Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Come on guys, it’s about to start!” Hagakure called as she bounced up and down in her seat, the flattening of the cushion the only clue she was there, as she was in costume at the time.

“You don’t have to be so loud about it,” Ojiro pointed out from the seat next to her.

“She knows that,” Uraraka replied as she walked into the room. “But this is the first annual Hero Ranking since we graduated. You can’t blame her for being excited!”

“There’s nothing exciting about hearing about all the extras who lost to me,” Bakugou said, slouching back in his chair.

A good number of eyes rolled at that, but no one said anything. After all, in the three years the Hell Class, as the media had dubbed them, had been together, they’d tightened together and formed a close-knit, if dysfunctional, family. It was the only way some of them had even survived to this point.

And while they didn’t stick together 100% of the time after graduation, they still kept in contact. They had teamed up on occasion, some made it a point to work in the same agencies, and today was the first time all the surviving members were together at once.

The reason was the Hero Rankings. This was their first year as fully fledged heroes, and they were eager to see how many of them made it into the top 50, so they all gathered together at Yaoyorozu’s mansion to watch it together.

Well, almost all of them at any rate. Shinsou was on patrol at the moment, but he didn't care much for the rankings anyway. Thought they were a waste of time. In addition, he felt like he was something of a late addition to the group, having not been there for the USJ incident.

And they knew that at least some of them were bound to make it onto the rankings. After all, their frequent harassment by the League of Villains meant they were already forced kicking and screaming into the public eye. Todoroki Shouto already had a head start in that regard, being the son of the Number Two hero (no one cared that Endeavor had moved up since All Might’s death, no one ever truly considered him Number One), but the entire class had gained considerable notoriety after events like the USJ attack and the Kamino Incident. Even before their official graduation, the Hell Class were already considered heroes to some extent.

“Ooh, it’s starting!” Uraraka gasped as the ranking began, and some guy none of them would remember the name of began introducing them.

“We can see that, Round Face!” Bakugou growled.

“This is so cool… I can hardly contain myself!” Hagakure whispered.

Bakugou rolled his eyes. “It’s not like you’ll be on it anyway, Invisib****,” he grumbled. “You and Mindf***er are both underground.”

“I know THAT, but still…”

And with that, the banter went quiet as the ranking began.

“And right out of the gate,” said the voice on the TV, “we have a graduate of UA’s Hell Class making the list at #50, the Shining Hero, Can’t Stop Twinkling!” This was accompanied by a photo of Aoyama in all his fabulosity.

“Only 50? Mon dieu…” Aoyama groaned.

“I told you,” Jirou piped up from behind him, “You’re not going to get far with a name like that.”

“Even still, the Top 50 is nothing to sneeze at,” Yaoyorozu said comfortingly. “There are hundreds of heroes competing. You’ll do better next year.”

The rankings continued,with UA’s Hero Courses filling out a lot of the 40s. Uraraka was honestly surprised she made it onto the ranking at all, but there she was, at #41. Admittedly, she was hoping to be a bit higher up, but she was predominantly a Rescue Hero, and Rescue Heroes didn’t get as much recognition as the ones who went after villains, like Bakugou, for example.

“MOTHERF***ER!”

...who was currently pitching a hissy-fit over being ranked at #38.

“What, did you really think you were going to be #1 your first year?” asked Jirou. 

“Of course not, I’m not f***ing stupid! But I was expecting Top 20 at the very least!” he stood up and stomped away.

“Wait, Bakubro!” Kirishima called, “You’ll miss the-”

“Don’t care!” he shouted as he slammed the door on the way out.

One collective sigh of exasperation later, they turned their attention back to the screen.

“...And at Number 31, we have something special. A graduate from the Hamada Institute, and the first Quirkless Pro Hero, the Analytic Hero, Sleeper Hit!” As the announcer said this, a photo of the hero in question appeared on the screen. He had unruly green hair; large and deceptively innocent-looking eyes whose color matched his hair; skin dotted with freckles; and a steel guard around his lower face.

The class began to murmur amongst themselves.

“A Quirkless Hero?” Mina whispered. “Is that even possible?”

“Evidently it is,” Ojiro responded.

“Wow, and he even ranked higher than Bakubro… that’s so manly!”

“Question?” Kaminari asked. “What’s the Hamada Institute? I never heard of them.”

Yaoyorozu turned to face him. “It’s a smaller high school up north, in Akuto,” she explained. “Mostly they specialize in Support, but they do have a smaller Hero Course.”

“Interesting,” Jirou said, lazily. “Now if you hadn’t been so busy chatting, you might’ve caught that they’re going to interview him after the rankings.”

“We should watch it,” Uraraka suggested, with various voices of assent replying to her. They were all curious about the first ever Quirkless Hero, but Uraraka couldn’t help but look at the plain, yet strangely appealing face on the screen.

I swear I’ve seen him before… Maybe it’ll come to me once I see him without that mask. 

The ranking continued on into the 20s. There were several congratulations when they announced that the #27 spot went to the Frostbite Hero, Promise. Shouto said nothing, just giving a neutral “Hm.”

Similar congratulations were offered when Creati was announced to be sitting right on the #20 spot, which Yaoyorozu humbly thanked them for. Shortly afterwards Kirishima bashfully accepted their congratulations for reaching the #18 spot, making him the highest-ranked hero of their class, much to their surprise.

There weren’t many other surprises after that. Lemillion had skyrocketed in popularity once he recovered from his injuries at the Shie Hassaikai Raid, and had emerged at the #10 spot. He was already a universally beloved figure, with his genuine smile and offbeat Permeation Quirk. Plus, Hagakure owed him for helping her finally get a proper costume.

Endeavor was still in the Number One spot because of course he was.

Sero, Koda, and Shoji all sighed, being the only three of the 17 members of the class who didn’t make it onto the rankings. Unless you counted the underground heroes Hagakure, Shinsou, and Tokoyami, who didn’t get ranked because that would defeat the entire purpose of going underground. They had a bit of a break before the interview was bound to start so Sato offered to make some cookies for everyone since they were all here. (Well, aside from Bakugou, obviously.)

Finally the time arrived and Sleeper Hit was on screen, dressed up in full costume, including the mouthguard, which didn’t really help Uraraka identify him. He was seated across from the host, a woman with dark red hair that had what appeared to be strobe lights gently pulsating through it like a deep sea creature, no doubt an effect of her quirk.

“It’s good to have you on with us, Sleeper.”

“Likewise, Shishina-san.” His voice was youthful, and yet something about it seemed a little… off, as though he was trying to suppress a stutter. “You know, when I first made my debut about a year ago, a lot of people just kinda wrote me off as a gimmick hero, a novelty.”

“That’s definitely true,” Shishina responded. “And I have to admit, I was initially of that same mindset… so, uh, egg on my face, huh?”

“No hard feelings,” Sleeper replied, waving his hand and laughing it off. “I don’t blame you for not believing in me. I don’t think anyone did aside from my own mother.”

Well that’s a little depressing, Uraraka thought to herself as she continued to try and place where she saw this guy before now. She knew it had to be somewhere.

“But that was before you almost singlehandedly took down the Nensho Cartel, wasn’t it?”

Uraraka had heard about that incident. She only knew the broad strokes of the incident (she was hospitalized from overusing her quirk at the time) and hadn’t really paid any attention to the hero involved until now.

The Nensho Cartel were a criminal organization that had sprung up in Musutafu right under UA’s nose. Their crimes were marked by a propensity for civilian casualties and collateral damage, usually involving fire. That way the heroes were too preoccupied with getting the civilians to safety and containing the fire, and they weren’t shy about taking hostages.

But then one day, one civilian happened to walk a little too close to a heist in progress, and their leader immediately took him hostage, threatening to kill him if the police came any closer.

They weren’t counting on that civilian having taser gloves and a combination of smoke and flashbang grenades. With the element of surprise on his hands, Sleeper Hit took down a majority of the gang’s strongest fighters that day, dealing a crippling blow that the cartel never recovered from, and eventually led to their arrest.

“I’ve been told I’m kinda plain looking,” he said, chuckling. “And I don’t stand out much. So it’s not all that hard to get mistaken for a civilian. It kept happening a lot in my early career, and I hated it at first… but then I realized I could use it to my advantage. Which is why I refused to take off the faceplate for the interview. That strategy won’t exactly work if I show my full face on live TV.”

“If that’s the case, then why not become an Underground Hero?” Shishina pressed.

“Because that would defeat the entire purpose of my becoming a hero in the first place.”

“Explain.”

“It’s no secret that Quirk Discrimination is a really big problem. Some people can juggle mountains, and other people have a cactus for a head. People with undesirable or mundane quirks are told they don’t measure up.”

Shishina nodded in understanding, likely having been teased for her unremarkable, purely cosmetic quirk.

“But it’s even worse for people who don’t have one at all, like myself. You’ve probably seen the statistics. I know I have. Heck, I’ve lived the statistics. Unemployment, depression, suicide rates… they’re depressingly high for someone without a quirk. And when I became a hero,” he went on, facing the camera, “I wanted to show people that even if you can only, say, extend your neck half an inch, or change your eye color, or don’t have any sort of power at all, that despite all that, you can do it .”

That’s such a pure motive, Uraraka thought as she once again felt a little guilty for her own reasons for becoming a hero. She didn’t feel as self-conscious about it nowadays, though, as her classmates and fellow heroes assured here there was nothing wrong with making a living.

But here was Sleeper Hit, exemplifying the true meaning of the word “Hero.”

“Well, I’d say you’re succeeding in that goal so far,” the interviewer said. “Ever since that arrest, charities to fight quirk discrimination have reported a 138% net increase in donations.”

“I… wait, really?” Sleeper said, his eyes widening, sounding genuinely surprised. “I didn’t know that!”

Uraraka giggled. He was just so gosh-darn sincere.

“Well, it was a pretty recent report,” Shishina chuckled, evidently also amused by his reaction. She sighed, her tone lowering a bit. “You know… the Hamada Institute isn’t very well known. A lot of people only take their Hero Course because they couldn’t make it into UA or Shiketsu. And when they graduate, they don’t really last long in the field. But despite all that, you rocketed from near obscurity to placing alongside UA’s Hell Class!”

Sleeper’s face fell slightly, probably only perceptible to someone who was intently studying his face to figure out where she’d seen it before. Interesting.

“With that in mind, do you think you would have liked to have studied at UA had you been given the chance?” the interviewer asked.

Sleeper hesitated, before he took a deep breath. “Actually… it’s funny you should ask that,” he said, sounding strangely tired and… bitter? Nah, that couldn’t be it.

“I actually did make it into UA. Passed the Entrance Exam and everything. Qualified for Class A even.”

He did? But he looks roughly our age, Uraraka thought.

The interviewer looked genuinely surprised.

That would mean he would’ve… wait…

“Then how did you end up at Hamada?”

No way… it can’t be!

“You see… I was expelled the first day because I didn’t have a quirk that would help me throw a baseball.”

It’s that boy who saved me from the Zero Pointer! The boy that Aizawa expelled the first day!

Four years earlier…

Midoriya Izuku could hardly believe it even now. He thought for sure he’d flunked the exam, but out of nowhere, those Rescue Points propelled him from the single digits to being in the top class! He didn’t even know Rescue Points were a thing when he went to rescue the nice girl from that rubble, which he supposed was the entire point of the exercise.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he looked up at the massive door to Class 1-A. Well, this is it, Izuku, he thought. Today’s the first day of the rest of your life, and these will be your classmates for the next three years. I just hope that Kacchan and that scary glasses guy aren’t in this class. Steeling himself, he stepped through the door.

“It’s the first day and you’re already ruining school property, you delinquent!” the scary glasses guy yelled.

“You’re kidding me, right?” Kacchan smirked. “Did your old school put a stick up your a** or were you just born that way?”

...I don’t know what I was expecting.

Trying to make himself as small and invisible as possible, he casually strode towards his assigned seat and tried not to be noticed… until he realized his assigned seat was directly behind Kacchan’s. A point made clear when the explosive blonde turned and locked eyes with the broccoli-headed boy.

Well, life was fun while it lasted.

“DEKU!” he yelled, his hands already sparking. “WHAT THE F*** DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING HERE!”

“K-Kacchan!” Izuku stammered as he could already feel the impending burns. “This is m-my classroom, same as yours!”

“BULLSH-”

Then, as quickly as they started, the small explosions ceased. Kacchan looked down in disbelief, before looking up at Izuku as if he was accusing him of somehow deactivating his Quirk. That was when one of the room’s inhabitants decided to make himself known.

“Unbelievable. You’re already fighting and class hasn’t even started yet,” the lanky, black-haired man tiredly droned as he stared directly at Kacchan, his eyes glowing.

No way! Eraserhead is our homeroom teacher?!

“I was hoping to test your situational awareness, but it would seem I can’t even do that.”

With that, everyone who was in class sat down quietly, Izuku lamenting that he didn’t even get to properly say hello to the nice girl, though he at least counted his blessings that he didn’t have to deal with the intimidating glasses-wearing student as well. Kacchan turned his head to glare daggers at Izuku every 20 seconds or so as the rest of the class filed in.

Finally it was time for class to begin proper. Eraserh- er, Aizawa-sensei informed them they wouldn’t be going to orientation, and had them change into their gym clothes and head out onto the field. Izuku did his best to avoid all forms of human contact while in the locker room, making sure there were 3 people between him and Kacchan at any given time.

When he was informed that the class would be undertaking a Quirk Assessment, Izuku got a bit worried, but remembered the training. Relax, you’re in top physical condition from all that training you did on Dagobah Beach, he thought as everyone was fixated on Kacchan launching the baseball into the horizon. A lot of your classmates have nonphysical Quirks, you won’t embarrass yourself too much. You’ve got this. Probably.

“I want to go! That looks like fun!” the pink girl exclaimed.

“Fun?” Aizawa echoed back. “All right then, how about this. Whoever comes last has no potential and will be expelled immediately. That sound fun to you?”

I really, REALLY hope I got this.

To his dismay, he found that every classmate of his managed to get stupidly high scores in SOMETHING. Even the ones who didn’t seem to have Quirks that enhanced them physically. The short one with the odd purple hair found a way to use his quirk to cheese the sidestep test, and even the invisible girl absolutely aced the flexibility test.

His nerve began to overwhelm him as the tests drew to their conclusion, and he definitely stood no chance at the ball test, not when the nice girl from the exam scored an INFINITY on that particular challenge.

He was hoping, praying his mental calculations were incorrect when the final class ranking went up, hoping against hope that he was making things out to be worse than they were-

20 - Midoriya Izuku

And just like that, his hopes and dreams seemed to fizzle out right there.

“Well, you heard me,” Aizawa said. “Midoriya, pack your bags. You’re leaving.”

Izuku was shaking, stammering, trying to find some way of salvaging the situation. The girl with the black ponytail gasped. “He was serious?” he heard her whisper to herself in shock.

“And don’t bother trying to use your Quirklessness as an excuse,” the teacher added. “I’m holding you to the same standards as all my other students. And you’ve failed to meet them.”

Izuku just about had a heart attack. Not only was he being expelled, but he had just been outed as Quirkless in front of the entire class. He didn’t even bother to look at Kacchan then, already having a clear picture of his venomous, smug, I-told-you-so expression without even having to turn his head.

His mind and body were on autopilot, turning around and trudging his way back to the locker room. His walk of shame took him past a tall, lanky, skeletal-looking blonde man he figured was just the janitor or something, who did little more than look at him sympathetically.

I should’ve known it was too good to be true.

As Midoriya rounded the corner and out of view, Aizawa felt a twinge of pity that he quickly suppressed.

Don’t let your emotions put lives in danger. His heart is without a doubt in the right place, but no matter how hard he tries, no matter how skilled he might be, he’ll only be a liability on the field. He’ll be going up against villains who are physically better than him, against odds that even heroes with the strongest of Quirks would struggle with. It’s only logical to let someone more well-equipped take his place. Better to crush his dreams now than to let harsh reality kick his face in later on down the line.

Even if it means fudging Hagakure’s score a little.

After all, he was an Underground Hero, and people like him had to do questionable things to save lives. And that was exactly what he was doing today. Still, he hoped his conscience wouldn’t continue to gnaw at him.

He dismissed his class for the day, knowing he had drilled some respect into them. Bakugou would definitely be a problem child, but he had made heroes out of worse before.

And besides, with the initial weeding-out over with, he could get to work prepping Shinsou to fill the vacancy.

Ochako couldn’t stop thinking about that boy. She wanted to stick up for him like she did after the exam, but something told her Aizawa wouldn’t be as approachable as Present Mic. It just seemed so unfair to her.

He put his life on the line to save mine, and this is how he’s rewarded?!

Still, she didn’t say a word. Neither did Ashido, who was uncharacteristically quiet the entire walk back to the locker room. From what little Ochako had seen of her, the acid girl was a social butterfly, but she was silent.

She’s probably blaming herself, she thought. After all, it was her remark about the test being “fun” that made Aizawa give that ultimatum. Or maybe he would’ve done that anyway. Who knows.

Stepping out the front door to the school, she was making small talk with Iida, the supposed stick-in-the-mud who was actually pretty nice once you got to know him, when they noticed the solitary figure trudging sadly towards the front gate.

It’s him! Ochako thought, speeding up to try to catch up to him, hoping to properly thank him for what he did, console him for what happened, but then her mind hit a bit of a roadblock.

Crap, what was his name again? I only saw his name on the scoreboard for a split second… wait, what did Bakugou call him again? Oh, right!

“Hey, Deku, wait up!”

The boy suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, Ochako feeling relieved that she’d gotten it right… only for Deku to suddenly break out into a run, darting away from the school at full speed.

Ochako blinked in confusion, as did Iida. “What… what happened?” the bespectacled boy asked.

“I’m not sure…” she replied.

“His surname was Midoriya, wasn’t it?”

“It was, I think. I wonder why he bolted like that…”

Later that evening, Ochako would do an online search for “Deku Midoriya,” hoping to find him on social media and maybe reach out to him that way.

She didn’t find him.

But she did find out what “Deku” meant.

She didn’t get much sleep that night.

A week later...

Izuku wasn’t even surprised as he and his mother went through the mail that morning. He wasn’t even that disappointed. Not like he expected much to begin with.

Upon hearing of her son’s expulsion, Inko was furious at the school for allowing it to happen. She demanded he let her sue UA, but Izuku pointed out that A) the teachers at UA were well within their rights to expel whoever they wanted for whatever reason, and B) even if they weren’t, UA’s legal team were top-notch and would win regardless. So instead, she suggested they try to contact some of the other hero schools in the area. After his shining performance on the entrance exam, at least one of them was sure to let him attend.

It was worth a shot, Izuku had said.

But then the response letters arrived, and they all said roughly the same thing with different wording. They’d love to have him, but to make a transfer partway into the semester after having been expelled would be a bureaucratic nightmare, and their classes were full, so he should try again next year.

Translation: We don’t want a Quirkless reject to take up space.

Shiketsu turned him down. So did Ketsubutsu. And Seijin. And everywhere else they tried.

Inko was just about the end of her rope, and she was starting to become concerned that was close to being literal in Izuku’s case.

But then they got to Hamada’s letter, which was significantly thicker than the others.

Midoriya Izuku,

Your message has been received, and we are pleased to inform you that your request for a transfer has been accepted. We would be honored to welcome you into our Hero Course. Enclosed within is the list of school supplies, required texts…

Izuku was already tearing up by this point. Doors had been slammed in his face all his life, but fate had finally decided to leave a window open for him. It didn’t matter that he only knew the Hamada Institute existed thanks to Googling all the hero schools within 200 km of his apartment. He had another shot.

I can still become a hero…!

As he prepared to enroll in Hamada, he slowly began to accept that maybe UA wouldn’t have been the best for him after all. Kacchan was still there, for one. He’d make a great hero, to be sure, but Izuku didn’t think he wanted to have to sit behind him for three more years. Not to mention, the teachers and students were just as bad as the ones at Aldera. Era- Aizawa had singled him out and humiliated him in front of the entire class, and the class had turned on him the second they found out he was Quirkless. Even that nice girl had mocked him and called him by that dreaded nickname. So in spite of his disappointment, he felt as though he had dodged a bullet.

That feeling was only further cemented when word got out about the USJ incident.

Hamada’s walls were clean, sparsely-decorated aside from the odd map, and much of the school was a silver-blue color. Occasionally there was a display case showcasing some piece of Support Gear designed by the Institute. One in particular Izuku stopped to gush over was the Kaiju Aura Stabilizer worn by the retired American pro hero Fredzilla.

He and his mother dropped by the principal’s office to fill out some paperwork to finalize a few details regarding his transfer. Inside the office were a number of pictures of who he assumed to be some of the school’s alumni. Very few of them were pro heroes, but one of them caught his eye, the biggest picture of all of them. Hanging directly above the principal’s chair was a large framed photo of the school’s namesake alongside two other figures.

On the left was a teenager, about Izuku’s age actually, with square glasses, unruly black hair, and a blue hoodie. Even though the subject was younger than most knew him, Izuku recognized him immediately as Hamada Hiro, better known as the technopathic Neuronic Hero, Macro Six. On the right was a taller boy, looking about college-age, who seemed to be related to Hiro but whom Izuku didn’t recognize. And in the center was… a person with some sort of pillow quirk? No, that looks artificial, it’s a balloon or something.

“Actually, it was a robot,” the principal said, clearly picking up on Izuku’s struggle to decipher the picture. “It’s nice to finally meet you two. I’m Principal Ribaru Sutano.” He was a kindly-looking old man with rectangular green-tinted glasses, a moustache, and thinning hair.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Ribaru,” Inko said, bowing slightly.

“This won’t take long, I promise you, just some paperwork you need to fill out while I ask the boy a few questions. And maybe answer a few of his as well.”

Inko smiled and nodded, sitting down to fill the papers out.

Izuku sat down and cleared his throat. “S-sir? I’m really grateful you’d extend this invitation to me.”

“We’re glad to have you. You should know, before your message arrived, I was already thinking of contacting you.”

“Really?” Izuku asked.

“Oh yes. One of the faculty members at UA, who asked to remain anonymous, sent me a video recording of your entrance exam. And I must say, UA doesn’t know what they’re missing out on.”

He leaned back in his chair. “I should let you know that we’re aware of how Quirkless are treated in most schools, and I’d like to inform you that our school has a strict policy on Quirk Discrimination of any kind. You’ll be safe here.”

Izuku glanced up at him warily. That was what Aldera Junior High had said, but as it turns out, the rules mean nothing when the people who are supposed to enforce them just don’t care.

Ribaru smiled kindly. “Looks like you need some convincing. Tell me… who is this school named after?”

This was easy. “Hamada Hiro,” Izuku said.

The old man shook his head. “Incorrect.”

Izuku looked surprised. “Really?”

The principal turned his body and gestured to the big photograph. “That’s Hiro on the left. But the other boy in the picture is his older brother, Hamada Tadashi. He was a brilliant scientific mind, doing a lot of great work as Hero Support. He was the one who developed the microchip used in most modern medical robots. In fact, he was Hiro’s inspiration to become a pro hero.”

Izuku never knew this side of Macro Six. “So… why have I never heard of him?”

“He was Quirkless.”

Izuku gasped, and Inko’s eyes widened a bit as she stopped writing. Ribaru chuckled again before a serious expression came across his face.

“He died in a lab accident the day of his brother’s graduation. Hiro did his best to preserve his brother’s memory, but even decades ago, the Quirkless were on their way out as far as society was concerned, so nobody cared.” He turned back to Izuku. “When Hiro founded this school, people always associated the Hamada name with him, but he always intended it to be named for his brother. So it would go against everything our founder stood for if we were to turn you away for losing the genetic lottery.” He looked the boy in the eyes as Izuku began to tear up again. “We would be honored to have you attend the Hamada Institute.”

Uraraka blinked as the memory of that first day flooded back to her. She hadn’t had a lot of time to dwell on it through her time at UA, what with all the other insanity she had to deal with, but occasionally her mind wandered to that unassuming Quirkless boy she had unwittingly scared off. What if she managed to befriend him? Where was he now? She had asked herself that every now and again, and now she knew the answer.

From nearby, Ashido gasped in recognition, and a few of the other students remembered him as well.

Uraraka turned this new information over in her head before coming to a very definite conclusion. “I think we should pay him a visit.”

“I’d like that,” Ashido said, strangely quietly.

“Yeah, I’m all for it,” Kirishima added. “But there’s just one problem… I have no idea what agency he works for.”

Yaoyorozu was already in the midst of an internet search. “I can’t find the information anywhere. It seems as though, even as a daylight Pro Hero, he keeps a lot of information secret and lives a remarkably private life”

“Hmm…” Uraraka said, thinking. “Maybe Bakugou knows something. It seemed like they had a history together.”

“I’ll ask him,” Kirishima suggested. He copied the link to the interview and texted it to Bakugou, asking if he knew anything that would help them track down the elusive Sleeper Hit, and then pressed send.

A few moments later, everyone swore they felt a small earthquake followed by the distant sound of a scream of rage.

Chapter Text

Once it became apparent that Bakugou wouldn’t be any help, the small group debated on what to do next.

“Maybe we should just drop it for now,” Uraraka suggested. “With him in the public eye, we’ll probably find out more about him soon.

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Ashido sighed.

“I’m not sure I understand,” Yaoyorozu cut in. “Why is it so important for you to find him?”

Uraraka again sighed. “Even if he was only our classmate for one day, he was still our classmate.”

“Not just that,” Ashido added. “I… need to make it up to him for getting him expelled.”

“I need to apologize too,” Uraraka admitted. “I could’ve been his friend, but all I did was drive him off.”

“And I just want to tell him how manly he is for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the best heroes around without a Quirk!” Kirishima said with his typical level of admiration.

The former Class Representative and unofficial Class Mom seemed deep in thought, but gave a slight smile. “Then I’ll help as well.”

“Perfect!” Ashido cheered, having regained some of her trademark energy. “Then I hereby declare us the Sleeper Hit Friendship Squad!”

Aizawa stepped into the principal’s office with an unreadable expression. Nedzu already had some cups of tea laid out and the same unnerving smile he usually had, the morning light streaming in through the open windows.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice, Aizawa. Please, take a seat.”

The Erasure Hero sat down and eyed his cup for a bit before looking up at the rat that sat before him. “This is about Sleeper Hit, isn’t it.”

“Perceptive as usual,” Nedzu said casually, before taking a sip of tea.

Aizawa sighed heavily. “I’ll say it. That boy was the worst miscalculation of my entire career.”

“I’d certainly say so,” Nedzu bluntly replied, putting the cup down. “Are you aware of what’s happened since Sleeper Hit’s interview?”

“I can’t say I am,” Aizawa admitted.

“Really?” Nedzu asked, actually sounding a little surprised. “In the two days since the interview, there’s been a bit of an uproar against UA. As it turns out, people aren’t exactly happy with the idea that you can be arbitrarily kicked from the Hero Course even after having passed the exam.” 

“All from one student?”

“Not quite. As it turns out, there are quite a few expulsions- nine at my count, not counting our good friend Midoriya, with a similar story. Passed the Entrance Exam fair and square, expelled for not having a particularly useful Quirk, accepted by another Hero School. Not all of them were yours… but your track record is still quite impressive.”

“And no one thought to call attention to this before now?” Aizawa asked incredulously.

“Oh, of course they did. But UA’s reputation as the highly prestigious school that trained All Might and Endeavor shielded it from those criticisms. Of course, none of the other would-be alumni had the same unique Quirk status as Midoriya, or a place within the Top 50. And those complaints are starting to gain quite a bit more attention.”

Nedzu got out of the chair and began pacing. “So as you can imagine there’s been a pretty huge demand for a reform of UA’s system. As there always is, of course. You and I both know how prejudiced UA’s curriculum is towards people with strong Quirks, but the Board of Directors has made sure that system remains in place. Of course, now that we actually have a solid example of how badly our system can fail, we can’t continue to keep going on as though nothing is wrong.”

Aizawa flinched. A part of him wanted to defend his actions, say that the exam scores weren’t a measure of sustained effort, that it only exists to weed out the truly hopeless candidates, but he said nothing.

“Though part of the blame rests on me, I fear,” Nedzu continued. “Up until now, I have been mostly content to give teachers free rein to govern their classes how they see fit. I have up to this point trusted your judgement, but that approach won’t work quite as well anymore. So there are going to be changes with UA going forward. And I wanted to let you know you won’t be able to govern your class quite as freely, starting next semester.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Aizawa replied with a heavy sigh. “I’m resigning my position.”

“Really?” Nedzu asked, legitimately surprised. “I wasn’t going to punish you too harshly. Your actions, while questionable, were still well within your rights as a UA teacher.”

“I know that. But this most recent mistake of mine has had more severe consequences than just sabotaging UA’s reputation.”

Nedzu raised an eyebrow. “Go on.”

“Sleeper Hit arrested 17 criminals in one fell swoop that day,” he explained. “And a lot of them had pretty strong Quirks. He knows how to deal with crowds, and he knows how to work around Quirks. He’s not the Analytic Hero for nothing. How many times in that first semester did my class have to deal with a large number of villains?”

“Quite a few times.”

“But the USJ incident specifically,” Aizawa continued. “During that exercise, we were one student short. I know it’s pointless to dwell on what could have been. But part of me knows that if I hadn’t expelled Midoriya, if he had been there for that exercise… then maybe Asui and Mineta would still be alive.”

He stood up. “So I cannot, in good conscience, remain here at UA.”

Nedzu looked upset, but nodded in understanding. “I understand. And I accept your resignation.”

Aizawa bowed. “Thank you, sir.” And with that, he turned and walked out of the room.

“It’s just… I feel like I owe UA something, you know?” Uraraka said between slurps of ramen as Ashido nodded. “But I can’t ignore it either.” The two were sitting in a ramen shop before their patrol.

“I get you,” Ashido replied. “I want to defend UA too. But when you think about it, we were the lucky ones.” She took another slurp. “You can lift a million tons with only nausea to show for it, I can melt through walls, and Kirishima? Not only is he indestructible, but didn’t his Quirk, like, mutate right after the Kamino incident and give him, like, super-duper strength?”

“It’s so unfair it’s not even funny. Kirishima might as well have two different Quirks while Sleeper Hit doesn’t get any.”

“Well, look on the bright side,” Ashido said. “You can’t say Sleeper Hit isn’t doing well.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

Just then, both of their cell phones vibrated at the same time. Simultaneously, they checked them.

Villain attack in progress in the Surusuto Industrial Park, all nearby Heroes please respond ASAP.

“Surusuto… that’s just two blocks away from here!”

Uraraka quickly shoved the remaining ramen into her mouth and the two quickly ran off, before realizing that they had to get into their hero costumes first. Thankfully they usually did have their costumes on hand for situations like this, but changing in a restaurant bathroom wasn’t the most dignified thing in the world.

Still, not two minutes later and Alien Queen was acid-skating towards Surusuto at high speeds while Uravity flew through the air just behind her.

Three villains were grouped together as they walked through the abandoned power plant, looking round for the hero who was giving them so much trouble. When they first arrived they made the mistake of splitting up to cover more ground, but the heroes showed up much sooner than they were expecting, and one of their number had already been soundly knocked out.

The tallest and largest villain had spikes all over his arms that seemed to be formed from his skin. He was wearing a bulletproof vest and camo pants, and his dark blue hair covered his eyes. The shortest one of the bunch, who seemed to be made entirely of red rocks, looked around with his beady little eyes as he stomped alongside his skin-spike comrade. The third, a lankier man with a visor and a black hoodie, kept his cool as he took the lead.

“Look alive, men,” he said confidently. “He might have got the drop on us, but he doesn’t have the element of surprise anymore.”

“He’s just Quirkless, isn’t he?” the spiked one asked, cracking his knuckles.

“Let’s not be too hasty, Horn Toad,” the visor one said. “Just because we have the advantage doesn’t mean we automatically win. You saw what he did to Chameleon.”

The three of them were standing in a courtyard of sorts, an open area surrounded on all sides by bigger metal structures and generators. They had broken into the plant to steal parts to sell on the black market, but just after arriving, Sleeper Hit got the drop on them and took Chameleon down almost immediately.

Just then they heard a noise around the corner.

“Gila, go check it out,” the leader ordered. Gila, the short rocky one, said nothing as he rounded the corner to check. Just as he walked out of sight, the leader spasmed as a jolt of electricity flew through him. Horn Toad turned around and saw that he had been hit by the cable of a stun gun fired by Sleeper Hit, who was already in the process of charging towards Horn Toad.

The spiky villain blocked with his arm, and while the spikes didn’t damage Sleeper thanks to the metal gauntlets he was wearing, it also blocked the incoming punch. Sleeper went for a low kick to knock Horn Toad off balance, but as Horn Toad tripped he quickly rolled backwards and got to his feet, before charging at Sleeper.

The green-haired hero dodged out of the way, using the momentum to spin around and launch another gauntlet-clad punch at the villain’s head, who again blocked it with one of his arms.

At least the gauntlets are doing their job so the spikes aren’t hurting me, the hero thought as the exchange of blows continued, neither combatant gaining on the other as the visor-wearing leader was still unconscious and Gila hadn’t returned.

“Your armor won’t save you forever,” Horn Toad taunted as he swung his arm again. “These spikes are tough, and if they do break, they regrow almost instantly!”

I know, I figured out your Quirks before I got here, Sleeper thought. If I can just move the fight indoors, then I can use the-

“SURPRISE!”

Sleeper whipped around as the rocky form of Gila was barreling towards him. He just barely managed to get out of the way before being crushed. He thought that Gila would crash into Horn Toad, but to his shock, Horn Toad’s quirk also seemed to enhance his strength as he caught Gila, rolling with the impact like one would when catching a baseball, and flung him right back around at Sleeper.

Thankfully his aim was off, but Sleeper was still doing mental calculations at a rapid pace.

Okay, Horn Toad has super strength. Good to know. I can defend against Horn Toad just fine, but I need Gila out of the equation. I only have so many grenades, my taser won’t work against him… And I need to take them down before Basilisk recovers. Gila’s super-durable and strong, but he’s made of rocks. No wait, his entire body isn’t rocks… I can see organic bits like his eyes and mouth. But his arms don’t seem to bleed or bruise or have fingernails, and his arms aren’t proportional to one another. Of course! His limbs are pure rock, but on the rest of his body it’s just a layer of rock around his flesh!

And I thought that Gila’s composition looked different in the older photos I’ve seen, but his rocky body is the same color as the soil in the nearby park. Which means that the rock erodes and chips off like a human loses skin cells. That means I can incapacitate him without permanently injuring him if I break off his arms. If I can get in close I can identify natural cleavage plains and strike there!

Sleeper grabbed a grappling hook from his belt and fired it at Horn Toad, the cable wrapping around Horn Toad’s legs. With the spiked villain temporarily restrained, Sleeper turned away and charged at Gila, who gestured in a “come at me” manner. Sleeper gritted his teeth, knowing he was going to be taking one good solid hit to the face before the day was done. Thankfully, due to Gila’s arms being made of rocks, they were a bit slower, so Sleeper was easily able to block his hits as he examined his arms for any hint of a weak spot.

Finally he found it, a small, subtle line between two slightly different shades of red. He rolled out of the way as Gila went in for a power hit, before stopping next to a transformer. He quickly ripped a sheet of metal off the transformer and jumped into the air, aiming it precisely enough to slice down onto the line, cleanly slicing through the rock. It was just as he suspected- the arm was completely made of rock. Though he didn’t envy the amount of pain Gila was in if the gravelly wailing was any indication. Regenerative or not, losing an arm had to hurt. Doubled over in pain, Gila wouldn’t be participating in the fight anytime soon.

That’s two down.

He turned his attention back towards the other villains, but gasped as he saw that not only had Horn Toad recovered, but the visored villain, Basilisk, had also gotten to his feet, and was in the process of removing his visor.

Time for a tactical retreat.

Taking one of his remaining smoke bombs- only 3 left- he created a smokescreen, masking his escape. He ran to a nearby tower and scrambled up the scaffolding, grateful that his metal gauntlets and boots were also well-insulated.

Hiding out of view, he caught his breath. He began to formulate a strategy when his earpiece began to make a noise.

“Sleeper Hit? This is Pro Hero Uravity. Me and Alien Queen are en route to your position.”

He blinked, then shook his head rapidly. Now wasn’t the time for him to bring his personal issues to work, they had villains to defeat.

“I read you, Uravity,” Sleeper Hit said quietly. “Alien Queen, you there too?”

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Two of the villains are down, two remaining. One of them, Horn Toad, has a Quirk that allows him to form super-strong spikes out of his skin, as well as giving him strength enhancement. The other, Basilisk, can create a layer of thin rock around you if he stares at you long enough. Alien Queen, your acid, even on its lowest potency, should be able to severely weaken the spikes, and I think a higher intensity should melt through the stone covering if any of us gets hit by Basilisk’s Stone Vision. Uravity, one of the downed villains has a quirk that makes him partially made of rock. He’s incredibly heavy, but if he were to lose gravity, he’d make an effective projectile.”

The smoke below him began to clear, Horn Toad and Basilisk both looking around furiously for him. It was only a matter of time before he was spotted.

“Horn Toad should be the first target. Basilisk is physically weaker but we can’t get to him until Horn Toad is dealt with.”

“THERE HE IS!” Horn Toad shouted from below, beginning to pound on the structure on which Sleeper was hiding. It began to shake.

Sleeper Hit grunted in frustration. “They found me.”

“We’ve just arrived, we’ll be joining you shortly!”

“Gotcha.” The tower shook again and he wasn’t sure it would hold out much longer. Pulling out the spare grappling hook he had and thanking his lucky stars he had the foresight to carry multiples of them, he fired it onto another structure across the complex and when the cable had hit its mark, he swung down towards the two villains, trying to angle himself for a massive kick towards Horn Toad. He hoped the momentum would allow his kick to break through Horn Toad’s guard, but once the kick connected with the spikes and did nothing, he swore under his breath. The impact dislodged the grapple gun from his hand as Horn Toad swung the arm around and flung him into the air.

As he tried to angle himself for a slightly less painful landing, he suddenly felt himself hitting something soft and pink. He also noticed he had stopped falling, and that was when he realized who had caught him.

“I got you,” Uravity said.

Sleeper Hit nodded. “Right. And Alien Queen is on the ground?”

Uravity nodded.

“Right, let’s get back down to ground level.”

The two of them descended, Uraraka using jets of air to redirect herself like astronauts did, and they landed near Alien Queen, who left a trail of acid behind her from her entry.

The three of them assumed a battle stance as the two villains did the same.

They stared each other down before Alien Queen suddenly launched a spray of acid towards Horn Toad. As usual, he used his big, beefy, armored arms to guard against it. As soon as the acid was on its trajectory, Sleeper Hit darted forward and punched with his gauntlet. Horn Toad smirked until the punch struck his arm unimpeded and sent him reeling backwards.

When the acid began to work on the spikes, Horn Toad didn’t feel it. In much the same way that hair on the outside of the body doesn’t have any nerves, and don’t feel pain unless the parts inside the skin are pulled, he didn’t feel any pain from his spikes, and didn’t realize what happened until he felt the cold steel of Izuku’s gauntlet combined with the tingling on the rest of his arm.

Basilisk’s eyes widened under his visor before noticing Uravity running towards where Gila was lying unconscious, and took off his visor and glared. Uravity was about to touch Gila to make him weightless but suddenly her feet stopped moving. Then her legs. She looked down and saw rock begin to creep up her body. She struggled to free herself but it was pointless.

“I’m having a bit of a situation over here!”

Sleeper Hit heard her voice in his earpiece and struck Horn Toad with a powerful punch to knock him away so he could look back. “Alien Queen, use the acid to dissolve that rock. Though wait until it completely covers her, wouldn’t want to accidentally give her a full face of acid.”

The acid hero nodded and skated towards Uravity, who had heard Sleeper’s instructions over her earpiece, reminding herself that he knew what he was doing. She caught a glimpse of Alien Queen rushing towards her before she was covered completely.

Meanwhile, Sleeper Hit readied his stun gun again. It was running low on power, and he had hoped to recharge it but the villains hadn’t given him any room to breathe. He did, however, have a little bit left. So when Horn Toad ran towards him again, he took the shot. Without the spikes to intercept it, the electricity shot through Horn Toad and sent him to the ground, allowing Sleeper Hit to turn his attention to Basilisk, who was so fixated on “petrifying” Uravity that he didn’t notice until the last second that he was about to be decked in the face with a metal gauntlet.

His expression only lasted a split second before the ironclad punch sent him to the pavement, but it made this whole incident worth it in his opinion.

Horn Toad, it turned out, was much better at recovering than Basilisk was, and immediately got back onto his feet and readied his fist to clean Sleeper Hit’s clock. The hero was about to dodge before he heard Uravity’s voice behind him.

“Duck!”

Sleeper Hit did as he was told, and dropped just as the still-unconscious body of Gila flew over him like a cannonball, slamming directly into Horn Toad’s chest, launching him backwards into a wall, where they impacted with a loud CRASH.

“And release!”

Both villains immediately fell out of the crater they made in the wall and dropped to the ground.

Sleeper Hit took off his faceplate, letting it hang around his neck so he could catch his breath a bit better. He pulled out his phone and dialed the police to let them know they could come in and make the arrest. As he did so, Uraraka and Ashido looked at each other and nodded, before walking towards him.

As Midoriya hung up the call, he turned to the two girls with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s, uh…” Uraraka began. “...It’s nice to see you again, Midoriya.”

Midoriya’s reaction was unreadable as he looked between the two. “I remember you. I don’t think I ever got your names, though.”

“Oh, uh… Uraraka Ochako.”

“I’m Ashido Mina.”

“All right. I’m Midoriya Izuku.”

Izuku… so that’s his name.

“Izuku, I owe you an apology,” Uraraka decided to cut to the chase. “I’m really, really sorry about calling you that nickname. I didn’t know it was an insult, I just- I heard Bakugou call you that and... I dunno, I thought it sounded cute.”

Before Midoriya could respond, Ashido spoke up. “And I’m sorry for getting you expelled, I just opened my big mouth and-”

Midoriya cut her off with a raised hand. “I know. You don’t have to say anything.”

Uraraka smiled a bit, looking hopeful. That was easier than I thought it would be.

“I get it. You saw me on TV the other day, remembered me from the first day, and now you want to be friends with me now that I’m no longer a Quirkless, useless Deku.”

Uraraka’s face fell. Does he really think we’re only apologizing because he’s a hero now?

“N-no, I just, we wanted to apologize for a while now but we couldn’t find you!”

“Uh-huh,” he said skeptically. It sounded like the venom he had suppressed was creeping back into his voice. “I’m willing to bet you completely forgot about me the next day and only remembered when I ranked above you.”

“How can you even think that?” Uraraka replied, sounding hurt. “You saved my life!” Looking back, it’s a miracle he stayed so professional during the fight.

“And then you called me ‘useless.’”

“I just told you, I didn’t-”

They were interrupted when the police showed up. They immediately began swarming in with paramedics, rousing the villains awake after slapping them in Quirk-suppressant handcuffs.

“Well,” Midoriya said, reapplying the faceplate, “I need to head back to the agency and file my report.” He turned to leave, but a couple steps later, he stopped, and turned. “Oh, and Ashido?”

“Y-yeah?” Ashido replied nervously.

“I don’t blame you for getting me expelled. They would’ve found an excuse regardless.” And with that, he took his leave, brushing past a couple officers in the process.

Uraraka just stared at the ground in shock. He really thinks I hated him…? Did that nickname really affect him that much?

Ashido, however, simply watched him as he disappeared around the corner. “I gotta say, I keep hearing people calling him plain-looking, but now that I’ve seen his face, I couldn’t disagree more.”

She was met with silence.

“Uraraka?”

She turned and saw her friend bending down to pick something up. “He left behind both of his grappling guns,” she said, turning to show Ashido the damaged piece of tech. “You think we should return these?”

Ashido shrugged. “He’ll probably just replace them anyhow. And wouldn’t he just think you were sucking up to him?”

Uraraka tossed the grappling gun up and down in her hand. “Yeah, I guess that’s true. There’s got to be some way we can…” she stopped, holding the gadget up closer to her face. “Wait a minute…”

“What’s up?” Ashido asked, moving in to see what got Uraraka’s attention. 

Uraraka turned the gun around and showed Ashido what she saw. “The back end of it has the logo for Hatsume Industries on it!”

Ashido took the gun and looked for herself. Sure enough, there it was- a pair of goggles shaped and stylized to resemble the Romaji letter H. “Yep. That’s her all right. But… I thought he hated UA?”

“I do too. And even a lot of the other UA graduates a little freaked out by her.”

“So why would Midoriya go to her of all people for support gear? Especially considering Hamada’s more well known for its Support department than its Hero course?”

Uraraka faced Ashido with a determined look on her face. “Guess we’re going to find out.”

Shinsou stared at the link that was sent to him with indecision. The night of the Hero Ranking, Kirishima sent him this link. At the time, Shinsou rolled his eyes and reiterated he couldn’t care less about the rankings.

Kirishima immediately texted back and said no, it has almost nothing to do with the rankings and that he needed to see it.

So he clicked the link, saw it was an interview, and immediately closed it because he didn’t care what sort of gossip the class was going on about this time.

But over the past couple days he’d been hearing a lot more discussion about Quirk Discrimination, which wasn’t something people generally liked to talk about, which was his first indication something was up.

Then he heard a remark about how Quirkist the Hero Course of UA was.

This did not sit well with him at all. Aizawa was willing go give him a shot at being a hero in spite of his “villainous” quirk and the other students had been pretty accepting. On average, anyway, Bakugou thought he was creepy, it was impossible to gauge how Todoroki was feeling, and Ojiro still hadn’t quite forgiven him for the Sports Festival. But he wouldn’t call them Quirkist.

It then dawned on him that this all began the day after the Hero Rankings and he began to toy with the idea that he really should check out that interview after all.

Eventually he shrugged and clicked play.

And he watched.

“You see… I was expelled the first day because I didn’t have a quirk that would help me throw a baseball.”

He stared in disbelief. He shot a text to Kirishima with his first suspicion.

S: I finally watched the interview

S: Was that kid supposed to be in our class?

K: Yeah

Shinsou digested the words before his eyebrows formed into a glare. Not at anything in particular, he just glared.

He soon had to push that thought to the back of his mind started to suit up, putting his Capture Weapon on and covering it with his incognito jacket. He couldn’t dwell on it during his patrol. He couldn’t let himself be distracted.

He was sure of one thing though. Next time he saw Aizawa, they were going to have some words.

Chapter Text

The girls reconvened at the mansion (the unofficial base of operations for the Sleeper Hit Friendship Squad) and told Kirishima and Yaoyorozu what happened. About the fight, about Sleeper Hit, about their argument, and about finding one of Hatsume’s gadgets.

“It does make sense,” Yaoyorozu said. “As a Quirkless hero, Midoriya would be heavily reliant on support gear, which Hatsume would be more than eager to provide.”

“So we go over to her lab and ask her about it?” Ashido asked. “Because I’d rather not, if it’s all the same to you. My ears are still ringing from the last time I went over there…”

“I’ll go,” Kirishima volunteered. “My Quirk means I’ll be the least likely to get hurt if anything explodes.” Even after graduating, Hatsume has always maintained that catastrophic malfunctions are a mere stepping stone to scientific breakthroughs.

“You sure?” Uraraka asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Kirishima responded with a toothy grin. “Don’t worry!”

With that, he stepped out. Just then, the rich girl turned and saw Uraraka with a downtrodden expression. “Uraraka?” she asked softly. “Is something wrong?”

Uraraka turned to her. “Oh, uh, it’s nothing. Don’t worry.”

“Is it about how Midori yelled at you?” Ashido asked.

“Yeah, it’s just that- wait, Midori?” Uraraka asked as she did a double-take at the cutesy nickname. “W-Whatever. It’s just, the more I think about it, the more I’m worried… he might have been right.”

“About what?”

“That I’m only trying to reconnect with him to clear my own conscience.”

The other two girls looked at each other before Ashido spoke up.

“Ochako… you didn’t actually forget about him, did you?”

“Of course I didn’t!” Uraraka said, flustered. “He saved my life at the exam. But I couldn’t find him after I…” she rubbed the back of her head. “...made him think I hated him. He didn’t have any social media or anything that I could find.”

“That makes a distressing amount of sense,” Yaoyorozu said. “As someone without a Quirk, he likely got bullied enough physically that he didn’t want to open himself up to cyberbullying.”

“That’s awful…” Ashido whispered. She had been bullied in Junior High for her appearance, and while she would later come to accept her outlandish looks (which inspired her hero moniker Alien Queen, Midnight’s opinions be damned) she wouldn’t wish it on anyone. It was then that she had a thought. “Do you think he made friends at Hamada?”

“Hard to say,” Yaoyorozu replied. “I did some research and evidently they take their anti-Discrimination very seriously. So he likely wouldn’t have been bullied.”

“But at UA,” Uraraka realized, “He was bullied… or thought he was anyway… in what was supposed to be a safe place, by people he let his guard down around!” She gasped. Oh no… Midoriya might’ve closed himself off and refused to make friends… and it’s all my fault!

Ashido picked up on the tears forming in her friend’s eyes. “Ochako?”

“I really hope I’m wrong…” Uraraka whispered. “But if I’m right, and he never made any friends… then we’ll just have to fix that!” she finished with a look of determination in her eyes.

Ashido grinned. “That’s the spirit!”

Hatsume Industries wasn’t a particularly tall or luxurious building, by any means. In fact, one might go so far as to call it an eyesore, covered in reinforced metal plating that clearly didn’t all come from the same source. Kirishima walked through the front doors and was immediately bombarded by the sounds of machinery, power tools, electrical currents crackling through wires, computers beeping… Luckily, working with Bakugou a lot meant that he employed ear protection on his costume. Taking the elevator, he descended to the lower basement level, where he knew Hatsume would be working.

And working there she was, welding some metal together for what looked like some kind of gauntlet. She looked up as she noticed the new arrival and smiled. “Hey, Mr. Bulletproof! What brings you here?” she asked.

Kirishima chuckled at the nickname, recalling the memory of the incident that gave him the name before he got a serious look on his face. “I just wanted to ask you a question,” he said. “Are you in the middle of something?”

“Nah,” Hatsume replied, rummaging through a drawer for some wire. “Just killing time until my boyfriend gets off work. I need him to watch the workshop while I go pick something up.”

She's got a boyfriend? Kirishima thought before getting back to the task at hand. “I was wondering… you made some gadgets for Sleeper Hit, right? But I thought he hates UA?”

“Oh, he does,” Hatsume replies nonchalantly. “Not me though. It’s an interesting story, actually. You see… oh, I’m sorry,” she said, looking a little flustered. “You probably don’t want to hear the full story. I’ve been trying to pick up on social cues, I’ve been told I have problems with that-“

“No, actually, do tell me, I’m really curious,” Kirishima said.

“Oh… r-really?” Hatsume asked, looking pleasantly surprised. “Well, pull up a chair then. We met during our second year internships. You remember my little display at our second Sports Festival, right?”

“I do. And I think you still owe the school for those bleachers you atomized.”

“I'll pay them back eventually. Anyway, that caught the attention of the Slice-n-Dice Hero, Wasabi, and I got an offer from him. Well I got a bunch of offers but I just kinda picked one at random and figured, eh, why not? I don’t actually get a lot of internship offers from hero agencies. Usually it’s just support companies. So I went up to his agency in Akuto…”

“Have you ever given field support to heroes in combat?” Wasabi asked as he ushered Hatsume into his agency’s lobby. Wasabi was a tall, dark-skinned man built like a brick made out of smaller bricks, his hair tied back into a bun. His costume was green-colored armor, the front of which was styled to resemble a chef’s apron.

“No, I haven’t. But I’ve been dying to try my babies out in real combat, instead of in a lab or on another student.”

“Well then, you’ll get your chance,” he said as the elevator dinged and an unassuming-looking teenager with green hair and a freckled face stepped out. 

“You’ll be working with my other intern, Midoriya Izuku, Hero name: Sleeper Hit. Midoriya, I'd like you to meet Hatsume Mei. She’s a support student from UA.” If he noticed Izuku’s expression sour, he didn’t comment on it as he continued. “I know you’re required to take support classes at Hamada, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t even compare to a fully-fledged Support student. So I’m having her work on your gear, and when we go out on patrol next, she’ll be out on the field with us, observing your gear in action, and providing more support if need be.”

“...that’s fine,” Midoriya said.

“I have some business to take care of,” Wasabi said as he turned to leave. “You two get acquainted. The support workshop is at the far end of the hall.”

As he exited, Hatsume walked up to her fellow intern. “Nice to meetcha, Broccoli Boy!” she greeted, getting uncomfortably close to the greenette.

“Uh… h-hi,” he nervously stammered out, so startled by the close proximity that the weird nickname didn’t even register. “H-Hatsume, right?”

“That’s right! And you’re gonna help me show off my super cute babies!”

“Your super… what? ” He asked, confused. “Oh, you mean your gadgets.”

“That’s right! And you’re gonna take my babies with you no matter what!”

Izuku didn’t quite know what to say, but soon collected his thoughts. “I guess... that’s for the best. I could really use some more firepower in the field.” He sat down in one of the comfy chairs in the lobby. “I interned with Wasabi because his Quirk, Psychic Knives, basically does little more than give him an infinite supply of weapons. It doesn’t actually help him use them, so he’d know a thing or two about using weapons. What about you?” he asked. “You’re from the oh-so prestigious UA. I bet you were just drowning in internship offers. What made you pick this agency?”

“I kinda just picked one at random. So if your fighting style is focused around using weapons,” Hatsume pressed, “your Quirk must be something really low-key, right?”

She definitely didn’t notice or care as Izuku averted his eyes and huffed.

“What is your Quirk, anyway? I need to know so I can create my babies around it.”

Midoriya gritted his teeth. May as well get it over with. “I’m Quirkless.”

For the first time in a good long while, Hatsume was speechless. “Quirkless? Like, you don’t have a Quirk? At all?”

“That’s what I said.” Izuku looked away again, bracing for the elitism, the superior attitude that UA students were wont to-

“That’s incredible!”

Izuku blinked. “I’m sorry?”

“One thing I learned right off the bat is that it’s really annoying to design gear around someone’s quirk. Their bodies work differently and I have to take their weaknesses into account. But you!” she stood up and gestured excitedly. “You’re like the baseline for the entire human race!”

“Uh… thanks… I guess?”

“Oh, Izuku, Izuku… you and I are gonna be friends,” she said, grinning. “I can design my babies specifically for you, and adapt them to whatever hero needs them!”

“R-right…” Izuku said, sweating. Well at least she doesn’t think I’m useless…

“Just think of it- Hatsume Industries, the Support company that powers the first Quirkless Pro Hero!” She took Izuku by the hand and dragged him off. “Now let’s get to work on your gear, so I can introduce you to some of my newest babies!”

Izuku soon found himself in a workshop, standing still as Hatsume began making adjustments to his all-purpose utility gauntlets (designed by the one and only Hatsume Mei) as he was wearing them.

“Almost got it…” she said as she tightened a few bolts. “Trust me, after you see my babies in combat, you won’t want to go a full day without them.”

“If you say so,” he sighed.

“Say, Broccoli Boy, I was wondering, who made your gear before now?”

“Erm… I did.”

“Oh?” Hatsume asked. “But Hamada’s full of Support students. Why not ask one of them to help? I’m sure one of them would be more than eager to take the load off your shoulders.”

“I’d feel much better if I did my own work,” he said. “And I doubt they’d want to help a Quirkless Deku like myself.”

“Deku?” she repeated. “Oh, like the Deku Scrubs from the Legend of Zelda! You do kinda look like one of them.”

“I know just what they’d say,” Izuku sighed. “‘I’d love to. Really, I would, but I feel like my efforts would be better spent on a hero who isn’t a lost cause. Sorry.’ Ugh… I know Hamada is meant to be accommodating towards students without a Quirk, but the other students are probably just as biased as the ones at UA.”

This made Hatsume pause. “...what’s wrong with UA?” she asked. “It’s one of Japan’s best schools. I should know.”

“If they let bullies like Ka- I mean, Bakugou in,” Izuku replied, “Then it can’t be that great.”

“Oh, you know Explodey Hands?” she asked, before shaking her head. “Why do you think the rest of UA is like that?”

Izuku sighed. He told her about passing the exam, how the first day ended in his expulsion, how the nice girl he saved turned on him.

“...UA just isn’t cut out for people like me,” Izuku finished. Hatsume had set her tools down and was listening intently. “The students look down on me, the faculty think I’m wasting space, and even you only see me as a walking advertisement for your babies!”

“...you really think that?” Hatsume said, shockingly quiet.

Izuku’s expression softened. “Hatsume?”

“Izuku… I like to think I’ve got an eye for talent. Literally. My Quirk lets me zoom in on things from kilometers away. Just by looking at you, I can tell you’re gonna go places, with or without my help. And after hearing your story, I’ve decided I’m gonna be the one to help you get there, whether you like it or not!”

Izuku was speechless. He began to tear up a bit, old habits dying hard and whatnot. “Hatsume… I…”

“It just so happens that this is also good from a business standpoint, so that’s a plus. Now hold still so I can adjust your other gauntlet…”

“...after that, he had me do all his Support gear. Of course this was on top of my other schoolwork, but nothing that the great Hatsume Mei couldn’t handle!” she said proudly.

Kirishima didn’t know what to say. But amidst all his questions, one thing floated to the top of all his thoughts.

“If they let bullies like Bakugou in, then it can’t be that great.”

“Did he ever say how he knew Bakugou?”

“Yeah, actually. He said they used to be childhood friends,” Hatsume replied.

“Used to be? Well what happened?” Kirishima asked.

“He got his Quirk and I didn’t,” a voice from behind him answered. Kirishima whirled around to find himself staring into the green eyes of Midoriya Izuku.

“Hey, Broccoli Boy!” Hatsume called. “How’d your patrol go?”

Kirishima got out of the way as Izuku stepped forward to meet her, a smile overtaking his face. “It was really eventful. We finally caught the Lizard Gang. Uravity and Alien Queen showed up to help.”

“Did you play nice with the other heroes for once?” Hatsume asked playfully, getting into Izuku’s personal space. Izuku didn’t back down, instead seeming quite comfortable with the display.

“I mean, I tried,” Izuku replied.

Hatsume giggled. “That’s all I ask,” she said before leaning in and giving Izuku a kiss on the cheek.

Kirishima was legitimately surprised that Hatsume’s boyfriend was Sleeper Hit of all people, and more than that, he was impressed that Midoriya stuck with her in spite of all her various eccentricities. “So manly…” he said to himself.

“Hey, Izuku, since you’re off duty now, I gotta go pick up some parts that I ordered, so can you keep an eye on the lab and make sure nothing catches fire while I’m up?”

“Sure thing, Mei. But I can’t stay too long, I told mom that I’d join her for dinner.”

“Don’t worry, I remember!” She smiled, then turned to Kirishima. “Sorry to leave before the story got to the really action-y part, but the place closes in 15 minutes. Gotta run!”

She made a mad dash for the elevator, leaving Kirishima alone with Izuku.

“So, uh, Sleeper Hit…” Kirishima began. “I just wanted to say that what Aizawa did that first day was just super unmanly.”

“Oh sure, you say that now ,” Izuku said, “Now that I proved him wrong.”

Kirishima sighed, remembering what Uraraka told him. Of course, unlike Uraraka, he never had any real interaction with him outside that fateful test. “I guess I can’t really argue,” he admitted, scratching the back of his neck.

“What are you doing here?” Izuku asked. “Did Uravity put you up to this?”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “She really wants to make it up to you, you know. She never meant to insult you.”

“Please,” Izuku rolled his eyes. “You honestly expect me to believe that she’d see nothing wrong with calling me ‘useless.’”

“Maybe it just didn’t occur to her,” Kirishima suggested. “Maybe she thought it was short for ‘dekiru.’ Or maybe she thought it was because your hair makes you look kinda like a Deku Scrub from Zelda.”

Izuku folded his arms. “She heard it from Bakugou, and she saw how he acted. There’s no way she thought it was just some cute nickname.”

Kirishima was reminded of what Hatsume told him he said. “Midoriya, did Bakugou bully you?”

Midoriya was about to respond before he paused. “What’s it to you, anyway? Why do you care?”

“Because sticking your nose into other people’s business is what being a hero is all about.”

“Even if he did, what makes you think I’d tell you?”

“If you don’t, I’ll just ask Hatsume what she knows. And I’m guessing she’s not as good at keeping secrets.”

The two faced each other silently for a good long while before Izuku relented. “...yeah. He bullied me. Every day since we turned four.”

Kirishima was shocked. “Just because you didn’t have a Quirk?”

“He thought that since I was trying to become a hero despite my... handicap, I was looking down on him, thinking I was better than him. He was so used to being top dog that he couldn’t stand the idea of anyone being above him. He’d use his Quirk on me, he’d destroy my notebooks, he made sure none of the other kids wanted to be around me… he couldn’t go a single day without harassing me.”

“He used his Quirk on you? Like, at school? Didn’t any adults do anything?”

“Oh, they’d do something all right. They’d chastise me for being clumsy. Or they’d just give Bakugou and his ‘friends’ a stern talking to and leave it at that… and what do you think they did to blow off steam?” he chuckled bitterly. “The teachers didn’t want to jeopardize the career of a kid who was born to be a hero. So they just… looked the other way.”

Kirishima looked horrified. Bakubro… “But you didn’t tell anyone even when you became a pro? When you knew people would believe you?”

“I wanted to. I really did. Even back then, I so desperately wanted to tell someone. But then, right as I got the courage to speak out… Kamino happened.”

Kirishima paled. “That was when…”

Izuku nodded. “Bakugou was kidnapped by villains. All Might saved him from All for One, but sacrificed his life in the process. As much as I want Bakugou to be punished… I can’t undermine All Might’s last act of heroism by revealing that the boy he saved abused a Quirkless kid for most of his life. I just can’t do that to the Number One Hero.”

Kirishima gritted his teeth. Bakubro… I can’t believe it… all this time, I thought you were so manly, I tried to be your friend, but this whole time… no wonder that nickname affected you so much.

“I was bullied in Junior High too,” Kirishima said. “Me and Ashido.”

“Alien Queen?”

“Yeah. We both hated bullies, and we both swore to become heroes to fight them. And to think, Bakugou, my classmate- my friend - was one of them…”

The two of them were silent for a good long while.

“...thank you for believing me,” Izuku said.

“It’s what a real hero would do,” Kirishima replied. “I’d better get going now. ...are you sure you don’t want to tell someone what happened to you?”

Izuku nodded. “I’m sure. I hate Bakugou… but I just like All Might too much.”

“Right.” Kirishima turned towards the elevator, but hesitated. “For what it’s worth, I think it’s really manly that you became a hero without a Quirk.”

For the first time since the two were left alone, Izuku smiled. “It’s worth more than you know.”

The elevator dinged. Kirishima stepped inside and waved goodbye, before being taken back up to the first floor.

I guess there’s some hope for UA’s students after all , Izuku thought.

...

Crap, I forgot to ask him about All Might’s Quirk! I had so many questions!

“I’m only going to say this one more time, lady,” the mugger said menacingly, his knife brandished, his quirk causing steam to blow from his mouth as he spoke, “Hand over whatever you got and we can both walk away.”

“Look, I swear, I don’t have anything!” the terrified woman said, her voice lost in the echoes of the alleyway they were in.

“Wrong answer, lady!”

“Hey, what’s going on over here?” a voice from behind asked.

“Why don’t you mind your own- hrk!”

“Let the woman go and turn yourself in to the police. ”

The mugger robotically dropped the knife to the ground and walked out of the alley. Shinsou, known in the underground as the Persuasive Hero: Blackout, checked to make sure the woman was all right, then phoned the police department that there was someone on his way over.

With that, he left the alleyway, and was about to continue on his normal patrol route when a familiar presence approached.

“I saw someone walk out of the alley towards the police station. I assume that was your handiwork?” Shinsou turned and there was Aizawa, in all his scruffy glory. The Persuasive Hero frowned as he met the eyes of his mentor, the man he was currently feeling quite conflicted about. Even moreso since he rewatched the interview and realized there was something that didn’t quite sit right with him.

“It was,” Shinsou replied. “Mind if I joined you on your patrol for a bit? I needed to talk with you about something.”

Aizawa nodded, and Shinsou got the feeling his former homeroom teacher knew exactly what was eating him already. The two walked down the dimly-lit road, not standing out much alongside the odd drunkard.

“So I saw that interview the other night,” Shinsou said, not wanting to beat around the bush. “When you said that there was a vacancy in the Hero Course that first day, that was him, wasn’t it.”

“...It was,” Aizawa admitted. Not that it mattered much after USJ.

“Sleeper Hit was in the same boat as me,” Shinsou continued. “Told all his life that he couldn’t be a hero. For different reasons, admittedly, but still.”

“I saw him as a liability,” Aizawa said. “I know now I was wrong, benefit of hindsight and all, but in my defense, he did get the lowest score on the assessment test. I told them the consequences for failure. Out of the initial 20, he had the least potential in my eyes.”

“That’s a lie and you know it.”

Aizawa whipped around so fast Shinsou thought he might’ve got whiplash.

“Later on in the interview,” Shinsou said, “he explained just what kind of training he did. Over the course of nine months, he singlehandedly cleaned Dagobah Beach. And according to the people who saw him do it, he didn’t have any equipment. There were rusted cars on that beach, Aizawa. Rusted cars. You have to be in peak physical condition to move one of those even a little. So tell me how he managed to get a lower score on the fitness test than Hagakure, who’s a good gymnast but otherwise physically average.”

Aizawa avoided Shinsou’s piercing gaze, unable to find an answer.

“You wanted me in the Hero Course, so you had to get rid of someone to make space. And you wanted to keep the girl with the stealth-based Quirk. So you cheated.”

Aizawa sighed and looked down at the sidewalk. “I won’t deny it. But Shinsou, all I wanted to do was give you a chance,”

“And in doing so, you ripped that chance away from someone who deserved it just as much,” Shinsou pressed. “You didn’t even move him to Gen Ed, you just kicked him straight out. In that same interview he said that an anonymous UA faculty member put in a good word for him at Hamada. If it hadn’t been for them, you might’ve taken away his future.”

Aizawa slowed to a stop, prompting Shinsou to stop and turn his face to look at him, curiously.

“...Aizawa?”

“You said it yourself, he didn’t have zero potential. I recognized that even then. I made an executive decision and expelled him, but I wasn’t going to leave someone with potential completely to his own devices. So that night, I tracked down a video recording of his performance during the entrance exam and sent it to the principal of Hamada.”

Shinsou whipped around to face him completely. “It was you?!”

“I figured that Hamada would be a more suitable learning environment for him,” he explained. “That’s why I fully expelled him instead of moving him to Gen Ed.”

“...Oh, I see,” Shinsou drawled accusingly as the two continued their walk. “You admit he had potential. Just not enough for UA. Not enough for you .”

“In case you’ve forgotten, UA isn’t some community college that’ll accept just anyone. I had the right to be selective of who got to stay,” Aizawa defended, though even he didn’t know why he bothered. He already knew full well he’d made a grave mistake.

“He DID pass the entrance exam for the Hero Course, did he not?” Shinsou continued. “Even I didn’t manage that. If I’d passed the exam, and there was another Gen Ed student with a quirk you thought was more useful than mine… would you have expelled me too?”

Aizawa, once again, fell silent, not sure exactly what to say. There was a lot he wanted to say, he wanted to say that of course he wouldn’t. But deep down, he knew that if he hadn’t known Shinsou before he enrolled, if Shinsou had been just another UA student to him… he might have kicked him down to Gen Ed at the very least.

“...I don’t know.”

The two of them arrived at a four-way intersection as the light began to change.

“Look, Shinsou… I’m truly sorry.”

“...I don’t think I’m the one you should be apologizing to,” Shinsou said, not even turning his head as he crossed the street, leaving Aizawa alone on that corner.

Chapter Text

The Kamino Incident had only just concluded. With the events still fresh in his mind and permanently seared there, Kirishima waited outside the hospital room as he braced himself for what was inside. Not too long ago, Bakugou was kidnapped by the League of Villains. So Kirishima and a few other students had gone to rescue him against Aizawa’s wishes, and while they were more or less successful, it ended in a destructive battle between All Might and the incredibly powerful villain and All Might’s evident nemesis, All for One. All Might had been victorious and All for One had been killed in the battle, but All Might’s wounds were fatal.

And just a little while ago, All Might had requested him personally.

Taking a deep breath, Kirishima opened the door and was greeted for a sight that, even though he knew exactly what to expect, he wasn’t prepared for.

In the bed, hooked up to an IV, was All Might. But it wasn’t the smiling beacon of strength and manliness the world knew. This was a skeletal shell of a man, pale, taking long, shallow breaths. His body was more bandage than flesh at this point, especially his side.

He turned his head slowly to face the new arrival and smiled sadly. “Young Kirishima… you made it.”

Kirishima walked quickly to his side. “All Might? You… wanted to see me?”

“Yes… I know that what you did went against every rule in the book. But you put everything on the line to rescue your friend, at the risk of expulsion, at the risk of death. You have the heart of a true hero…” he coughed, Kirishima looking on in concern.

“Young Kirishima… my Quirk has been a mystery ever since I first made my debut… it’s a special Quirk called One for All.”

“One… for All…” the words rolled off Kirishima’s tongue.

“It’s a power stockpiling Quirk, passed down from person to person like a sacred torch, growing stronger with each holder.”

“A Quirk that can be transferred from person to person?” Kirishima whispered. “I’d say it’s impossible… but that villain you fought… wait, why are you telling me this?”

“My boy… you are worthy.”

Kirishima blinked, not sure if he misunderstood. “Are… are you saying…?”

“My Quirk is yours to inherit.”

Kirishima couldn’t believe it. He actually began to tear up, deeply honored that All Might, possibly the greatest hero to ever live, considered him worthy of carrying on his legacy. Of all the students in UA, all the people who he could’ve chosen, All Might chose him .

“I… I accept,” he said simply.

“Glad to hear it, my boy…” he began to cough again. “I’m sorry… I can’t stay around to teach you how to use it. There’s a Pro Hero named Gran Torino. He knows my secret… he’ll help you.” He looked up at Kirishima with fondness in his eyes. “I know you’ll use this power well.”

“I will. I won’t let you down.”

Kirishima’s mind wandered back to that fateful day as he described his encounter to the others. All Might’s death, Kirishima receiving his Quirk, and Bakugou bearing the weight of being the one All Might died to save. Everything changed that day, but now the memory was tainted with bitterness, knowing the skeleton that lay hidden in Bakugou’s closet. A skeleton with an extra toe joint.

*WHAM*

He was jarred out of the memory as Ashido punched the wall, prompting Yaoyorozu to freak out over the possibility of the wall being damaged.

“I can’t believe this! I nearly torpedoed my own hero career before it even began when I joined that mission. And all this time, Bakugou was abusing his childhood friend like that?!”

“No wonder Midoriya hated that nickname…” Uraraka lamented.

“I just- Ugh!” Ashido continued to rant, pacing around the room. “All my life, I swore I’d be a hero and protect people from bullies. And Bakugou was one of them? It’s just- just- ugh!” She stomped over to a nearby sofa and plopped down on it, still steaming.

“In all fairness,” Yaoyorozu interjected, “Bakugou was significantly more violent than any one else in the class.”

“That’s an understatement,” Uraraka said, chuckling. “Remember that first Sports Festival?”

Bakugou and Shinsou stood across from each other, glaring at one another as Present Mic introduced them in typical hammy Present Mic fashion. Well, Bakugou was glaring at least, Shinsou was lazily maintaining the look of someone who fell asleep while skydiving.

Not that Bakugou really cared, of course, this Gen Ed student was little more than a pebble in his path. Once this creep was out of the way, Bakugou would be able to advance to the finals and put Icyhot in his place. Maybe he’d even pound some sense into that entitled prick for not giving it his all.

He had no idea how this weakling made it to the semifinals. During the previous round, he had been in Recovery Girl’s office. And quite frankly, he didn’t care. He’d give this insect a taste of what real power was. And to think, that Monkey-tailed b*****d tried to give him advice . As if he needed an extra to give him information that the fight would be too short for him to use.

The match began, and immediately Bakugou created popping explosions in his hand, to intimidate his opponent before he charged.

“So, you’re the ‘Powerhouse of 1-A,’ are you? That’s a lousy title.”

“Excuse me, you little-” Bakugou couldn’t finish his retort because out of nowhere he clenched up. His mouth refused to move. In fact, everything wouldn’t move. He could barely make a single explosion.

What’s going on?! What did he do?!

“Powerhouse indeed,” Shinsou sneered. “Must be nice, being born with a perfect heroic quirk. Destructive, flashy, perfect for the entrance exam... all the good that does you now. Turn around and walk out of bounds. ”

To Bakugou’s horror, his body obeyed, robotically turning around and doing as Shinsou commanded, stepping out of bounds. The crowd went absolutely nuts as Bakugou lost before a single attack could be launched.

He feels himself regain control just as Present Mic announces that Shinsou won the round.

Snarling in primal rage, Bakugou immediately whirled around and, propelled by his explosions, propelled himself at the suddenly awake-looking upstart at high speeds, intent on giving him a piece of his mind.

Before he reached the smug Gen Ed student, he found himself colliding headfirst into a rock wall that wasn’t there two seconds ago, courtesy of Cementoss.

“The fight is over , Bakugou,” Midnight chided.

“The hell it was!” Bakugou growled as he turned to face her. “That wasn’t a fight! I don’t know what kind of trick he pulled-”

“You went out of bounds after the fight started. That’s a completely fair victory for him.”

“No it f***ing wasn’t! Let me back in there, I’m gonna-” and that was as far as he got before a sudden wave of sleeping gas overcame him, sending him collapsing onto the hard floor. He was unceremoniously carried away while Shinsou advanced to the finals.

Of course, Shinsou didn’t get the chance to pull the same trick on Todoroki, as he was completely bowled over with a glacier three words into his taunt. Still, when the awards were handed out, Shinsou was more than satisfied with his second place medal.

The same could not be said for Bakugou and his third place medal, who was so dead-set on getting that rematch he felt he deserved that in order to stop him from exploding Shinsou right there on the podium, he had to be physically restrained.

Shinsou only side-eyed the explosive blonde with an insufferable look of smug satisfaction.

Uraraka sighed again. “I guess I was right, though. That even at Hamada, he wouldn’t want to make friends.”

“Well he seems to be happy with Hatsume,” Yaoyorozu pointed out.

“That’s true, but that’s about it,” Kirishima replied. “He didn’t mention anyone else. And he still seemed a little standoffish. Like he figured he’d be treated just as badly even there.”

“But… you managed to get through to him, didn’t you?” Uraraka asked.

“I guess so.”

“Do you have an idea?” asked Ashido, still stewing in her anger and disappointment.

“Yeah. I’ve been doing some thinking… what’s the reason he blew me and Ashido off when we fought together?”

“He thought you two were just trying to befriend him because he actually became a hero,” Yaoyorozu answered. “He didn’t think your apology was sincere, that you were only trying for your own benefit.”

“Then I had this thought, what if we tried to meet up with him out of costume? You know, not as heroes?”

Yaoyorozu put her hand to her chin as she considered this. “Interesting… a show of humility. It’s worth a shot.”

“But we still don’t know where to find him,” Kirishima pointed out.

“Of course we do,” Yaoyorozu said nonchalantly. “He trained by cleaning Dagobah Beach, did he not? For him to choose that place to visit on such a regular basis, he’d have to live nearby. It’s a safe bet that he lives in Musutafu.”

“Hey, pretty smart, Yaomomo,” Ashido complimented, causing the rich girl to blush. “Let’s head over there right now!”

“Now? We could always just wait for tomorrow. Why try it now?”

“Well why not? It’s summer, we still got plenty of daylight.”

“And another thing,” Kirishima chimed in, the realization dawning on him, “There’s no guarantee that he even lives there anymore, but while I was at Hatsume Industries, Midoriya said he’d be visiting his mother for dinner tonight.”

“I see,” Yaoyorozu said. “She would likely still live at their old home.”

“So today’s one day we know for sure that he’ll be there.”

Uraraka was about to add her opinion when Yaoyorozu’s phone began ringing. The former Class Representative excused herself and walked away to pick it up.

“Hello there. Yaoyorozu Momo speaking…” she listened to the response on the other side. “Shinsou? Why are you calling?”

The other three looked at each other in surprise before turning back to Yaoyorozu.

“Uh-huh… Oh, you too? Yeah, we were just about to try that ourselves. Yeah. Of course. Yeah, meet us there. And don’t come in costume… well I suppose as an underground hero you don’t really have… I see. Right. Well, we’ll meet up with you in an hour or so, alright? Right. See you then” She hung up the call and turned to the others.

“What did Shinsou want?”

“I think he wants to join the Sleeper Hit Friendship Squad.”

Still dressed incognito, Shinsou prepared to walk to their designated meeting place, Dagobah Beach. He was a good distance away, and it wouldn’t be for an hour or so, so he had plenty of time to stew in his thoughts.

He couldn’t look at that Sports Festival the same way anymore. He’d felt so proud of himself for taking those arrogant Hero Course students down a peg, for taking down the second most powerful member of the class. He earned his spot in the class fair and square. He had beat the biased system that only allowed those with strong Quirks to pass the exam. And for the rest of his time at UA he sort of left it at that.

But then Sleeper Hit came along and changed a few things.

He suddenly felt stupid for whining about the exam. It was still biased, of course, no denying that. Fighting mindless robots was no way to judge heroic potential (he only learned about Rescue Points after the fact). But to learn that not only had a Quirkless boy passed the exam with flying colors, but done it by acting as a true hero should… it was awfully humbling, to say the least.

Of course with it came the one-two punch of learning that Aizawa had bent the rules to their breaking point to allow him a spot in the class. Normally he’d feel honored his (former) mentor would go that far… but knowing that it had come at the expense of another student’s future left a sour taste in his mouth.

Any respect he had for Aizawa was shattered instantly. The man who saw him as more than just a creepy Quirk had been unable to see past another boy’s lack of one. He did take some satisfaction in learning that Aizawa would no longer be teaching at UA, and he was at least glad that Sleeper Hit made it as a Pro Hero regardless. But he still felt somewhat dirty being the benefactor of the sabotage of another student who, in all likelihood, had it even worse than him.

In his youth, he always arrogantly thought that he’d rather be Quirkless than have a villainous Quirk, but now… he wasn’t so sure. He honestly hoped to meet this guy for himself and compare notes.

He knew it was pointless to dwell on what-ifs, but part of him couldn’t help but wonder what it would’ve been like if they were classmates.

Maybe he of all people might’ve seen me for who I was.

Izuku prodded lethargically at his katsudon. It tasted as good as it always did, of course, it was his mother’s cooking after all… but today was an emotional rollercoaster for him and even his favorite comfort food wasn’t doing much.

Inko took note of this immediately. At some point after the… debacle that was his first and only day at UA, Izuku finally told her about the bullying he received at the hands of his so-called best friend. Inko berated herself for not seeing the signs sooner and had taken extra special care to pay more attention to her son’s behavior.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” she asked, her motherly nature audible in her voice. “You said that mission was a success. Shouldn’t this be a victory meal?”

“Well… it’s something that happened afterwards,” Izuku confided. “During the fight, two other Pro Heroes, Uravity and Alien Queen, showed up to help. I didn’t remember Alien Queen that well, but she and Uravity were both in that UA class.”

“Really?” Inko said, intrigued.

“Yeah,” Izuku nodded. “After the fight, Uravity had the nerve to apologize to me. She turned on me and called me by that stupid, stupid insult Bakugou called me. And of course, now that I’m a hero, she came crawling back to apologize and try to sweep the whole thing under the rug. It’s infuriating!” He took a bite of hit katsudon as if to punctuate his point.

Inko poked at her own food as she contemplated her response.

“Are you sure she wasn’t really trying to make amends? That she really was being shallow and insincere?”

“Are you kidding? She’s in the same class as Bakugou. She didn’t even bother to learn my name.” Even as Izuku said this, Inko couldn’t help but detect a subtle hint of doubt in her son’s voice.

“Really?” Inko pressed. “Everyone in that class is just like him?”

Izuku opened his mouth to confirm that yes, they were, but he stopped, remembering Red Riot’s visit to the workshop. “Well… I did meet up with Red Riot, and he was… all right.”

Inko sighed, smiling sadly. “Izuku… honey… remember how, when you first tried to sign up for the Hero Course, I wasn’t exactly supportive?”

Izuku was surprised by this change of direction. “Y-yeah…”

“For the longest time, I still saw you as a fragile little boy due to your lack of a Quirk. But I realized that I had a duty as a mother to support you. And when you went to Hamada, you excelled. Do you really think I only started supporting you because you proved me wrong?”

“Of course not!” Izuku stammered. “I’d never… I mean, even after I met Mei, you were my biggest supporter through most of my time there.”

“So why don’t you give that girl the same chance?”

The seeds of doubt planted by Red Riot’s visit were sprouting now as Izuku digested her words. He’d rebuffed all of Uraraka’s excuses but he didn’t really bother hearing her out.

“...I’ll think about it,” he said.

Dinner went without much more conversation between the two, the taste of the katsudon growing more and more pronounced as the negativity in Izuku’s thoughts turned into mere indecision and uncertainty. Finally, as dinner wrapped up and the sun was setting over the horizon, Izuku spoke up.

“Mom, I think I’m gonna head down to Dagobah Beach and clear my head.”

“Of course, sweetie. I’d tell you to stay safe, but you are a Pro Hero, so I don’t think I need to worry. ...Oh, what the heck. Stay safe, Izuku!”

Izuku smiled as he hugged his mother. “Love you, mom.”

“Love you too, sweetie.”

Kirishima was the first to arrive at Dagobah Beach. He heard stories about how it had once been a literal dump, but one year the garbage had magically disappeared. Of course, it was still not very crowded compared to other beaches, but he still saw the odd beachgoer strolling on the now picturesque sands. There was even one in the distance, pushing a washing machine up the sands with… very little difficulty… wait…

“Is that…?”

He strolled up to get a closer look, and sure enough, wearing nothing more than a shirt (with the word ‘pants’ written on it) and pants (which sadly did not have ‘t-shirt’ written on them), was Sleeper Hit, his green hair contrasting against the red hue of the sunset.

“...Midoriya?” he called.

Midoriya turned his head at the greeting. “Oh, Red Riot!” 

“You can call me Kirishima,” the redheaded hero said.

“Kirishima. Got it.” He turned back toward the washing machine. “...you know, I cleaned this whole beach a few years ago, while I was still training for UA. But it turns out that junk like this still washes up here on occasion. I find myself coming back here once a month or so. Community service, you know?”

He chuckled. Was it Kirishima’s imagination, or was he looking around to make sure no one was around?

“Of course, it would be a lot easier if I had a Quirk like yours. Or rather, a Quirk like All Might’s.”

It took some remarkable self-control for Kirishima to not freeze up. He prayed he didn’t mean what he thought he meant. “...What do you mean by that?”

“Don’t play dumb, Kirishima,” Izuku said, though not with any rudeness or hostility. “I study Quirks as a hobby. So I went all-in on figuring out your Quirk after it suddenly mutated like it did. So imagine my surprise when I dug around the deep web for a bit and found out that a relatively unknown Hero named Shimura Nana, whose Quirk involved floating, underwent an almost identical mutation as you did and gained a completely unrelated strength enhancing ability, and that she just so happened to appear in old photos alongside a certain skeleton you probably know. And then I found her alongside another obscure hero who went through a very similar ‘mutation.’ And considering All Might’s history with a certain villain who proved that Quirks could, in fact, be transferred from person to person… well, it wasn’t hard to figure it out from there.”

Kirishima was stunned, and frankly a bit worried that someone had deciphered the secret of One for All.

Izuku picked up on this immediately. “Don’t worry,” he said, “No one in the comments picked up on it. Hardly anyone knows about Shimura Nana, let alone has the time or patience to cross reference her with hundred-year-old dead heroes.”

Kirishima was a little relieved, but not entirely. “You aren’t… jealous of me, are you?”

“Jealous? What do you mean?”

“That you were born without a Quirk, while I got two of them, one of which belonged to the Number One Hero.”

Izuku’s eyes widened. “N-no, of course not!” he said. “Well I mean, I was, at first. I was kinda livid, actually. But I did some thinking… the entire reason I was so dead-set on becoming a hero was to give those like me, those society has deemed dead weight, the reassurance that they’re not useless. And besides… I had Mei to help me get to that point just fine without one.” He smiled fondly as he spoke his girlfriend’s name. “And besides, your Quirk is the perfect complement to his.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Think about it, if you received a strength enhancement that wasn’t originally yours, there’d be a severe backlash as your body wouldn’t have years and years to adapt to the sudden increase of force and you’d run the risk of blowing yourself up with all that power, or at the very least breaking every bone in your body. But combined with a Quirk that lets you reinforce your body to the point of near-indestructibility, it effectively negates the drawbacks of such a power, or at the very least makes it manageable.”

Kirishima looked a little surprised. He’d never really thought of that, but it made sense. Indeed, he felt a lot of pain when he first tried using One for All and instinctively activated his original Quirk as a reflex, which didn’t negate a lot of the pain, but it did prevent significant bodily harm.

“So no, I’m not jealous,” Izuku reiterated. “You have your niche in the Hero Community, and I’ve got mine.”

Kirishima grinned. “You know, we oughta work together sometime. With your brainpower and my… regular power, we’d be the manliest men to ever be called men!”

Izuku actually laughed a bit. “You know what? I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Hey! Kirishima! There you are!” a high-pitched voice called as three female figures ran down to meet them. “Shinsou isn’t here yet, but… oh.”

Midoriya was surprised to see that the voice belonged to Uraraka. Except she wasn’t in costume, just dressed in casual clothing, as were the two behind her, Ashido and… Wait, is that Creati?

“Well that was easier than I thought,” Ashido said.

“Hey Uraraka, Ashido,” Izuku greeted uncertainly. “And, uh… it’s nice to meet you, Creati.”

“Call me Yaoyorozu,” the tall black-haired girl insisted.

“Yaoyorozu. Right.” Izuku nodded. “What are you all doing here?”

“We wanted to come down and apologize again while we’re all off-duty,” Ashido said. “And Yaomomo wanted to meet you too. She used to be our Class Rep, actually! Well, she was the Vice Rep until…” her tone fell, pausing before she continued. “...anyway, I guess she just wanted to meet you herself.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Midoriya,” the taller girl said.

“Likewise,” Izuku replied. Truth be told, he was feeling especially guilty now. Given his preconceived notions about Class 1-A, what he knew about the Yaoyorozu family, and the nature of her costume, Izuku had previously made some… rather nasty assumptions about her that he was really coming to regret. Especially since he could tell by the way she carried herself that she wasn’t exactly one to flaunt anything, be it her wealth or her body.

Geez, I really misjudged them, didn’t I...

He was about to bring this up and apologize to her when Uraraka stepped forward. “Midoriya, I really just wanted to-”

The greenette held up his hand to interrupt her, taking a deep breath as he made his decision. “You don’t have to say anything. You apologized to me earlier, and I brushed you off.”

“Look, you had every right to be angry with me,” Uraraka said. “I hurt you. Even if I didn’t mean to, I did. And I understand now how much it must have affected you.”

“...I’m not gonna lie, it did hurt,” Izuku said. “But I shouldn’t have been so quick to assume the worst of you. Bakugou has that tone of voice no matter what he says, so it’s hard to tell when he’s insulting someone and when he’s talking normally. So I guess I can’t blame you for not realizing it was an insult.”

“Honestly,” Uraraka said, “I thought it was a shorter form of ‘dekiru.’ It sounded… kinda cute, actually.”

Izuku thought about that response. “I… guess I can see that.”

“So…” Uraraka brightened up a bit, her voice hopeful, “...am I forgiven?”

“No.”

Uraraka gasped softly. “O-oh…”

“Because there’s nothing to forgive,” Izuku finished.

It took Uraraka a moment to process this, but once she got over the mental and emotional whiplash. “H-hey! That was mean!”

“Yeah,” Izuku said, chuckling. “I guess it was.”

The five of them had a pretty good laugh over that. Izuku was surprised at how much weight seemed to be lifted off his shoulders simply by forgiving Uraraka, and he honestly felt guilty for bearing so much of a grudge against her for so long. He still had some baggage, obviously, but for the time being, it didn’t really matter. Now, all Izuku wanted to do was make up for lost time, maybe get to know these guys a bit better. Maybe at some point he might even be able to call them friends.

Today had been an emotional rollercoaster for him, and, he imagined, everyone involved. But all things considered, it had ended on a pretty high note if he said so himself.

If only it were that simple.

“DEKU!!!”

Chapter Text

To say that Bakugou Katsuki hadn’t matured since his enrollment at UA would be inaccurate. Sure, he was still volatile, and he still had his trademark pride if his hero name, King Nitro, was any indication (even if his original hero name had been turned down). He had begrudgingly taken the hint that, at UA, he wasn’t top dog anymore.

Then Kamino happened.

Bakugou could practically hear the whispers wherever he went. He knew he was being called the boy All Might died to save, but he knew what they really meant:

He was the boy who killed All Might.

He had become obsessed with regaining his position at the top despite those extras holding him back. In fact, Sh***y Hair had somehow gotten crazy powerful after the fact. He wouldn’t have it. He had to be the strongest.

When the Provisional License Exam started, Bakugou thought he was a shoo-in. He had pushed himself to the very limit, and he was going to come out on top. He had to. He needed to convince the world- convince himself- that All Might didn’t die in vain.

But then he caught a glimpse of unruly green hair at the exam and all his focus went right down the drain.

The sudden burst of anger must have clouded his judgement and distracted him. How else could he have failed the test? He kicked himself for it later. How could that Quirkless Deku have made it into a hero school, let alone into the Provisional License Exam on the first year? It was memory playing tricks on him, his subconscious reminding him that he was being looked down on. It couldn’t be anything else.

And for some reason he couldn’t fathom, those extras in his class, Sh***y Hair in particular, just wouldn’t leave him be. Thankfully they didn’t drag him down either, so he humored them. They were less obnoxious than those hangers-on from junior high. Still obnoxious, but not useless.

With his license finally officially making him a hero, he set about his work with an impressive arrest record for his first year, making even Endeavor’s impressive record turn its head.

But it wasn’t enough, if his placement at #38 was any indication.

He was in his apartment stewing, preparing to hit the hay early, when his phone vibrated. One of the extras must have texted him. Bakugou checked out his phone and saw that Sh***y Hair had texted him a link. What the f*** is he-

He paused.

His eyes were drawn to those of the green-haired hero sitting across from that interviewer.

The green-haired hero who didn’t have a Quirk.

The green-haired hero who was ranked above him by seven spots.

All at once, every ounce of anger that had laid dormant since the Provisional Exam, every memory of Deku’s insufferable condescension, every voice telling him he had no excuse not to be the strongest, all of it came flooding back to him. At the very least, Bakugou had the foresight to grab the ear protection from his hero costume before he exploded.

As Bakugou stomped down the beach to meet them, the few beachgoers who were nearby wisely opted to get the heck out of the blast radius. They all recognized King Nitro and knew better than to be nearby when he was in one of his moods.

Izuku and the other four stepped away from that rusted washing machine to meet him.

“I thought I was finally rid of you, Deku,” Bakugou growled. “I thought I could finally move on with my life, that you’d finally taken the hint and given up. But after all these years, I find out you’re still looking down on me.”

Uraraka gulped. He sounded absolutely livid. After what she had learned about their history, she cringed on Izuku’s behalf.

That was when Yaoyorozu noticed something.

“Uraraka… why is he in his hero costume?”

The brunette blinked. Yaoyorozu was right. Bakugou was completely decked out in his intimidating hero costume, complete with those distinctive grenade-shaped gauntlets. But why would he-

Oh.

Oh no.

Izuku looked like he was going to open his mouth to reply but Bakugou pointed at him, silencing him.

“How long have you been looking down on me?! How many strings did you pull to place above me?!”

“Bakugou-”

“And how the hell did you even get a Hero License?! You were expelled!”

“In case you haven’t realized,” Izuku shouted, cutting off Bakugou’s rant, “UA isn’t the only hero school out there.”

The blonde growled. “So… that was you at the Provisional License Exam. You made me fail, you motherf***er!”

“Made you f- I went out of my way to avoid you!”

“Don’t pin this on me,” Bakugou continued. “You sabotaged me at the exam! Now answer the damn question, how did you get above me?! You owe me an explanation!”

“With all due respect, Bakugou, ” Kirishima cut in, stepping in front of Izuku, “He doesn’t owe you a thing.”

Izuku peeked around Kirishima’s shoulder, raising a finger. “Um… you don’t-”

“The hell he doesn’t,” Bakugou continued, not realizing that this was the first time Kirishima had used his name without inserting “bro” into it, “He’s been a thorn in my side since we were kids!”

“What did he ever do to you?” Uraraka asked, joining Kirishima in front of their new friend. “You’re the one who bullied him!”

“R-really guys, you don’t-”

“That f***er thought he was better than me! He was always looking down on me, even though he didn’t have a Quirk! He needed to be put back in his place!”

“So you admit it,” Ashido added, joining into the human wall that was beginning to form in front of Midoriya. “You nearly broke him, you know. If he didn’t get into Hamada-”

“Of course I didn’t break him!” Bakugou interrupted. “That’s what’s so infuriating! No matter how many times I burned him, he always kept on going like nothing happened, following me around, dragging me down, he just wouldn’t break!”

Yaoyorozu stepped into the line with those four. “And you wanted to see him break?”

“Of f***ing course I did!” Bakugou shouted. “Because if he didn’t break, if I’m weaker than Deku, then what does that make me?! Ever since Kamino, people have been looking down on me, pitying me, blaming me … I have to be the strongest! And after all I’ve been through, Deku still came out on top!”

“ Izuku is ten times the hero you’ll ever be,” Uraraka glared.

“ENOUGH!”

All four of the classmates, standing side-by-side, jumped as Izuku parted through them. “Look, I appreciate you standing up for me. It feels nice, having so many people in my corner.” He looked each of them dead in the eye.

“But this is my battle to fight.”

Hesitantly, the other four nodded, backing off.

Izuku turned back to Bakugou. “You still became a hero, didn’t you?” he asked. “I didn’t crush your dream, unlike what you tried to do to mine.”

“It doesn’t matter! Now whenever people look at me, they’ll only see a pathetic weakling who ranked below someone who doesn’t even have a f***ing Quirk!”

“And you’re the only one?!” Izuku asked incredulously. “Have you ever stopped to think about how rare it is for a hero to make the top 50 right after graduating? Your entire class had a head start due to all the villains, admittedly, but it’s still something very few heroes can say.”

“So you’re saying you’re better than us? That you managed your spot without being attacked in school?”

“No, I just-”

“You’re nothing but a weakling who got lucky and cheated his way to the top,” Bakugou continued, pointing at Izuku. “And we’d all be better off if you’d just taken my advice and thrown yourself off the roof!”

There was a pause. A horrible, deafening moment of silence where time seemed to grind to a screeching halt.

Yaoyorozu gasped. Uraraka glared daggers. Kirishima’s jaw dropped. Ashido looked like she was about to throw up.

“You don’t mean to tell me you actually meant it?” Izuku asked, shocked, his face going pale.

“Maybe not when I said it,” Bakugou growled, “But now? Even if you didn’t get a Quirk in your next life, at least then you’d have left that spot on the rankings to someone who actually deserved it!”

“Like you?” Ashido questioned. “The only thing you deserve is for your license to get set on fire and then for the ashes to get set on fire!”

Bakugou looked like he was about to fire back when Kirishima threw in his own two cents.

“Bakugou… When Shigaraki said you were more like a villain than a hero… He was right all along.”

Now it was Bakugou’s turn to go pale. He turned to look at the redhead, who wouldn’t meet his eyes. That Sh***y Haired extra who had always hung unto him despite Bakugou’s many protests, who still saw Bakugou as above him despite his own strength… Bakugou didn’t know why it stung, to have him finally turn his back on him.

It wasn't long before Bakugou turned his ire back to the one whose fault this was. Whose fault everything was.

“ You… ”

“This is nobody’s fault but your own, Bakugou,” Izuku said simply, his voice low. “I know you came here looking for a fight. And if you want one so bad, I’m going to give you one. Right here, right now."

Bakugou didn’t need to be told twice. His hands held out, he began to heat up, small explosions dancing on his palms with that horrible popping sound.

“ I’m gonna f***ing kill you! ”

“Midoriya, let us help you!” Kirishima said, red lightning beginning to crackle around his arms.

“You’re a great fighter, but without your gear,” Uraraka added, “You’ll get seriously hurt!”

“I appreciate your willingness to help,” Izuku shouted, raising his voice to be heard over the explosions, “But this is between us two! This fight has been a long time coming and I have to do this alone!”

He turned back to the other four, his hands in his pockets. “Also, bold of you to assume I don’t have my gear.”

Bakugou screamed, launching himself towards Izuku, propelled through the air by his explosions, raising his fist to deliver a powerful hook once his momentum had built up sufficiently.

Izuku whirled back  around to face Bakugou, pulling his hands out of his pockets to reveal they were now wearing gloves with some metallic panelling. Said panelling immediately began to unfold outward, and almost instantly, Uraraka recognized the same gauntlets that had served Izuku so well when they fought the Lizard Gang.

“Courtesy of Hatsume Industries,” Izuku quipped before bring his armored hand up to catch Bakugou’s punch, which delivered an electric shock in the process.

Bakugou screamed as jolts of electricity pulsed from the gloves before he overpowered the current, bringing his other arm up and igniting an explosion in Izuku’s face.

Fortunately, his movements were slowed by the electricity, meaning Izuku had ample time to bring his other arm to block the explosion. This protected him from serious harm, but the force knocked Izuku back a few meters. The green haired hero quickly did a backflip and regained his footing, stabilizing his landing with one hand while his other reached into his pocket to pull out a remarkably pocket-sized grappling gun.

Bakugou launched forward once again, explosions crackling in his hands, but before he could strike, Izuku fired the grappling gun directly at Bakugou’s gauntlet mid-flight. The cable wrapped around it as Izuku dodged out of the way, holding on tight as Bakugou’s momentum caused him to blow right past him.

Izuku pressed a button on the grappling gun and the cable went taut. He planted his feet firmly and yanked on the cable, causing Bakugou to spin around him before the greenette let the cable relax, uncoiling from the grenade gauntlet and letting Bakugou fly directly into the rusted washing machine, crashing into it with a solid CRACK as the old, broken appliance broke into pieces.

Bakugou got back up to his feet, wiping his mouth with his left arm. “Fighting defensively and keeping your distance, eh?” he taunted. “Of course you’d rely on those cowardly tactics!”

“It’s called fighting intelligently. Of course, you wouldn’t know about that now, would you?” Izuku shot back.

“Oh ho!” Bakugou grinned before bringing up his other arm, aiming the cannon on his gauntlet towards Izuku. “Then by all means, get as far as you can, ‘cause there’s no way you can dodge this!”

He pulled the pin from his right gauntlet and aimed it squarely at Izuku, who was out of melee range, but not nearly far enough to dodge the blast in time.

As the nitroglycerin in the gauntlet began to ignite, Kirishima began to fire up the red lightning once again. “Their fight or not, I’m not letting him do this alone!” Hardening himself to the point of indestructibility, the defensive power of his natural Quirk enhanced by the power of One for All, he flung himself in between the two, ignoring Yaoyorozu’s protests.

“Get close to me!” Yaoyorozu shouted to Uraraka and Ashido, pulling her shirt up a bit so as to create a blast shield for the three.

KABOOM!

The shield was created just in time as the deafening explosion caused a massive flash of light that was blinding to anyone who saw it. Bakugou chuckled triumphantly, but frowned when the dust cleared and there stood a somewhat singed Kirishima, the red lightning still crackling around his rigid, stonelike body as he glared daggers at his former best friend as he stood in the center of what looked like a crater of broken glass.

“That... was… so… unmanly .”

“I have to concur,” Yaoyorozu said, stepping out from behind the blast shield she created along with Ashido. “Those are meant to be used against the strongest villains. You should be ashamed of using them against another hero.”

“He’s no hero!” Bakugou sneered. “And if he’s such a great hero, then where is that coward?”

“Weeeell…” Ashido said, smirking, “...he’s above you. Literally this time.”

“Wha…?”

Suddenly, the grappling cable reappeared out of nowhere, coming from above and clinging to his gauntlet again.

“ Release!”

It was then that Bakugou realized Uraraka didn’t step out from behind the blast shield. He looked up at the source of the voice and sure enough, Uraraka was floating above them, her hands pressed together as she usually did as she released her Quirk’s effect on something. His eyes widened as he realized that Izuku was also in the air, holding the grappling gun, and as Uraraka released him, Izuku let the cable pull him towards Bakugou at tremendous speed. 

The blonde had no time to react before a metal gauntlet, pulled along by the withdrawing cable and going faster than terminal velocity, collided directly with his face with a satisfying THWACK.

Now, Bakugou was no stranger to taking hits, but his nose was bleeding from the impact. As he wiped away the blood, he pointed at Izuku again. “So you think you’re so tough when you’ve got all those weapons on you and all those extras to cover for you! ‘Cause you know you can’t beat me in a fair fight! Why don’t you drop all the gear and prove me wrong, huh?”

“Maybe if you ditch the gauntlets,” Izuku retorted. “Then we’ll talk.”

Bakugou’s glare deepened as he grumbled to himself.

Then, to the shock of everyone present, he actually removed his gauntlets , laying them down on the sand.

Izuku sighed. “Well… let it not be said that I’m not a man of my word.” Izuku pressed a button on the side of his left gauntlet, collapsing the metal plating down and leaving him with the black glove, then he did the same to his other glove. He took those, along with his grappling gun and a couple other tools, and handed them to Yaoyorozu, who used her Quirk to synthesize a burlap sack to hold them.

That done, Izuku cracked his knuckles and assumed a stance similar to that of a kickboxer. “Your move, Bakugou.”

Bakugou once again rocketed towards Izuku, once again raising his arm for the same predictable hook.

Either he’s never figured out how to be unpredictable, Izuku thought as he caught Bakugou’s arm and flipped him over, throwing him down onto the sand, Or he still isn’t taking me seriously.

Bakugou got to his feet quickly and began to strike Izuku with rapid Quirk-enhanced palm strikes. There was no way Izuku could block him, so he had to settle for sweeping Bakugou’s arms aside instead, backing away as the explosive blonde gained ground.

The blonde’s strikes were fast, making Izuku realize Bakugou was actually quite adept at hand-to-hand combat. Up until now he had been relying on single, powerful attacks, but now that he was in close quarters and using actual fighting moves, it was all Izuku could do to keep himself from getting burned.

Attacking with my hands is out, he’d block easily and he’d punish that attack with his Quirk. Aim for the legs.

Izuku went for Bakugou’s legs with a sweeping kick, knocking Bakugou off-balance, but he landed in a handstand, flipped backwards, and rocketed back to Izuku.

Okay, without those big bulky gauntlets of his, he’s much more agile. Good to know.

Izuku knew Bakugou wouldn’t attempt that hook a third time, so instead of trying to predict what attack to block, Izuku opted to dodge instead, rolling to the side towards the ocean, getting sand in his hair in the process.

Bakugou made more rapid palm strikes, and once again, Izuku brushed them aside rather than try to block them, again losing ground and finding himself backed against the ocean. Suddenly, Bakugou brought his knee up and struck Izuku in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and leaving himself open for Bakugou to hit him with an explosion.

“Urgh!” Izuku cried as he fell back from the force of the explosion, hitting the shallow water. Bakugou smirked now that he’d landed a solid hit. Izuku knew Bakugou wouldn’t let up so he rolled out of the way, ignoring the searing pain on his stomach and the sting of salt water in his eyes. As he began to get back to his feet, he looked up just in time to see Bakugou starting to build up some bigger explosions in his hand.

So he got a knockdown on me and now he’s getting greedy… this is my chance!

He sprung to his feet and just barely managed to avoid an explosive palm strike, feeling the heat graze his cheek as he spun around. With Bakugou reeling from the miss, in one fluid motion Izuku roundhouse kicked Bakugou square in the jaw, launching him out of the shallows into the deeper water.

Bakugou splashed down, Izuku catching his breath as he waited for Bakugou to surface.

KABOOM!

A giant pillar of water erupted as Bakugou once again exploded, spraying salt water everywhere. Like a monster from one of those kaiju movies, Bakugou stormed back onto the beach, murder in his eyes.

Izuku frowned. I thought submerging him might disable his Quirk. I guess I was wrong.

Once again, Bakugou held out both of his arms, creating sparks in both of them as Izuku once again assumed a defensive stance.

On the bright side, Bakugou’s not thinking clearly. He’s beyond angry, and while it’s making him stronger, it’s hampering his fighting abilities. I might be able to-

*fizzle*

Bakugou blinked as the explosions in his hands suddenly died down. He looked down at them n confusion, as did Izuku.

Wait, what? Bakugou’s Quirk was working fine before. How did-

“Honestly,” a gruff, tired-sounding voice drawled from nearby. “I’ve been standing here for a good long while and only now you’re noticing me? I thought I taught you better than this.”

Every head in the area turned to see none other than Aizawa, his eyes glowing red, his hair floating around him as he stared down Bakugou, disabling his Quirk.

“Aizawa?” Yaoyorozu asked, legitimately surprised. “What are you-”

“A little birdie told me there was an impromptu class reunion going on here, and that same little birdie saw King Nitro stomping down there uninvited.”

“And…” Izuku began. “That little birdie was…”

Out from behind Aizawa stepped Shinsou, who looked like he desperately needed either a drink or a nap. Maybe both. “Sorry I’m late,” he said. “But I saw Blasty McSplode heading your direction and in spite of… recent events… I figured I should let Aizawa know.”

Izuku turned to face his teacher of one day. “So you were watching that whole fight? And you didn’t think to step in when he used his gauntlets on me? ”

“I needed to make an informed decision, and Bakugou’s willingness to use maximum force against a fellow hero was the nail in the coffin.”

“Nail in the coffin…?” Izuku muttered. “Informed decision…? What…” it was then that he saw what Aizawa was holding.

It was a cell phone, with a red light blinking… indicating it was recording.

Izuku had to admit, all the abuse he’d endured at Bakugou’s hands might have been worth it just to see the blood completely drain from Bakugou’s face.

“You…” the blonde stammered. “You were recording that?”

“Indeed. The entire fight, along with your little conversation beforehand. I have to say, the Hero Public Safety Commission will be really interested in hearing some of the things you said. Throw himself off the roof, you say…?”

Izuku couldn’t believe what was happening. Was Aizawa really going to…?

Even as Aizawa hit the send button, Izuku still wasn’t convinced this wasn’t an elaborate hallucination brought upon by Bakugou exploding him in the face.

“Bakugou,” Aizawa said as he pocketed his phone, “Don’t be surprised if someone from the Commission shows up and asks for you to hand over your license.”

Shinsou stepped towards an increasingly flabbergasted Bakugou with an impassive expression. “I guess at least one of my first impressions was right on the money.”

Bakugou glared at him. “And what’s that supposed to-”

He didn’t get further than that as he froze in place. Shinsou shook his head. “Are you ever not going to fall for that? Oh well. Go home and rethink your life .”

Bakugou mindlessly walked back off the beach, not even bothering to recover his gauntlets while under Shinsou’s control.

Aizawa looked back at Bakugou and sighed. “I honestly thought maybe I’d gotten through to him… I guess I hadn’t dissected his issues as well as I thought.” He turned back to Izuku, who was looking at him with uncertainty. The Erasure Hero sighed heavily.

“Midoriya… I’ve done a massive disservice to you. I pride myself on being a rational person, but when I expelled you, I was massively hypocritical and blinded by my own bias.”

The Quirkless hero shrugged. “Honestly… I’m over it by now. I became a hero without UA. I’m not really-”

“Midoriya, there’s something I need to confess to you. When you took the Quirk Apprehension Test, you actually came 19th. But I was looking for someone to remove from the class so there’d be a position for Shinsou to fill. But as an underground hero, I placed more value on Hagakure’s stealth capabilities than your raw skill. So…”

“So you rigged the scores,” Midoriya finished.

Yaoyorozu and Kirishima looked up at Aizawa with looks of sheer betrayal, Ashido and Uraraka looking back and forth between their former teacher in disbelief.

“You… despite what you said, you knew I didn’t lack potential, but you- you expelled me anyway?” Izuku pressed. His voice carried the tone of sheer disappointment, rather than outrage.

“I’ve tried to rationalize it, but believe you me, nothing I can say can possibly excuse what I did to you. Had it not been for Hamada, I may very well have ruined your life. And… I sincerely apologize.”

There was a tense, uncomfortable silence between everyone still standing on the beach.

“I… I don’t think I can forgive you,” Midoriya admitted. “At least right now.”

“I don’t expect you to. ...You should know I am no longer teaching at UA. And in fact, I suspect my teaching license will be revoked soon, along with my Pro Hero license. A few of my colleagues caught wind of what I did and they weren’t pleased about my actions. You ever been on the receiving end of Midnight’s whip when she’s not playing around?”

“Can’t say I have,” Izuku said.

“You don’t want to.” Aizawa looked Izuku in the eyes. “I’m meeting with the Hero Commission tomorrow to discuss both my missteps as well as Bakugou’s. Hopefully, bringing him to justice for what he did to you will help repair some of the damage I’ve done to you.”

“Maybe… it’s just… the last thing All Might ever did was save him, and if that last act of heroism was ruined-”

“Don’t worry about the grisly details going public,” Aizawa reassured. “When Bakugou is punished, the Hero Commission will likely just say it was due to unheroic actions and not go into further depth. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must get back to my patrol.”

He turned to leave, before looking back to the boy he once dismissed. “You know, you really impressed me with that fight. If I manage to keep my license through all of this, I hope to work alongside you one day.” And just as suddenly as he arrived, Aizawa strode away, disappearing down the street past the beach.

Uraraka turned to look at Izuku, who looked as though he’d had the rug pulled out from under him and hadn’t realized gravity had taken hold of him yet.

“Izuku…? Are you okay?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, I… I guess. I’ll get over it. Eventually.” He turned to Shinsou, wanting to change the subject. “So… Shinsou, huh? You're the Persuasive Hero, Blackout?”

“...Yeah, that’s me.”

“I’ve actually done some research on you, and I have so many questions about your Quirk!”

Shinsou raised his eyebrow. “Like?”

“Like, I know you need the other person to respond for it to work, but can you respond to nonverbal responses, like a nod?” Shinsou hadn’t considered that, but before he could answer, Izuku shot more of them out. “Does the strength of your control depend on the kind of response? If you got multiple people to talk to you at once, could you control them all at once?”

As Izuku shot question after question at Shinsou, who was struggling to keep up with all the inquiries, Uraraka couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

He’s strong. He’ll be even stronger for this experience, and he’ll have us to back him up.

Seeing Izuku once again in his natural environment of analyzing Quirks, the tension dissolved almost entirely. The members of the Hell Class knew that they had found a new friend and ally, and in spite of all that had happened, he was going to be alright.

A month later…

“Probation, huh?” Midoriya asked as he calmly stroked a black-and-white cat.

“Yeah. The Commission decided that though my actions towards you were reprehensible, they were actions taken as a teacher and not a Pro Hero, so I was given a warning. That said, I lost my teaching license. Though I never intended on going back to teaching after I resigned,” Aizawa replied, petting an orange cat.

Midoriya and Aizawa had met up at a cat cafe near UA and were catching up, much more cordially than at the beach. It had been Midoriya’s idea to meet here, actually, though he had a specific reason for asking to meet him now.

“You resigned as a teacher? I thought you were fired.”

“Yes, well… you see, after I expelled you, Shinsou wasn’t able to actually be part of the class until after the Sports Festival. So there was a hole in the class when the USJ incident happened. Two of my students died that day. And I can’t help but wonder if the outcome would have been different if you were in my class like you were supposed to be.”

“So you’re worried their blood might be on your hands.”

“Exactly. I know dwelling on what-ifs is unhealthy…”

“No, I totally understand, Aizawa,” Midoriya admitted. “All throughout my time at Hamada, I’ve had an unhealthy grudge against your class based on faulty first impressions, and I never bothered to make many friends out of fear of being burned again. So many opportunities, wasted…”

The two continued to interact with the cats in silence before Izuku spoke up a minute later.

“I haven’t heard anything about Bakugou though. What happened to him?”

“His license was revoked,” Aizawa said bluntly, not holding back. “Simple as that.”

“Really?” Izuku gasped, a little shocked. “But all that bullying was before UA…”

“Trust me, if UA had known about the bullying, if your previous teachers had penalized him like they were supposed to, we wouldn’t have let him into the entrance exam. But that’s besides the point. Even if his actions are far in the past, the incident on the beach proves that despite UA’s attempts, his behavior hadn’t changed much and his maturity was incredibly fragile.”

“...What’s he doing now?”

“Last I heard? Anger management, therapy, and community service.”

“Oh, I see,” Izuku said, rolling his eyes. “The Commission probably required those for him to get his license back.”

“Actually no,” Aizawa corrected. “The Commission has no intention of restoring his license, and they’ve made that perfectly clear. Bakugou’s doing those things of his own free will.”

Izuku looked at him in skepticism. “Really? That’s sudden of him.”

“If I had to guess, it was Kirishima cutting him out of his life that did it. Guess it’s a case of him not knowing what he had until it was gone.”

“Wow…”

“The Commission has no intention of restoring his Pro Hero status, but since he’s been on good behavior, there’s talk of letting him act provisionally. You know, in all-hands-on-deck situations, like those Nomu attacks a while back.”

The greenette continued stroking the cat as he remained deep in thought. I didn’t think Bakugou had it in him…

“So Midoriya, I know you didn’t call me here just to catch up. What do you want?”

Midoriya took a deep breath and smiled. “Well, I finally popped the question to Mei, and of course she said yes.”

“Oh? Congratulations.”

“And, well, ever since that day a month ago, I’ve been meeting the other members of the Hell Class, and a few of the other UA graduates. Mirio introduced me to Eri, and we got along swell. She’s a sweet girl, and I wanted her to be the flower girl at my wedding. And since you’re her legal guardian, I figured I should ask you.”

“She’d love that, I think.”

“Of course, I guess that means I have no choice but to let you come to the wedding too.”

Aizawa looked legitimately surprised. “You’re… you’re really inviting me to your wedding?”

“ Allowing. Make no mistake, this is just because I want Eri to be there,” Midoriya said sharply, “Not because I’ve forgiven you.”

“I see…”

Another silence.

“...Although I have forgiven you.”

“You have?”

“What can I say?” Izuku said, smiling sadly. “Holding grudges is exhausting. I didn’t know how true that was until just recently.”

“Well then, I’m glad. And I would be honored to attend.”

“Just… while you’re there, please try not to look like a hobo?” Izuku asked with a long-suffering voice.

“Don’t worry, even I have standards.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Of course, what Izuku didn’t tell Aizawa was that he’d also invited Ms. Joke and personally ensured that she and Aizawa would be seated next to each other. Even though he had indeed forgiven Aizawa, Izuku felt he was still allowed to be just a little petty.

You can hardly blame him for that, right?