impossible. It took nearly a week for them to actually break out, and a third of the time was spent trying to recover from whatever experiments they were trying to accomplish, or trying to ignore the hunger enough to rest.
He was glad that they were able to piece together any semblance of an escape plan. Haruto would find a way out with his radar quirk, while Akira tried to listen for the best time to escape and Kasumi would lead everyone out with a trail of smoke. At that point, anyone with a quirk that had some sort of physical effect, no matter how small it was, helped protect the elderly and children on the way out. Izuku would follow behind them, if only because he was the most physically fit out of all of them.
The plan, for the most part, managed to work. They'd managed to knock out the guard at the door and jam the lock of the door that led upstairs. That bought them precious time to get everyone out.
The few minutes of peace were enough to lead all of them out, if only barely. The constant yelling, accompanied by the sounds of boots slamming on the door unnerved all of them. The worst was when the door itself broke off its hinge, as one of their goons had decided to ram it down with his own body weight.
With most of the captives out, he rushed at the man to stop him. He was the most fit of all the captives, and he had actively been training for the past eight months after all. His fist slammed into the grunt's face, accompanied by an agonizing sensation engulfing his arm, and his consciousness left him.
That was the last thing he remembered before waking up in the hospital, after hearing that part of the building exploded, and the stairwell had collapsed.
It was only later that he found out why they were kidnapped while talking to the on-case detective. They were targeting anyone who seemed easy enough to kidnap or those who they thought wouldn't be missed. That thought left a vague feeling of dread in Izuku.
"And that's basically everything that's happened until now. The detective told me he'd keep me updated on anything that Endeavor finds… but I'm not keeping my hopes up."
He watched their green-themed classmate as he finished telling his story. Eijirou would need a long time to process that and its implications. No amount of questions he could ask yet could settle the noise filling his head.
The thought of his little sister strapped to those very same tables, injected with who-knows-what and subjected to the agony which Midoriya described. It revolted him, made him sick to his stomach as his blood boiled in unbridled rage for her suffering.
"Thats… wow…"
He groaned, packing away Midoriya's recollection before turning to answer, ".. Thanks for telling us this, man…"
"Poor Emi…" glancing to his right, Mina looked as downtrodden as he felt. It seemed like they both needed time to absorb all of what they'd been told.
It was probably time for them to leave. Given the uncomfortable look Midoriya was giving, they'd definitely overstepped their bounds.
"Kirishima-san, Ashido-san. Can we please not talk about this? It's… a sore topic, for everyone involved…"
Turning back to Midoriya, he could see him scratching his head.
"Alright man."
"Mhm, our lips are sealed."
"And thanks for telling us this, man. We'll… uh... We'll get out of your hair now."
It took a few moments before the pair left the room, mostly so that he could stuff everything into his bag. Mina had, thankfully, had the foresight to pack all her notes neatly into her bag before talking with Midoriya, so if his copy of the syllabus was ruined, he could just ask her.
Closing the door behind Mina, Eijirou looked back into the classroom. Midoriya had moved back to his desk and was packing his bag, but he seemed… burdened. He looked as though he was carrying an immense weight on his shoulders.
As the duo walked to the station in uncharacteristic silence, they couldn't help but cycle their classmate's story through their heads.
Eijirou felt like he'd failed, collapsing beside Mina on the seat of an empty train car. He felt so defeated that he didn't notice Mina leaning on him. At least, not until one of her horns poked his neck.
"... Mina?"
"Kiri?" he still wasn't used to hearing that nickname, even though she'd been calling him that since winter.
"Uh- no it's just… your horns are poking me…
"Oh… sorry…" she shifted slightly, still leaning on him, until he no longer felt the horn poking him. "Will Emi… will she be ok?"
His breathing hitched. He didn't know. Emiya froze up whenever he or their parents brought her to the therapist, and the weight of the incident clearly hung over Midoriya like a storming cloud, from what he saw of their conversation earlier.
"I hope so..." he hesitated, taking a moment to carefully choose his words, "I think... I think that what she needs the most now is time."
Mina hummed, and they settled into a near-comforting silence. He felt her hand snake its way into his as they watched buildings pass by.
The next day at UA quickly came to be, and thankfully for Izuku, Kirishima-san and Ashido-san had kept their promise to not talk about the incident, even if the conversation left an awkward tension between him and the pair.
Any time he caught their glance during class, they'd wave sheepishly. It wasn't like he was overly talkative during the classes, but he wasn't as close to his classmates as he probably should have been. At most, he could probably say that he and Iida-san were friends, though the bespectacled teen seemed a lot closer to Uraraka-san and Asui-san.
At least the classes seemed relatively fun to him. Their teachers were all Pro Heroes after all, how could Izuku not be enthusiastic? (Sure, he had to physically restrain himself from approaching them and asking for autographs, but could you blame him?) Classes seemed relatively easy too. He likely didn't have to worry much about his grades, especially English, mostly since he could speak it fluently. His dad had taught him a lot when he moved to America for his mission.
Inevitably, the lunch bell rang, and classes slowly drifted toward the cafeteria. Izuku was no exception, as he lined up behind the queue of people waiting for food.
Leaving the queue with the day's special, a beef stew straight from one of Lunch Rush's best cookbooks, he was sure his dad would be jealous of that, he started looking for a table.
Or at least he was going to until he felt someone tapping his shoulder.
Kodai-san had appeared behind him, flanked by a pale girl and… floating lunch trays? Each tray was enveloped with a ghostly purple glow as it carried their lunches.
"Um…"
"... Lunch." that was the only word that responded to his confusion.
He glanced back to the pale girl for a moment, still visibly confused.
"I'll introduce myself once we sit down. For now, how about we find a table before all the empty ones are taken." she had a point. When Izuku looked around, he saw that most of the big tables were taken up already.
Thankfully, they did manage to find a table, near the exit to the cafeteria. On the way, Izuku spotted some of his classmates gathering at tables too. It seemed as if the cliques were forming.
Sliding their food onto the table, or at least Izuku would have tried to, had his tray not been picked up with telekinesis, the three sat down as the trays slid in front of their owners.
"Thank you for coming along despite not knowing me, Midoriya-kun." Izuku almost jumped when he heard his name called. "I know it must be a surprise to see a relative stranger appear and join you for lunch. My name is Reiko Yanagi. My grandfather is the doctor that looked after you these past months."
Ah. Right, He had heard the good doctor mention his granddaughter on numerous occasions.
"I'm Izuku Midoriya… but I guess you already knew that because Kodai-san told you… It's nice to meet you."
"Sorry if me inviting her was unexpected… we kinda just… clicked. Like what happened at the mall." Kodai-san chimed in.
"Oh? What's this about a mall?"
"Uhh… Before the exam, Kodai-san got lost looking for an arcade…" he remembered the day well. It'd been the first time he'd gone to an arcade and actually had fun, instead of being humiliated by Kaachan and his friends.
"Sounds like there's a story behind that." she looked curiously between him and Kodai-san as if urging them to continue.
"We broke the dance pad"
"What that-" Izuku almost dropped his chopsticks because of the sudden shift of conversation. His face heated up slightly upon remembering his accident. "I mean… yeah that happened… I didn't think it'd break though… Oh god, I wonder if there was any trouble because we broke it"
The three of them continued to chat back and forth over their meals, of the arcade experience, and how they kept competing, and about Izuku's curse, and how he was almost always late for the train. There was also a little talk about the morning earlier, where Kodai had to use her quirk to squeeze between the doors. Izuku was surprised to see her shrinking. He had known that size-changing quirks were rather common, but the majority of those were Gigantification, much like Mt. Lady's.
"Is Mt. Lady a good example though? It feels like she's just using her quirk to help chase clout like her debut, and compared to that, size-shifting like my own quirk feels a lot more useful, because it can affect items and goes both ways."
"Yeah, your quirk's pretty versatile, Kodai-chan. Must be handy to be able to shrink all your bags and stuff them into your pocket." Yanagi leaned forward, pushing her tray further to make room for her arms.
"Speaking of versatile… Yanagi-san, Your quirk is some kind of Telekinesis, right?" Izuku pulled his phone out and opened the notepad app. He'd add entries for Kodai-san and Yanagi-san into his notebooks later.
"Yeah, something like that. My quirk is called Poltergheist. I can pick up objects within a large range of myself and control them Telekinetically. I'm good at handling large numbers of objects, though I struggle with anything heavier than a person."
"That sounds super useful! You could use your quirk to take down lots of-"
*Brriiiinng*
Unfortunately, his sentence was cut short by the ringing of the bell. Lunch had drawn to a close, and none of them felt finished with their discussions.
"Maybe we should leave it until next time. Your class has Heroics Fundamentals first after all. Oh- and don't worry about the trays." Yanagi waved her hand, and all three trays were neatly stacked upon each other. "I'll handle these. You'd best not keep the heroics teacher waiting."
"I'll text you later for details" Kodai-san waved, while moving next to their silver-haired companion.
"Uh- Right! I'll talk to you two later! Have a nice day!" Izuku couldn't deny that he was excited for the first hero course, as he darted through the hallway, vaguely hearing a faint, 'No running in the halls!' from behind him.
The case to the costume opened slowly as Izuku undid its locks. It would be a lie to say that he wasn't anxious. He was eager to see how his costume turned out after all.
It still greatly resembled the original design that he'd made up long ago, with a green body covered in white lines, but now with his dad's advice, it had a lot more trinkets attached to it. The most notable additions were the metallic gauntlets, leg guards, and chest plate, all in the same shiny white that adorned his jumpsuit. The more flexible areas of his armaments were black though, likely carbon fiber if he had to guess.
After donning the jumpsuit and his shoes, he took out one of the gauntlets from his case. He could hear the others' awe and amazement at each of their own costumes, so it sounded like they were impressed with how they turned out. Izuku hoped he could say the same. Sliding the gauntlet on over his arm, and tightening the straps hidden on the undersides, he experimentally opened and closed his hand.
The black material was durable, yet surprisingly flexible enough to be unnoticeable, and the plating of the gloves was light but strong.
Sliding on the rest of the armaments, Izuku looked back into the case to see… an odd metal ring, with no mask in sight. Picking it up, Izuku twisted it experimentally, nearly jumping in shock as the ring snapped close like a bear trap before sliding plates quickly shifted into the shape of a helmet.
It bore a shocking resemblance to his father's helmet now that he looked at it. Design-wise, the front of it still looked like teeth, though the design was rather plain. At least it still had the fin-like protrusions like All Might's hair that he originally wanted. They might also have been functional if the wire he spotted was any indication.
If it was based on the Vulcan's helmet, that meant that the buttons would be on the left side of it, hidden just behind where the ear would be. Giving it an experimental press, the helmet unfolded into what looked to be an armored hood. With the push of another button, it turned back into the large ring.
With how slowly everyone else was still changing, (Izuku didn't know why they changed so slowly, or if he had just gotten used to changing quickly to avoid Kaachan's friends), Izuku quietly crept out of the changing room, stepping into a dark room filled with wide-screens and two shaded silhouettes.
He could vaguely hear their hushed conversation as he approached. He had expected to see All Might there, what with him being their teacher, but he hadn't expected a similar suit of armor to his own costume. His dad was standing beside All Might, seemingly giving teaching advice of all things.
"-And remember, phrase it clearly, It'll be better to use the words 'Attackers' and 'Defenders' for now until you learn more about all your students."
"Would that be because of bullying issues? I'd hope that these young boys and girls would be above that sort of thing."
"Yeah, but for the most part, it's for those who have been bullied before. We can pick up this conversation later though, I heard the door open just now.."
The two adults turned their backs to the screens as Izuku walked up to them. He was carrying the ring in his hand as he approached.
"It seems you're early, Young Midoriya. Are the rest of the class still changing?"
"Y-yeah I think so. Iida-kun looked like he was struggling to figure out how to put his armor on."
"And what about your helmet, kiddo?" His father raised his own helmet, which he was holding under his arm like a basketball.
"Um.. about that, I don't think it'll fit over my hair." he was slightly sheepish about that. It could probably fit, but he doubted it would be very comfortable.
"Well, you could leave it as a hood for now, and let it sit on your shoulders. Here, let me show you."
Izuku followed Hisashi's guidance as he raised the ring onto his shoulders. Rotating it back and forth, he kept doing so until he felt the magnets clip into place, and for the locks to align. Pressing one of the buttons on the side, he felt the locks click into place. Upon locking the mask into place, it repositioned itself to rest squarely on his shoulders. He tried to put it in helmet form, but his assumption was right. It was incredibly uncomfortable. Clicking the button once more, it unfolded back into an armored hood.
"I guess this is the best I can do for now… it really doesn't fit with my hair. It feels… weird…." Izuku paused before looking up: "Anyways, why are you here Dad? Are you here for Hero work?"
"Yep, that, and I didn't want to miss my son's first hero costume!" he felt a hand ruffle his unruly hair, "We are going to have to get you to a barbershop though, but that can wait. In all honesty, I came to drop off a report to Nezu. Thought I might stop here on the way."
"Wh- you shouldn't keep Nezu waiting!" surprisingly, it was All Might who said that. He was slightly surprised that the Symbol of Peace found their principal to be intimidating. Nezu looked almost like a plushy in the recordings he saw on UA's website.
"Ahh I know my priorities," Hisashi brushed it off as he started to walk to the door, "I only know a little about what you're gonna be doing today, so whoever you get matched up against Izuku, show them what we taught you. Give 'em hell, kiddo."
"I will Dad!"
The door closed shut as the Vulcan left the testing ground.
"Who was that?" the voice almost gets Izuku to jump, and he sees All Might turn towards the changing rooms. Turning as well, Izuku spotted a small gathering of his classmates, as more slowly trickled out of the changing rooms.
"A friend of mine, as well as Young Midoriya's father." with a sweeping gesture, All Might looked over the class for a moment.
He heard a number of his classmates gasp. There was some muttering within the small group for a moment, as All Might watched the doors behind them.
All Might seemingly counted the attendance, watching as more students trickled into the room. "Now that everyone is here, let us begin today's Heroics Exercise, A TRIAL BY COMBAT!"
Izuku looked back towards the screens, which showed a familiar sight.
"This looks like the same field as the Entrance exam. Should I take it that we will be performing urban battles against robots again?"
"Close, but quite, Young Iida. Today, we'll be taking two steps forward instead." Stepping forward, All Might pressed a button on the control panel. "Thankfully, an associate of mine helped me create this ahead of time."
On the central screen, the footage cut abruptly, before being replaced with a bright red background, and the bordered words, "CAPTURE THE FLAG" appeared on the screen.
"Most villain fights televised for news stations happen outside. However, the most dangerous villains are the intelligent ones. Villains wo hide in the shadows." with the tap of another button, the screen changed once more.
"For today's lesson, you'll be split into teams of two. It will be Attackers vs Defenders for an Indoor battle!"
"What about basic training?" Asui-(call me Tsu) questioned. That was a good point. As far as Izuku knew, not everyone would have been trained.
"Worry not, Young Asui. There is a reason why we're doing this first instead of the basics of hand-to-hand, martial arts lessons or movement lessons. Today, your teachers will learn what you can do, and what you need to improve on. It's for that reason that you're competing against each other, and not just against robots."
His explanation was met with a sleuth of questions, some of which were not-so-related, on how the class would be handled. From what he could gather from the exercise, the day's classes were a one-sided game of Capture The Flag, with the flag in question being a paper-mache bomb. Teams of two would be either defending or attacking the bomb, which could be placed anywhere inside designated buildings.
For the attacking team, the victory conditions would be to either wrap and tie capture tape around all defenders or to place their hands on the replica bomb. Meanwhile, for defenders, their victory condition would be to withstand the full 15 minutes until the challenge was over. All Might didn't mention it, but Izuku assumed that there might be bonus points if both defenders endured to the time limit. He also couldn't help but wonder if it was possible to untie or rescue teammates. All Might never said they could, but he never said anything against it either.
Now it looked like they were selecting teams. Izuku couldn't help but wonder how that would be done. Or at least that was until All Might pulled a hat out of seemingly thin air. Did All Might know magic tricks? He shook his head, snapping back to attention.
It looked like his teammate was… Denki Kaminari..? Oh- the board updated in real-time with images of the student profiles. That would help him find his partner. Even with the introductions after the test yesterday, Izuku still didn't remember everyone's names off the top of his head.
"You're Midoriya, right? Cool, looks like we'll be teamed up for this match."
Looking to his left, Izuku saw the punk-themed electrification user.
With a nod, Izuku turns to face him. " I look f-forward to working together."
"By the way, nice armor. Looks like you put a whole lot of thought into making it."
"Y-yeah… My parents helped me with it, Mostly my dad though. Parts of this armor look like they were based on his costume…"
"Must be nice knowing how to make a costume. I tried to get something for my quirk, but all I could think of was this radio thing." Kaminari-san briefly took off his earpiece to show it to him.
However, before the two could get any further with their costume discussion, Izuku realized that match-ups had appeared on the board, as All Might's booming voice named the first battle's participants.
Whatever his response could have been, it quickly died in his throat as he stared at a photo on the screen. Red eyes seemed to glare back at him as Izuku slowly deflated.
"Katsuki Bakugou and Tenya Iida will be on the attacking team! Izuku Midoriya and Denki Kaminari will be on the defending team! Gentlemen, you will have fifteen minutes to plan your strategy and place the bomb, starting from when you open the building map."
He stared at the portrait, feeling both annoyed and disappointed, not realizing that he was being called until a hand started waving in his face.
"Dude, you good?" Kaminari asked as he backed off. He looked concerned, and a little bit confused.
"Y-yeah. Let's get to the exam site, we can strategize on the way." he tried to brush it off, but he had a nagging feeling that the day's class was going to be a nightmare.
"Alright, if you say so." Kaminari, thankfully, put that topic on hold for now, if only temporarily. They had to plan.
On the walk to the building for the test site, he learned the extent of Kaminari's quirk, and Izuku shared some details of his own capabilities. He was baffled at just how much capacity the blond had, much like how his teammate's jaw had dropped when he put the (fake) bomb on his shoulder to carry it.
From what Izuku knew of most lightning or electric-quirked heroes, their quirks' capacity only spanned between five-hundred thousand and seven-hundred-thousand. Meanwhile, his teammate's quirk was already at one million. If Kamnari got even a little bit of control over his quirk, Izuku could easily see him rising to the top hero ranks.
If the blond's embarrassed enthusiasm was anything to go by, Izuku had said that all out-loud, much to his own embarrassment. That said, Kaminari needed to limit his options to melee for now. The move that he told Izuku about seemed akin to a last resort. At least it looked like his teammate wouldn't struggle with close-quarters combat. All he had to do was add a little bit of electricity to each attack, enough to stun enemies and leave them vulnerable to following attacks.
Upon reaching the building, Izuku opened the map (which was being held by a robot standing outside the door), holding it between himself and his teammate, showing all the floors and the room layouts on each of them. The gears turned in his head as he looked at the electrification user.
"Kaminari-san, I have an idea."