The Fall of Icarus

Shouta slumped into his chair at the staff meeting table, placed right in between Nem and Zashi, and took out his pocket journal. Whether he’d be actually taking notes or playing one of the prepared sudokus was still up in the air. Nedzu had called an emergency staff meeting only an hour before classes were set to begin and he still wasn’t fully awake. Aizawa was supposed to be finishing his grading that he hadn’t done the night before due to an extended patrol.

Aizawa sighed and put aside his journal and took out his grading just as the door slammed open and the idiot, Yagi, walked in. Shouta rolled his eyes as the scrawny man muttered apologies before taking a seat. 

Everyone’s attention was drawn to the head of the table as Nedzu clapped his paws together. “Thank you all for coming on such short notice.” Shouta grunted in acknowledgment and noticed the other teachers giving their own forms of acknowledgement as well. “It has gotten to the point that we need to re-address a few things in regards to the school and our students.”

Aizawa frowned at the grim look on the principal’s face. “Is this about the villain attacks?” A couple of the teachers flinched at his bluntness, but to talk about this softly was illogical. Besides, there was little else regarding the students that would have Nedzu showing such emotion. 

“Indeed,” Nedzu agreed, clasping his paws together. “Our first year class has been in too many altercations with the League of Villains and it is our duty as heroes and their teachers to try and prevent any more interactions between them.”

“Have we had any leads on the traitor?” Hizashi asked, grabbing Shouta’s hand under the table. Shouta squeezed it once before relaxing his grip. 

“I must agree with Yamada,” Yagi said with a sharp nod. “It is of utmost importance that we find this traitor and bring them to justice as they deserve.”

“Unfortunately, we’ve yet to find any substantial evidence to back up any of our theories,” Nedzu admitted, his whispers twitching just barely in annoyance. Shouta couldn’t fault the slight loss of composure though, they had hoped that putting the dorms in place would reveal the traitor, yet nothing had come to light. 

“If this is just about Class 1-A, do we all really need to be here?”

Shouta, Nemuri, and Hizashi all turned harsh glares on the general education teacher that’d only been hired this year. Aizawa’s eyes glowed crimson as he glared at his fellow teacher, quirk flaring in his anger. The man flinched back from their gazes. 

“Your question has been noted and discarded as it is not constructive or appreciated,” Nedzu said sharply, making Shouta smirk as he dropped his quirk and returned his gaze to the principal. “In fact, this matter concerns everyone in this room no matter what you all may think. If we fail to prevent these attacks or locate the traitor, the school very well may be shut down for good.”

Shouta’s eyes widened in surprise. He knew that the Commission had been putting pressure on Nedzu, but this was extreme. 

“From here on out, I want everyone to keep their eyes and ears open. We will be finding the traitor within the semester and they will be dealt with swiftly for both the safety of our students and the safety of our school. I expect any suspicious behavior to be brought to me immediately, no matter how small it may seem, so that it can be further looked into,” Nedzu demanded. He tapped four fingers on the table twice and then quickly departed. 

Conversations burst out around the room, but Shouta, Nemuri, Hizashi, and Kan ignored it as they stood from the table and left the conference room, heading for the principal’s office. 

“There’s more to it, isn’t there?” Kan asked. 

“There always is, but we’ll discuss it when we arrive,” Shouta said, stopping all conversation as they continued their walk in silence. Luckily, there were no students around this area before classes or they might have been frightened at the sight of the four teachers stalking down the hall with angered and conflicted expressions.  

When they entered the office, Nedzu gestured for them to sit on the more comfortable couch before sitting across from them in his armchair. Shouta was just grateful that the couch was large enough to seat four adults comfortably. “Thank you for being as efficient as always,” Nedzu said, pouring himself a cup of tea. 

“What happened?” Aizawa asked bluntly. “Last time we talked it wasn’t nearly as dire a situation.”

“The Commission knows of our little traitor problem,” Nedzu said, hackles rising. The four teachers grimaced at the news. “There is twice the pressure and threats of school closure if it’s not dealt with as soon as possible, and that’s not to mention what will happen if the media gets ahold of this.”

“This will cause a media explosion, when they get ahold of it,” Kan said with a grimace. 

“Can the Commission really do that though?” Hizashi asked. 

“Legally, no. What they can do is refuse any of our students hero licenses as well as strip the licenses of any heroes that teach here,” Nedzu explained. 

“So we go vigilante,” Shouta said. “Boo hoo.” 

Nedzu clicked his tongue as Nemuri punched Shouta’s shoulder. “I’m not too concerned about the Commission to be honest. I am more worried about 1-A and the threat posed to them. We need to find the traitor for their sake.”

“None of my students are traitors,” Shouta stated bluntly. 

“I would highly agree. From what they’ve faced, the surveillance we’ve watched of them all, and your relationship with them, it is highly unlikely that any of your students would be the traitor,” Nedzu noted. “I’m even wondering if it’s a student at all.”

“You think it’s a teacher?” Nemuri asked. 

“I truly don’t know what to think,” Nedzu admitted grimly. “And that is the scariest part of all of this.”

“Deku,” Ochako called out, drawing Izuku’s attention away from his notebook. 

“What’s up, Ochako?” Izuku asked, wincing slightly and setting aside the notebook where he’d been drawing out a scene from the battle they’d just watched. Aizawa and Vlad had decided they’d be doing a joint battle training exercise with the addition of Shinsou Hitoshi. Though, Shinsou was a part of it just to see how he’d fit in with the hero classes and as a final test before he was allowed to officially join them. 

Ochako laughed at his question. “It’s our turn to battle, Deku.”

“Oh!” Izuku said, looking around to see his teammates waiting by the observation door for them, a couple of their classmates and 1-B snickering. Izuku could feel his whole face turn red as he quickly stashed his notebook and hurried over to his teammates. They left the room and headed down the stairs to the testing grounds that was set up like an old factory block. 

They started at their assigned jail cell at the edge of the factory block. Izuku’s team consisted of Mina, Ochako, and Mineta while the other team consisted of Monoma, Shinsou, Shoda, Yanagi, and Kodai. 

Izuku and his team had already come up with a semi-plan when they found out who was on their team and who they’d be set against. As soon as the timer buzzed, he shot off with One for All and made his way through the maze of pipes and buildings, leaving his teammates behind. It took no time at all to find Monoma standing on one of the pipes alone, which was a surprise to him as he’d expected to pull more of them as the bait. A scream sounded just as they made eye contact and his head whipped towards it, though Izuku couldn’t be sure whether it was Uraraka or Shinsou’s voice modifier that he’d used in the first round. 

“I wasn’t expecting you to spot me so early,” Monoma stated, rolling his three stopwatches between his fingers. “Though, after watching Bakugou’s performance, it’s only those of us clever enough to realize that we must guard ourselves against someone as strong and agile as you, Midoriya. Though it might be even more clever of us to realize that it was the other three who amplified Bakugou’s strength and that it is the necessary evil to crush them.” 

Izuku could barely hold back his eye roll at Monoma’s statement. “You’re a true showman, you know? While you’re saying all this, it is only right to believe that my teammates have already found yours as well.”

“And yet it would still be three against four. How well will your team truly fair in such a fight?” Monoma asked, smirking up at Izuku even as he jumped across the pipes to get closer. 

Izuku deemed to not reply as he rushed towards Monoma, propelling himself off of pipes and buildings to gain speed as he came closer, and yet the boy continued to monologue. Izuku was honestly getting sick of it and tuning it out until…

“I had a little chat with Shinsou. ‘The gifted will break this world.’ Tell me. Your pal Bakugou… how is it that he can still smile without a care when he’s the one that brought about the downfall of the Symbol of Peace?”

Izuku snapped. It was one thing to talk smack about him and his planning, but to once again bring up something that traumatized his friend without a care in the world and a smile on his face? Izuku aimed his hand to flick a powerful air force snap at Monoma… and black vines shot from his body. 

What the fuck was happening? This wasn’t One for All, was it? Izuku didn’t know where the vines were coming from, or even how they’d manifested. He was useless in trying to stop them as they started breaking apart the structure of the arena. Pipes went flying. Buildings had chunks torn out of them. Izuku was somehow floating in the air with the vines suspending him. One shot straight for Monoma and all Izuku could do was scream. “RUN!” 

Monoma jumped away just for another vine to shoot towards him. He jumped again and as he landed he shouted out for Shinsou. This was not supposed to be happening. Everything had been fine. Sure, Monoma had touched a nerve, but One for All had never acted like this. It had never manifested like this. He needed to talk to All Might…. First, he needed to stop whatever the hell these vines were though. He tried reeling them back in as he finally caught sight of Shinsou as he jumped up onto a pipe nearby. 

“Shinsou! Just run! I can’t control it!” Izuku shouted. He fell to his knees on solid ground, the impact jolting his bones, as he tried to find where within One for All the vines were coming from. “It’s exploding out of me… run!” His control over his quirk was slipping through his fingers like sand. He couldn’t even feel his connection to One for All anymore. 

The more that he fought against the vines, the more it hurt. “Stop it!” 

Actually, it hurt from every point that they came out of. “Stop it!” 

What the hell was going on? “It hurts!” 

He didn’t even realize he was speaking aloud as he shouted again. “Stop it!” 

He had just finally started getting One for All under control. “Stop it!” 

It was finally truly becoming his quirk. “Stop it!” 

No one was supposed to be worrying about him anymore. “Stop it!” 

His quirk wasn’t supposed to be hurting him anymore. “Stop it!” 

A body slammed onto him and he could tell they were gripping onto him for dear life, yet he couldn’t open his screwed shut eyes even as he heard Ochako’s voice. “Deku! You have to calm down!” 

Izuku’s eyes jolted open. Couldn’t she see that he was trying? It hurt too much to think. “I can’t control it,” he cried out. 

“Shinsou!” Ochako screamed, turning to look at the boy who was still on the pipe watching the whole show. “Brainwash him!” 

Shinsou was silent and Izuku could barely register the conflicting emotions through the boy’s eyes before he had to shut his own again against the pain. 

“Midoriya!” Shinsou shouted, making Izuku open his eyes once more to look at the boy. The vines were still devastating the arena. It was a miracle that they had yet to attack Shinsou or Ochako. “Let’s fight!” 

Izuku tilted his head at the odd request and had to bite back a scream of pain as he tried pushing down the vines once more. “Okay!” He finally shouted in response to Shinsou. 

The effect was immediate. Izuku’s world went all black until he finally blinked through to see a vague fog floating around him. 

“You! You’ve got it all wrong!” Shouted a man who appeared out of the fog. Was he back in One for All again? Was this one of the vestiges? They were much more clear than he’d seen them at the Sports Festival. “You’ve got it all wrong! Weren’t you listening? We told you that you weren’t alone!” 

The man was bald with goggles resting on his forehead. Izuku spent the time analyzing the man’s look and tuning out the rest of his yelling. He was wearing a bandolier of bullets across his bare chest with a jacket thrown over it. Who was he? A mercenary? How could the bullets being under his jacket be efficient? And it was a leather jacket as well. Izuku wondered how that’d feel against his bare skin. Especially if it got all hot and he started sweating. It couldn’t be comfortable. And were his pants leather as well? 

“This power in you!” The man shouted, poking at Izuku and pulling him out of his thoughts. “It’s not something you use casually, all distracted. Not anymore!” 

This man must be one of the vestiges. Izuku tried to respond to him and found he couldn't, which made him start to panic. He couldn’t even feel his body. His eyes dropped down and he could just barely see that black fog was covering his entire body, all the way up to his mouth. What even was this quirk? Why was he being haunted by dead people? 

“Yeah, I know you can’t talk. Don’t sweat it!” The bald man said with a booming laugh. “Huh. Looks like we’re short on time. Let me just say one last thing. As for that power that just exploded out of you, that’s my quirk! It’s called Black Whip. It was honestly the perfect quirk. But understand this! This quirk has been building up in One for All. All of our quirks were stored in the core of the quirk as we held it. This quirk is bound to be much stronger than it was back in my day.” The black fog around them started engulfing the man and Izuku’s eyes widened in surprise. “Sheesh. Looks like I’m vanishing. Listen, when you use the quirk in anger, it’ll truly work the best for you. What really matters is controlling the heart. It’s okay to be angry. It’s okay to rage. You just need to learn control. One for All’s grown crazy strong, so be ready because you’re about to gain 6 new quirks! Control your heart!” 

And with that the vestige vanished and Izuku’s vision returned to blackness. 

“Deku! Hey Deku!” 

Izuku’s eyes shot open to find Ochako still gripping onto them with them floating in the air, Shinsou still standing on the pipe he’d been on before. 

“Are you okay? Deku!” Ochako was screaming in his face as he turned to look back up at her. 

“Ochako! Get back, it's dangerous!” Izuku screamed, his head whipping around as he remembered Black Whip exploding out of his body. 

Ochako just laughed as she gently landed them on the building. “Shinsou’s Brainwashing calmed you down. You’re fine now right?” 

Izuku looked around once more, sighing in relief that Black Whip was finally secured again. Before he could fully remember how he knew the name of the quirk that’d manifested, he felt the air move behind him. 

“I’m afraid this test isn’t over yet!” Monoma shouted as Izuku ducked and rolled away as Monoma tried swiping at him. Right. They were in the middle of a test. They had to put their all into it. It was only fair to Shinsou, who was aiming for the hero course and who had saved them all from Izuku’s weird quirk bullshit. 

Before he could delve into his thoughts again, something wrapped around his wrist and threw him from the roof they’d been resting on. He hit the side of the wall, which he knew would form a nasty bruise, before dropping to ground level. 

Ochako joined him shortly after. 

“I don’t know if I can use my quirk for the rest of the test. I might not be able to control it,” Izuku admitted to her as they watched where Shinsou and Monoma had been. 

“I think it’s best we retreat now,” Ochako agreed. “Let’s rally with our teammates and come up with a new plan.”

Izuku shook his head. “Our teammates can handle the other three. These two are the biggest targets of the test. Besides, retreating now would be admitting defeat.”

“Are you saying you’re going to fight quirkless?” Ochako asked, fear tinting her voice and causing him more pain than he’d like to admit. 

“No, but I have a plan…” 

____

Izuku and Ochako flew over the side of a roof and Izuku slammed into Monoma. Izuku rolled away from the boy, but was just too slow to stop him from getting skin to skin contact as Ochako reared up a kick she’d learned from Gunhead. 

“No! Don’t use my quirk!” Izuku shouted. “It’s too dangerous!” 

Monoma didn’t listen as he cackled and aimed a punch at Ochako. Izuku could only watch, momentarily forgetting his part of the plan, as Monoma aimed a punch at his friend just for Ochako to kick him and send him rolling. 

“I drew a blank?” Monoma cried as Ochako pinned him down. 

“Go!” Ochako yelled. “I got him!” 

Izuku snapped back to attention and zeroed in on Shinsou who was standing on a pipe just above them, shooting his capture weapon out to presumably help his teammate. Izuku kicked off the ground, grabbing the end of the capture weapon and coming up to Shinsou’s face just as Ochako released her quirk on him and sent both him and Shinsou tumbling down to the next level. 

Shinsou held a grin on his face as they fell. “Last time we tangled like this was at the Sports Festival.” 

Izuku kept his mouth shut, knowing he couldn’t risk going under Shinsou’s Brainwashing again. The boy grabbed two empty barrels with his capture weapon and flung them into the air. “I’m not the same as before, Midoriya!”

Izuku focused on what he remembered from seeing the vestige and what little he had said about his quirk. He pulled on what he could remember it feeling like and felt the whips encompass his arms just as Shinsou twisted his hands, bringing the barrels swinging towards him. Izuku shot out Black Whip and grabbed the barrels himself, throwing them back at Shinsou. 

Shinsou shrieked as he dodged the first barrel, but caught the second one in the stomach, making him skid across the roof they were on. Izuku jumped forward off the pipe he’d been on to in front of Shinsou. Shinsou grunted as he threw the barrel off of him, just to find Izuku standing there, Black Whip waving in the air around him. 

“Sorry, Shinsou,” Izuku said right before wrapping the boy up in Black Whip and using One for All to jump around the testing grounds back to his team’s jail cell. 

When he arrived, he found his teammates had captured the rest of the enemy team, tied up and already in the jail cell, just waiting for him to capture Shinsou. Mina opened the jail door and Izuku put Shinsou in the cell before she closed it once more and the depiction of Nedzu on top of the jail lit up and announced their win. 

Izuku hurried to open the door and offered a hand to Shinsou who just scoffed and whacked his hand away as he stood on his own. “I really am sorry,” Izuku offered, moving his previously offered hand to rub the back of his neck. “I don’t know what happened earlier, truly. But, I had to at least give a fair fight.”

“Yeah, because all you super powered students fighting against those with ‘weak’ or ‘villainous’ quirks is a fair fight,” Shinsou mocked as he exited the jail cell. The other 1-B students also exited the cell, grumbling about their loss. 

“Even if you lost, and again, I’m sorry,” Izuku said, following after Shinsou as they left the training grounds. “You’re definitely getting into one of the heroics classes. You more than proved your skills to the staff, not to mention all your personal training with Aizawa-sensei! You’ve truly mastered the capture weapon! You have amazing control over it!” 

“How many times do I have to say this?” Shinsou groaned. “I’m not here to make friends. You don’t have to talk my ear off and give me fake praise when I know you despise me for my quirk.” 

Izuku stopped in his tracks. “Why would I despise you for your quirk? I thought we talked about this after the Sports Festival…”

Shinsou sighed and stopped to turn to Izuku. “Everyone despises me. Why wouldn’t they? Why wouldn’t you? I have a villainous quirk.”

“Yeah, he won’t be buying that,” Mina said as she passed by them, continuing on to the observation room. 

“Really, the guy’s a freak. He probably knows every detail about you already,” Mineta huffed. 

Izuku flinched at that, unable to stop himself at the common insult from Junior High. He looked down at the ground and pulled at the gloves of his hero costume. 

“Why are you even so insistent on being my friend?” Shinsou asked. 

Izuku looked up just in time to catch him sending a glare at Mineta as he walked away as well. “I just think that everyone deserves a chance. No matter their quirk status or past. You clearly want to be a hero, and I have yet to witness you using your quirk for villainy. So, why would I call you or your quirk villainous?”

Shinsou sighed and shook his head. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?” 

Ochako threw an arm around Izuku’s shoulders. “Oh, trust me. You’ll have friends by the next horizon.” 

“Come sit with my table! We can be pretty loud sometimes, but I’m sure you’ll get along with Shouto!” Izuku said, pulling Shinsou’s arm as they walked through the cafeteria with trays in their hands. 

“I almost wish that Aizawa-sensei let me go in 1-B,” Shinsou grumbled. 

Izuku chuckled. “You’re his personal student. It was practically set in stone when you agreed to train with him that you’d be put in 1-A.”

Shinsou sighed. “I guess you’re right.” 

“Hello Izuku, Shinsou,” Shouto greeted, sitting alone at their claimed table. 

“Hi Shouto!” Izuku greeted, sitting down across from him, Shinsou moving to sit next to Shouto. “Where’s everyone else?”

Shouto winced and tilted his head to the side. “Over there.”

Izuku and Shinsou both looked to the side where they saw Tenya pushing Ochako towards a different table where Tsuyu was already sitting with Hagakure and Aoyoma. 

“Why are they going over there?” Shinsou asked. “I got the impression that you all always sat together.” 

“It seems that people are under the assumption that Izuku is connected to All for One given his recent quirk development,” Shouto explained, narrowing his eyes as a couple of them glanced over to their table. 

Izuku’s head snapped towards Shouto. “What do you mean? How did they even come up with that?” 

“Who’s All for One?” Shinsou asked at the same time.

“The boogieman of the Underworld essentially. He’s like the #1 supervillain and he’s been around for about two centuries. We’ve run into him before at Kamino. He’s the one that ended All Might’s hero career,” Shouto explained. “It seems that they believe that when Izuku snuck out to save Bakugou, that he really went to meet up with the League of Villains and All for One himself.” 

“They think that I work with the League of Villains?” Izuku whisper-shouted. 

Shouto waved a hand in the air, dismissing the idea. “And I thought I was the only conspiracy theorist in the school. This theory is ridiculous. You’ve gone through too much pain and trouble to be working with them. Besides, they should all know by now that you’re really All Might’s secret love child.”

Izuku couldn’t help his groan as Shinsou spluttered. “Shouto, I’ve already explained this too many times. You’ve seen pictures of my dad! We look too much alike!” 

“I mean the quirk matches up pretty well,” Shinsou chuckled. 

Izuku groaned and dropped his head on the table, aware that they were changing the subject and glad for it even if it was an exhausting topic. 

A tray slammed down next to Izuku’s head causing him to jerk up even as he recognized the familiar huff of annoyance. “Kacchan?” 

“Shut up, nerd,” Kacchan huffed, picking at his food. 

“Since when does Bakugou sit with you?” Shinsou asked, tilting his head like a cat. 

“I don’t, Eyebags,” Kacchan snapped. “I didn’t,” he corrected. “Fucking extras are spreading the most bullshit rumors that I couldn’t stand to sit with them anymore.”

“Does the whole school assume I’m the traitor?” Izuku groaned, dropping his head into his hands. 

“Yeah pretty much. They’re all stupid if you ask me though. How could a quirkless Deku like you have the courage to team up with the biggest villain in history?” Kacchan asked, rolling his eyes. 

“He’s not quirkless,” Shouto countered. 

“Er-” Izuku started, trying to come up with something to say to that.

“You never even told your friends?” Kacchan laughed. “How did I get that level of knowledge?”

“Because you ambushed me! And it’s not like I could lie to you! You’ve known me since we were born!” Izuku huffed, crossing his arms. 

“Damn right,” Kacchan said with a smirk. 

“Uh, can we go back to the whole quirkless thing?” Shinsou asked, clearly lost in the conversation. 

“Izuku! Just the subject I was looking for!” Mei shouted, plopping down in the seat next to Izuku and leaning into his personal space. “Can you test one of my babies for me?” 

Shouto chuckled at the interaction as Shinsou looked even more confused and leaned back in his seat even though he was sitting across from the girl. 

“Can we do it sometime tomorrow, Mei?” Izuku asked. “I’m kind of busy with rumors and getting interrogated.”

“Oh?” Mei asked, looking around the table. “What are we interrogating him about?” 

“Being quirkless,” Shouto answered. 

“You’re not quirkless,” Mei said, tilting her head as she returned her gaze to Izuku. 

“Yeah, not anymore,” Kacchan said, clearly enjoying the chaos he created. 

Izuku sighed. “I got my quirk the day of the UA entrance exams. I grew up quirkless.”

“Did All for One give you the quirk then? ‘Cause people keep saying you’re the UA traitor. I thought it was pretty stupid,” Mei pondered. 

Izuku groaned once more. “No!” He winced as he noticed several heads turn his way as he shouted his answer before returning back to a whisper. “It’s kind of a National Secret as to how I got my quirk though, can we go back to the dorms or something?”

Kacchan huffed in annoyance. “Given we’ve only really been here a couple minutes, we still have most of our lunch period left. Why don’t we go to one of those meeting rooms instead so we don’t end up late for class after.”

“Oh! Good idea Kacchan!” Izuku said, standing from the table. “Come on, I know one that’s pretty close to our classroom that Nedzu lets us use.” 

“This could not possibly get any weirder,” Shinsou grumbled standing and following after them. 

Izuku led them down a couple hallways with Kacchan glaring at anyone that gave them a second glance or watched for too long from his side. When they finally reached the meeting room, Izuku couldn’t help but sigh in relief as the tension dropped from his shoulders. 

“The rooms are soundproof which is pretty cool, I guess,” Kacchan said as he closed the door after everyone had entered.
“Do we get the Izuku lore now?” Shinsou asked, taking a seat on one of the couches in the room. 

Izuku sat in one of the armchairs with Kacchan sitting in the one next to him, Shouto and Mei sitting next to Shinsou on the couch. “Okay, so I wasn’t lying when I said this was a National secret. My quirk originally wasn’t mine, it was All Might’s.” 

“How does that even work?” Shinsou asked. 

“So you are All Might’s secret love child!” Shouto cheered. 

“That’s not what he means, dumbass,” Kacchan huffed, rolling his eyes. “Trust me, I know Uncle Hisashi, and he’s not All Might.” Shouto deflated and Shinsou and Mei chuckled at the outright denial. 

“I’ll just give you all the speedrun of things and hope that All Might doesn’t hate me for telling more people the secret,” Izuku said with a sigh. “My quirk is called One for All-”

“Like All for One?” Mei asked. 

“Yeah,” Izuku nodded. “So, apparently the first holder of it was Shigaraki Yoichi-”

“Like the leader of the League of Villains?” Shouto asked. 

“Oh my Kami, just let him finish, holy shit,” Kacchan groaned. 

“Okay, yes, like the leader, Shigaraki Tomura. I have a feeling that’s not his real name and that All for One just renamed him with his own family name. Anyways, the first holder was Yoichi, he’s All for One’s kid brother. All for One apparently forced a quirk on him, which was Stockpiling, because he thought he was quirkless. News flash, he wasn’t. He had some sort of Inheritance quirk which let him pass down a quirk, but the two quirks merged together to become One for All. The quirk has since been passed down 8 more times, making me the ninth holder,” Izuku explained. 

“What the fuck,” Shinsou whispered. 

“Yeah,” Kacchan grumbled. “Imagine my surprise when the quirkless nerd from my childhood showed up in Class 1-A on the first day of school and was using a quirk so strong it broke his fingers.” 

“Is that why you were so angry at him during the quirk assessment?” Shouto asked. 

“Part of it,” Kacchan said with a shrug. “I made him confess the status of his quirk that day after school.” 

“He literally ambushed me as soon as we got out of class and no one was around,” Izuku chuckled. 

“Okay, so everyone’s an idiot and you didn’t get your quirk from All for One,” Mei said. 

“Yeah, no.” Izuku shook his head. “Apparently I’ll be getting all the quirks from the past users in the near future. That’s what Black Whip was. Apparently it was the fifth user’s quirk.” 

“What, so you’ll have 8 quirks?” Kacchan asked. “That’s bullshit!” 

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. “Well. Okay, so… there’s the original quirk that passes down quirks, the stockpiling quirk, and then the next six quirks.” 

“So, a total of 8 quirks?” Shinsou asked, gaping. “You’re fucking OP.” 

“Wait, but there’s 9 holders. You were quirkless, so shouldn’t there be 9 quirks with Yoichi having two?” Shouto asked. 

“In theory, yes. But, All Might was quirkless as well,” Izuku explained. “So, there’s only 9 quirks.” 

“That just means that I’ll be able to make more babies for you since there’s more quirks for you to test them on!” Mei shouted, excitedly. 

“Of course that’s where your mind goes, Goggles,” Kacchan laughed. 

“Where else was it supposed to go?” Mei asked. “It’s not too hard to dispel the rumors that the school’s cinnamon roll is secretly an evil mastermind villain that infiltrated the school.”

“Wait, so you only got your quirk the day of the entrance exam?” Shouto asked. “Is that why you break your bones so much?” 

“Yeah, the quirk is too powerful for me. Or, well it was for the most part. I still can’t use 100% of the power, but I’ve found a happy medium of power to use,” Izuku explained. 

“Well, it definitely got crazier,” Shinsou huffed. “But, I have to agree with Mei. I feel like you’re too nice to be a secret villain.”

“Wouldn’t that be the point?” Izuku asked, earning concerned and shocked looks from the group. He raised his hands in surrender. “I’m just saying! If someone’s the traitor, they probably act like just any random student to fit in and not get caught.” 

Kacchan shook his head. “Don’t analyze traitors when you’re being suspected of being one, nerd.” 

“It was a valid observation!” Izuku defended. 

The bell rang then, cutting off any further conversation and the group left the room, agreeing to meet up for lunch in the same room the next day. 

“I think it’s All Might in the trophy room with….” Everyone leaned forward as Izuku studied the small slip of paper in front of him. “Midnight’s whip,” he finished. He turned to Uraraka, who was sitting to his left in the small circle of students that he no longer found himself able to refer to by their given names. 

Uraraka looked at her own sheet of paper before shuffling through her cards and offering a shrug when she had nothing to show him. Next in the circle was Asui, who clicked her tongue and gave a slight shake of her head. Izuku’s hope rose- there was only one section that he needed confirmed before he could make his final accusation. Iida was next to confirm that he didn’t have any of the cards and, finally, Izuku turned to Shouto. The boy simply shrugged and Izuku cheered. 

“I do not understand!” Iida called out, chopping an arm through the air. “I have one of the guesses marked off, how can no one have it?” 

“Iida,” Izuku said, giggling. “I showed that card to you.” Iida’s face only grew with confusion, causing Izuku to giggle more. 

“New objective!” Uraraka called out, slapping her hand on the ground next to her. Izuku couldn’t help the flinch away from her hand, but he noticed that he wasn’t the only one surprised by the outburst, and Shouto put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Keep Deku away from the center at all costs!”

Izuku flinched again at the dumb nickname. Regardless, he quickly schooled his features into the Hero Deku mask that he wore at UA and rubbed the back of his neck. “If you’re too busy stopping me, how will you find the clues?” He asked. 

“You have a point, but it would be counterintuitive to just let you win, kero,” Tsuyu pointed out. 

Izuku sighed as the round continued, his pawn moving across the board as his friends tried to figure out the weapon. 

Just as Shouto rolled the dice, Denki grabbed everyone's attention by jumping up from the couch. “Everyone!” He cried, a note of worry in his tone. “Look,” he exclaimed, pointing at the TV. 

Izuku’s group had been playing Clue in front of the TV, so they spun in their spots to watch as everyone that was downstairs walked over to see what was going on. The mood of the room quickly dampened given the bright lettering of “Emergency Broadcast” scrolling on the bottom of the screen before the newscaster began speaking. 

“It’s with great regret that we inform the students, staff, and faculty of UA, as well as the general population of Musutafu, that we have been made aware of a traitor residing within the school,” a Commission member explained, their name and job title on a little card next to their face. “We are offering an award…”

Izuku stared at the screen in shock, terrified of the implications from the Commission. He tuned out the rest of the broadcast and barely processed any of the conversation happening around him as he watched the Commission member gesture to a photo of UA before pulling up pictures from the attacks his class had faced. 

“A traitor?” Shouto asked, scooting a bit closer to Izuku. 

“They’re saying there’s a traitor selling us out to the League of Villains,” Sero muttered. 

“Who would do such a thing?” Hagakure asked, clearly horrified. 

“It’s probably Deku,” Mineta muttered, several of the class obviously agreeing as they shot him wary looks. 

Izuku’s thoughts began to spiral. Who could be the traitor? A student? He really didn’t think it could be anyone in his class, but he also thought Kacchan was his best friend when they were little and was getting bullied. Granted they were friends again, but that was besides the point. A teacher? That really wouldn’t make sense given the punishments Nedzu would give them once they were revealed. A parent? Maybe a parent of one of the students Aizawa’s expelled in the past? Why did they learn from the Commission on the news instead of the school? No, they were probably just trying to keep it on the low and find out discreetly. The Commission probably just fucked everything up. Izuku should put more effort in finding them if only to get the suspicion off of him. 

“Nerd, let’s go,” Kacchan growled, hoisting him up from where he’d been sitting. 

Izuku looked around to notice that those he’d finally convinced to sit and play a game with him had moved away and were huddled together, except for Shouto who was now standing next to him. Izuku sighed and nodded as they moved up to Kacchan’s dorm room, Shinsou joining them. 

“Everyone in the class are damn right idiots,” Shinsou huffed. 

“The fact that they still think it’s you is preposterous,” Shouto agreed, slumping onto Kacchan’s bed next to Izuku. Shinsou sat on his other side and Kacchan took the desk chair in front of them. These were their typical placements when they came to Kacchan’s room to talk or hang out, though every once in a while they could convince Kacchan to join them on the bed. Then again, that was really only when they were watching a movie. 

“If anyone does anything, I’m going to blast them until they don’t wake up,” Kacchan huffed. 

Izuku snapped out of his thoughts at that. He could taste copper in his mouth, he must have bitten his tongue. “Kacchan, you can’t kill anyone. You won’t be able to become a hero.” 

“I’m pretty sure we would all give up heroics if anything happened to you, Izuku,” Shouto admitted. 

“I was guaranteed a life of villainy anyways,” Shinsou agreed with a shrug. 

“Aizawa would kill you if you turned to villainy,” Izuku countered. 

“Aizawa would probably join me,” Shinsou said, arching an eyebrow. 

Izuku sighed and brought his hand up to his chin. “I just need to find a way to convince everyone that I’m not the traitor. I mean, they’re just suspicious of me because… my quirk!” 

All three of them jumped as he shouted the last part and looked at him in surprise. 

“You gotta give us your thoughts if you expect us to follow, nerd,” Kacchan huffed. 

“Hitoshi, brainwash me,” Izuku demanded, turning to Shinsou again. 

“It’s Hitoshi now?” Hitoshi asked with a smirk. 

“Shut up and brai-”

Izuku’s vision swam in blackness for a few seconds before the vestiges appeared before him. They were on some platform where each vestige had a chair, including him. He scanned the room and noted that each vestige was clear in image besides one. They were also all looking at him in surprise. He went to open his mouth but found it covered once more, though this time at least his hands were free. Izuku glared down at his body before looking around the room again wondering how he could communicate with them all. 

“Looks like he still isn’t able to talk to us,” a woman with a high ponytail said, looking towards who Izuku knew to be the First, Shigaraki Yoichi. 

Izuku glared at the woman. He raised his hands and used JSL to sign, ‘way to state the obvious.’ 

“Oh, he knows sign language,” one of the men sitting next to First said, laughing as he understood Izuku’s signing. 

‘Thank Kami,’ Izuku signed, addressing the man. ‘Can you have everyone introduce themselves? I only know First and Fifth.’

The man nodded and turned to the group as a whole. “He wants us to introduce ourselves.”

“Well then,” Yoichi said with a soft smile towards Izuku. “Let’s go in order of number, shall we? As you know, I’m First, Shigaraki Yoichi. My quirk was solely Transference, but then my brother gave me Stockpiling which combined and became One for All.”

Izuku nodded and turned to the man that was able to understand JSL. “I’m Second. My quirk was Transmission. It could also be referred to as Shifting Speed. It essentially controls the speed of its target.”

Izuku’s eyes widened and he raised his hands to sign questions about the quirk, but the next person was already speaking. “I’m Third. My quirk was Fa Jin. It allows you to build up kinetic energy by making repetitive motions which can help you in speed and power depending on how you decide to release the kinetic energy.”

“Shinomori Hikage- Fourth, whatever ya wanna call me. Actually, don’t. My quirk was Danger Sense, think of it as Super Anxiety,” the next person explained before looking to the side, obviously not wanting to contribute any more information. 

Fifth scoffed. “Ignore him, he’s a massive introvert. We met already, obviously. I’m Fifth- Daigoro Banjo. We discussed my quirk, but I’ll give another synopsis since everyone else is. Black Whip: you produce black energy tendrils to use essentially however you want so long as you can control them properly.”

“Do I have to?” Sixth asked, hiding his face further in his jacket collar. 

“Yes,” Yoichi sighed, Second rolling his eyes beside him. 

“Fine,” Sixth said, revealing their face fully. “I’m En- Sixth. My quirk was Smokescreen and it’s essentially exactly as it sounds like, just like Hikage and Banjo’s. You’ll be able to generate a thick cloud of smoke from your body and with practice, the area it covers will grow.”

“And I’m Shimura Nana,” Seventh said. “My quirk was Float. With it, you’ll be able to levitate and suspend yourself in the air.”

Izuku nodded as he turned back to Second, bypassing Eighth as he knew All Might and his quirkless status previous to One for All. ‘Can you all see what’s happening outside?’

“By outside do you mean like… I don’t know, your world? Present time?” Second asked. 

Izuku nodded as Yoichi asked, “What’s the question?”

“He wants to know if we can see ‘outside’ through him,” Second explained. 

“Ah, it’s a bit of a yes and a no answer,” Yoichi explained. “We can see only when we attempt to. We respect your privacy of course and stick mostly to sitting around here, but things get very boring when you’ve been trapped inside a quirk for nearly 200 years.”

Izuku nodded at the explanation. ‘So, you know I manifested Black Whip, but do you know what’s been happening with my classmates?’

Second winced, giving Izuku all the answers he needed. “Yeah, we know what your classmates are thinking, kid.” 

Izuku huffed, or tried to at least. ‘So you know that my classmates all think that I’m a traitor and am receiving quirks from All for One?’

“For the love of Kami, can you please just translate?” Banjo asked.

Second sighed and repeated back what Izuku had signed. 

Nana shook her head two seats down from Izuku. “I agree with your friends’ statements about your classmates being idiots.” She grimaced as she spoke her next thought, “but then again, they don’t know the nature of your quirk so it is a plausible theory.”

Izuku glared at the woman. ‘So is that all? You all know, and yet I’ll be gaining 5 more quirks? Is there nothing any of you could do?’ Second continued to translate as he signed angrily at them. 

“Sorry, kiddo,” Banjo said with sympathy in his eyes. “We’re essentially just ghosts. No matter how much we want to help, there’s really nothing we can do.”

Izuku deflated. This whole conversation was useless besides finally learning all of their names and what quirks he’d be manifesting at some point or another. He went to stand and mentally groaned as he found himself unable to. Done with his quirk and the ridiculous factors that bound him, he surged 10% of One for All, lighting up the area they all sat in and briefly wiping away the smoke that held him captive and mute. “Fucking finally,” Izuku cursed before walking behind his chair to the edge of the platform. 

“Kid-”

“How did he-”

“What are you doing?”

“Oi!”

Izuku ignored the shouts of alarm and concern as he turned back to the vestiges and gave them a mock salute before letting himself fall backwards into the smoke that surrounded the platform. 

Blackness once again consumed his vision for a few seconds before his eyes snapped open and he found himself back in Kacchan’s room, his friends worriedly hovering around him. 

“Dude, you activated your quirk. How the fuck do you keep doing that?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Ugh, stupid ghosts,” Izuku groaned, rubbing his temple as shouts began to ring out in his head. 

“That was ridiculously dangerous!” Banjo shouted. 

“You couldn’t have known that you would wake up that way!” Nana agreed. 

“I swear he’s got a death wish,” Third muttered, though Izuku could barely hear it as Yoichi burst out in laughter. 

“This kid is a damn right genius! Like, we already knew that, but seriously!” Yoichi cackled. “Not only did he find a way to force himself here, he also found a way to force himself out!” 

“Yeah, whatever. Now I’m going to have to listen to you all at all times. Kindly shut the fuck up,” Izuku commanded, speaking aloud and startling his friends by cussing. 

“Damn, Izu,” Kacchan chuckled. “What would Auntie say if she heard you saying that type of foul language?” 

Izuku raised an eyebrow at his childhood friend. “I grew up with you and the rest of the Bakugou's. She expects nothing less, not to mention how often she curses herself.” 

Shouto snorted at that before quickly covering his mouth and nose with his hand. 

“So,” Hitoshi said. “Back on track. I’m Hitoshi now apparently. You made me brainwash you. You activated your quirk while brainwashed and successfully escaped the brainwashing without injuring yourself. I would like an explanation.” 

Izuku nodded. “Fair enough. Firstly, you know way too much about me to still be on a family name level. Therefore, you’re Hitoshi and I’m Izuku.”

Hitoshi shrugged. “Sure. Next?”

“I was thinking that if I could talk to the vestiges- the past users of One for All- then I might be able to get some help figuring out how to convince everyone that I’m not the traitor,” Izuku explained. 

“And how did that go?” Shouto asked, tilting his head. 

Izuku threw his hands in the air with a groan. “Horribly! The vestiges were essentially useless!” 

“Hey!” Banjo shouted. 

“Shut it,” Izuku hissed before turning back to his friends who seemed confused by the sudden interruption. “The only thing I really learned was everyone’s names, or what number they were, and what their quirks were.” 

“What numbers they were?” Kacchan asked. “Do they seriously refer to themselves as the number in which they inherited One for All?” 

“Yup,” Izuku said. “Second and Third didn’t give me a name, but everyone else did. I had them all go around and give introductions.”

“I thought you said you couldn’t talk last time you saw the vestiges?” Hitoshi asked. 

“My hands were free this time so I was able to communicate with Second by using JSL. He was the only one that understood, but he translated for everyone else,” Izuku explained. 

“Since when do you know JSL?” Kacchan asked, eyeing him suspiciously. 

“Since you started losing your hearing to your quirk,” Izuku replied, raising an eyebrow at the explosive boy. 

Kacchan scoffed. “I’m not losing my hearing.”

Izuku blinked slowly at him. “Wanna try again?”

Kacchan glared at him. “Whatever, fuck you, nerd. Why and how did you activate your quirk?”

Izuku smirked at him before raising a hand and activating One for All at a low percentage so they could see the green lightning wrapping around his hand. “When I go under Brainwashing, I get thrown into the area where the vestiges reside. Or, at least, that’s what’s happened the past two times. Last time, Fifth said the time was running out and when he disappeared, I came back to see Uraraka slapping me. This time, I wasn’t able to move and I got frustrated with the vestiges and wanted to leave. I activated One for All and cleared away the smoke-mist-fog-whatever that held me captive and I was able to leave.”

“Huh,” Hitoshi said. “That must be why it feels so different when I grab your mind. It’s like you’re there, but you’re not at the same time. Like I’m only holding onto a thread of a blanket.”

Izuku shrugged. “It’s probably because I go inside of my own quirk when you brainwash me. I don’t know why it happens, but now I won’t need you to brainwash me every time I need to talk to the vestiges given they can talk to me essentially whenever they want to.”

“Okay, enough ghost talk,” Kacchan declared. “Let’s watch a movie or some shit.”

“Can we watch another movie from that one director?” Shouto asked. 

“Miyazaki? I think there’s still a couple that we haven’t watched,” Hitoshi said as Kacchan grabbed his laptop and squeezed between Shinsou and Izuku. 

“How about Laputa?” Izuku asked. “We haven’t seen that one together yet.”

Hitoshi nodded. “That’s a really good one.”

“Whatever you want nerd,” Kacchan said, signing into his parents' streaming service and pulling up the movie. 

Shouto reached into the bedside table and grabbed the snacks that Kacchan had hoarded there for their movie marathons, passing them along the bed. They all settled down together before Kacchan placed the laptop on the desk chair and turned on the subtitles before pressing play on the movie. 

The tensions in classes were growing. Not only in 1-A, but throughout the whole school. The staff had put together an assembly to attempt to calm everyone’s nerves, and yet it had done nothing to ease the tension. Izuku’s only close friends at this point were Kacchan, Shouto, Hitoshi, and Mei. Eijiro, Denki, and Mina from Kacchan’s friend group were still friendly with him, as were Momo and Kyouka. Izuku’s old friend group wouldn’t sit with him during lunch and practically refused to make eye contact with him anymore. 

His quirk was practically helpless in this situation as well. During training the day prior, he’d developed the next quirk: Float. It was rather hard to hide this as he began floating up to the roof of the gym and Uraraka was on the opposite side of the gym from him. Aizawa-Sensei had had to erase his quirk just to get him down and that’s how he found himself here: sitting with his close friends, who had refused to leave his side, in a personal meeting room with Aizawa-Sensei, Nedzu, and Mic-Sensei. 

“It appears that you have gained a new quirk, Problem Child. Do you see how this can be worrisome?” Aizawa-Sensei asked. 

Izuku continued pulling at his fingers as he kept his eyes on the ground and nodded. Hitoshi, who was sitting to his right, put his hand on his back and started rubbing circles. 

Kacchan, who was sitting to his left, clicked his tongue in anger. “This is ridiculous. If you all are thinking he’s the traitor then this is absolute bullshit!” 

“Now, now, Bakugou,” Nedzu said, raising a paw. “No one said anything about the traitor.”

“It’s what you’re all thinking though, isn’t it?” Shouto asked. “That’s why you tried pulling him away alone. To interrogate him.” 

“I think Mei should be here,” Hitoshi said abruptly. “She knows just as much as we do.” 

Aizawa-Sensei sighed. “We weren’t going to interrogate Midoriya. But, if it’d make you feel better to have Hatsume here, then I’m sure we can try to pull her from whatever monstrosity she’s working on right now.” 

“Please,” Izuku whispered. He wanted all of his friends here. “Tell her Code Coeus and she’ll come.” 

Mic stepped out of the room with a promise to return to the girl as Nedzu turned to Izuku, making him shrink into himself more. “What is Code Coeus, Midoriya?” 

“Coeus was a Titan in Ancient Greek mythology,” Izuku explained. “He didn’t really have any myths tied to him, but his name means query, questioning, or intelligence. The code itself is that I’m getting questioned about my quirk or about being the traitor.”

“Why do you have a code for being questioned about being the traitor?” Aizawa-Sensei asked. 

“Because practically everyone in our stupid class has got it into their damn heads that Zu is the traitor. It’s fucking ridiculous,” Kacchan snapped. 

Izuku placed his hand on Kacchan’s knee to try and calm him down just as they heard running down the hall, two pairs of footsteps, and shouting from Present Mic to stop running. The door to their meeting room slammed open and Mei took stock of the situation before huffing and moving to sit on the ground in front of Izuku. Izuku couldn’t help the small smile as he laid his other hand on her shoulder. 

“Hatsume, you seriously are not allowed to run in the halls!” Mic-Sensei said, panting as he leaned against the door frame. 

Aizawa-Sensei chuckled as he waved Mic-Sensei back into the room. Present Mic nodded and stepped back in, closing the door before retaking his seat. 

“You both made it back fairly quickly,” Aizawa-Sensei said with an amused smirk and a raised eyebrow. 

“As soon as I uttered the code, she dropped everything and booked it here!” Mic-Sensei whined. “I didn’t even know she could run that fast!” 

Mei looked at the teachers and principal with a smug smirk. “Of course I can. Especially if something is wrong with one of my friends.” 

Izuku squeezed her shoulder a bit in thanks and she gave a slight nod in turn. 

Nedzu clapped his paws together and drew everyone’s attention. “Okay! Let’s get back on topic, shall we?” When he received a nod from everyone, he continued. “Midoriya, Aizawa was right to bring to my attention that you have developed two new quirks on top of the original.” Izuku winced at that and Kacchan grabbed his hand in a tight grip. “Yet,” Nedzu continued before any of his friends could cut him off, “we all know you’re not the traitor, correct?”

Izuku looked at the principal in shock and could see that Mic and Aizawa both had confused looks on their faces as they also looked to Nedzu. “But-”

“You have gained many allies, Midoriya,” Nedzu said with a look that made Izuku think there was a double meaning to his words. “With the way that your quirk is mutating and allowing you to access stored energy in different ways, it’s good to have people on your side.”

Izuku looked at the principal in a confused manner. Was he helping cover One for All for him?

“ Yagi told the rat ages ago and knows the threat of it ,” Nana answered. 

“ He’s also smart enough to know that knowledge is power ,” Second huffed. 

“ But why isn’t he just making me tell Aizawa and Mic ?” Izuku asked them. 

“ I bet he figures that you’ll tell them when you’re ready ,” Yoichi said calmly.

Izuku nodded to Nedzu. “It’s scary because it seems like a new quirk altogether, but it’s all the same quirk at the end of the day.”

“Almost everyone thinks he’s the traitor and is receiving quirks from All for One, which is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Kacchan grunted. 

“We’re really the only people that still hang out with him, except Katsuki’s old friends will join us sometimes as well as Yaoyorozu and Jiro,” Mei finished. 

Aizawa sighed, probably frustrated that his only lead on the traitor was lost. “This is ridiculous. We need to just find the damn traitor already.”

“We’re working on it,” Nedzu said, equally as perplexed by the situation at hand. “As for now, classes have been dismissed for a good minute, why don’t the five of you head back to the dorms and relax as we figure out what to do about all of this.” 

Mei hopped to her feet. “Can I go to the 1-A dorms too?” 

Aizawa nodded. “Yeah that’s fine, I’m assuming you’ll all be going to one of your dorm rooms?”

“Let’s go to Izu’s today,” Shouto suggested. “It’s the fastest to get to.”

“I’m fine with that,” Izuku said, standing as well. 

“If anyone bothers you about Mei being there, send me a text on the HeroNetwork,” Aizawa offered. “I’ll go out there to put a stop to it if they start bothering you.” 

“Thank you Senseis,” Izuku said, bowing to his teachers and principal. The rest of his group followed his lead in standing and bowing before they all left the room. 

“What movie should we watch?” Hitoshi asked as they walked down the UA halls. 

“Let’s watch one of those Ghibli movies again!” Mei suggested. 

“I don’t think we’ve all watched ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ together yet,” Izuku offered. 

“That’s a sick one,” Kacchan agreed. “I want Howl’s Castle.”

Izuku couldn’t help his laughter as they left the halls of UA and headed towards the dorms. There were students milling about as it was still a nice summer day out. “Of course you do Kacchan.” 

“What’s that mean, huh?” Kacchan asked, annoyed. 

“I bet Mei could build you one,” Izuku deflected. 

“Oh?” Mei asked, looking excited. “I need to see this movie!”

“No one let her watch AOT,” Hitoshi mumbled. 

Izuku choked on his spit as he laughed. “Toshi! Wait, her making the EDM gear would actually be so nice! Imagine the uses for heroes!” 

Hitoshi facepalmed. “Great, now we’re gonna have to watch that show together too.”

“What’s so bad about AUT?” Shouto asked. 

“AOT. It’s Attack on Titan,” Izuku explained. 

“It’s fucking weird,” Hitoshi added. 

“Yeah, batshit weird,” Kacchan asked, making Izuku and Hitoshi whip their heads towards the blonde boy. 

“You watched it?” Izuku asked. 

Kacchan huffed. “I heard you mumbling nonstop about it one day and wanted to see what all the fuss was about.”

Hitoshi laughed as they entered the dorms. “I can’t believe Katsuki actually watched a pre-quirk anime.” 

“I can,” Izuku said. “We used to watch pre-quirk shows and movies all the time when we were friends before.”

Kacchan nodded as they walked past everyone that was hanging out downstairs, Kacchan sending them glares as Izuku tried to avoid eye contact with anyone. The room had immediately gone silent as they’d walked in. 

“Izu, do you have enough snacks in your room?” Shouto asked. 

“Yeah, I just restocked,” Izuku confirmed

“Excuse me!” Iida shouted as the group started up the stairs towards the boys’ dorms. “What on earth do you think you’re doing, bringing a girl up there?” 

“Aizawa approved it, so if you have a stick up your ass about it, bring it to him,” Kacchan snapped, motioning for the rest of them to continue up the stairs. 

They could hear Iida continue to lecture at them as they walked up, but they all ignored him as they finally reached the second floor and made their way towards Izuku’s room. They could still hear Iida shouting all the way up here. He really should just go to Aizawa if he really thought they were doing something against the rules. 

Izuku shook his head as he took the lead of the group and went up to his door. He went to unlock it, but as he went to put the key in, the door pushed open. 

“You left your door open nerd? Really?” Kacchan huffed. 

Izuku could only stand there and stare as he pushed the door farther open. His room was trashed. His drawers were taken out of his desk, emptied, and left overturned. His bed was completely unmade with the sheets and pillows thrown haphazardly back onto the bed. His bookcases were empty, most of their contents on the floor. His All Might posters were ripped from the wall, only one left up with “TRAITOR” written across it in red marker. His figurines were all on the floor and smashed. 

“What the fuck,” Hitoshi whispered. 

Izuku could smell smoke, but he couldn’t look anywhere but at his room. Though, it wasn’t like he could really see the remains of his room anymore given that his vision was blurred with tears. 

There was whispered conversation around him before shapes began to move in front of and past him. One came to stand in front of him, blocking his vision of the room. There were small explosions and the sound of cloth rustling before something was wiping the tears from his eyes. 

“-rd. Ner- Izuku.” Kacchan was standing in front of him, wiping his tears with, assumingly, a handkerchief. Izuku blinked a couple times before finally being able to look up into red eyes. “Hey, it’s okay. We’re going to put things back as much as we can and make sure nothing’s missing, okay?”

Izuku nodded, eyes still a little unfocused as he tried to look past Kacchan. Shouto, Hitoshi, and Mei were bustling around the room, trying to minimize the damage by putting his notebooks back on their shelves and filling trash bags with the destroyed All Might merch. 

“So much money,” Izuku whispered. 

“And they’ll pay it back,” Kacchan said, voice a little softer than usual in an effort to comfort. 

“Those were limited edition. Why not steal them to sell them? Why destroy it all?” Izuku asked. 

“Are you really worried about the money?” Kacchan asked, tilting his head. 

“It was my mom’s money. She doesn’t have much, but she always tried to get me the best,” Izuku admitted. 

“We’re going to figure out who did this and they will be paying you back for each and every piece,” Kacchan said. 

“And we’ll be pulling up the prices for what they all go for today,” Hitoshi hissed. 

“I can buy you new merch if you want,” Shouto offered. 

“That’s not the point!” Izuku shouted, shoving Kacchan away from him and startling the whole group as he stormed into the room and started going through his notebooks. “They’re taking everything away from me. They took my friends. They tried to take the trust of the teachers. They destroyed my room. They’re going to try and have me…” Izuku stopped as he scanned through the notebooks again. 

“Have you what?” Mei asked, holding his blankets and sheets in her arms. 

“Have me… where’s number 16?” Izuku asked. 

“Number 16 what?” Shouto asked. 

“His Hero Analysis notebooks,” Kacchan explained, already stepping up besides Izuku to scan the shelf. “Is it in your backpack?” He asked, turning to Izuku after also not seeing it on the shelf. 

“No,” Izuku said, even as he reached for his backpack and started going through the contents. “I noticed someone went through my bag the other day, so I decided to leave it in here today.” All that was in his backpack was his school notebooks and note taking supplies. 

“Why would they take one of your journals?” Mei asked. 

“He analyzes heroes in them,” Hitoshi explained. 

“Number 16 was dedicated to our class and a couple teachers though,” Kacchan whispered, searching the shelf one more time. 

The group frantically searched the room, cleaning along the way so they weren’t having to constantly shove broken items around. In the end, the journal was gone. As a group, they headed down the stairs and out of the dorms, back towards the main building of UA. 

A knock sounded on the door to the teacher’s lounge and Yagi looked up from his lesson planning. He was alone in the room. He sighed as he stood up and walked towards the door just as a second, more insistent, knock came. 

Yagi opened the door and his eyes widened in surprise at the sight of one of his students. “Oh, how can I help you?” 

“Sensei,” they said. “I have a photograph and some evidence that I think you want to see regarding the traitor.” 

If Yagi’s eyes could have widened anymore than they already were, they would have. He waved the student in and gestured for them to sit on the couch before checking the hallway and closing the door. As he sat on the couch, the student began pulling items out of their bag. “Are you sure that it’s the traitor?”

“I’m positive,” the student replied grimly. “As are most of the other students of the class.”

Yagi nodded and listened as the student explained everything they knew, showing him the evidence as it came up.

Kacchan pounded his fist on the principal’s door. “Open the fuck up!” 

“Kacchan, calm down, please?” Izuku asked, wringing his hands nervously. 

“No, this has gone far enough,” Kacchan hissed, continuing to pound on the door. 

“Really, it went too far when they all started isolating you,” Shouto pointed out. “If one more person decides to do anything to you, they’re going to learn how much ice can hurt.” Before Izuku could react to that, the office door opened. 

“ What ,” Aizawa hissed. “You’ve literally been gone for like 10 minutes.”

“They destroyed Izuku’s room,” Mei said. 

“Fucking totally trashed it and stole stuff,” Hitoshi added. 

Aizawa turned back to the other people in the principal’s office. “I’m gonna go check this out.”

“Oh, field trip!” Nedzu said as he appeared in the doorway. “It’s been a while since I’ve been out to the dorms, anyways.”

“I wanna come on the field trip!” Mic said, joining the growing group. 

Aizawa sighed and slouched his shoulders. “It’s not a field trip, Hizashi. We’re going to investigate the destruction of Midoriya’s dorm room.”

“Oh!” Nedzu said, climbing up Aizawa’s body to rest on his shoulder. “Let’s turn this into a full dorm inspection!”

“We could say that we’re investigating rooms to look for any details of a possible traitor,” Aizawa offered. 

“Can we also change rooms?” Hitoshi asked. “I feel like we should be on the same floor at this point for safety reasons.” 

Aizawa sighed again. “This case is getting ridiculous.”

“I’ll have a new floor plan drafted up by the time we reach the dorms,” Nedzu placated. “Are there any specific requests besides you four being on the same floor?”

“Of the girls, it’s really only Mina, Momo, and Jiro who still talk to us and sometimes hang out with us. Whether that puts them on the same floor or the one below, I don’t care,” Hitoshi suggested. 

“The dipshits that hang around me are still chill, too,” Kacchan huffed as they all began walking down the hallway, Aizawa handing Nedzu a tablet as Mic closed the office door before catching up with them. 

“I don’t think Mineta should be on a floor with any girls,” Izuku added weakly. 

“Has he done anything that we should know of?” Mic asked. 

“We’ve caught him trying to sneak into the girls’ area several times when on snack runs,” Shouto said with a grimace. 

“Why haven’t you told the teachers about this?” Aizawa asked, glaring at their group. 

“We told All Might,” Mei said, pulling some tools from her pockets and fidgeting with them. “He was out and about first when we found a chance to bring it up. He said he’d take care of it.”

“Yes, well, we’ll have to look into that it seems,” Nedzu said, ears twitching in what Izuku assumed was annoyance. 

As they approached the dorms, Aizawa stopped, turning to the group. “Okay, you all go up to your rooms and start packing. We’ll talk to the rest of the class about the situation. Ask Momo to go with you and see if she can make you some boxes. Otherwise, we already requested some to be sent over.”

“Thank you Sensei,” Izuku whispered, leading the group in. 

“I’ll get Momo and meet you at Izuku’s room,” Hitoshi said, stepping away from the group. 

Izuku nodded and led their group up the stairs, stopping at the top to wait for the others. He didn’t hear the teachers come in until Momo and Hitoshi were already climbing the stairs behind them. 

“Wait up!” Jiro called out, running up the stairs to catch up with Momo and Hitoshi as they reached the top of the stairs as well. 

“Do you need something, Kyouka?” Momo asked, turning to her friend. 

“I want to help, too,” Jiro said, playing with her ear jacks. “I heard what the teachers said outside and Sensei let me come up with you.”

“Alright, let’s get this over with,” Kacchan said, stomping towards Izuku’s room. 

“Jiro,” Shouto said as they followed Kacchan, “do you know what happened to Izuku’s room?” 

She shook her head, looking apologetic. “Sorry, as soon as class was over I started listening to music so I could focus on my homework.” 

“What happened to your room?” Momo asked Izuku. 

Instead of answering, Izuku stepped up to his door and unlocked it. Despite their efforts to clean, the room was still trashed from their search of the missing journal. Jiro and Momo gasped at the mess. 

“Someone broke in and tore the room apart,” Mei said. “Stole at least one journal as well.” 

“Who would do such a thing?” Momo asked, stepping into the room. 

Izuku shrugged. “Could be any of the people that think I’m the traitor. But, we’re all moving rooms now.”

“Oh, do you need me to make boxes?” Momo asked, already unbuttoning the bottom of her shift to leave her stomach bare. 

“I would really appreciate it,” Izuku said, nodding with a soft smile. “Aizawa said that he’s having boxes sent over, but he still has to explain everything to the class.”

“Is everyone changing rooms?” Jiro asked as Momo began producing boxes.

“Nedzu made up a new floor plan, but he didn’t show it to us, so we’re not sure. You two might be moved up to the fourth floor with us, or maybe the third floor. We’re all just kinda taking over Katsuki’s floor,” Hitoshi explained as he and Izuku began placing notebooks into the boxes. Kacchan and Shouto were building the boxes and Mei was folding the bedding to make it easier to carry. 

“Gives me a chance to redecorate,” Jiro said with a shrug. “How should I help?”

“Can you wrap the figurines? There’s paper and stuff under the bed,” Izuku requested, looking up from the box he was closing. 

“Got it!” Jiro said, heading over to the desk as Mei brought some wrapping paper over and started to help her wrap stuff. 

“I wonder if I could switch out my bed if we’re all moving,” Momo pondered. 

“Getting too cramped?” Kacchan laughed. 

“Your room is regal,” Shouto said. “Though, I can understand wanting a different room design. Mine is practically an exact replica of my room at my dad’s.” 

Momo nodded. “Yeah, my room at home is a lot bigger, so I wasn’t expecting the bed to be too big, but I’ll have my parents send me a new bed and take my old one. That way I can actually have people in my room to visit.”

“Ooh! Can we have girls' nights?” Mei asked excitedly. 

“Of course!” Momo said, grinning widely. “I’d love to!” 

“That’s all the journals, Zu,” Hitoshi said, turning from the bookshelf that was finally cleared out besides the figurines. 

“Can we put some music on?” Jiro asked as she closed the box they were working on. 

“Huh?” Izuku asked, stopping his scan of the room to see what else needed to be done. “Sure, I don’t care.” 

“I have a playlist that I know you and Izuku like,” Kacchan offered, pulling out his phone. 

“What about the rest of us?” Shouto asked, looking up at Kacchan from where he was sitting cross legged on the floor next to him. 

“Like I know every single person’s music tastes?” Kacchan asked with a scoff. He found the playlist and put it on, turning his volume up and setting his phone on top of the bookcase so that everyone could hear the music, but it also wasn’t in the way. 

“Okay, looks like it’s just the figurines and posters,” Hitoshi said, starting to carefully take the posters down that hadn’t been defaced. 

“Thank you all for helping me, seriously,” Izuku said, moving to the wall to join in taking the posters down. 

“It’s no problem at all, Izuku,” Momo offered, rebuttoning her shirt and moving to help wrap up the figurines. 

“As long as you help me, too,” Jiro said with a shrug and a smirk. 

Izuku smiled as he shook his head. “We can just do one room at a time and all help each other, how about that? It’ll go faster if everyone gets help.”

“I’m fine with that,” Hitoshi said, nodding. 

“Same,” Shouto said. 

“I’m not moving rooms, so there’s nothing else for me to do,” Kacchan scoffed. 

“Neither am I since I’m already on the same floor as Katsuki,” Hitoshi said. 

Izuku smiled at his friends as he took the last poster down and wrapped it into a tube before putting a rubber band around it. “Let’s leave it all here and move to the next room. The others still have to clear out their rooms before we can even move anything up.”

The group nodded as they left the room and headed up to the next floor where Jiro’s room was. 

Nedzu held up a paw as Shouta went to enter the dorms behind his students. “Not yet, Aizawa. Give it a moment for them to all go upstairs.”

Shouta sighed as he pulled his foot back and waited for his old teacher to give him the go ahead to go into the building. 

“Go on,” Nedzu said after a couple minutes. 

Shouta opened the door and they all walked into the dorm common area where several students were looking towards the stairs with distaste. They could just barely see Jirou running up the stairs calling out to the others. 

“They’ll be informed by the others,” Nedzu said with a shrug when Shouta sent his boss a questioning look. 

“Alright hellspawn, gather up. We have an announcement to make,” Shouta called out, gathering everyone’s attention. Several of them looked startled by the two teachers and principal that stood in the doorway causing Shouta to sigh in disappointment. They all really needed to work on their situational awareness. 

The class quickly came to attention and gathered in the common room, some coming from the connected kitchen area. 

“Iida, would you please gather the rest of your class besides the group with Midoriya?” Nedzu asked. 

Iida nodded and raced up the stairs. The sound of him running around gathering students could be heard until he went up to the third floor and more students entered the common room from the stairs. 

“Is this about Midoriya, Sensei?” Kaminari asked, twisting his fingers together nervously. 

“We will explain everything once everyone has gathered,” Shouta said with a sigh. “It is illogical to repeat everything twice.”

“Midoriya looked really upset when he left earlier and when he just came back,” Kirishima pointed out. 

“Yeah, and the others looked absolutely pissed,” Mina chimed in. 

“Language, Ashido,” Hizashi reprimanded, causing the girl to blush and bow her head as she muttered her apologies. 

The rest of the students were suspiciously quiet on the topic of Midoriya as they waited for the remaining students to gather with them. It’s only a couple minutes later that Iida returns with the last of the students: Satou. 

“Alright,” Nedzu said, clapping his paws together as Iida and Satou settled down, “now that everyone’s here, we have some important news to share with you all.” 

“Is this regarding the traitor that the HPSC made a broadcast about?” Sero asked, slumped on one of the couches against Kaminari. The rest of Bakugou’s friends, if they were all still friends, were squished on the couch together. 

“It is indeed,” Nedzu answered before returning his attention back to the rest of the class. “As we have been conducting our own investigations, we have deemed it necessary to search each of the students’ dorm rooms.” 

There was a rise in chatter as everyone decided to voice their opinions about that at once. Shouta sent a quirk-activated glare at the students which caused them to all quiet down, knowing that if they didn’t, they would come to regret it the next time they had a heroics class. 

Nedzu chuckled as the students fell silent. He patted the top of Shouta’s head, getting him to drop his quirk as he sent a disgruntled look at his boss. “Ah, let’s get back to the point without any more interruptions, shall we?” The students received a cold look from the principal’s beady eyes. Shouta could see several of the students give off visible tremors at the look and he could barely contain his eye roll. “Now, not only will we be investigating each of the student’s dorms, we will also be changing the rooms that everyone is in. This is a simple preventative measure that I don’t believe I need to get into the details about.”

Several of the students looked away from the principal and Shouta gave Hizashi a look to which he nodded in agreement, pulling out his phone. 

“Now, we already have the new dorm layout set up. We will begin our investigations on the fifth floor and make our way down,” Shouta explained in a deadpan tone. “As soon as your room has been cleared, you will be allowed back in the building to pack up your room with a supervisor. Until then, you will all return to the classroom and await your summons.”

“We’re not even allowed into our rooms?” Mineta shrieked. 

“The only possible reason that you would wish to return to your dorms is if you would have something to hide.” Shouta shot a glare around the class before settling red eyes on Mineta. “Is there something you need to hide, Mineta?”

“N-no, Sir- Sensei,” Mineta said, stumbling over his words and only cementing the fact that they were going to find something they wouldn’t like in his room, whether that be regarding the traitor situation or not. 

“Either way, you are all, from here on, out not allowed within the building. This is an active investigation zone,” Nedzu said, hopping off of Shouta’s shoulder and cackling as Detective Naomasa walked into the common room, several Heroes and officers behind him. 

The students jumped into action all at once, most of them filing out the doors, but a few hurried to start throwing questions at the adults, and there were even a couple that tried to race to their room. Shouta jumped up onto the coffee table and shot out his capture weapon, encasing both Mineta and Kouda as they raced towards the stairs as Midnight came in and released her quirked gas on the students screaming at him, Nedzu, and Hizashi. 

Within moments all of the students were outside of the dorms headed to their classroom in various states. Most, those who had listened in the beginning, were simply walking to the classroom with an Ectoplasm clone guiding them. Mineta was being led by two cops as he wore quirk suppressant cuffs. Kouda was reunited with his bunny who he’d been racing off to get and walked with the rest of the class. The students who fell unconscious to Midnight’s quirk were being carted away on the med bots. 

“Well that was an absolute mess,” Shouta sighed as the dorm door closed and the officers turned to face his group expectantly. “Let's clear out the first set of rooms and try to get this done with as soon as possible.”

“I would like to take a couple officers with myself to clear out Midoriya and his friend’s belongings if you don’t mind, Aizawa,” Nedzu interjected. 

Shouta waved him off. “Do what you want. Naomasa can go with you due to his quirk. Hizashi with me. Officers, figure out how you’re splitting up and meet me up at Floor 5, boy’s side.”

“I’ll inform Todoroki that his room will be searched before he’s able to pack it as well,” Nedzu added as an afterthought. 

Shouta nodded once before turning towards the stairs, his husband running to catch up with him. They ascended the stairs together, pinkies linked as they went to investigate each of the students’ dorm rooms. 

Izuku panted as he leaned against his knees, exhausted from running. 

“Don’t tell me that you’re tired already,” Kacchan laughed breathlessly, coming to a stop next to him. 

“Oh, shut up,” Izuku said, standing up and playfully swatting at Kacchan’s shoulder. “We literally just ran 3 miles.” 

Kacchan laughed. “Yeah, you’re right, let’s head back to the dorms. We don’t wanna be late for class.”

Izuku shook his head as they began walking back to the dorms from the entrance of the school where they’d stopped their morning run. Aizawa and the other heroes and officers had cleared the dorm building within a few hours and they had all changed rooms that day as well. Now that he was on a floor with only his closest friends, he barely had to interact with the rest of the class anymore outside of actual classes. Those were, to be frank, quite miserable. Even in heroics, they would barely talk to him, only in the group pairings did anyone actually interact with him. And besides the students, All Might was now distancing himself as well. 

“He’s being an idiot, kid, don’t worry about him,” Fifth said. 

“I can’t wait to give him a piece of my mind,” Seven added, anger clear in her voice. “I swear he used to be so much better than this.”

“Izuku, are you okay?” Kacchan asked, stopping their walk as he moved to stand in front of the green haired boy. 

Izuku’s eyes snapped to the blonde and he put on a nervous smile. “Yeah, sorry, I’m fine.” 

“You’re lying to yourself kid,” Second countered. 

“Shut up,” Izuku said, cutting Kacchan off as he was about to respond. 

“Oi,” Kacchan said, tapping the side of Izuku’s head lightly. “Leave the nerd alone for a minute so I can talk to him.”

Izuku couldn’t help the giggle that escaped him as the vestiges grumbled a bit, but eventually quieted. “They actually listened to you.” 

“Of course they did,” Kacchan scoffed. “They know what’s good for them. Now, tell me what’s wrong.”

Izuku looked up at the sky, wondering if he should really tell Kacchan how he was feeling. 

“Trust him, he cares about you,” First offered before disappearing again. 

Izuku sighed. “Fine. I just feel like I’m cursed or something. No matter what I do, no matter my quirk status, everyone always finds a way to turn on me. Practically everyone that I thought were my friends won’t make eye contact with me anymore and honestly? I’m scared. I’m scared that people will believe I’m the traitor and there’s nothing I’ll be able to do to stop it. I’m scared that I’ll be arrested and I’ll never get a chance to be a hero. I feel like I should have followed everyone’s advice and dropped my dream of becoming a hero when I was diagnosed as quirkless at four years old.”

Kacchan reached forward and pulled Izuku into a hug. “I’m sorry.”

“What are you sorry for?” Izuku asked, sniffling as tears started falling down his face. 

“That I treated you so horribly,” Kacchan said, squeezing Izuku tighter as he went to counter the statement. “I did, don’t deny it. I’m sorry that society is so fucked and that growing up was miserable for you. I’m sorry that our classmates are taking everything out of proportion and making an already stressful situation worse for you. You deserve to be happy,” Kacchan said, dropping his face into Izuku’s curls. “You deserve to be loved.”

Izuku pulled his head back and looked Kacchan in the eyes, tears still falling. “Thank you Kacchan.”

“You know I’d do anything for you right?” Kacchan asked, looking intensely into Izuku’s eyes. “I just want you to be happy and to see your dream come true.” 

“What about your dream?” Izuku whispered. 

Kacchan squeezed him a little tighter again. “My dream is the same as it was when we were in diapers, Zu. I want to become heroes together. To work to save as many as possible, together .”

“What are you saying Kacchan?” Izuku asked, tilting his head. 

“ He’s admitting his feelings to you !” Seven squealed, the other vestiges quick to hush her. A deep blush bloomed across Izuku’s face and a fresh wave of tears sprang from his eyes. 

“I’m saying that I always want to be by your side, nerd,” Kacchan admitted, gently wiping Izuku’s tears away. “I’m saying that even when you’re crying, you’re beautiful. Your tears shine like a pearl in the ocean.”

Izuku giggled, trying to hide his face but failing as Kacchan raised it back up to look at him. “You wouldn’t see the pearl, Kacchan, you’d see the oyster and oysters are ugly.”

“Let me by sentimental goddammit!” Kacchan huffed, squeezing Izuku’s cheeks together. “You’re beautiful Izuku and if you’ll have me, I want to be your boyfriend, okay?” 

“ Say yes !” Yoichi shouted.

“ Stop trying to push the aesthetic of our own relationship on the kid ,” Second sighed. 

“ But it’s too perfect! He and I are the green bois and you and Katsuki are the angry spiky bois ,” First complained. 

Second sighed again. “ Do what feels right kid .”

The voices inside of his head quieted down and Izuku closed his eyes for a moment as he gathered his thoughts. When he finally opened them, Katsuki was looking at him nervously. “You know, I’ve had a crush on you since we were little.” 

Kacchan looked back and forth at Izuku’s eyes. “Does that mean…?”

The tears finally stopped as Izuku leaned forward and kissed Kacchan’s cheek. “I would love to be your boyfriend, Kacchan.” 

Kacchan shouted excitedly and picked Izuku up, spinning him once before kissing him as Izuku laughed. 

Izuku managed to pull away just barely and lightly shoved Kacchan’s shoulder. “Come on, we have to get back and change or else we’ll really be late for class.” 

Neither of them could hide their wide grins as they headed back to the dorms hand in hand to go get ready for class. 

Not 15 minutes later, found them in their seats in 1-A classroom, just before Aizawa walked in, gathering the attention from the class. 

“Good, you’re all here and quiet. Let’s begin class, shall we?” Their teacher asked, moving to write on the white board. “There’s a couple big tests coming up for you all, so I would spend homeroom wisely and use the time to study.” 

As Aizawa took a seat at his test and began grading papers, Shouto and Hitoshi came up to Kacchan and Izuku. 

“What’s with the tardiness?” Shouto asked as Kacchan turned around in his desk to face the trio. 

“And the giddiness,” Hitoshi pointed out with a smirk. 

Izuku could feel his blush rising again as he hid his face in his hands. “Please.” 

“No, he has a point,” Shouto said. “Even Kats has a blush.”

“I asked the damn nerd out, he accepted,” Kacchan snapped, though it was more out of embarrassment than anger. “End of subject.” 

Unfortunately for the new couple, it was the opposite of the end of the subject as they heard a small gasp and they all turned to see Mina staring at them from where she stood behind Hitoshi, clearly having been walking to Sero’s desk. A look around the room showed Jirou and Shouji both looking at them in shock as well. 

“Raccoon Eyes,” Kacchan growled, getting up out of his seat. “Don’t you dare say a damn word.”

Mina’s eyes were wide, as was her smile, but she still shook her head, confirming that she wouldn’t say anything. The former Bakusquad were all watching the interaction with curiosity, as was Momo. Izuku sent her a look trying to convey that he would tell her later, which she thankfully caught on to as she nodded and grabbed her work, walking over to Jirou. 

“What was that all about?” Sero asked Mina as she turned back to him. 

Mina waved the boy off. “Nothing important, just got surprised when I heard Izuku’s last test score.”

The conversation thankfully turned away from their group as everyone refocused on what they had decided to spend homeroom doing, whether that was gossiping, catching up or getting ahead in homework, or studying for the tests as Aizawa had suggested. 

“Are there any tests that any of you are worried about?” Shouto asked, drawing their attention back. 

“Nah, I’ve been studying a shit ton, I just want a break,” Hitoshi answered. 

“Nerd’s too smart and I study too much to be worried,” Kacchan added. 

“Unless you count dealing with our classmates as one of the tests, then I’m not worried,” Izuku confirmed, laying his head down on the desk. He felt fingers card through his hair and he closed his eyes. It’d been about a week since his room had been trashed and they’d needed to completely rearrange the living situations in the dorms.

“Well, is there anything you particularly wanna do since interacting with the class isn’t a test?” Hitoshi asked with a snicker. 

Izuku looked up, finding it to be Kacchan’s hand that was woven into his curls. He sent a smile at his new boyfriend before turning back to his friends. “Wanna play a game?”

“What would we even play, nerd?” Kacchan asked, detangling his fingers from Izuku’s hair. 

“I have a hanafuda deck in my bag,” Shouto offered. 

“Oh, I haven’t played that in a while,” Izuku said, finally sitting up. 

“I’ll go grab it,” Shouto said with a nod. 

“Grab your chair as well,” Kacchan muttered, pulling out his phone. “You too, Eyebags.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Hitoshi said with an eye roll, walking back to his desk. “Whatever the almighty Kacchan says.”

“Damn straight,” Kacchan huffed. 

Izuku chuckled as he laid his head back down onto the desk. Shouto and Hitoshi returned moments later, Shouto waving the card deck in front of Izuku’s face in order to get him up. 

Izuku groaned as he sat up fully, taking the deck out of Shouto’s hands and beginning to shuffle the deck. 

“What’s got you so tired anyways?” Hitoshi asked as he sat in his chair. 

“Run. Sleep,” Izuku said, passing the shuffled deck back to Shouto. 

“How much did you guys run this morning?” Shouto asked, turning to Kacchan as Izuku leaned against his hand. 

“About 3 miles around the school,” Kacchan said with a shrug, not looking up from his phone. 

“Hey,” Izuku said. Shouto and Hitoshi looked at him, then looked at Kacchan who hadn’t looked up from his phone. He reached over and grabbed a card from the pile that Shouto was making for Kacchan, or at least that’s what he assumed. He flicked the card forward and it pegged Kacchan right in the middle of the forehead, leaving a red mark behind and causing him to snap his head up. 

“What the hell was that for?” Kacchan snapped. 

Izuku raised an eyebrow at the explosive boy. “What’s so important on your phone?”

“The Old Hag is hosting a show today, she wants us to come after school,” Kacchan explained. 

“Oh!” Izuku said, perking up. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen Auntie.”

“Does your mom know you’re dating?” Shouto asked. 

Kacchan winced. “Not yet.”

“We can tell her tonight, together,” Izuku said. “I’m sure I can redirect her… excitement.”

Kacchan sent him a thankful smile. “Thanks, Zu.”

“Okay, let’s knock off the lovey-dovey crap and play the game,” Hitoshi said, chuckling. 

Shouto nodded in agreement causing Izuku and Kacchan to roll their eyes. Kacchan tossed the stray card back to Shouto who reshuffled and dealt out their hands and then the playing field. 

“Everyone know how to play?” Shouto asked, looking up from the cards as he passed them out. 

“Yeah, let’s just get on with it,” Kacchan said, waving his hand dismissively. 

Izuku smiled and nodded and Hitoshi just shrugged. Deeming that all confirmation enough, Shouto goes first. He places one of the cards down in his hand, not having any matches with the field, then draws another card. Hitoshi, sitting to his right, goes next and the game continues. 

Izuku had just placed down his last card, ending the game when the classroom door opened. Izuku doesn’t pay much attention as he places the pair he’d made into his point pile. 

“Midoriya Izuku, you’re going to have to come with us,” a voice says, causing his group’s attention to snap towards the people that’d entered the classroom, shattering the peaceful atmosphere of the classroom.

“You are interrupting my class,” Aizawa says, standing and moving to be in their way of reaching Izuku, who is staring at the men with wide eyes. Four men, one dressed in a neat suit and the others wearing the HPSC officer uniforms. “State your business.”

“We are here to collect one Midoriya Izuku on the offense that he is the UA traitor,” the man in a suit replied. 

“He’s not the damn traitor!” Kacchan shouted, grabbing Izuku’s hand as he stood up. 

Izuku just squeezed his hand back as he continued watching. His throat was closed and even if he did want to say anything, he didn’t think he would be able to. 

“And you decided to choose the day that Detective Naomasa left on a mission to come arrest him?” Aizawa asked with a glare. “What convenient timing.” 

“Don’t say anything,” Hitoshi whispered to him. “They can use anything you do or say against you.”

“You’ll have to come in for questioning, young man,” the suit man continued, ignoring Aizawa. “You do not have a choice.”

“We’ll find a way to prove them wrong,” Shouto offered, laying a hand on Izuku’s shoulder. “We’ll get you out.”

“I don’t know if you can,” Izuku replied with a small smile towards his friends. He stood up and turned Kacchan to face him. Kacchan’s face was filled with vengeance and anger. Izuku raised a hand and put it on his boyfriend’s cheek. “I’ll be fine, Kacchan.”

“And if you’re not?” Kacchan whispered. “We all know the HPSC doesn’t have the most humane procedures.”

Izuku smiled again. “I believe in myself, okay? So, please, believe in me too.”

Kacchan nodded and turned his face to press a kiss into Izuku’s palm. “Just come back to me, we haven’t even had our first date.”

Izuku chuckled. “We’ll have to make it grand after all of this.”

“Kid,” Aizawa cut in, regret clear in the lines of his face. “You have to go with them, but we will be looking into this.” 

Izuku nodded and gave a small smile to his teacher. “I know, Sensei. Thank you for believing in me and supporting me as much as you have the past few months. You’re the first teacher to ever treat me as if I can actually be a hero.” He gave a little laugh, though there was no humor behind it. “Actually, you’re the first adult to treat me as a human being.”

Aizawa winced at that, but wasn’t able to respond before Izuku walked past him and up to the man in the suit, who started reading his rights. One of the officers placed quirk canceling cuffs on him and then they led him out, through the school building and off campus to the awaiting patrol car. Izuku didn’t say a word the entire time, following the process and hoping they would realize the truth soon enough. 

Midoriya Izuku was not the traitor. 

Izuku’s mind was as blank as a brand new canvas as he sat in the interrogation room at the HPSC building. The officers had been questioning him for two days now, and yet they would not drop the belief that he was the traitor as much as he denied it. He had stopped saying anything as soon as the first day ended and it came to the point that about halfway through the second day, his brain essentially turned off and tuned everything out. 

The only thing he couldn’t tune out, however, was the vestiges. 

“This is absolutely ridiculous!” Fifth, who Izuku now knew was named Daigoro, cried out. “How long are they going to keep this act going?”

“It seems,” First, now known as Yoichi, answered, “that they have deemed Izuku to be their very own fail safe.”

“He doesn’t deserve this shit,” Seventh, or Nana, cut in. 

“Thanks, guys,” Izuku thought, not daring to say anything out loud and knowing they could hear him anyway. “Yet, there’s nothing we can really do in this situation.”

“Is there no way to prove to them that you’re not the traitor?” Second asked. Second had yet to reveal his name, as well as Third, but they seemed content with being called by their numbers, so Izuku respected that. 

“He’s been telling them the truth already, even about the notebook they had,” Third huffed. “They’re all just idiots that are pretending to be on the right side of the law.”

“No one should treat a child this way,” Sixth, En, said, crossing his arms. “No matter what they believe to be true.”

“What happened to ‘innocent until proven guilty?’” Nana asked. 

“They believe they have proof simply because I have multiple quirks and like taking notes on other’s quirks,” Izuku responded tiredly. They’d been having a repeat of this conversation since he’d been brought here. The only thing Izuku had truly found out from this experience was that 1) they had his missing notebook somehow and 2) the quirk canceling cuffs did nothing to stop him from using his quirk. 

“Incoming,” Yoichi warned. 

Izuku snapped back into focus to scan his surroundings. There were two officers in the room with him who were discussing methods on getting him to talk and he could vaguely hear footsteps approaching the doorway. 

As soon as the door opened, Izuku mentally cursed. Standing there in his quirked glory, was All Might. Izuku really didn’t have the energy for this. He doubted that All Might was here to bring him back to school given that he’d essentially stopped talking to him about a week ago. Now that Izuku thought about it, it was around the same time that Izuku’s journal had gone missing. Whoever stole it must have brought it to All Might, who in turn brought it to the HPSC. 

“Give him a chance,” Nana said with a small bit of hope in her voice. “Maybe he’s here to help.” 

“Doubt it,” Izuku muttered back, eyes tracking All Might’s movements as he walked into the room, the other officers immediately departing. 

All Might deflated into his civilian identity, Yagi Toshinori, and Izuku raised an eyebrow. “Hello young Midoriya.” 

Izuku blinked at him. “Yagi.” A light flickered and Izuku’s eyes shot to the camera in the corner of the room, watching as it shut down. 

“They probably had it turned off so that he can freely talk about One for All,” En noted. 

“Midoriya,” Yagi said, bringing Izuku’s attention back to the man in front of him. “You need to confess to being the traitor.”

“I can’t,” Izuku huffed, leaning back in his chair. 

“And why not?” Yagi asked, glaring at his student. 

“Because I’m not the traitor,” Izuku said with a shrug. 

“This is absolutely ridiculous!” Yagi shouted, surprising Izuku. “We know you’ve been gaining quirks from All for One and that you’ve been trading information about your teachers and your classmates to him as well. Give up the stupid act!” 

“You know, he was always naïve, but I never thought he could be so stupid,” Third huffed. 

“He was always an idiot,” Second countered. “Remember that one time in Texas?” 

“Oh, yeah. Nevermind, he’s always been an idiot,” Third amended. 

Izuku raised both eyebrows at the man. “Yes, because I’ve been sneaking into Tartarus late at night when I’m asleep to go get new quirks from the man that wants me dead.”

Yagi growled. “This is not like you Midoriya. You were supposed to be a hero. You were supposed to be my successor. I can see now that I made a mistake in choosing you. You need to give me One for All back.”

“What the fuck,” Daigoro cursed. “Who does he think he is?”

“Don’t fret. I chose him as the next successor, Toshinori can’t take it back,” Yoichi said in an effort to calm down the angered vestiges. 

Izuku smiled at the man in front of him as he leaned back forward towards him. “You know, you used to be the star of my life, but you have crushed my dreams twice now. I’m not giving back One for All, and I will not admit to being the traitor, because I’m not.”

“You will give back One for All now!” Yagi demanded, slamming his fist down on the table between them. “You have taken this too far!” 

Izuku sighed and leaned back. “Fine, take my hair. Eat it. Do whatever the hell you want.”

Yagi grinned victoriously as he jumped forward and plucked a hair out of Izuku’s head, immediately placing it in his mouth, his grin turning smug. 

“Of course, even with my consent, it won’t work,” Izuku said, watching Yagi’s face as he swallowed the hair. “But then again, that won’t be apparent for a few hours, yes?” He could hear Yoichi chuckling in the recesses of his mind. 

Yagi huffed. “I don’t know where this attitude came from, young Midoriya, but it only cements the fact that you’re the traitor.”

“Yeah, because having an attitude means that you’re a villain now,” Third huffed. 

Izuku shrugged. “Maybe I just decided that I’ve been stepped on one too many times throughout my life. Things were just turning out right for me. I met my hero. I got a quirk. I had teachers that respected me. I rekindled my friendship with Kacchan and made friends beside him. I got a boyfriend. And now the world has found a way to throw me under the bus once again. My hero is a fake. My friends betrayed me. The HPSC wrongfully arrested me and is unlawfully holding me. Who knows what else they have planned in an attempt to get me to ‘confess’ as well. Not to mention that my so-called hero is now taking away my quirk. Or, at least attempting to. I believe that with all that is said and done, I’m allowed to have a bit of an attitude adjustment.” 

“Fuck yeah!” Daigoro cheered. 

“Go Nine!” En added, showing uncharacteristic enthusiasm. 

Yagi stared at him in shock, mouth floundering as he tried to find a response. Finally, his face hardened and he glared at Izuku. “While I may not have been able to get a confession out of you, I still got the more important item in this interaction. I once again have One for All and that is all that truly matters.”

“Over a child’s life?” Nana cried. 

Yagi stood up to leave and just as he grabbed the door handle, Izuku spoke up once more to his past hero. “Nana Shimura knows all that you’ve done and said to me, and I cannot fully express the disappointment that she holds for you.”

Yagi slowly turned back to face Izuku with a look of shock, but Izuku ignored him and went back to staring at the table in front of him as he listened to vestiges rage at Yagi’s actions and words. 

“He took the hair! He actually wants the kid to be quirkless again!” Daigoro shouted. 

“Did First not say to not fret?” Second huffed. 

“No matter how much he wants the quirk back, he won’t get it,” Third added. 

“Not that I truly consented to him having the quirk anyways,” Izuku added, absently noting that Yagi was screaming in his face. “I simply consented to him taking and eating my hair under the presumption that he would get the quirk. He doesn’t deserve to have this quirk back.”

Nana sighed and dropped her head in her hands. “I can’t believe he’s fallen so far. He used to have such a big heart and be such a sweetheart.”

“He fell the day he lost you,” First confessed. “He became obsessed with defeating my brother. We saw how bad he’d gotten when he first met Izuku.”

Izuku couldn’t help the wince at that, showing his reaction physically instead of solely mentally. His eyes shot back into focus as Yagi moved. The hero simply huffed and walked back towards the door, slamming it on his way out. Izuku’s eyes were drawn back to the corner of the room as the camera blinked back on. Izuku sighed and sunk back into his unfocused state. 

“- not to bring that up!” Nana shouted. 

“I’m fine you guys,” Izuku placated. “Besides, he’s gone. Now all I have to worry about is the HPSC interrogators.”

“But, what if they take it too far?” Nana asked softly. “What if they don’t just question you and bring in other methods?”

“I grew up quirkless and when I finally did get my quirk, it was constantly breaking all my bones. My hands lock up in the cold from how many times my fingers have been broken. My spine aches from when Yagi threw and pinned me during finals.” Izuku shook his head mentally. “I believe that I can withstand whatever it is they throw at me.”

“Just because you can doesn’t mean that you should have to, kid,” Second said sadly. 

“Again, there’s nothing we can do,” Izuku reminded them. “Unless I confess to something I’m not guilty of, they won’t give up.”

“Then the only thing we can do is hope that your friends and teachers can pull some miracle off,” Third huffed. “Until then, don’t forget that we’re right here with you.”

Izuku smiled at the group in front of him even as he registered the door to the interrogation room opening. “I know. And I have faith in those I care about to fight for me. Feels weird, but I trust them.”

The group in front of him smiled at him as he tuned back into his surroundings. There were three new people in front of him, dressed differently than the other officers that had come in. 

“It has come to our attention that you refuse to answer questions or confess to your crimes,” one of the men said. They were all dressed in black stealth suits and Izuku could tell that the HPSC was done waiting. 

“I have committed no crimes,” Izuku stated, watching as the men spread out around him, but not letting any emotion show on his face. 

“Yet, the evidence begs to differ,” another man said. 

“Your evidence is invalid,” Izuku said, barely stopping himself from rolling his eyes. “A notebook of a quirk-obsessed teenager, big whoop.”

“And the quirks?” the third man asked. 

Izuku scoffed. “As if my quirk is the craziest one out there.”

“I would suggest not saying too much,” Second offered. 

“They’ll just start twisting your words,” En added. 

“While there may be people born with dual quirks like your classmate, Todoroki Shouto, people do not simply start manifesting quirks left and right,” the first man stated. “The only logical conclusion is that you have been working with All for One.”

“Are you accusing me of breaking into Tartarus?” Izuku asked, tilting his head. 

“Kid,” Third sighed. “Don’t antagonize them.”

“Are you admitting to doing so?” the second man asked, coming to stand on Izuku’s right. 

“How exactly would I break into Tartarus, might I ask?” Izuku questioned back, ignoring the vestiges as they groaned. 

“Why don’t you tell us how you did it?” the first man asked. 

Izuku laughed as he shook his head. “That’d be a little hard given that I didn’t do anything of the sort.”

“Then how did you get multiple quirks? Your quirk is listed as a simple strength augmentation,” the third man asked. 

Izuku sighed. “Yeah, we don’t know what my full quirk is and haven’t gone in to update it due to trying to work it out.”

“And who is we?” the first man asked. 

“Nedzu knows everything,” Izuku shrugged. “He knows about my notebooks and he knows about my quirk. He also knows that I have not escaped the dorms to escape into Tartarus as you ridiculously suspect because he was video feeds on the dorms and all exit points to the school.”

The three men smiled as they approached the door to leave. “Seems like the others are just idiots. Looks like we have a rat to interrogate.” 

They left without another word and Izuku looked up to the camera and smiled. They could question Nedzu all they wanted, they weren’t going to get the answers they saught. 

Shouta walked into the principal’s office with his husband by his side. He sighed as he sat on one of the couches, tea and coffee waiting for them on the small table. Nedzu was on his computer typing something, so they didn’t bother him as they served themselves drinks. 

After Shouta’s third cup of coffee, a new pot now steeping, Nedzu sighed and brought his laptop over to the couches. 

“What was that about?” Hizashi asked, just finishing his first cup of tea. 

“It seems that the Commission wants to question me in regards to the Midoriya case,” Nedzu said, pouring himself and Hizashi another cup of tea. “They want me to come in as soon as school is over today.”

“Why the hell do they want to question you?” Shouta asked, leaning forward on the couch. 

“I would assume that Midoriya must have dropped some information in an attempt to get more counter evidence,” Nedzu said before taking a sip of tea. “Truly intellectual on his part.”

“Will they actually take it as that, though?” Hizashi asked. 

Shouta nodded. “I must agree. They took him in with practically zero evidence. None of it was valid at all.”

Nedzu sighed. “You both have a point. Unfortunately for Midoriya, I don’t think that anything I can say or offer to the Commission will have them letting him free. Yet, I solemnly swear that I will get him out of their hands.” Nedzu’s eyes took on a cold look, making them more beady than usual. 

Shouta nodded. “He doesn’t deserve anything that’s happening to him. I want to know who ransacked his room and what happened to that notebook.”

“I will try and find out as much information as possible when I’m there,” Nedzu said. “This whole situation is rather suspicious in the blaming of Midoriya in the first place.”

“He doesn’t seem like a likely student to be a traitor in any of his actions or words,” Hizashi added. “The only thing that might be suspicious is getting new quirks, but it’s not like he’s able to just go talk to All for One since he’s in Tartarus.”

“Speaking of his quirk, I believe it is time that you both get more information on it, which is why I called both of you here,” Nedzu said, clasping his paws in his lap. 

“Not that I’m upset or anything, but why was I chosen to know more about his quirk?” Hizashi asked. Shouta couldn’t help his smirk as he felt he already knew the answer. 

“Given that you are Aizawa’s husband, Yamada, I have a feeling you would come to know about the quirk anyways,” Nedzu explained. Shouta nodded, confirming that he knew the answer. “Anyways, Midoriya’s quirk is one that might be difficult to comprehend, but please bear with me and know that I am not telling any lies.”

“It would be illogical for you to lie about such an important factor to our current case at such a dire time,” Shouta said, leaning forward to refill his cup of coffee before sitting back again. 

Nedzu nodded. “Thank you, Aizawa. Now, Midoriya’s quirk wasn’t always his own.” Nedzu shook his head and took a sip of tea. “No, that’s not where I should start. While that is important to know, let me actually start at the beginning. The quirk is called One for All, created by All for One.”

“What?” Hizashi screeched, just barely not activating his quirk. 

Shouta grabbed his husband’s hand. “Let him tell the story, ‘Zashi. We can ask questions after.”

Nedzu nodded. “While One for All was created by All for One, it’s not truly what was supposed to happen. All for One’s brother was supposedly quirkless and very ill. This was over 200 years ago, before the Quirk Wars. Either way, All for One was trying to protect his brother in some twisted way by forcing a stockpiling quirk. It did help him for a while as well, but what neither of them realized is that the brother already had a quirk. Some sort of inheritance quirk that allowed the user to pass down their quirk. A match to All for One’s ability to take and give away quirks. 

The brother escaped All for One and passed down the quirk. In passing down the quirk, his illness caught up to him and he died. In turn, this quirk has been getting passed down throughout the years with All for One targeting each user and each user being pushed to try and finally kill All for One. Toshinori was the eighth user and Midoriya is the ninth. It is my theory that the quirk that was forced onto the brother in the beginning, stockpiling, was not only stockpiling strength, but perhaps something else. Like the past user’s quirks. 

I have been in contact with Gran Torino, a past teacher here, as well as Midoriya’s Internship supervisor. As we know, he was Toshinori’s homeroom teacher when he studied here, and as I know, he was also good friends with the user before Toshinori, Nana Shimura. Together, we have compiled information on each of the user’s and have gained knowledge of their quirks. This further proves my theory, the quirks that Midoriya has been manifesting lines up with some of the quirks of the past users. That’s about all I know,” Nedzu finished. He sat back to sip from his tea. 

Shouta stared at the principal, trying to process all the information that was just thrown at him and a glance to the side showed Hizashi to be sitting there gaping as he also stared at the principal. He sighed, knowing that Hizashi would take a while to fully come back to awareness. “What was Midoriya’s quirk status before he gained One for All?” 

Nedzu’s ears twitched in a motion that Shouta knew was excitement. “Good question!” Shouta couldn’t help but preen a bit, remembering his own days as a student when Nedzu was his teacher. “Midoriya was in fact quirkless when he was born, he even still has the toe joint in his pinkie toes.”

“Why did Yagi choose Midoriya?” Hizashi whispered. “He’s just a child and Yagi brought him into a multi-generational blood feud.”

Nedzu hummed. “Toshinori never did tell me the full reasoning as to why he chose Midoriya or even how they met. All I know is that somehow Midoriya encouraged the hero to act in a hostage situation and they trained during the break between school years. Toshinori only passed on the quirk on the day of the entrance exam as he didn’t believe Midoriya to be ready for it before then.”

“He’s only had a quirk since the entrance exam?” Shouta asked, eyes flaring red at all the implications that left. “Why didn’t anyone inform me of this? He needs quirk counseling.”

“Yes, there were many mistakes that I made on my end,” Nedzu nodded, his ears flattening. “I chose to follow Toshinori’s thinking in the need to keep the quirk a secret, and in that, I failed to protect one of my student’s.”

Shouta sighed at the answer and turned to Hizashi who had silent tears tracking down his face. He gave his husband’s hand a silent squeeze, glad that he got one in turn. 

“How can we help Midoriya now?” Hizashi asked, moving the conversation past his quirk.

“Well, we have one ace up our sleeve, but unfortunately he’s out of the area currently,” Nedzu admitted. 

“Tsukauchi?” Shouta asked. 

“Indeed,” Nedzu answered. “He’s currently working on another case, but I’ve been able to get in touch with him and he knows that we need his assistance as soon as he gets back.”

“How is the detective our ace?” Hizashi asked, wiping away his tears. 

“Fortunately for us, he already knows about One for All from working so closely with Toshinori,” Nedzu explained. “That, paired with his quirk, means that it will be impossible for the Commission to keep Midoriya locked up once we bring him in to question our student.”

Shouta hummed. “Is there anything that we can do in the meantime? Some of my students, regrettably, do not care about the protocols and procedures. They are about to take flight and get their friend back at whatever cost.” 

Nedzu nodded. “I believe I know exactly which students you are thinking of. We will have to find a way to keep them in line for just a bit longer. But, for now,” Nedzu said, the bell ringing on his last word. “I believe it is time for me to head out to the Commission office.” Nedzu stood and took his last sip of tea before placing his cup on the tray, Shouta and Hizashi following suit. “I will inform you of how the meeting goes as soon as it’s over.”

Shouta nodded. “Alright, then we’ll talk more later. Give them hell.”

Hizashi grabbed onto Shouta’s hand once more as they left the office and walked towards the teacher’s lounge to gather their stuff before heading to their shared dorm. 

“So, he never left the school at night on his own and you’re in the process of learning more about his quirk before updating it in the systems?” Tanaka asked. 

Nedzu nodded, carefully masking his emotions. “Indeed. I have already sent all of the footage to the investigators on the case. As for his quirk, he was a late bloomer and so there is still much we have yet to learn about it.”

Tanaka hummed, writing something down on his pad of paper. “So, your theory is that he is not the traitor?”

“I know for a fact, Tanaka, that my student you hold in custody is by no means the UA traitor,” Nedzu said, barely stopping himself from growling at the man. 

“Whether you believe it as a fact or not is of no concern to the HPSC,” Tanaka said, waving his hand dismissively. “We will take all that you’ve said into consideration, but we will still be keeping him for more interrogation efforts.”

“May I talk to him?” Nedzu asked. “All Might asked me to give him a message after their last meeting.”

Tanaka wrinkled his nose in distaste. “Usually we wouldn’t permit any such interactions, but given that All Might is involved, I guess we can make an exception. You will have five minutes with the kid.”

Nedzu bowed his head. “Thank you, Tanaka. I very much appreciate that.”

Tanaka shook his head as he stood from the table. “Follow me.”

Nedzu jumped down from his chair and trotted after the man, following him through a maze of hallways until they finally came to a stop in front of a gray door. Tanaka opened the door to allow Nedzu in, and as soon as he’d stepped through, Tanaka shut the door again. 

Nedzu took stock of the room, noticing the camera blinking in the corner before turning off. The only actual thing in the room was the metal table and the chair that his student sat in. 

Midoriya was fixated on the camera, but Nedzu couldn’t tell if he had actually processed it getting turned off or not due to the glossiness of his eyes. He seemed to be dissociating, or otherwise preoccupied. 

Nedzu grabbed onto Midoriya’s chair, and pulled himself up onto the arm of the chair before hopping up onto the table, turning to face his student as he sat cross-legged. “Midoriya-kun, can you hear me?”

Midoriya’s vision immediately snapped to him, locking onto his eyes as his vision cleared. “Principal Nedzu? What are you doing here?” 

Nedzu gave his student a soft smile. “I simply came to reassure you that we are doing everything in our power to help you.” 

Midoriya nodded his head. “Did they bring you in for questioning? I’m sorry if I caused any trouble.”

“Not all, child,” Nedzu said, reaching forward to rest a hand on Midoriya’s shoulder. “It was actually a genius plan.” 

“How so?” Midoriya asked, tilting his head. 

“It gave me an opportunity to meet with you and, according to what I told Tanaka, pass on a message from All Might,” Nedzu said, his smile turning into more of a wicked smirk. Though, the smirk automatically dropped as his student immediately winced at the mention of his heroics teacher. “Midoriya-kun? Is everything all right?”

“What’s the message from Yagi?” Midoriya whispered.

“There isn’t one,” Nedzu confessed, worried about Midoriya’s reaction. “What did he do, child?”

“He wanted One for All back,” Midoriya confessed after double checking that the camera was still turned off. “He didn’t believe me when I said I wasn’t the traitor.”

Nedzu couldn’t stop the growl that escaped him, his emotions finally getting the better of him. “That idiot,” he hissed. “Did you give him the quirk, Midoriya?”

Midoriya shook his head fervently. “No, Sensei. But, well, he thinks that I did. He took one of my hairs and ate it with my permission, but I wasn’t giving him permission to have the quirk, if that makes sense.”

Nedzu nodded. “It does. How are you feeling?”

Midoriya shrugged. “I haven’t really been ‘here’ the whole time,” he said, using air quotes. “The only time I’ve really responded to them all is at the very beginning, when Yagi came, and then when the last round of officers came, though that was really only an attempt to get you here.”

“Where have you been if you weren’t mentally present in the room?” Nedzu asked. 

“Oh, I’ve been hanging out with the vestiges mostly,” Midoriya admitted. “Before I got arrested, I was working with Toshi to interact with them more fully and it came to the point where we essentially can talk to each other at all times rather than before where it was limited to me sleeping and being brainwashed.”

“Have you found the reason for your new quirks, then?” Nedzu asked, eyes lighting up in excitement at the thought of having his theory being proven correct. 

Midoriya eyed him suspiciously. “I have a feeling you know the answer already, Sensei.”

Nedzu chirped happily. “It is only a theory, but it is pretty sound if I do say so myself. I did have a little help from one of your previous mentors, Gran Torino.”

Midoriya hummed. “Well, if that’s the case…” Midoriya seemed to check out for a moment before looking back at Nedzu and nodding. “I found out a while ago-”

The door opened, and Midoriya immediately closed his mouth. Tanaka stood in the doorway and Midoriya followed each of his movements closely with his eyes. 

“Time’s up, Nedzu.” The man held the door open expectantly and Nedzu sighed as he stood up. 

He hopped from the table onto the arm of the chair once more, but before hopping down, he rested a hand on Midoriya’s shoulder. “Don’t forget that we’re in your corner,” he whispered to his student. 

Midoriya leaned his head down in an attempt to not let Tanaka notice he was talking. “Talk to Hitoshi. Or any of my recent group. They know the answers you seek,” Midoriya whispered back, voice so quiet that if he wasn’t speaking directly into Nedzu’s ear, he wasn’t sure he’d have been able to hear it. 

Nedzu gave Midoriya’s shoulder one last squeeze, careful to keep his face neutral as he hopped down from the chair and followed Tanaka out the door, back through the maze of hallways, and finally to the entrance of the building. He had some students to talk to and a teacher to fire. 

“You want to know what Izuku told us about his quirk?” Hitoshi asked, narrowing his eyes at the principal. 

“Yes,” Nedzu nodded. “I was able to have a short meeting with him when I had to go in to answer questions, and he told me to ask you all about it.”

“Why should we believe you?” Katsuki asked. 

“Not to be rude,” Shouto added. “But, pretty much everyone is against Izuku these days. It’s been hard to figure out who’s on our side.”

“Would it be better if I brought in Aizawa?” Nedzu asked. “I’m sure you all know his side at this point, yes?”

Katsuki clicked his tongue. “He’s the only one to try to stand up for the nerd.”

Nedzu nodded and brought out his phone to presumably send a message to the teacher in question. 

“You got to see him though?” Mei asked, fiddling with a screw nervously. 

Nedzu nodded. “I did. He seems to be holding on, and there’s a lot I need to do on my end, but first I need to know as much as possible about his quirk.”

Hitoshi and his friends stared at the principal with deadpanned expressions, Katsuki going as far as to huff and roll his eyes as well. 

After a couple moments of tense silence, a knock sounded at the door before Aizawa walked in. “How’d meeting with Midoriya go?” He asked, taking note of the students in the room before taking a seat in an empty arm chair to the side. 

“About as well as could be expected,” Nedzu said, taking a sip from his tea. 

“And why are the kids here?” Aizawa asked. 

“‘Cause we don’t know whose side the rat is on,” Katsuki huffed. 

Aizawa ticked up an eyebrow. “What are we picking sides for?”

“Please don’t play dumb, Sensei,” Shouto said with a sigh. “We need to know if Principal Nedzu knows that Izuku isn’t the traitor.”

Aizawa turned a raised eyebrow towards the principal who just shrugged. “I tried telling them, but they wanted you to confirm.”

Aizawa sighed at them and Hitoshi felt a bit bad for not just trusting the principal, but after weeks of listening to people villainize Izuku, their trust was hard to come by. “The principal, Present Mic, Midnight, and I are all well aware that Midoriya is not the traitor. What is the information you’re withholding?”

“I wasn’t expecting you to name drop other teachers,” Hitoshi said, eyes wide. 

“Is no one else upset that there weren’t more people on that list?” Mei asked. 

“I mean, it’s only us four students that stuck with Izuku,” Shouto said with a shrug. 

“There’s more, they were just hesitant about the whole situation,” Mei countered. 

“And that’s probably the situation with the teachers as well, dumbasses,” Katsuki snapped. “Now let’s just tell them about Zu’s quirk so we can figure out the next steps.”

“Right,” Nedzu cut in swiftly. “Thank you, Bakugou. What can you all tell us about One for All that Izuku has found out prior to his arrest?”

“It kinda started with me, I guess,” Hitoshi said, raising a hand to rub the back of his neck when the attention turned to him. “Um, at the Sports Festival, I caught him with my quirk and he broke free.”

“Yes, it was quite an interesting event,” Nedzu nodded. 

“Yeah, and then when we did the joint training, which doubled as my practical to get into the heroics course, I had him under my control a second time,” Hitoshi added. 

“To get his newly manifested quirk under control,” Aizawa explained. 

“Exactly,” Hitoshi nodded, looking at his friends. Mei was nervously tinkering with some tools she must have pulled from her pocket, Shouto was watching the teachers with his usual stoic expression, and Katsuki was looking down at his lap where he had his hands clasped. “So, he found out from those times that when he was brainwashed, it allowed him to see and even interact with the past users of One for All. He called them… um-”

“He called them the vestiges,” Katsuki said, looking up from his hands. “The first time, it was only 7 shadowy figures in one of the hallways which allowed him to activate his quirk. He said that they didn’t talk and he couldn’t even make out their presence. He had dreams about them as well ever since then,” he added, looking over at Hitoshi. “He wasn’t in control, but he found out who they were.”

“And the second time Hitoshi brainwashed them,” Shouto continued, “one of the vestiges talked to him. He said his name was Daigoro Banjo and his quirk is called Black Whip. That’s the quirk he used in the joint training. Banjo warned him that he would end up manifesting each of the user’s quirks, but they would also be stronger than when the original users held them due to the stockpiling quirk that attached to them.”

“He wrote down all of their names, or at least their numbers, and what quirk they had,” Mei added. 

“How was he able to figure out all of them if he last interacted with them at the joint training?” Aizawa asked. 

“Well, first,” Hitoshi said, “he continued seeing them in his dreams. But, he also asked me to brainwash him so that he could interact with them on his own terms.” Hitoshi looked down at his feet at the admission. Izuku was the first person to willingly get brainwashed as well as the first person to not react negatively about his quirk. “After that time in the dorms, he was able to talk and see them, essentially, whenever either of them wanted.”

“He was really zoned out in classes and study sessions sometimes because of it,” Katsuki added. Aizawa nodding as he made the connection. “But, he was able to come to an agreement that they wouldn’t talk to him during classes unless it was an emergency or something really important. Every once in a while when we were talking, I’d have to tell them to shut up as well.” 

“So far, he’s the only one to be successful with that trick,” Hitoshi said with an eye roll. He knew the vestiges only listened to Katsuki because he was dating Izuku. Well, they listened before that, but probably because those two were very obviously crushing hard for each other. 

“I see,” Nedzu said, clasping his paws together. “Izuku mentioned that he was interacting with the vestiges, but the quirk information was able to confirm my theory. So, Izuku will end up with eight quirks?” 

“Pretty much,” Mei said with a shrug. “At least, that’s what he told us.”

“Wouldn’t it be nine?” Aizawa asked, turning to Nedzu. 

“Toshinori was quirkless before he gained One for All,” Nedzu explained with a wave of his paw. 

Aizawa sighed again and Hitoshi wondered how many times he’d gotten big news dropped like this recently. 

“So, what’s the plan?” Katsuki asked. 

“For right now, I need to take this new information into consideration and figure out if there’s any way that we can help Midoriya with it. Besides that,” Nedzu said, a wicked grin spreading across his face that made Hitoshi shiver, “I have a teacher to fire.”

“Who?” Aizawa asked amid the students’ outcries of shock and confusion. 

“None other than one Toshinori Yagi,” Nedzu said, hackles rising in the biggest display of emotion that the students had seen. 

“What did All Might do to Izuku?” Shouto asked, leaning forward in his seat. His expression was still flat, but they’d been hanging out enough that Hitoshi could tell that his friend was angry and nervous for the answer. 

“Toshinori had the audacity to go visit Midoriya in the HPSC compound,” Nedzu explained, teeth bared. “Not only that, but he definitely believes that Midoriya is the traitor and wouldn’t take anything Midoriya said into consideration despite being his mentor.”

“That’s not enough to get you this worked up,” Aizawa inferred. 

“No,” Nedzu said with a nod. “Toshinori asked Midoriya to give the quirk back.”

“He what!” Katsuki yelled, standing up. Hitoshi and his other friends also yelled out at this new information, though they stayed seated. 

Nedzu nodded, his expression turning grim. “Toshinori believes that he has the quirk back as he ate one of Midoriya’s hairs, which is how Midoriya gained the quirk in the first place.”

“So, he’s quirkless again?” Katsuki asked, dropping back town into his seat with his fists clenched. 

“No, kids,” Nedzu countered. “Do not worry. Midoriya stated that he did not permit Toshinori to have the quirk back.” 

“Good,” Shouto hissed. “Give him hell, Nedzu.”

Nedzu nodded with the wicked grin crossing his face once again, though Hitoshi didn’t shiver from it this time. “For now, why don’t you four go have a restful weekend. I’m sure you have a lot to process from this conversation. We will make sure to keep you informed if we’re able to find anything else out.”

Aizawa gave Nedzu a skeptical look, but the students stood and bowed to Nedzu, even Katsuki. 

“Thank you for believing in Midoriya, Senseis,” Hitoshi muttered, the others giving their own form of thanks. 

“No need for that,” Nedzu said as they stood back up again. He had a softer smile on his face as they stood back up to look at him. “Go enjoy the rest of your day. I’ll be in touch and we’ll get him out.” 

Hitoshi couldn’t keep the smile off his face as they all left the principal’s office. Now that he was at UA, he had friends that didn’t care about his quirk and he had teachers that he could actually trust. 

Their group headed out of the main building and towards the 1-A dorms. They weren’t really sure what to do for the rest of the day, but they didn’t want to be alone and Mei had full access to the 1-A dorms at this point, so she came with them. 

As they approached the dorms, they could hear conversation inside, but as soon as they opened the door, all conversation stopped and attention was immediately on them. 

“What did the principal want?” Iida asked. “I hope you all didn’t get in trouble in the midst of everything going on.”

“Like you care, Glasses,” Katsuki snapped, going to storm past them. “He just had some fucking questions about Izuku.”

“Oh?” Uraraka asked. “You had information about him?” 

“No need to sound so accusatory,” Hitoshi said with a roll of his eyes. He really didn’t want to deal with this right now. 

“I’m just saying, you should’ve given them any information about Izuku immediately after we found out he was the traitor,” Uraraka huffed. 

“You don’t have the right to call him Izuku,” Shouto snapped. “And he’s not the damn traitor.” Uraraka rolled her eyes at them but sat down. 

“Oh get over it, mon cher!” Aoyama cried. “You’ve allowed the green fiend to bewitch you!”

“Did you just call Izuku a demon?” Mei asked with a brow raised. 

Aoyama didn’t bother to answer as he tilted his nose up at their group and walked away, leaving them to watch him in confusion until the rest of the students made their presence known. 

“Were you about to study?” Mina asked. “I could use some help with the math homework.”

“We weren’t,” Katsuki said, turning and walking towards the elevator. 

Mina deflated and looked towards Kaminari who also looked lost. Hitoshi sighed. “Just hurry up if you want to hang out,” he said, turning to follow Katsuki with Mei and Shouto walking beside him. 

He couldn’t see them, but he could hear Mina and Kaminari scramble to their feet to follow them to the elevator, jumping in just before it closed. 

“You invited them?” Katsuki huffed, pressing the button to go up to their floor. 

Hitoshi shrugged. “They looked pretty miserable.”

“Hey!” Mina cried out. “I can hear you, y’know.” 

Hitoshi raised an eyebrow at the pink girl. “Okay? You looked miserable and lost.”

“We just wanted to know if Midoriya is okay,” Kaminari said, looking down at his feet. 

“Depends on your definition of okay,” Mei said as the elevator came to a stop and they all stepped out. Katsuki took the lead and they all followed him towards his room. 

Mina sighed, though it seemed more at herself than them. “We just assumed that you’d have more information than anyone else. Okay might not be the right term, but we wanted to know how he’s doing. If you know, that is.”

“He’s as fine as one can be when they’ve gone through weeks of alienation just to be arrested and get interrogated everyday,” Hitoshi supplied, giving in to the two’s pitiful looks. “He’s not in the best state, but he’s holding on and pushing through.”

“It’s Izuku,” Shouto added. “We’ve seen him push through just about everything.”

“I guess you’re right,” Kaminari sighed, looking at Mina, who gave him a soft smile. “We just wish there was more we could do, I guess.”

“Don’t we all,” Katsuki muttered, walking into his room. The group followed him, but Kaminari and Mina made up some excuse and headed back downstairs. “This is going to be the worst autumn ever,” Katsuki said as he dropped onto his bed with a sigh. 

Mei pulled out a wrench and whacked the machine in front of her just as the door to the support labs opened. 

“Whoah,” Hitoshi said. Mei turned to see her friends walk into the room with their lunches, Hitoshi holding two trays and his eyebrows raised. “What’d the scary machine do to you?”

“It’s not fucking working,” Mei hissed towards the machine, whacking it with the wrench again. 

“Okay, well,” Shouto said, coming up to her and prying the wrench out of her hands. “Why don’t you take a break for now and come back to it after you’ve eaten?” 

Mei sighed. “Fine. How’s classes for you guys?”

“We’re either getting ignored or glared at now,” Hitoshi said, rolling his eyes. “Even the neutral parties have taken to ignoring us in fear of being ostracized as well.”

“Momo and the idiots are still chill with us and Aizawa has cracked down on the class several times,” Katsuki added. 

Mei sighed. “They need to get their heads out of their asses.” 

“There’s nothing we can do,” Hitoshi said with a shrug. “We’re surrounded by vultures.”

“We’re stuck in a stupid ass loop,” Katsuki added. “Wake up, go to class, deal with fucking idiots, come here for lunch, go back to deal with idiots, then go to the dorms together.”

“Yeah,” Mei said with a sigh, finally going to sit with the others at one of the work benches. Hitoshi immediately slid her the tray that he’d grabbed for her and they ate in relative silence. 

“I just feel like there’s something that we should be able to do to help him,” Shouto muttered, digging into his rice. 

“I say we roll the dice and make a break for it while they’re not looking,” Mei muttered. “It’s not like we’re on lockdown.”

“How are we supposed to break into the Commission headquarters to get him out, Mei?” Katsuki asked. 

“We aren’t,” Hitoshi sighed. “We have to wait for Aizawa to figure something out.”

“What if they take too long?” Katsuki asked, not looking up from his own plate of food. 

“We can only hope that Izuku can hold out for us,” Shouto tried to console. 

In reality, none of them knew exactly what they were doing to Izuku and therefore could only hold onto that thin thread of hope. 

After Nedzu came to visit, Izuku refused to talk to anyone. 

At first, the officers were angry. Then, they got creative. Of course, this only ended up making them angrier when Izuku continued to not speak no matter what methods they tried on him. 

Now… now, he was in isolation. A plain white room. No furniture. No windows. He couldn’t even really tell where the door was. They dressed him in plain white, but at least he wasn’t in a straight jacket even if his hands were still cuffed in front of him. There was only one thing that wasn’t white in the room besides his body and that was a solitary black camera that was constantly blinking in one of the corners. 

He felt like he was going insane with only his thoughts and the vestiges to keep him company. His bones were brittle from not being able to stretch or use his quirk. 

Most of all though? He was tired. He was tired of being the antagonist in everyone else’s story. He was tired of being discriminated against. He was tired of making sure that everyone else was happy when he wasn’t happy himself. 

And because of being tired, he was determined. Determined to prove his innocence. Determined to prove that he wasn’t weak. Determined to show everyone who he was underneath all of his smiles and nervousness. 

When he was diagnosed quirkless, his mom apologized. Katsuki stopped being his friend. Classmates bullied him. Teachers marked down his grades. All Might told him he couldn’t be a hero. Heroes yelled at him for interfering when they almost let a child die. 

When he got his quirk, he went through months of hellish training, if you could even call it that. He broke his bones constantly. He was told that he wouldn’t be healed anymore. He was called reckless. He was alienated. He was called a traitor. He was arrested. 

So yes, Izuku was tired and he was determined. 

He gazed up at the blinking light of the camera, the only way that people could see into his room, and he smiled. People could call him a traitor. They could call him a villain. But, no one except his friends knew who he was. He was strong. He was an analyzer. He could tear down Hero society if he wanted. 

Izuku closed his eyes and sunk into the void where the vestiges lived. He could hear them essentially 24/7, but when he entered the void, he was able to see them. And right now they were all once again arguing for no reason. 

“He trusted this child for months!” 

“He gave him the quirk and demanded it back!” 

“He’s a good for nothing quirkist asshole!” 

Izuku sighed as he walked forward and took his seat next to Yoichi. Yoichi nodded his head in greeting which Izuku returned before he looked back to the arguing vestiges. He cleared his throat and they all turned to him, quickly snapping their mouths shut. “I’m pretty sure that no one in this room supports Yagi anymore, so can you all just give it up?” 

Daigoro winced. “Sorry, kid.”

Izuku waved off Daigoro’s apology as well as the others’. “No need to apologize, there was no harm done.”

“I have an idea to get everyone’s minds off topic!” Yoichi suddenly shouted. 

“Please no,” Second groaned, seemingly knowing what was coming. 

“Please, yes,” Izuku said with a smirk, mainly because he knew it would piss off Second, and apparently also Third, given the glare he was receiving. 

“Ba ba da dum!” Yoichi shouted, tapping his legs in rhythm as a giant television screen appeared before them with a video queued up already. 

“Oh, no,” En groaned. “Not the Vines again.”

“Vines?” Izuku asked, tilting his head in confusion. 

“You’ll see,” Nana said, patting his leg as if he was going to regret his decisions. 

Yoichi had the video start playing with a remote that suddenly appeared in his hand and it showed a dark room where a person walked into just before the cameraman shouted to scare him. The man in the video looked down then up before saying, “stop. I coulda dropped my croissant.” This caused the cameraman to laugh before the video switched over to a different scene. There was a woman walking down a sidewalk and she said, “and they were roommates.” The cameraman panned over to his own face, getting very close before he stated, “oh my god, they were roommates.”

Izuku couldn’t help but laugh along with Yoichi at the short videos. When the full video finally ended, he turned to the first holder of One for All. “So, what was Vine? Just a video app?”

“There’s been several throughout the years, but I know you have TikTok which stuck around for much longer than anyone was expecting. Vine used to be all the rage, but it suddenly died and now all we have left of it are compilation videos, but you have to dig pretty far to find them. You essentially just made short videos, whether it was about your life or skits, you could really make anything on that app and post it publicly,” Yoichi explained happily.

“Can we watch another?” Izuku asked excitedly, which earned groans from around the circle. 

“Of course!” Yoichi exclaimed, equally excited. “Here, there’s a couple good ones that I have saved, but you’ll end up seeing several of them multiple times.” 

Needless to say, the vestiges spent most of Izuku’s isolation watching Vine compilations, and they even filmed some TikToks even though they couldn’t be posted since it was technically all just in Izuku’s head. 

Izuku truly had no idea how long he’d spent in isolation, but apparently the guards got bored at just watching him essentially sleep the entire time away besides the one time that they caught him staring at the camera with a smile that gave a couple of them nightmares. 

A couple hours after someone had delivered food to him, which Izuku thinks might have been the 12th meal, but he wasn’t really counting them, three new guards came in. They were dressed in regular officer uniforms which surprised Izuku, though he didn’t let that show. 

After recuffing his hands behind his back, they hoisted him up and dragged him out of the room. 

“Guess they want to try new methods,” En said. 

“It’s kinda surprising that they’re going to keep going after all they’ve already put him through,” Daigoro noted. 

“He’s been in isolation for several days,” Second pointed out. “They’ll think that he snapped or something since they don’t know that he has us to keep him sane.”

“But if he’s snapped, or gone insane, wouldn’t his answers be counted as invalid?” Nana asked. 

“All they want is a confession,” Third answered. “Whether it’s a true confession or a deranged confession, they obviously don’t care.”

“Technically, even confessions born from torture can’t truly be counted since one might say anything just to get the pain to stop,” Yoichi added. 

“Gods, why is this building such a fucking maze?” En groaned. “They take you down every twist and turn imaginable.”

“Because they don’t want me to know my way out if I escape,” Izuku answered. “I already have a map memorized, but they don’t know that nor do they need to.”

“I’m just wondering how they haven’t gotten someone with some sort of compulsion quirk or something to come get the confession out of you,” Nana said. 

“That’s because I’ll still be pleading not guilty,” Izuku replied. “They won’t try anything that will prove that their efforts are for naught, even though doing so proves it anyway.”

Izuku was suddenly shoved into a chair, which pulled him out of his thoughts. One of the officers sat across from him while one stood behind him and the other stood at the door. Izuku couldn’t see the one behind him, but the one at the door kept his hand on his gun as he tracked each of Izuku’s movements with his eyes. 

Izuku rolled his eyes at that officer which earned him a growl, but he was already facing the officer seated across from him. 

“Hello, Midoriya. My name is Officer Yamamoto and I will be asking you a couple questions today,” Yamamoto, the officer in front of him, introduced. 

Izuku simply quirked an eyebrow at the man without responding. He understood the logic behind thinking that he might spill the beans now that he’s been in isolation for so long, but nothing else they’d done had worked so far, so he also didn’t understand it at all. 

Yamamoto only gave him a couple seconds to sit in silence before he began speaking again. “Do you have a connection to the League of Villains?”

Izuku rolled his eyes at the man, but didn’t deign to respond. Obviously he had a connection to the League, they had tried to kill and kidnap him and his class several times now. 

Yamamoto again gave him less than a minute to respond before continuing. “Do you have a connection to All for One?”

Again, Izuku didn’t respond. 

“I think this man is trying to play smart, but is actually very dumb,” Yoichi sighed. “Even All Might has a connection to All for One and they didn’t arrest him.”

“Have you received any quirks from All for One?”

“Does he honestly think you’re going to answer any of these?” Second huffed. 

“Gotta commend their persistence at least,” Nana sighed. 

“Are you the UA traitor?” 

“Is it bad that I kinda wanna say ‘yes’ just to get their reactions?” Izuku asked the vestiges. 

“Please don’t, kid,” Daigoro groaned. “You’ll be in prison for life!” 

“Don’t worry,” Izuku laughed, “I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction if it killed me.”

“Don’t say that either,” Third muttered. “You’ll jinx yourself.” 

Izuku laughed in his head again, but unfortunately, it showed on his face as well. 

“What are you laughing at? You have serious accusations placed on you,” Yamamoto hissed. 

“Good going kid,” En snarked. 

“Sorry, sorry,” Izuku said, still chuckling as he watched the officer’s face turn red. “You have something in your beard, sir.”

“You didn’t!” First cackled. “Oh my Kami, I fucking love this kid!”

“Just answer the damn questions kid,” Yamamoto hissed, wiping furiously at his beard even though Izuku had been lying. “What do you think your mom thinks of your actions?” Yamamoto asked. 

Izuku blinked, focusing in on the man with squinted eyes. Where was he going with this?

“Does she even know that her son is a villain?”

“Don’t let him get to you,” Yoichi warned. “They’ll say anything at this point to get you to confess.”

“You know that she hasn’t tried contacting you once since we’ve informed her of your arrest?” Yamamoto asked, leaning forward with a pitiful look. “I imagine that she must be so disappointed and embarrassed to have such a failure of a son.”

Izuku’s heart squeezed in his chest. He knew that everyone saw him as a failure. He knew his mom saw him as a failure. A mistake. Whether he had a quirk or not, nothing had changed. 

“If she thinks you’re a failure, then she doesn’t deserve you,” Nana said, tears clear in her voice. 

“Born quirkless, just to become a villain all to pretend that you’re a normal, quirked person and not some disease,” Yamamoto spat. Izuku’s eyes closed, he didn’t need to see the hatred in the officer’s eyes, he’d seen it his whole life already. “We saw your medical history, Midoriya. We know you were born quirkless. We know that you magically manifested a quirk at 15.”

Izuku’s breaths shortened. He hadn’t expected them to bring up his medical history, but he supposed that it was only a matter of time. 

“Breathe, kid,” Second warned. 

“We’re right here with you,” Third added, both of them having softer voices than usual.

“We know the truth and some paperwork can’t change that,” En added. 

Izuku’s breaths slowly evened out, but the officer kept going, seeming pleased to be getting any sort of reaction out of him. “Do you know the statistics of children late manifesting their quirks?”

Yes, he knew them like the back of his hand. He’d spent hours upon hours researching any way in which he might manifest a quirk before All Might came into his life. 

“After the age of 12, it’s essentially impossible to manifest a quirk, even through trauma,” Yamamoto explained unnecessarily. “At age 15, it’s well below 1%.”

By the age of 13, Izuku stopped dreaming of manifesting a quirk. He knew from the age of four that he wouldn’t ever manifest one, but by the time that he aged past 12, he knew for certain that there was no plausible way. He knew this. These numbers had tortured his childhood. 

“There is only one plausible way in which you could have manifested such a strong quirk at the age of 15,” Yamamoto continued. “And that’s through someone giving you a quirk.”

And that’s exactly what had happened. They just had the wrong guy. 

“The only person registered as able to give and take quirks is All for One himself,” Yamamoto said as if everyone had quirks registered in the system and every single quirk registered was explained thoroughly and properly. “Therefore, we can only assume that you gained a quirk from All for One and were drafted into his service. And this is why you sold out your classmates, your friends, your teachers.”

Izuku knew he was wrong, knew he was just saying what he thought would make its way under his skin. He wouldn’t let it. He tried to remind himself what he had decided after Nedzu left. He was strong. He was a hero. 

“So, why don’t you save everyone some unnecessary trouble and just confess to your crimes?” Yamamoto asked. 

Izuku sat there, eyes closed, and mouth shut. He hadn’t given in to any of their previous tactics and he won’t give in to their current or future tactics. He would be resilient. He wasn’t alone. He had the vestiges to keep him company. He had people on the outside planning on how to get him out. He just needed to hold out for a bit longer. 

Yamamoto sighed. “Well, can’t say that we didn’t try the easy way.” Izuku barely registered as he turned to the officer at the door. “Go get Ito.”

Izuku sunk into the void once more and Yoichi already had a Vine compilation queued up and ready to play as whoever Ito was came into the room with an arrangement of tools. 

“Alright you hellions,” Aizawa called out. “The Autumnal Equinox festival is today and we’re all going.”

“What?” Kaminari asked, tilting his head. 

Half the class were celebrating while the other half looked at their teacher dumbfounded. Hitoshi couldn’t help but to wonder if Aizawa was having them all go as some type of icebreaker activity to break the class tension. 

“You heard me,” Aizawa grunted. “Classes are over for the day, so go change into appropriate outfits and meet up in front of the dorms. I’ll join you after grabbing Present Mic and changing myself.”

Everyone quickly filed out of the room, and Hitoshi had half a mind to text Mei to see if she wanted to join them, but ultimately decided not to, given how focused she’d been on a couple projects lately. His friend group quietly trudged up the stairs, ignoring everyone fighting over the elevator and quickly changed before heading back outside and waiting for everyone else. 

All three of them had dressed in more traditional clothing for the festival with neutral colored kimonos and hakamas, yet each had a different, uniquely-designed haori on top. Katsuki’s had orange and red flames dancing up the length while Shouto’s had red and white flowers embroidered throughout the cloth. Hitoshi’s own haori was all black with a shiny purple thread crane embroidery on the back and small detailing on the sleeves. He could tell that his friends’ were more expensive, but he pushed down the shame at the fact that he’d gotten his at a second hand store for only a couple hundred yen. 

“Hey boys, I invited your friend to come with us,” Aizawa said, walking up to them. 

Hitoshi turned to his teacher to see that he was also wearing traditional clothes, his haori having a cat design embroidered on it, which seemed very fitting. Yamada and Mei were with him, both also in traditional clothing. Mei was wearing a pink flowery kimono and Yamada was wearing a haori with sunflowers printed on it.

As soon as Mei approached them, Aizawa and Yamada stepped off to the side to talk quietly with one another. 

“Oh, I’m so glad you all wore traditional clothes too,” Mei exclaimed, pulling at her kimono sleeves. “It’s been forever since I’ve worn this, but my mom’s made me pack it ‘cause we can’t go to any ceremonies or festivals without wearing them.” 

Katsuki shrugged. “My parents are kind of the same. They really just use it as an excuse to promote their clothing brand though.” He reached into his haori and grabbed the tag to show them that it did indeed have his parents’ brand name. “The whole outfit was made by them, actually.” 

“Damn, I keep forgetting your parents are big name designers,” Hitoshi said, whistling in appreciation. 

“Oh, I guess I’m also promoting your parents' business,” Shouto said after studying the tag. “I think all of the traditional clothes I have are made by them.” 

“Wouldn’t be surprised given who your dad is,” Katsuki said with a shrug. “He’s special ordered a lot of clothing from my parents since they work with support companies to proof the fabrics they use.” 

Shouto hummed in response as the dorm doors opened. A couple of their classmates started piling out of the dorms, and Hitoshi’s group stepped to the side, behind the teachers as they watched everyone slowly gather in front of the dorms. Most of their classmates were wearing casual clothing, but there were a couple others that were wearing the more traditional wear. Iida was wearing a navy blue haori with a wave design, Aoyoma was wearing probably the most glittery haori ever made, and most of the girls had come out in kimonos. Momo’s was the most extravagant and most definitely the most expensive with its red and gold detailing making gorgeous designs of cranes and flowers. Jiro’s was almost as extravagant, and Hitoshi wouldn’t be surprised if it had been a gift from the former with its purple detailing of wisteria and swans. 

The two girls spotted them and immediately headed over with a soft smile and smirk respectively. 

“Hi Momo, Jiro,” Shouto greeted. 

“Hi Sho, everyone,” Momo said, smile growing. “Were you all expecting this?” 

“Not at all,” Katsuki huffed. 

“I think they’re using it as an excuse to break some of the tension,” Hitoshi admitted. “Not that I think it’s going to work.”

“Your teacher threatened to restrict my hours in the lab if I didn’t come out,” Mei said. “Figured that meant I could take a couple hours off.” 

The group started laughing and Hitoshi went back to watching people come out the door. He immediately made eye contact with Mina, who was stepping out, and her eyes brightened as she took in the group around him. 

“Incoming,” Hitoshi warned. 

“Kats!” Mina called excitedly, running up to them and pulling along Kirishima and Kaminari. Sero followed behind, chuckling at the excited girl. Mina was the only one in the group in traditional wear with a black and gold floral kimono. The boys were all wearing T-shirts and jeans in their own varied styles. 

“What’s up, Raccoon Eyes?” Katsuki asked, raising an eyebrow at the group. 

“We wanted to know if we could walk around with you guys at the festival!” Mina said. “It’s been a while since we all hung out.” Her face dropped a bit with the last statement and Hitoshi felt a bit bad that they’d practically lost one of their friends. But, then again, they weren’t sticking up for Izuku. 

“Do whatever you want, I don’t care,” Katsuki huffed before turning to Mei. “Are you seriously bringing projects with you to the festival?” 

Mei looked up from the tools she was tinkering with, offended at the question. “When do I not bring a project with me?” 

“That’s exactly my point, Goggles,” Katsuki said, rolling his eyes. 

“She probably just needs something to fidget with like I do,” Kaminari offered, pulling a fidget cube out of his pocket. “It helps me actually focus on what’s going on around me better.”

“You!” Mei shouted, running up to Kaminari and grabbing onto his arm. “I’m keeping this one.”

Hitoshi sighed and shook his head. “Mei, you can’t just lay claim to people like that.”

“Yes I can,” Mei sniped back, hugging his arm tighter. 

Kaminari laughed, albeit awkwardly as he handed Mei the fidget cube. “I guess it’s fine.”

“She’s going to take that apart and build a bomb,” Shouto warned in a joking manner. 

Kaminari’s eyes widened. “Wha- how?”

“She’ll find a way,” Shouto said, nodding with his typical stoic face. 

Kaminari looked absolutely terrified, but before Hitoshi could point out that Shouto was joking, Aizawa spoke up. 

“Alright! Everyone’s here, so we’re heading out,” their homeroom teacher announced. 

“Everyone needs to stay in pairs, if not groups, and check in with one of us every hour,” Yamada added. 

The class let out a chorus of agreements and they finally headed out and left the school grounds. The festival was all around the town, so Aizawa had them walk so that they could check out any booths that were set up on the mountain UA occupied before heading into the main festival itself. 

As they all walked around the festival, their other classmates kept wandering closer to them and speaking just loud enough so they could all hear. 

“I’m so glad they finally locked up the traitor.”

“I still can’t believe that Midoriya could do that to us.”

“Good riddance. I feel safer knowing we don’t have villains in our class anymore.”

“Only one villain is gone. Those four are probably villains as well.”

“I bet Shinsou joined our class just so he could take Midoriya’s place as traitor.”

Hitoshi couldn’t hold back his laughter when Jiro spat her gum out and it landed on Aoyoma’s haori without him noticing. Momo reprimanded her, though the whole group found it hilarious. More often than not, they all had to make a group effort to stop Katsuki from blasting the offenders away from them. Granted, Hitoshi, Shouto, and Mei had to be held back, too. Mei especially when they realized that she had actually taken apart the fidget cube and turned it into an explosive. Kaminari thankfully confiscated it after she threatened to blow up Uraraka’s dorm when they got back. 

The end of the festival was a blessing for the group, but Hitoshi couldn’t help but be thankful that their group was growing. Katsuki’s friends had apologized profusely about not stepping up for Izuku and promised that they’d speak up whenever they heard the others talking bad about him or them. It was a little late, but Hitoshi could tell their apologies were genuine, and they were honestly hilarious to hang out with since their favorite activity was to push Katsuki’s buttons. 

Shouta sighed as he trudged up the stairs in his traditional haori, holding hands with his husband. 

“At least it’s not raining,” Hizashi offered. 

“It was for the past three years, so I’m surprised that it’s actually nice out tonight,” Shouta added. 

“It made it a good night to take the kids out,” Hizashi said, squeezing Shouta’s hand lightly. 

“Yeah, except they’re all still fighting,” Shouta sighed, dropping his head. 

“The boys seem to be hanging out with more people again though,” Hizashi said. “They were hanging out with Bakugou’s old friends, Yayorozu, and Jirou.” 

“I had to give out five detentions, Hizashi,” Shouta complained. “Five. Outside of school hours.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Hizashi tried to comfort. 

“Let’s just go pay our respects,” Shouta said, shaking his head as they reached the top of the stone steps. 

They walked the familiar path towards the stone grave that they visited regularly ever since high school. Hizashi squatted down and placed the red spider lilies they’d bought at the foot of the grave and their petals glistened in the moonlight resembling blood. 

“Hey ‘Boro,” Shouta said softly. “Miss you as always.” He kneeled on the cold stone path lining the graves and Hizashi kneeled next to him. 

“You won’t believe the craziness that’s happening at UA this month,” Hizashi chuckled. “Every time we think it’s going to calm down, it only gets crazier.”

“I wish you were the home room teacher instead,” Shouta whispered. “I just know they’d love you… and they probably wouldn’t be such brats either,” he added with a chuckle. 

Hizashi chuckled at the last comment, shaking his head. “Either way, we miss you and wish you were still here with us.”

“We stopped by your mom’s today,” Shouta said with a gentle smile. “She’s still as lovely and welcoming as ever.”

“We made sure to bring her some red bean cake and green tea ice cream. She still loves getting your favorite sweets,” Hizashi added. 

“Hizashi even made the cakes himself. I was only trusted with the ice cream because we bought a machine finally,” Shouta laughed. “Somehow I didn’t break it, so I hope you’re proud.” 

“Of course he is, Sho,” Hizashi said, grabbing his hand and squeezing it. 

“We’ll probably be back next week or so to complain some more about the hell class,” Shouta said, bowing to the grave. 

“We love you Oboro,” Hizashi said, following his husband’s movements. “Don’t ever forget that.” 

They both stood from their kneeling positions and discreetly wiped the tears that had silently tracked down their faces. Turning from the grave, they intertwined their hands again and left the graveyard with heavy hearts. 

“I don’t want the kids to lose Midoriya like we lost Oboro, ‘Zashi,” Shouta whispered. 

“They won’t lose him, Sho,” Hizashi promised, bringing up their linked hands and setting a soft kiss to the back of Shouta’s hand. “We’ll get him back. He’ll come home and be with his friends and his new boyfriend and we’ll find the real traitor.” 

“I really hope so, ‘Zashi. I really hope so.” Shouta placed a kiss on the back of Hizashi's hand and they continued their walk back to UA in silence. 

Shouta sighed as he walked into the HPSC headquarters. After the fiasco that was the Autumnal Equinox festival, he wanted to talk to the kid himself. 

“Hi, what can we do for you, sir?” the receptionist asked. 

“I’m here to talk to Midoriya Izuku. I’m his guardian,” Shouta answered. 

“One second,” the receptionist said as she grabbed the desk phone and called someone over to escort him. 

Shouta tapped his foot impatiently as he waited. He pulled out his phone and checked his notifications to see an email about Hawks being approved for the new Heroics teacher and smirked to himself. Nedzu was nothing if not efficient in making sure his staff and students were cared for. 

“Sir?” A man asked, coming up to him. “Are you here for Midoriya?”

“Yes,” Shouta said, putting away his phone. 

“I need verification that you’re Midoriya’s guardian,” the man said with an exasperated look. 

Shouta rolled his eyes as he reached into the satchel he’d brought with him and handed the man the proper forms. He watched as the man leafed through them and held them up to the light making sure they weren’t forged and barely resisted rolling his eyes again. 

“Alright, this way,” the man said, handing the files back to Shouta. 

“Sure you don’t need to look through them one more time?” Shouta sniped. 

The man lifted his brows as he turned back around. “Do you want to go see the traitor or not?”

Shouta huffed and tried to mentally warn himself from being sarcastic with anyone that worked here. “Lead the way,” he said, waving his hand forward. 

The man rolled his eyes, but turned back around and led Shouta deeper into the building. Through the door to the right of the receptionist, to the left, turn right, go up the stairs on the left and three doors down. The man unlocked the door and stepped to the side. “Use the buzzer next to the door when you want to leave and someone will let you out.”

Shouta nodded and gave a brief affirmative before walking into the room. His eyes immediately found Midoriya sitting in the corner of the room, huddled in a ball. His usually bright verdant hair had dulled to a more sage color and there were bruises littering the limited skin that Shouta could see. “Problem Child?” He asked hesitantly, taking slow steps that he made sure were heavier than usual so the kid could hear him approaching. 

Midoriya’s head snapped up showing wide, green eyes staring at him. “Sensei?”

Shouta knelt down in front of his ki- his student and gave a soft smile. “How are you holding up, kid?”

Midoriya’s eyes flickered to the door and then up to the corner behind Shouta. Shouta frowned and followed his vision to see a camera that was actively blinking. When Shouta looked back, Izuku raised his hands to show that they were cuffed together with a long chain with quirk-canceling cuffs.  ‘Sensei, I need to tell you a secret,’ Midoriya signed to him. 

Shouta looked back at the camera and adjusted his stance a bit to fully block Midoriya’s body from the camera. His eyebrows furrowed at what the secret could be, and he only hoped that it wasn’t the worst case scenario. ‘Whatever it is, I’ll help you out,’ he signed back, secretly grateful the kid knew JSL. 

‘My quirk,’ Midoriya started, ‘it wasn’t mine to begin with. I know it’s hard to understand-’

Shouta quickly held his hands up to stop him from signing. ‘If you’re talking about it being All Might’s, then I already know.’

Midoriya dropped his hands then raised them then dropped them again. 

Shouta placed his hands over Midoriya’s gently and gave them a light squeeze before raising his hands to sign. ‘Nedzu got the kids to tell him about your quirk after his visit with you. The kids made me come in so that they knew they could trust Nedzu.’

Midoriya blinked at him a couple times before silently nodding. ‘I guess that makes sense. They saw how you reacted when I was taken, so they knew they could trust you. They don’t know the conversations you have behind closed doors, so they wouldn’t know to trust Nedzu, Present Mic, and Midnight as well.’

Aizawa raised an eyebrow at his student. ‘How did you know that Present Mic and Midnight are also trustworthy?’

Midoriya laughed. ‘You’re married to Present Mic. And you’re both very close to Midnight, so it only makes sense.’

Shouta nodded and smirked at the kid. ‘That brain you got on you is really smart, kid.’

Midoriya’s vision grew hazy and Shouta began to panic. “Stop you guys. Sensei can’t be here for very long. No, yeah, I know.” 

Shouta watched, confused, as the kid continued to talk to himself, sounding flustered as he argued with someone, or rather it seemed like multiple people. “You okay kid?”

Midoriya’s vision snapped back into focus and he gave Shouta a nervous smile. ‘Sorry,’ he signed. The switch from vocal to nonvocal was a little startling. ‘The voices,’ he added, gesturing vaguely to his head which only made Shouta worry more, ‘they like to add their two cents on everything.’ 

‘What are you talking about?’ Shouta asked. Had the HPSC made the kid go mad? Had he started to develop some form of Dissociative Identity Disorder from the trauma of everything? Had he already had it and Shouta never realized?

‘It’s part of the quirk, sensei,’ Midoriya signed to him after tapping his knee to gain his attention. ‘I can communicate with each of the previous holders of my quirk.’

Shouta dropped his head. “Godammit, I’m an idiot,” he cursed, finally remembering that part of the explanation from the kids. Shinsou and Bakugou had explained about how Midoriya had full communication with the vestiges now due to experimentation with Shinsou’s quirk. He looked back up to see Midoriya wringing his hands and watching Shouta nervously. ‘Sorry, I just realized that I already knew that as well. Shinsou and Bakugou explained it to me,’ Shouta explained, spelling out the kids’ names as he hadn’t found sign names for them yet. Yamada would have to be the one to do it given that he was actually deaf- he was getting off track and Midoriya was tapping his knee again. 

‘Sensei,’ Midoriya signed, giggling. Shouta would give anything to hear the kid laugh more again. ‘Just sign ‘Purple’ and ‘Bomb’ for them.’ 

Shouta chuckled. ‘Are those the names you came up with for one another?’

Midoriya shook his head. ‘Bomb came up with all the names. He’s partially deaf, remember?’

Shouta nodded. It was something that Shouta knew, but it didn’t come up very often except when Bakugou requested he speak louder or sign along with his lessons on certain days. ‘Makes sense. Back to my original question: how are you holding up?’

Midoriya twisted his hands again and looked down. Shouta wanted to tap his knee to get the kid to look at him, but decided being patient in this matter would be the better choice. Midoriya finally looked up again and raised his hands. ‘It could be worse. I kind of just want to go home. I’m honestly just tired, Sensei.’

Shouta’s heart broke even more for the kid. He reached out and wrapped him up in a hug that Midoriya melted into which made him squeeze a little tighter. “We’ll get you out kid, I promise. As soon as Naomasa is back in town we’re bringing him straight here and getting this all sorted out, okay?”

Midoriya nodded against his shoulder. “I trust you, Sensei. Thank you for believing me.” 

“Of course, kid,” Shouta whispered, glad the kid was talking. “And hey, I’m not just your Sensei anymore.”

Midoriya pulled back, looking confused. “What do you mean?”

“I’m now your emergency guardian,” Shouta smirked. “How do you think I got in here?” 

“I- you-“ Midoriya stuttered, looking lost. “I thought it was just ‘cause you’re my teacher.”

Shouta chuckled. “That wouldn’t be enough for them to let me in. Even with being a Pro Hero, they probably wouldn’t have allowed it.”

“Wait- how did Nedzu get in?” Midoriya asked. 

“Nedzu has automatic guardianship over all of his students,” Shouta explained. “It’s part of the contract for attending UA. He put it into place when he opened the school so that he could easily make students wards of the schools in case they had a bad home situation. Even with the dorms in place, there’s about 5 different wards right now.” 

“Oh,” Midoriya said, rubbing his chin. “That makes a lot of sense actually.” 

Shouta hummed in agreement before his phone dinged. He pulled it out of his pocket to check the notification and saw a text from Hizashi about a fight in the dorms…again. He sighed as he put his phone away and looked back up to the student in front of him.

Midoriya was giving him an understanding, yet sad, look. “I’m sure it’s important. Thank you for coming to visit me, Sensei.”

“Just call me Aizawa, kid,” Shouta said, ruffling Midoriya’s hair. “Unfortunately, I have to go give out some suspensions apparently.”

Midoriya winced, though it could have easily been missed if Shouta wasn’t paying as close of attention. “Are they still fighting even though I’m gone?”

Shouta pondered softening the situation, but he could tell from the look in the kid’s eyes that he knew the answer already. “Yeah. We’ve tried practically everything to get them to stop, short of moving students to different classes or expelling them and honestly I’m on the verge of expelling a couple of them.”

“Please don’t, Sens- Aizawa. They’re caught up in fear and betrayal, even if it’s misplaced. It was a trap from the beginning; they just don’t know they fell into it,” Midoriya pleaded, grabbing Shouta’s hand. 

Shouta shook his head. “They’re training to be heroes, they should know better.”

“We’re only in our first year,” Midoriya countered. “We may have been through a lot and had to speed run some of our lessons, but there’s still a lot we need to learn.” 

Shouta sighed. “You’re too smart for your own good, kid. Alright, I won’t expel anyone, yet. If it gets too much worse than this, they’re going to have to face something more severe than just detentions and suspension though. You understand that, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Midoriya said, nodding. 

Shouta groaned as he stood up from his spot on the floor. “I’m sorry I have to leave so soon. I promise we’ll get you out as soon as possible, okay?”

Midoriya smiled up at him, not leaving his spot on the floor. “Of course, thank you again for coming to visit me.”

Shouta leaned down one more time to ruffle the kid’s unruly and greasy hair. “Hopefully next time will be a little more than just a social visit.” 

Shouta turned towards the door and walked over to press the button the guard had mentioned earlier. The door immediately unlocked and a new guard was there to lead him out. Before the door closed, Shouta took one last look inside and almost wished he hadn’t. Midoriya was once again curled up in a ball, silent tears tracking down his face. 

Not even ten minutes after Aizawa had left, more HPSC officers came into the room, carrying equipment with them. Izuku watched them skeptically as they ignored his hunkered form in the corner. 

As soon as they finished setting up whatever the machine was, two of the officers came over and picked him up under the shoulders and started dragging him to the chair. 

“I can walk you know,” Izuku snapped, digging his feet into the ground and trying to shake the men off. 

“Shut up and sit down,” one of them hissed, both of them gripping him harder and picking him up off the floor before essentially tossing him in the chair. 

His hip hit the arm of the chair and Izuku barely suppressed his wince. Looks like another bruise to add to his growing collection. 

“Due to receiving some new information from the Number One hero himself, we’re trying something new today,” one of the men said, sitting across from him and in front of the machine. 

Izuku slumped further in the chair and closed his eyes in an effort not to roll them. “Mmhmm,” he hummed noncommittally. “Excited to learn what the new info is.”

One of the men behind him smacked him upside the head and he opened his eyes to glare at him. The man scoffed and forcefully turned his head to face the man sitting opposite him. 

“As I said,” the man repeated. “We’re trying something new today and it requires your attention.”

“Why do you deserve my attention when you’re trying to make me confess to something I didn’t do?” Izuku snapped, tired of the HPSC’s creative methods to get him to confess. 

“All you have to do is simply sit back and keep your eyes open, brat,” the man hissed. “And if you won’t, well,” he grabbed a pair of forceps and twirled them in his fingers, “we can always force your eyes open. 

Izuku glared at the man but did as he said even when he was suddenly staring at a bright light and his mind grew hazy, not so different from when he first goes under Hitoshi’s quirk. 

“Let me tell you the tale of the UA traitor,” the man said. His voice was warped and Izuku could barely hear him, let alone see him with the light in his eyes that was constantly changing color. “Midoriya Izuku was born quirkless into a society that discriminates against those deemed useless. He found his way to a man that could give and take powers and accepted his offer of quirks in trade for information on the top hero school.

“Before getting into the school, Midoriya was able to trick All Might into believing that he was hero-worthy and gained his trust enough that All Might passed his quirk onto him. All Might then trained him until he was ready to take the UA entrance exams and, after passing, fulfilled his side of the trade to All for One by giving him detailed analyses on the teachers and students as well as school records. Does that sound right to you, kid?” 

Izuku’s eyebrows furrowed. His mind may be hazy, but the unmistakable voices of the vestiges persisted to insult the man anyway, breaking any sort of connection the man was attempting. Even though everything that was coming out of the man’s mouth was a blatant lie, he spoke as if it was the holy gospel. 

Izuku blinked when the man called out for a response again. He was finally able to look past the light and at the man himself who seemed worried at the response. “I’m pretty sure All Might tricked me.” 

“How did you do that?” the man asked, looking frightened. “Check his handcuffs,” he demanded the other men. When everyone looked around in confusion, he shouted, “Now!” 

The man standing behind him lifted Izuku’s hands up and checked the cuffs that were on his wrist. “They’re working fine, sir.” 

“How did you break the connection,” the man demanded. 

Izuku tilted his head at the man. “There was no connection to break, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“No, we had you,” the man hissed. “Your eyes went blank, the connection was made.”

“Sir, I was dissociating,” Izuku countered. “I don’t know if you know this, but I do it quite a lot when you all try new methods on me.”

“Just confess to being the damn traitor!” The man yelled at him. 

“Yeah, no,” Izuku said. “I don’t think I will since y’know, it’d be a false confession.” 

The man threw his hands up in the air. “This is pointless! I’m not dealing with this brat!” 

The man stormed out of the room and the other men quickly packed up the machine and followed behind him. Izuku sighed as the door closed behind the last person and he stood to go sit in the corner again. 

Dusk fell over the quiet campus as Shouta walked towards Nedzu’s office after stopping by the 1-A dorms and thoroughly reprimanding the students that had been fighting. He had messaged Shouta as soon as he’d left the HPSC headquarters about an impromptu meeting and he knew it’d be about his meeting with Midoriya. Maybe about Hawks becoming a teacher as well. 

Shouta sighed as he reached the door to Nedzu’s office and walked inside, not bothering to knock given that the principal was expecting him. 

“How did your meeting go, Aizawa?” The principal greeted. 

Shouta waved him off and sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk, reaching for the coffee Nedzu had prepared for him. “The kid is suffering.”

“Oh?” Nedzu asked, clasping his paws together as he leaned forward. “How do you mean?”

“It seems that the vestiges are the only people making sure that he doesn’t lose his mind,” Shouta confessed. “I’d honestly forgotten about them, so I was worried when he started arguing with himself until he reminded me of their existence.” 

Nedzu chuckled. “I can imagine that that would definitely be strange to watch.” 

“He also correctly assumed that we, along with Hizashi and Kayama, are on his side. He even knew that Hizashi and I are married,” Shouta added. 

Nedzu hummed, clicking his fingers on the desk. “He’s very smart.”

Shouta nodded. “He also requested that I don’t expel any of the students that are starting fights. He’s claiming that they were placed in a trap and have more to learn about such things to prevent this from happening again.” 

“So, he doesn’t blame them?” Nedzu inquired.

“I didn’t say that,” Shouta countered. “Before he was taken away, there was a new spark in him. I’m sure that if the Commission hadn’t taken him, he would have found a way to prove to the students that he wasn’t the traitor after all, even if it meant revealing the true nature of his quirk.”

“If anything, I can’t wait to get him back and see how he puts the other students in their places,” Nedzu said, with a gleam in his eye. 

“Nedzu,” Shouta warned. “Midoriya will need time to recover from whatever treatment he’s enduring by the Commission’s hands.”

“Of course,” Nedzu agreed. “But, he will eventually need to return to classes, and I already have an exercise planned out with Hawks for when he does so.” 

“Does Hawks even have a teaching license, or are we about to put another Hero on the roster just because they’re highly ranked?” Shouta asked, glad for the subject change. 

Nedzu clicked his tongue. “No, Hawks has been taking teaching courses throughout the time that Midoriya has been gone and he will continue taking them while he’s teaching. I’ll be his teaching aid and mentor until he has a full license.” 

Shouta nodded. “I guess I shouldn’t fear his lessons then.”

“Indeed,” Nedzu agreed. “We will not have any more of Yagi’s mistakes tainting your class or Vlad’s.” 

Shouta nodded just as a knock sounded on the door. 

“Come in,” Nedzu called out, not seeming surprised at the interruption, though he probably saw whoever it was coming from a mile away. 

Hitoshi pushed open the door as Katsuki tapped his foot on the ground. After Aizawa had reprimanded them all, they’d gone back up to his room and something had crossed his mind and now it wouldn’t leave.

“What do you need, problem children?” Aizawa asked, waving them inside. “You’re not getting out of your suspensions even if you didn’t initiate the fight.” 

“That’s fine,” Hitoshi shrugged, even though he was pissed about the suspension that barred them from participating in the heroics course. “Katsuki realized that he hasn’t heard from Mrs. Midoriya and we wanted to know if any of you have contacted her about everything?”

Aizawa looked at Nedzu who simply blinked. “I must confess that I haven’t,” the principal replied. 

The group finally went inside the office and Mei shut the door. “What about you, Sensei?” Shouto asked. 

Aizawa shrugged. “I thought someone else would.”

“So, no one has talked to Auntie?” Katsuki snapped. “Does she even know that he was arrested?” 

“It simply didn’t cross my mind,” Nedzu admitted. “I assumed that the Commission would, as this was their doing, and we’ve been busy trying to get Midoriya out of their clutches.”

“Does anyone know if they contacted her?” Hitoshi asked, tilting his head at Nedzu.. 

“I currently am not sure,” Nedzu said, tone turning sympathetic though they weren’t sure who the sympathy was for. “I will look into it.”

“No need,” Katsuki snapped. He was tired of all this information gathering and waiting, it was time that he get out there and got information himself. That’s what being a hero was. “I’ll go talk to her myself, it’s Friday anyways and the hag wants me to bring these extras over for dinner.”

“I thought we got past you calling us ‘extras’,” Mei sighed. 

“Besides the point,” Katsuki snapped, irritated at the situation and himself for slipping. “We can all spend the weekend at my house and we’ll go visit Auntie when we’re there. I only live like a block away from their house.”

“I guess that is a fair enough plan of action,” Nedzu nodded. “Please do tell me if this is the first she is hearing of the situation.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Katsuki said. 

“We’ll tell you as soon as we have any information,” Shouto responded in a more reassuring tone. 

“Thank you, children,” Nedzu nodded. “Now, why don’t you go pack for your weekend trip. I wouldn’t want you out traveling too late by yourselves.”

“Make sure to send me a text when you get there,” Aizawa huffed. “I don’t want to have to go searching for you hellions on my day off from patrolling. 

None of them mentioned that they wouldn’t be by themselves, that they’d be together, as they bowed to the principal and reassured Aizawa before they headed back to the dorms in silence. Mei split off to go pack her own items and the boys ignored their classmates as they took the elevator up to their floor. 

“Are you sure that it’s okay that we spend the whole weekend with you?” Hitoshi asked, seeming nervous about the venture. 

“The hag has been pestering me about it since she found out that I reconciled with Izuku,” Katsuki waved off. “Don’t worry about being a bother, she’ll dote on each and every one of you like she always did with the nerd.” 

The boys finally split off into their own rooms after that and packed a weekend’s worth of items as fast as they could before meeting back up in the hallway. 

“Let’s go find Mei,” Shouto suggested as they hiked their bags onto their shoulders and made their way back out of the dorms. 

“I’m sure she’s already waiting for us,” Hitoshi said as they entered the elevator. 

“Or she got stuck trying to figure out which projects and trinkets she could bring to my house,” Katsuki countered. 

“I’m sure that she has some sort of travel project in mind just for something like this,” Hitoshi laughed. 

“What took you guys so long?” Mei cried out as the elevator opened. “I was about to march up there and drag you down!” 

“Definitely had a project prepared for this,” Shouto whispered to Hitoshi, making Katsuki snort. 

“Sorry, Goggles,” Katsuki said, leading his friends out of the elevator and over to the excited girl. “Honestly didn’t think you’d be done that fast.” 

“Let’s get going,” Mei said. “I’m excited to see what Mrs. Bakugou is like.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Katsuki said, leading the way out of the dorms. 

“So, what’s Mrs. Midoriya like?” Hitoshi asked as they exited the school premises and walked towards the train station. 

“I haven’t seen her since we were like four, but she was always really sweet and spoiled Izuku and I,” Katsuki answered with a shrug. 

“What if she’s changed since then?” Shouto asked, earning harsh whispers from Hitoshi and Mei. 

Katsuki sighed. “I honestly don’t know if she has or not. Izuku is always doting on his mother, you guys hear him too. It’s just…” Katsuki shook his head. “I don’t know. It seems as if there has been some dynamic change, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t the same as I remember when we go over.”

“It’s also been like 12 years since you last saw her,” Mei supplied. They’d finally reached the train station and they all tapped their IC cards at the ticket gate as they entered the station, following Katsuki as they went. “There’s bound to be some difference in her personality and demeanor, right?”

“Yeah, people are always changing,” Hitoshi agreed. “Even if it’s simple, unnoticeable changes.”

They let the topic drop at that as they waited for their train to arrive. It was only a couple minutes out and they went on their phones to pass the time. As soon as their train arrived, they all boarded onto the proper train and found a secluded area to themselves. 

“What are your parents like?” Shouto asked, turning to Katsuki. 

“They’re loud as shit,” Katsuki said, still scrolling on his phone. He was looking to see what articles were being posted about Izuku and the whole traitor situation, which thankfully weren’t many. Looks like Nedzu was keeping mostly everything regarding the arrest under lock like he’d said. 

“I mean, that’s to be expected,” Hitoshi said, chuckling. “You had to get it from somewhere.”

“What about where we’ll be sleeping?” Mei asked, tinkering with one of her projects. “Are we all gonna be crammed in one room?”

“My house is huge, I have plenty of spare bedrooms for you all,” Katsuki huffed, finally putting his phone away. “Granted, we’ll probably all fall asleep in the living room watching TV or some shit.” It’s not like they hadn’t done that exact thing in each other’s dorms throughout the past couple weeks. 

“Yeah, that checks out,” Hitoshi shrugged. 

The train chimed to notify the passengers that it was about to stop and Katsuki stood, the others following as he made his way to the train door. As soon as the doors slid open, they all stepped out and Katsuki led them out of the station and through the streets towards his house. When they finally arrived, Katsuki’s friends stopped to stare at the house. 

“It’s huge,” Hitoshi whispered. 

“I just wasn’t aware that you also came from money, Katsuki,” Shouto agreed. 

“Imagine the warehouse you could make out of this place,” Mei added with a gleam in her eyes that spoke of danger. 

“Alright alright,” Katsuki huffed. “Enough ogling, let’s just get inside before the hag comes out to greet us.”

“Oh!” Mei shouted. “I can’t wait to meet your mom!” She ran up to the door ahead of everyone and skidded to a stop and just barely contained herself to knock politely. 

Katsuki sighed, but didn’t try to keep up with her. “It’s my house, Mei. You don’t need to knock.”

The door swung open as Mei turned to retort and the hag stood in all her glory, a wicked grin on her face and dressed to the nines. “Brat! Friends! Welcome! Come on in, I have tea all set up for you!” 

Katuski shook his head at his mother’s antics and led his two other friends inside, Mei dutifully following Mitsuki. “Should’ve known she’d pull this shit,” he muttered as they walked into the living room, having taken their shoes off and changing into prepared house slippers. 

“Does she like to throw parties?” Shouto asked, looking at the tea and food arrangement set up in the living room. 

Katsuki shrugged. “She throws big parties when they’re promoting new lines for their company, so she’s pretty used to it. She’s probably just excited that I’m finally bringing friends from UA over.”

“You never brought anyone from your other group?” Hitoshi asked, sitting on the couch next to Mei. 

“Nah,” Katsuki said, taking his usual seat in the armchair as Shouto sat on Hitoshi’s other side. 

“What should we do before going over to Midoriya’s?” Mei asked, playing with a new fidget toy that Kaminari had given to her after she’d promised not to make it into a bomb. 

“We can just watch a movie or some shit,” Katsuki shrugged, grabbing the remote and turning on the tv. “The old hag will be back in a minute or so.” 

They sat quietly, munching on the snacks that Mitsuki had provided as Katsuki scrolled through Netflix to try and find something to watch. 

“So, how is school going for you all?” Mitsuki asked, coming back in and sitting on the arm of Katsuki’s chair. 

Katsuki rolled his eyes as his friends perked up. “I’ve been making a ton of support equipment for everyone,” Mei chirped happily. 

“Yeah, she made me some new additions to my costume,” Hitoshi agreed. “Stuff I wouldn’t have even thought about.”

“Oh!” Mitsuki exclaimed. “So, you’re in the support course then?” 

“Yup!” Mei agreed. “Soon you’ll be seeing my name everywhere! Hatsume Industries coming to Japan soon!” 

Mitsuki giggled at the girl’s excitement. “I’m sure you’ll be everywhere. Maybe you can help produce our fabrics for us and you’ll be able to support the fashion industry as well!” 

“Ma, stop trying to recruit everyone you meet into working for you,” Katsuki hissed. 

“Oh hush!” Mitsuki sniped, playfully smacking the side of his head. “I’m only trying to help your friend out here!”

“Yeah, sure you are,” Katsuki said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. 

“So, what about you boys?” Mitsuki asked. “I recognize both of you from the Sports Festival.” 

“We’re both in Katsuki’s class,” Hitoshi said. “I only joined about a month ago.” 

“You were in general before, right?” Mitsuki asked. 

“Yeah, I have a mental based quirk, so the exams were biased against me,” Hitoshi muttered.

“But you’re in the right class now!” Mitsuki offered. “I’m sure Izuku can analyze plenty of ways to use your quirk if he hasn’t already.” Mitsuki looked around at the group before glaring at Katsuki. “Where’s the other brat?”

“That’s why we came home,” Katsuki explained. “We need to go talk to Auntie. Can we explain after?” 

“Sure,” Mitsuki huffed. “Just leave your dear old mother in the dark, I guess.”

“Stop being so dramatic,” Katsuki said, rolling his eyes. “We’ll explain everything when we get back, but we don’t want to get there before she’s going to bed.”

“We do want to be respectful given that none of us have been to her house,” Shouto interjected. 

“I haven’t been over there since I was four, so I think being respectful is only right,” Katsuki added. 

“Alright, alright,” Mitsuki said, waving her hand. “You all get on then. I expect you back at a reasonable time since I assume you all haven’t even eaten dinner yet, though. Plus, we have to work out sleeping arrangements.”

“Sounds good, Ma,” Katsuki said, standing from the chair and ignoring the weird look Mitsuki was sending him. 

The others stood as well and they quickly headed over to the entryway to slip back on their shoes before heading out, everyone once again following Katsuki. They walked in silence, each of them lost in their thoughts about Izuku, meeting his mother, and informing her of her son’s situation. In no time at all, they stood on the Midoriyas’ doorstep and Katsuki was knocking on the door. 

Midoriya Inko opened the door and it was like stepping through a warped time portal for Katsuki. She looked exactly the same and she had on a welcoming smile, yet something was off. 

“Oh! Kats baby! What are you doing here?” Auntie Inko asked. She caught sight of the others behind him and her smile seemed to strain. “Oh? I recognize Todoroki, but not the others. Are you all Izuku’s friends? Where is he?”

“Where-” Katsuki sighed. That answered the question of whether anyone had contacted Auntie about Izu getting arrested. “We’re all friends with Izuku, Auntie. That’s Todoroki Shouto as you recognized; Shinsou Hitoshi, who recently joined our class but has been friends with the nerd for a good while; and Hatsume Mei, who is in the Support Course but has been close to pretty much all of us since the start of the year since she’s volunteered to do the main projects for our hero costumes.” Katsuki introduced each of his friends to his honorary aunt and pointed to them each in turn. “Can we come in?” He asked, tilting his head towards the house. “We’re here precisely to talk about why Izu didn’t join us.”

Inko bobbed her head quickly and stepped aside. “Of course, of course. I’ll get some tea made up for you all.”

“There’s no need for tea, Mrs. Midoriya,” Shouto interjected politely. “Mrs. Bakugou gave us some when we dropped our stuff off there earlier.”

“Oh?” Inko asked as she led them all into the apartment and to the living room. “Are you all staying with the Bakugou’s for the weekend then?” 

“Yup!” Mei cheered. “Kats was kind enough to offer and his parents were even kinder to allow the offer.”

“Well, it sure sounds like you have an enjoyable weekend ahead of you,” Inko said with a smile before turning to Katsuki. “Now, why isn’t Izuku with you. I realized today that I haven’t heard from him in a while and tried to call him, but it went straight to voicemail.”

She only realized today that Izuku hadn’t been contacting her? Why would it take so long? Were they not on good terms? 

“Well, to be honest, Mrs. Midoriya,” Shouto started, sideyeing Katsuki since he hadn’t spoken yet, “Izuku was arrested a while back.”

“He was accused to be the UA traitor as it’s believed that he was conspiring with All for One,” Mei added in a soft tone. 

“They took him from our homeroom class not long after I joined the class,” Hitoshi finished. 

“Is he alive?” Inko asked, taking a sip from her tea. 

“Is he alive?” Katsuki asked. “What the hell do you mean by that, Auntie?”

“Katsuki, language,” Inko snapped. “Don’t you dare curse in my house.” 

Katsuki raised his eyebrows at the woman before him. “We just told you that your only son was arrested on a charge that could make him serve time in prison and your only question is whether he’s alive? Not only that,” he continued, holding up a hand when she opened her mouth, “but you stated that you only realized today that you haven’t heard from Izuku. Monday marks a month of Izuku being arrested and held prisoner. Why would you not realize for a month that Izu wasn’t talking to you and then not do anything about it when he doesn't answer or attempt contact later?”

“Come now Katsuki, I know you’re still a kid, but even you know how much of a Deku our dear Izuku can be,” Inko said with a sharp look in her eyes. The others winced at her words, but Katsuki only glared at her. “He can’t do anything right, not even contact his own mother. I’m surprised he hasn’t been expelled yet, to be honest.”

“Mrs. Midoriya,” Shouto cut in, anger bright in his eyes despite his still stoic, polite disposition. “Izuku is one of the top students in the class. He helps all of the other students as well. If it weren’t for this false accusation, then the school would have no reason to expel him.”

Inko waved him off. “I’m sure his kind disposition can make you all think anything he wants. If the Commision has arrested him for conspiring with All for One to get a quirk, then it probably has merit. He did come upon his quirk rather suddenly you know. Especially since, you might not know this, he was diagnosed quirkless.” 

“Auntie, we all know much more about Izu’s quirk than you do,” Katsuki snapped. “I don’t know when all of this started happening,” he continued, gesturing vaguely at Inko, “but I’ve heard enough of you degrading Izuku when that’s what he got from everyone else throughout his life until he got his quirk. We’re going back to my house now. Don’t expect us back anytime soon unless Izuku gets out and we’re grabbing his stuff.” Katsuki stood up from the chair he was sitting on and the others followed suit. 

“You’ll be lucky if little Deku gets out of the Commission’s clutches. I don’t want to ever see you in my house again, Bakugou Katsuki,” Inko hissed, standing up. 

“Yeah, whatever, Auntie,” Katsuki snapped, rolling his eyes as they all left the apartment, Inko slamming the door behind them. 

“Well, she’s a fucking bitch,” Hitoshi commented as they made their way back to Katsuki’s house.

“Was she always like that?” Mei asked, playing with her fidget toy again. “How is Izuku always so happy if he has to go home to that?”

“No, she wasn’t,” Katsuki muttered. “But, I also haven’t seen her since I was four which gives her plenty of time to change into whatever the fuck that was.”

“Izuku won’t have to go back home to that when this is all over, right?” Shouto asked. “He doesn’t deserve that; nobody does.”

Hitoshi threw an arm over Shouto’s shoulders and gave him a light squeeze. “We’ll make sure he doesn’t.”

“Oh fuck,” Katsuki said as he looked up when they’d reached his house. 

“Wh-oh,” Shouto said. 

“Hiya Eraser,” Shinsou said, rubbing the back of his neck. “So, uh, we may have forgotten to text you…”

Aizawa tapped his foot as he stood outside Katsuki’s front door with his arms crossed, a red glare aimed at them. “Forgot?”

“To be fair, my old hag distracted us,” Katsuki shrugged, leading the others forward. 

“Katsuki!” Mitsuki shouted, opening the door, which he now realized was never fully closed. “I’ve been texting you the entire time you were gone!” 

“Yeah,” Katsuki said. “My phone’s on silent.”

Mitsuki sighed and shook her head before turning to Aizawa. “Now that the brats are back, would you like to come in for some tea?”

“I just came to make sure they got here safely, ma’am,” Aizawa said, sinking into his capture scarf. “Now that I see them, and they’re home, my job is done.”

“Well, I great-”

“Sensei,” Shinsou said, cutting off Mitsuki with a wince. “We have something we need to show you.”

Aizawa sighed as he waved his hand for the kids to go in first then followed them inside. 

“Ma, make the hobo some coffee, will ya?” Katsuki asked as they all walked to the living room. “He doesn’t like tea.”

Mitsuki rolled her eyes, but left to the kitchen. “Hope you like instant coffee! That’s all we got!” She called out. 

“That’s fine,” Aizawa said as he sat on an arm chair. “What’d you have to show me?” 

Hitoshi dug through his pockets and held out his phone, showing the recorder app. 

“Just wait for my Ma to get back,” Katsuki said as Aizawa took the phone. “She needs to hear it too.” 

Mitsuki came in a second later, handing Aizawa the coffee before taking a seat at the other arm chair. Katsuki sat on the arm of the couch as his friends took seats on it. “How is Inko doing?” 

“She’s a fucking bitch,” Katsuki hissed as he walked into the kitchen, his friends following. 

“Don’t talk about your aunt like that, Katsuki,” Mitsuki reprimanded. 

“Yeah, well if you’d gone with us, you’d be just as mad,” Katsuki snapped. “Since when does she despise her own child?” 

“Are we talking about Midoriya Inko?” Aizawa asked. 

“Of course we are!” Katsuki shouted. “We told you we were going to visit her.”

Aizawa arched an eyebrow at him which made him roll his eyes. “Didn’t expect you to do it tonight is all.”

“It would be illogical to wait any longer,” Shouto stated. 

“Sorry, hold on,” Mitsuki said, waving her hand in front of her. “Can we backtrack? Why were you guys visiting Inko? What do you mean that she despises Izu-kun? Where even is he?”

“Izuku got arrested about a month ago,” Katsuki sighed. 

“What!” Mitsuki shrieked. 

“The Commission arrested him because everyone is under the impression that he’s the UA traitor,” Shouto explained calmly. 

“Well, not everyone,” Hitoshi interjected. 

“His boyfriend here,” Aizawa said, waving towards Katsuki and making his heart stutter as he refused to look at his mother, “as well as these kids and some others are still on his side. Additionally, myself, as well as the principal and a handful of other teachers know that he isn’t the traitor,” Aizawa cut in. 

“Katsuki,” Mitsuki snapped. “Is your teacher right?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Katsuki muttered, wishing Izuku were here to help tame her like he’d promised. 

“Bakugou Katsuki, you look at me right now!” Mitsuki shouted. 

“You’re in trouble,” Mei whisper sang. 

Katsuki smacked her upside the head before finally looking at Mitsuki. “Fine, yes. Izuku and I are dating, okay?”

Mitsuki’s eyes shone. “Fucking finally!” 

“... what?” Katsuki asked, completely confused. 

“You all have been in love since you were in diapers,” Mitsuki huffed. “You just got way too big of an ego when you got your quirk.”

“As amusing as this is,” Aizawa deadpanned. “Can we get back to Mrs. Midoriya?”

“Right,” Hitoshi said and Katsuki couldn’t be more grateful that the attention was off of him. “So, Izuku got arrested for supposedly being the UA traitor and we decided to check with his mom to see if she knew about him getting arrested.”

“And the bi-Inko thinks that Izu is just a Deku that forgot to contact her for a month and she only just realized today,” Katsuki hissed. 

“And she believes that he’s the traitor as long as that’s what the Commission says,” Mei added bitterly. 

“Oh, I’m about to go to war with that bitch. She really said all of that just now?” Mitsuki asked.

“What in the absolute fuck,” Aizawa said at the same time. 

“I was recording it,” Hitoshi said, gesturing to his phone that Aizawa was still holding. “I thought it might be helpful to show whether the Commission had told her or not, I wasn’t expecting her to go off about Izuku like that.” 

“That was smart to record it,” Aizawa noted. “That’ll be helpful when we go against her for custody.” 

“You can take my phone or send the recording to yourself, I don’t care,” Hitoshi said with a shrug. 

“Just email it to me,” Aizawa said, handing the phone back as he stood up. “I need to go talk to Nedzu about all of this.” 

“I need to get some food in the brats anyways and figure out sleeping arrangements,” Mitsuki said, standing as well. 

“See you Monday, Aizawa,” Katsuki huffed, taking the chair his mom had been sitting on. Sitting on the arm of the couch for so long had made him sore. 

Aizawa waved as his friends bid their own farewells before he left the house completely. Katsuki couldn’t decide whether he wanted to watch the meeting Aizawa was about to have or if it was a good thing that he was staying very far away from it. 

“Alright, with Mrs. Bakugou and the kids’ help, we’ve found that Izuku’s home life is similar to what he has endured here at school in his last couple weeks,” Nedzu stated. “Therefore, I cannot, under any good conscience, send him back to that house when we get him out later tonight.” 

“Naomasa is coming back today?” Nemuri asked. 

“Indeed,” Nedzu nodded. “And just in time as well. We need to make haste in getting Izuku out of the Commission’s hands and we need to find the real traitor. Aizawa, do you have the list ready?” 

Shouta pulled the list that held only a handful of names from his pocket and handed it to Nedzu. “There’s a couple students and a teacher or two.” 

Nedzu took the list and read over it before folding it and placing it in his pocket. “We won’t say any names aloud and this will be the only copy of the names, so we have an agreement?”

The four teachers in the room nodded along. 

“What’s our next step?” Vlad King asked. 

“The next step is retrieving Midoriya and then, due to the nature of his mother’s treatment, finding new housing for him. Of course, we can always make him a war-“

“We’re taking him,” Hizashi cut in. 

Shouta couldn’t help raising an eyebrow and smirking at Nedzu’s questioning look. “If my husband says we’re taking the kid in, we’re taking the kid in. I already have emergency guardianship over him, so he can come home with us tonight.”

“Alright, let’s finish the day out and then we’ll go meet Tsukauchi at the station tonight so we can bring Midoriya home,” Nedzu said, clapping his paws together and dismissing the heroes. 

Naomasa sighed as he sat in the back of his taxi. It had taken just over a month to complete the mission that the precinct across the region had demanded his help on. It was ridiculous and mostly a wild goose chase, but they’d caught the villains in the end, so at the very least, he was thankful for that. 

He looked out the window to watch the thunderstorm attacking the city. Flying in it had been horrible, but bearable. He was just glad to be back on solid ground and not dealing with any more turbulence. 

“About five more minutes, detective,” the taxi driver offered as they stopped at a red light. 

“Thank you, sir,” Naomasa offered, pulling out his phone. “Kami, my emails are an absolute disaster since I took the mission.” He scrolled through the long list of unread emails in his inbox, marking the importance of them and deleting any spam that snuck its way in as he was driven the rest of the way to his station. 

Unfortunately, he hadn’t even gotten halfway through his emails by the time they’d arrived and he reluctantly stepped out into the rain and grabbed his belongings from the back of the taxi. 

As he walked back towards his office, the officers and his fellow detectives smiled and waved and offered welcomes. He did his best to keep his tiredness from showing as he smiled and nodded along to their excitement. All he wanted was to sit in his office for the last hour of his work day and then go home and sleep off all of the traveling he’d done. 

He opened his office door and stepped inside, closing it behind him, not even looking up until a voice interrupted his blissful daydream. 

“Welcome back, Naomasa,” Nedzu greeted. 

Naomasa’s head snapped up and he looked around his office, finding Nedzu, Eraserhead, and Present Mic all present and seated in his guest chairs. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” Naomasa asked, completely flabbergasted at their presence. 

“I did send you a message,” Nedzu said with a tilt to his head. 

Naomasa sighed. “I took a flight back, my phone’s been off, Nedzu.”

“You’ve been off the flight for over an hour now, Naomasa,” Eraserhead countered with a raised eyebrow. 

Naomasa pointed at the man, then at the other two intruders. “This. This is exactly why my phone is still off. I have one hour left of the work day and paperwork to catch up on.”

“You know how dire our situation is,” Nedzu commented peacefully. 

“I actually don’t, thank you very much,” Naomasa countered, sighing as he walked over to his desk and plopped into his chair. “All you ever told me is that one of your students is in trouble and you need my quirk as soon as I get back.”

“And now you’re back,” Eraserhead said. “And we still need your quirk.”

“Give me a rundown,” Naomasa said, waving his hand lazily. 

“The Commission decided to expose the fact that UA has a traitor to the general public. Our students started turning on one another and the staff became distrustful of the students. It somehow got into everyone’s head that Midoriya is the traitor and the Commission arrested him. He’s been in custody undergoing who knows what type of interrogation tactics for over a month now,” Nedzu quickly explained. 

“That’s a very quick Sparknotes version,” Present Mic added helpfully. 

Naomasa ran a hand down his face. “Why is it always Midoriya?”

“I would like to know the same thing,” Eraserhead agreed with a sigh. 

“If we didn’t already know all of his quirks, I would assume trouble magnet to be one of them,” Present Mic joked.

“Sorry, I’m a little late to this,” Naomasa said, staring at Present Mic with wide, confused eyes. “Quirks? As in multiple?” 

“Yes,” Nedzu agreed, nodding. “One for All has seemed to, hmm, evolve in a sort of way. Midoriya now has access, or rather will eventually have access, to each of the past users' quirks.” 

Naomasa dropped his head on the table. “This fucking child.” He raised his head and looked at the three men in front of him with inquisitive eyes. “And what does Toshinori have to say about all of this?”

“Ah,” Nedzu said. “Actually-”

“Yagi was fired,” Eraserhead said, quickly cutting to the chase and ignoring Nedzu’s half-hearted glare. “He is the one suspected to have turned Midoriya in to the Commission and he also had no brain to listen to the kid, instead just demanding he gets his quirk back. A quirk that he no longer has access to.”

“Toshinori doesn’t have One for All anymore?” Naomasa asked. The three men immediately turned glares at him and he winced at speaking before thinking over all of the information. “Sorry, I don’t mean to imply that that was the most important piece of information shared.”

Eraserhead huffed. “Sure.”

Naomasa turned a regretful gaze to them. “I only said that as I’ve only ever known him with the quirk. Did he really demand the quirk back?”

“It would be illogical to lie to you given your quirk, Naomasa,” Eraserhead sighed. 

Which was true. Everything they had said so far rang true, and Naomasa hated it. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “What do you need me to do?”

“I would like you to reopen and take on the case of the UA traitor,” Nedzu stated. 

“We have a child to rescue and we need you to do it, first and foremost,” Present Mic added. “That little listener has been held wrongfully for too long now.”

Nedzu nodded. “And after that, we were thinking of doing a class wide search for the traitor.”

“Unfortunately,” Eraserhead sighed, “we have narrowed down the list of suspects for the traitor and the only viable options are in the first year class.”

“You believe that they came in this year as you’ve never had these problems before,” Naomasa noted. 

Nedzu nodded. “Precisely. Not only that, but each of the attacks is centered on the first year classes and some of the information the League attained was only accessible by the first years.”

“How so?” Naomasa asked. The statement had rang as true, but he needed, or rather wanted, a better explanation. 

“The summer camp,” Present Mic explained. “The only people who knew of the location were the three of us, Vlad, and the Wild Wild Pussycats. We’re assuming that one of the students had a tracker that informed the League of where we were going.”

“What if they hacked into your files?” Naomasa asked. 

“Impossible,” Nedzu countered. “The only correspondence we had about the changed location of the trip was by mouth. Aizawa drove out to confirm with them himself and we only ever discussed the trip in my office.”

“And before you ask,” Eraserhead cut in, “his office is searched daily for bugs.”

Naomasa nodded. This case was a pain in everyone’s ass with how smart the villains had gone about their plans. “How narrowed down is your list?”

“We have about four students up to the bar right now,” Present Mic offered. “Though it’s really two that we’ve had close eyes on.”

“We already searched everyone’s dorms and moved them around which helped us narrow the list, though not really by much in the long run,” Eraserhead added. 

“Why did you move them?” Naomasa asked, surprised at the information.

“The students were bullying Midoriya and even broke into his dorm,” Nedzu stated, anger visible in the twitch of his ears and grip of his paws. “We moved him up to a floor containing only those he trusted in hopes that something like that wouldn’t occur again.”

“Though moving one student was tricky and we decided to create a new floorplan that moved most of the students around,” Eraserhead admitted. 

“I see,” Naomasa said, opening his computer and looking through the closed case files. “I might have to prove Midoriya innocent before I open his case file, but I will flag it so that it will be easier once that is done.”

Nedzu clapped his paws together. “However it works, thank you very much.”

Naomasa waved his hand dismissively as he found the case file he was looking for and flagged it as he’d mentioned. “Midoriya has been nothing but a hero. I don’t know how Toshinori is being so dense about all of this.”

“Ah,” Present Mic said hesitantly. Naomasa looked up wearily, knowing the man was about to add another task to the ever growing list. “We actually need Midoriya’s mother looked into as well as a custody change.”

Naomasa raised an eyebrow at this. “Midoriya Inko? What happened there?”

“Bakugou went to her house to inform her of Midoriya’s arrest and we found out some rather unsavory behavior,” Nedzu explained. 

“Midoriya Inko is a bitch who doesn’t deserve to have custody of her son,” Eraserhead added. “Present Mic and I would like to adopt him if possible.”

“You’re already cleared for adoption, so that’s not an issue,” Naomasa said, creating a list of everything that needed to be done on his computer. “The issue would be whether or not Inko wants to fight for custody.”

“I don’t believe that that’ll be a problem,” Present Mic hissed. 

“This can’t get more complicated, can it,” Naomasa said, shaking his head. “I’ll go over to the Commission headquarters and we’ll get Midoriya cleared before we dive into everything else.”

“We’ll be coming with,” Nedzu stated. 

Naomasa nodded. “Didn’t expect any less,” he said as he closed down his computer and began packing up. 

“We’re heading out now?” Present Mic asked as the three men also stood. 

“Midoriya needs to get out of there. The Commission can be ruthless when it comes to interrogation and I don’t believe for one second that they would hold back just because he’s a child,” Naomasa said grimly. He grabbed his bag and made sure that he had his phone and keys before leading the men out of the office. 

“You only have 20 minutes left of your shift,” Sansa called out as they passed the officer’s desk. “You’re really headed out?”

“This shouldn’t take too long, don’t worry Sansa,” Naomasa consoled. “All the heavy lifting will be done tomorrow onward.”

“Whatever you say,” Sansa laughed before turning to the three following him. “Don’t let him work too hard!” 

“We simply have a need for his quirk and then he can go home,” Nedzu stated, sitting on Eraserhead’s shoulder. 

None of the officers said anything else to them as they left the station and piled into Present Mic’s car that was parked out front. Naomasa was just glad that the blonde was driving rather than Eraserhead as he had been in too many car rides with the man that had almost nearly gotten them in accidents. 

Pulling up to the Commission headquarters was more daunting than usual. It was rare for Naomasa to go directly against one of their decisions, even if he did sometimes push and pull at the laws they laid out. 

“We’re about to close, what do you need?” the guard next to the receptionist asked gruffly. 

“We’re here to see Midoriya,” Nedzu stated. “Surely you remember us, Ito?”

“Whatever,” Ito said, rolling his eyes. “Follow me. You better make this quick.”

“But of course,” Nedzu said with a polite grin, climbing up Eraser’s body to rest on his shoulder as they all followed Ito through the maze of hallways towards Midoriya’s room. 

“Five minutes,” Ito demanded. “Then you’re leaving. I’m not going to work overtime for you lot.”

“I’m sure it won’t even take that long,” Naomasa offered politely as they entered Midoriya’s room. Well, it was more like a cell now that he was able to see it. 

“Kid?” Eraser asked softly. 

Midoriya was a forlorn figure, curled up in the corner and staring into space with his cuffed wrists around his knees. “Er-Aizawa?” The kid asked, looking up as his vision cleared. 

“Hey kid,” Eraser said, kneeling in front of Midoriya. “I brought Detective Naomasa with me, as well as Hizashi and Nedzu.”

Midoriya blinked as he looked around at the group. “I think they drugged me with something to make me more compliant,” he whispered. 

“True,” Naomasa said with a grimace. He turned back towards the door, but it was closed. “What the hell have they been doing to the kid?”

“I think you would call it torture, but they call it asking a few questions,” Midoriya offered. 

Naomasa cursed as he knelt in front of the boy. “Midoriya, do you remember me?” 

“I think we’ve met too many times now for me to forget you, Detective,” Midoriya laughed. “Shut up! I am not loopy!” 

Naomasa blinked at Midoriya’s change in conversation then looked to the others to see none of them were surprised. Was this what they’d meant by Midoriya being able to talk to the past holders?

“Is there a chance that the vestiges can leave you alone for this conversation, kid?” Eraser asked. “We need to record it and if they have you responding, it could mess with getting you cleared.”

“Oh,” Midoriya blinked up at them. “Sorry, one second.” Midoriya’s vision grew hazy again and he went completely silent, almost seeming as if he’d passed out with his eyes open. “Okay, sorry. I might still be a little off, but the vestiges said they’ll wait until the recording is over to interject,” Midoriya said, vision slowly clearing again. 

“Thank you,” Eraser offered. “Naomasa, go ahead and start the recording so we can finish this before Ito gets back.”

Naomasa nodded and grabbed the recorder from his pocket and set it up before beginning a new recording. “Alright. This is Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi with Pro Heroes Eraserhead, Present Mic, and Nedzu, along with Midoriya Izuku. Midoriya, do you remember the parameters of my quirk?” 

“Yes, sir,” Midoriya said. “Your quirk is Lie Detector and it allows you to determine whether a statement is the truth or a lie.”

“True,” Naomasa said, reading his quirk’s signals. “Very good, Midoriya. Now, we’re here to question you on whether or not the allegations that you are the UA traitor and have been working with All for One are true or not. This is going to be very simple and short, understand?”

“Go ahead,” Midoriya said, waving his hand in the air. 

Naomasa nodded. “First, are you the UA traitor, Midoriya Izuku?” 

“No,” Midoriya responded. 

“True,” Naomasa replied. “Have you ever given away, traded, or sold information on your peers and teachers?” 

“The only people I’ve given information about the discussed group to is the people themselves,” Midoriya answered. 

“True, can you explain that a bit more?” Naomasa asked. 

“I like to analyze quirks. I have just over a dozen notebooks on the topic and will sometimes give my analyses to the people I write them on so that they can improve their quirk use. Sometimes they’ll ask me to show my analyses to other people, but they always come with me and it’s only at their request.” Midoriya explained. 

“True. And you’ve never given or shown these notebooks to anyone besides the people you write them on or who they ask you to?” Naomasa asked. 

“Correct,” Midoriya replied. 

“True. Who have you been asked to show your analyses to?” Naomasa asked. 

“Only Hatsume Mei and Eraserhead,” Midoriya said, looking at his teacher for a moment. 

“True. Have you ever written an analysis for a villain, criminal, or shady figure?” Naomasa asked. 

“I’ve written analyses on villains, but I’ve never shown any of my analyses to anyone besides UA students,” Midoriya explained. 

“True,” Naomasa said with a nod. “Alright, have you ever worked with or for All for One?”

“No,” Midoriya answered. 

“True,” Naomasa said. “Alright, that is all we need from you, Midoriya. Thank you.”

“Of course,” Midoriya said with a small smile as Naomasa ended the recording. 

“Let me go take this to go process your paperwork and I’ll come back when you’re able to leave. 

Midoriya nodded as Eraser and Mic started talking in low tones with him and Naomasa walked towards the door. 

“Naomasa, may I?” Nedzu asked. 

Naomasa looked down before nodding and offering a hand for Nedzu to climb up to his shoulder with. Naomasa knocked on the door and Ito opened it with the same gruff expression. “They still have a couple minutes, but can you please lead us to your superiors?”

Ito rolled his eyes. “I’m sure they’re packing up to leave, but whatever.”

Naomasa nodded in thanks as Ito began leading them even deeper into the building until they came to the President’s office. Ito knocked on the door and a voice called from within, so he opened it and gestured them inside. 

“Nedzu, Detective Naomasa,” Madame President greeted, sitting at her desk. “How may I help you gentlemen tonight?” 

“We have proof that Midoriya is not the traitor and would like him released immediately,” Naomasa stated, holding up his recorder. 

Madame President frowned at them. “Are you 100% certain of this?” She asked. “Are you certain you want this boy back in your school, Nedzu?”

“The child has done nothing but be an exemplary student since the beginning,” Nedzu said. “Midoriya never should have been arrested in the first place and we would like him back in our care immediately.”

Madame President sighed. “Show me your proof then if you choose to be so stubborn.”

Naomasa barely held back from rolling his eyes at the woman as he started the recorder and let it play. 

As soon as it finished, Madame President sighed. “Fine, take the damn child,” she said, grabbing a form from her desk chair. “Ink these papers and Ito will unlock his cuffs.”

“Gladly,” Naomasa said, a bit of his anger dripping into his voice as he grabbed the form and pen and quickly filled out the paper. 

“Now get out of my building,” Madame President said, waving her hand. “Ito!”

Ito opened the door and peeked in. “Yes, Madame President?”

“Go release the boy to these… men,” Madame President hissed. “We must restart our investigation.” 

“No need,” Nedzu chirped. “We’ll have the traitor in your custody by the week’s end.”

Madame President rolled her eyes and waved them off again. “Whatever.”

Naomasa smirked as Ito grumbled the whole way back to Midoriya’s cell. “Your five minutes were up ten minutes ago,” he said as they finally approached Midoriya’s door. 

“Yes, well,” Nedzu said, fur bristling, “as soon as you release the boy, we can all go home.”

“Whatever,” Ito grumbled, unlocking the door. “Midoriya, get over here.”

Eraser and Yamada stood with the child and led him over to them. Midoriya was stumbling his entire walk over and Eraser had to steady him by grabbing his arm. Ito grabbed the ring of keys off of his belt and grumpily unlocked Midoriya’s cuffs before hooking them and the keys onto his belt. 

“Get out of here,” Ito said.

“Gladly,” Eraser snapped, clearly not having the patience that Nedzu and Naomasa were trying to portray. 

“Let’s get you home, kiddo,” Mic offered kindly. 

“Okay,” Midoriya whispered. He winced and had to use Aizawa as a crutch as they left the room, which made Naomasa question just what, exactly, they had done to this poor child. 

Naomasa sighed as they followed down the hallways they’d originally come through, finally leaving the HPSC headquarters and getting Midoriya free. 

Walking into Aizawa and Yamada’s dorm felt strange. It was almost like coming home, but not at the same time. Their dorm was different from the student ones, though he wasn’t surprised. It was set up like a regular apartment and had three bedrooms as well as a full kitchen and living room. 

“We’ll set you up in the spare room,” Yamada said. “We already brought some of your clothes over earlier today so that you can feel a bit more comfortable. You can shower tomorrow or tonight,” he added, ruffling Izuku’s hair with a small wince. “I think we may have to cut your hair though.”

Izuku nodded. “It’ll be too hard to tame anyways. Thank you.”

“Before we do anything though,” Aizawa cut in, making Izuku nervous. “There’s someone that’s been bursting at the seams to see you again.”

Izuku perked up at that, wondering who it could be. 

“Eri!” Yamada sang out. “We have a special visitor!” 

“Izuku!” Eri screeched, running out of one of the bedrooms, and sliding on the wood floors in her socks, tumbling into him. 

Izuku hid his winces from the bruises on his body as he caught her and they both fell to the floor laughing. He held her close in a tight hug. “Hi, Eri! It’s so good to see you again!” He could feel his face light up in a bright smile that he hadn’t felt since before the Commission arrested him. “My oh my, have you gotten bigger?” He asked, tickling her sides. 

Eri giggled and squirmed out of his lap, trying to get away from his hands which only made Izuku laugh and tickle her more. 

“Izu! No!” Eri screeched, giggling. 

“Okay, okay,” Izuku laughed, finally freeing the young girl. “But, seriously, it seems as if you’ve grown so much! Are you taller than me now?” He asked, putting his hand up to his chest and mocking offense. He noticed in his peripheral vision that Aizawa and Yamada were quietly sneaking into the kitchen, presumably to come up with dinner. 

“I have gotten bigger! Since my last visit to Recovery Girl, I grew 5 whole inches!” Eri cheered. 

“Well, up you get!” Izuku said, standing and holding a hand out. “Let’s see just how tall you are now.”

Eri giggled again as she stood up so that they could compare their heights. She was still shorter than him, but she had indeed grown, so that now she reached up to his chest. He wouldn’t be surprised if she came up to his collarbones in the next couple months. 

“Well, not quite taller than me yet, but who knows?” Izuku asked, poking her cheek. “My family runs short, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you ended up taller than me soon enough.”

Eri laughed and poked his stomach and he flinched, not managing to hide it in time. “Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you Izu!” 

“Everything alright in here?” Aizawa asked, quickly walking back over to them. 

Izuku waved him off with a hand over his stomach. “I’m fine, Eri just accidentally touched a sore spot.” He turned back to Eri who was chewing on her lip nervously. “Don’t worry about it, Eri, seriously. I’m totally fine.”

“Okay,” Eri whispered. 

Izuku sighed and reached forward to pull the young girl into another tight hug. “See? I’m fine enough to hug you. And…” he picked up Eri and swung her around so she was upside down and giggling, “I can still pick you up and play!” 

“Midoriya, we still haven’t checked you for injuries, you shouldn’t be straining yourself,” Aizawa sighed. 

Izuku looked over with a smile. “How many times do I have to express that I’m fine, Aizawa?” 

“You admitted that they drugged you, and it’s clear that you at least have extensive bruising if a poke from a child as small as Eri aggravated you that much,” Aizawa countered. “Recovery Girl is on her way, so why don’t you two just watch a movie until she gets here?”

“Oh!” Eri screeched, wiggling again until Izuku set her upright on the floor. “Can we watch the ASHITAKA movie?” She asked, screaming the name Ashitaka just like in the movie. 

“Princess Mononoke?” Izuku asked. “Do you guys have it?” He asked Aizawa. 

“Of course we have it,” Aizawa huffed. 

“We have all of Hayao Miyazaki’s movies!” Yamada called out from the kitchen. 

Izuku laughed. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“I’ll set it up,” Aizawa offered, moving to do so. “Why don’t you go change into some comfortable clothes? We put your stuff in that bedroom,” he explained, pointing towards the bedroom that was furthest from the entry door. “Eri, do you want to go grab some blankets?”

“Yeah!” Eri said, running back towards her room. 

Izuku sighed as he walked towards his new room and closed the door behind him. There was a pile of folded clothes on the bed that he recognized, so he quickly undressed and changed into sweats and a t-shirt, without bothering to look at his body and trying to not pay attention to how much it hurt to lift his arms. Maybe he shouldn’t have picked Eri up. He sighed as he left his new room and headed back out to the living room. 

“I got the really soft green blanket you got me, Izu!” Eri called, waving him over. “It’s my favorite, but you can use it tonight.”

Izuku chuckled as he sat next to the girl. “Thank you Eri, but how about I just use it for the movie so you can still sleep with it?” 

“Okay,” Eri said, nodding determinedly. 

“I put the remote on the side table,” Aizawa called, now back in the kitchen. 

“Thank you,” Izuku called back, reaching over for it, this time hiding the winces from his pain. He pressed play on the movie and Eri cuddled into his side gently as they settled in to watch the movie together. 

“The fun has arrived!” Midnight shouted coming into the apartment-like dorm. 

“Hi Midnight-Sensei!” Izuku called out from where he was laying on the couch with Eri. 

Key word: was. Eri jumped up and ran to the front door with a screech. “Auntie Nemi!” 

“Hey sprout!” Midnight chuckled. 

Izuku paused their movie and twisted on the couch so he could look into the hallway without aggravating any of his injuries. Recovery Girl had been very strict while assessing and attending to his injuries from his month-long arrest. He was malnourished, bruised, and broken. She’d been able to heal the broken ribs and arm, but the bruises and malnourishment remained as he hadn’t had enough stamina. 

“Midoriya-kun!” Midnight called as she finally came into view. “I am so sorry about everything. It was such a mess.”

Izuku chuckled nervously. “It’s alright, Midnight. It wasn’t your fault.”

“No more of that Midnight stuff,” Midnight demanded, making Izuku freeze like a deer in the headlights. “I am your designated wine aunt now, call me Aunt Nemuri, or Auntie Nem or Nemi like Eri does.” 

Izuku relaxed and smiled at her. “Are you sure?”

“Well, if Eri is Sho and Zashi’s daughter and she’s my niece, then you’re my nephew now,” Mi- Nemuri explained. “Therefore, I get full aunt privileges.”

“As in you get to do all the fun stuff, but then you get to leave at the end of the day?” Izuku asked with a chuckle.

Nemuri snapped her fingers at him. “Exactly right kid! Now, I was given the rundown of your injuries and everything, but I’m assuming you’ve been getting restless having to essentially be on bed rest since you’ve gotten out?” 

“Er- yeah, kinda…” Izuku muttered. He was extremely thankful that Naomasa had gotten him out of the HPSC’s hands, and that Aizawa and Hizashi had taken him in and gained custody of him, but it was true that he’d gotten a bit restless. Eri and he had made a list of which movies they wanted to watch first and had gone back and forth adding them while the credits for Princess Mononoke played. They’d also watched Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki’s Delivery Service the night before and they’d been watching Howl’s Moving Castle since they woke up. 

“So it’s a good thing that I got left in charge then!” Nemuri cheered, clapping her hands together. “I’ve already invited your friends over, but! I haven’t told them that they’re all coming because you’re here, so it’s a big surprise! Ooh, they are so going to freak out about your new look too!” 

“You- what? Really!” Izuku shouted, jumping up from the couch and immediately wincing. “They’re coming though?”

Nemuri chuckled. “I wouldn’t pull any prank like that with you, kiddo.”

“Auntie Nemi likes pranks, but she doesn’t prank about important stuff,” Eri said with a seriousness that Izuku wasn’t expecting. 

“When are they coming?” Izuku asked, taking both their words for it. 

Nemuri pulled out her phone and checked the time. “Ah, I guess any mi-”

A knock sounded at the door and made the three of them jump.  

“I guess that’s them now,” Nemuri chuckled. “I’ll get the door, why don’t you hide or something? Make it a real surprise?” 

Izuku panicked again and looked back and forth between the door and Nemuri as Eri giggled. 

“Run, oni-san!” Eri whisper-yelled, waving her hands at him to hurry. 

Izuku tripped over the blanket from the couch before he got back to his feet, Nemuri approaching the door and yelling at his friends to stop banging on the door. He could hear Eri jumping on the couch and turning the TV back on as he hid behind the kitchen counter and Nemuri finally opened the door. 

“Hey kiddos! Perfect timing, I was just telling Eri-chan that I invited you all over!” Nemuri greeted as the door opened. 

“Why are we here, Midnight-Sensei?” Shouto asked and Izuku almost jumped from his hiding spot at that moment. “Your invitation was very cryptic.”

“Do you just want us to watch Eri for you or something?” Hitoshi asked. 

“We ain’t babysitters,” Kacchan hissed, causing Izuku’s breath to stop for a moment. 

“Someone’s excited to see his boyfriend,” Nana teased. 

“Shut up,” Izuku hissed. 

“Mm, we’d rather not,” Yoichi chuckled. “This is the most entertaining thing we’ve had in years.”

“My life is not some soap opera!” Izuku complained. 

“Just come on in,” Nemuri told his friends. “You’ll see why I invited you soon enough.”

“Did no one seriously tell them that you got out?” Second asked. 

“He’s only been out for a little over 24 hours, Second,” Banjo laughed. “They probably wanted to do something like this anyways.”

“I wanna see Eri!” Mei shouted. Izuku could hear her pushing past everyone to get to the living room until he could see her run past and he had to duck behind the counter again. 

He waited until he saw Hitoshi, Shouto, and then finally Kacchan pass by. Nemuri was closing the door when Izuku snuck from his hiding spot and walked up behind Kacchan. Hitoshi turned around and his eyes widened when he saw Izuku, but Izuku quickly cut across his neck before Kacchan noticed. Hitoshi smirked and watched as Izuku jumped and landed on Kacchan’s back, earning a string of curses and getting thrown off him. Luckily, Hitoshi was ready and caught him. 

“Kid, you could’ve gotten more hurt with that move,” Nana sighed. 

“Who cares!” Yoichi screeched, cackling. 

“That was pretty hilarious,” En chuckled, surprising everyone. 

“Izuku!” Kacchan shouted, running forward and pulling him into a hug. 

“Hi Kacchan,” Izuku whispered with a small smile as the vestiges cooed in his mind, vaguely hearing Nemuri and Eri’s giggles in the background. 

“When’d you get out?” Hitoshi asked. 

“What happened to your hair?” Shouto asked. 

Izuku pulled away from the hug reluctantly and turned to face his friends. Hitoshi was standing there with his arms crossed and an unimpressed, yet relieved look on his face; Shouto’s arm was smoking as if he’d been prepared to burn Izuku if he was a villain; and Mei was standing with Eri in her arms, jaw dropped. 

“Ah, sometime last night,” Izuku said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “And I had to cut my hair to even be able to properly wash it after a month of no showers.”

“Why didn’t you come see us sooner?” Kacchan asked, grabbing him around the waist and looking down at him. 

“That’s actually our doing,” Nemuri interjected. “Izuku is on house arrest since he won’t allow us to put him on bed rest.”

“It’s not that bad, Auntie Nem,” Izuku sighed, hoping she wouldn’t bring up that he had three broken ribs and a fractured arm. Kacchan’s arm squeezed tighter and he froze as he realized what he let slip. At least she wouldn’t bring up his injuries. 

Nemuri screeched excitedly after also having frozen in realization. “Eri! He did it!” 

“He did!” Eri yelled excitedly right along with her. “You officially have another nephew!” 

Izuku dropped his face into his hands as a rosy blush covered his face. 

“Okay, hold on,” Mei said. “There is way too much happening right now even for me.”

“Shouta and Hizashi adopted Izuku as soon as he agreed,” Nemuri explained. “That was- what? Right before he got released from the Commission?”

“Yeah,” Izuku nodded, finally looking up again. “When Naomasa and Nedzu went to talk to Madame President, Aizawa and Yamada asked if I wanted them to adopt me. They told me that you all went to my mom’s. I’m sorry you had to deal with her.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Shouto said. “We had no idea what your home life was like.”

“We would’ve gotten you out a lot sooner if we had,” Hitoshi agreed. 

“Why didn’t you ever just come over to mine?” Kacchan asked. “You know the Old Hag would’ve loved to have you over.”

Izuku shrugged. “I didn’t want to burden you guys. Plus, she would’ve gotten worse if I left again.”

“Again?” Hitoshi asked. “Where did you go before?” 

Izuku froze again, looking around as everyone looked at him in confusion besides Nemuri and Hitoshi who had a kindling of understanding and sadness in their eyes. 

“Did you go to the streets, kid?” Third asked. 

Izuku nodded and there was a litany of angry responses in his head. 

“What did the assholes in your head ask you, Izuku?” Kacchan asked, voice tense. 

“Um, they, well,” Izuku couldn’t get the words out of his mouth and dropped his eyes down to the floor. 

Hitoshi walked over to stand in front of him and grabbed his hands, effectively getting him to look up again. “Izu, did you sleep on the streets?”

Izuku’s eyes widened and he took a step back, hunching into himself, but Kacchan and Hitoshi didn’t let him get far. 

“Izu, it’s okay,” Hitoshi said, squeezing his hands lightly. “It’s just us, it’s okay.”

“I’m right here, nerd,” Kacchan whispered at the same time. “You can tell us anything, we’ve been through too much for us to not have that at least.”

Izuku looked around at everyone again before he finally nodded again. Kacchan and Hitoshi immediately pulled him into a hug and soon everyone else had joined as well besides Nemuri who simply started rubbing an area of his back that wasn’t covered in his friends’ arms. The tears were quick to follow their affection as Izuku nuzzled into his friends’ warmth. He had missed them in the past month or so and didn’t realize how much he’d needed this. 

“You’re safe here, oni-san,” Eri said, tears evident. She was too young to know the implications of their conversation, but she had also been through too much in her young life. “You’ll always have a bed and hugs waiting for you!” 

Mei chuckled. “Yeah, and we’re all here too. There’s always a dorm room open for you to come to if it ever gets to be too much.” 

“We’ve all been through a lot, so we all understand how hard it can be sometimes, even though we haven’t been through the same stuff,” Shouto continued. “You helped me with my father and we’ll help you with your new parents and your mother.”

Izuku smiled through the tears and invited them all to sit in the living room with him and Eri to finish their movie. They formed a big cuddle pile on the floor after they pushed the coffee table out of the way and Nemuri grabbed more blankets and pillows for them. A small blush grew on his face again as Kacchan pulled him closer and placed a kiss on top of his curls. 

Nemuri sent pictures of the kids all cuddled up on the floor to Yamada and Aizawa, and when they came back a few hours later, the kids were all still in the same position, fast asleep. 

A couple days later, Izuku was finally allowed to leave the apartment-dorm and walk around with his friends around campus. It was Tuesday, so he’d also be returning to classes tomorrow and he couldn’t wait to get back into training after having over a month-long rest period. 

“Can we go by my dorm to grab some stuff?” Izuku asked. “I think I might spend a couple more nights with Aizawa and Yamada, so I need my school stuff and my notebooks.”

“Of course,” Shouto said, their group already turning directions to walk towards the dorms. 

Izuku had been enjoying the serenity of aimlessly walking around campus with his friends for about an hour now and his friends had just finished telling him about the Autumnal Equinox festival. Izuku wished the other students hadn’t been so mean while he was gone. He’d half been hoping that they’d stop after he was taken away, but he’d never been very lucky with his wishes. 

“Oh, I got a new video game while you were gone,” Hitoshi commented. “I haven’t really been in the mood to play it, but I had preordered it if you all want to play.” 

“Oh!” Izuku said. “Let’s do that too! I don’t have to be back with the teachers till later anyways.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Katsuki smirked, swinging his and Izuku’s hands that were clasped tightly together. “Just be ready to get your ass beat.”

“You don’t even know what game it is,” Mei laughed. 

“It’s obviously some action game,” Katsuki scoffed. “We’ve played Hitoshi’s games too much for it to be anything but.” 

Hitoshi shrugged. “He’s not wrong. It’s the new Modern Warfare.”

“Ooh, can we play team deathmatch?” Izuku asked. “I liked that the most on the last version.”

“Yeah sure,” Hitoshi agreed. “There’s a lot different with this one, so prepare for that.” 

“Sounds good,” Izuku laughed as they reached the dorms and Kacchan opened it, leading them all inside. 

Their mood instantly dropped as a plate dropped onto the floor, shattering. Izuku scanned the room and wished he’d had the forethought to prepare himself for meeting his other classmates again. 

“Dude!” Denki shouted, jumping up and running over, followed by Kacchan’s other friends. “You’re back!” 

“We missed you!” Mina cried out. 

“Yeah, bro!” Kirishima added. “It totally wasn’t manly how the Commission just took you like that!” 

“Izuku?” Momo asked, coming from the kitchen with a shocked face, Kyouka following behind her. 

“Hi everyone,” Izuku said nervously, glancing at the other people who didn’t seem as excited about having him back. 

“What is he doing here?” Uraraka asked, making the group around him tense up. 

“Well, uh,” Izuku stuttered, he brought his hands up and waved them in a jazz hands motion. “Surprise! I’m not the traitor!” 

“How did you get out?” Iida asked tentatively, looking like he didn’t know whether he should run and get a teacher or not. 

“They let me out?” Izuku asked. “Really, it’s not that complicated you guys.”

“But you’re the traitor! You sold off our personal information and you have multiple quirks!” Uraraka shouted, angry tears filling her eyes. “You betrayed us!” 

“I- Nevermind,” Izuku sighed. “No matter what I say, you obviously won’t change your mind.” 

“There’s evidence stacked against you though,” Ojiro huffed and gestured to his shoes, making Izuku freeze. “You were obviously born quirkless, so being the traitor is the only explanation as to how you have a quirk, let alone multiple quirks.” 

“Oi!” Kacchan shouted, letting go of Izuku’s hand and stepping to the front of their group. “How ‘bout you all back the fuck off and leave the nerd alone! Naomasa himself proved that the nerd was innocent for the charges against him alright!” 

“He probably tricked the lovely detective as well then,” Aoyama cut in, eyeing Izuku skeptically. “Based on the way he would analyze us, it would only be right that he analyzed the detective as well.”

Izuku rolled his eyes at that. Of course he’d analyzed the detective as well. He analyzed almost everyone he came in contact with! This was just like dealing with the Commission officers all over again and he was tired of it. 

“Keep your emotions in check, Nine,” Banjo warned. “We don’t want a repeat of the training exercise.”

Izuku nodded and slowly started taking deep breaths. Shouto must have noticed because he came up and placed a hand on his shoulder, Hitoshi doing the same with his other shoulder a moment later. 

“If he could trick the teachers for this long, then it only makes sense that he could trick the Commission and the detective,” Uraraka agreed, going along with Aoyama’s theory. 

“Pink Cheeks, you better shut the fuck up,” Kacchan warned. 

“He’s got you wrapped around his finger!” Uraraka complained. “All of you! He’s a useless, good for nothing villain!” 

Their group could do nothing but watch as Kacchan rushed forward and collided with Uraraka. Students started shouting as the two threw punches at each other, but Izuku just sighed as he walked forward, shrugging off his friends’ hands. 

“I’ve had enough with all of you,” Izuku muttered. His anger was brimming under the surface, but he made sure that he had full control of it before he released Black Whip and grabbed the two students. He pulled Kacchan back to his side and placed a hand over his boyfriend’s heart. “Don’t let her get to you. Nothing she says is true and we know that. That’s all that matters.”

Kacchan slowly began to relax until Uraraka started shrieking. 

“Let go of me, Villain!” Uraraka shouted, some of the other students also shouting at him. “Stupid Deku!” 

“You know, Uraraka,” Izuku said calmly, not letting either his boyfriend or Uraraka loose. “I think that’s the first time that you’ve used Deku as an insult. To my face at least,” he added with a shrug. Uraraka glared at him, but stopped shouting, so at least that was a plus. “Yes, I was born quirkless,” he said to the rest of the class, some of them letting out gasps. “But it wasn’t All for One who gave me my quirk. If any of you actually studied quirk theory or, I don’t know, used your brains, you’d realize that if there was one quirk that allowed the user to give and take quirks, then there’d be more quirks like that as well.”

“Izuku…” Momo started, but Izuku just held a hand up to stop her. 

“And yes, I analyzed you all,” Izuku continued. “I’ve been analyzing quirks since I was four, even before I was diagnosed quirkless. I showed each and every one of you these analyses though and never showed them to anyone else, not even to other students or teachers unless you expressly asked me to do so and were there with me.” He looked towards Denki, Momo, and Hagakure specifically since he’d taken their analyses to Mei and Aizawa upon their requests. 

“I never betrayed any of you,” Izuku finished. He looked around at his old friends and at the students who believed he was the traitor, not bothering to target those who were indifferent to the situation. “No, I didn’t betray you all, but you betrayed me. And that is not something I will forget.” 

He turned towards his friends who were staring at him in a mixture of shock and pride. “Let’s go get my shit. I have to talk to Dad about this, then we can play the game.” 

He released his quirk and started walking towards the stairs, not bothering to look behind him as his friends rushed to follow after him. 

“Damn, Izuku,” Hitoshi whispered. “I didn’t know you could be so scary!” 

“I bet if Mineta was still here, he’d have pissed his pants,” Kacchan said, barking a laugh. 

“I’m not scary, I’m angry,” Izuku countered, stomping up the stairs. 

“Yeah, sorry to tell you Izu,” Mei laughed, “but those two go hand in hand for you.”

“If I wasn’t subjected to people that are scary when they’re angry my whole life, I likely would have been scared as well,” Shouto confirmed. “That being said, I am very glad that I’m your friend and not your enemy.”

Izuku sighed, his anger slowly dissipating as he pulled out his phone and found Aizawa’s contact before freezing on the stairs mid step, almost making Kacchan run into him. 

“Oi! What the fu-”

“I called him Dad,” Izuku whispered in horror. 

The group around him broke out in laughter and pushed him to continue up the stairs and call who they now deemed ‘Dadzawa.’

“Are you sure you’re ready for this, Izuku?” Shouta asked quietly. 

It was now Thursday and Shouta, Hawks, and Nedzu had designed a new training exercise for the class to test out. Izuku could still hardly believe that All Might had truly been fired and Hawks had been hired as his replacement. 

Izuku nodded. “It’s been two days now of being back in classes. I think I can finally participate in a training exercise.” He was still freaking out about having called him ‘Dad’ in front of his friends the other day and had yet to say it to his face. 

“As long as you feel comfortable enough,” Shouta said with a smile, ruffling Izuku’s hair. 

Izuku waved to him as he headed out of the classroom and met his friends in the hallway. 

“What’d the hobo want?” Kacchan huffed as they started walking towards the changing rooms. 

“To be a helicopter dad,” First laughed. 

Izuku shook his head, trying to hide his laughter as he grabbed Kacchan’s hand. “He was just checking in with me to make sure I was comfortable with joining everyone in this.” 

“He’s such a dad,” Hitoshi chuckled. 

“Yeah, I never thought we’d get to see Aizawa being so soft,” Shouto admitted. 

“He already had Eri,” Izuku laughed. “He was plenty of a dad before I joined him.”

“She’s too cute to not be soft around!” Nana complained. Izuku tried to shush them, but he knew it wouldn’t work. 

“Fair enough,” Hitoshi laughed. 

“Speaking of,” Kacchan smirked. “Have you called him Dad to his face yet?”

Izuku turned and smacked his boyfriend’s shoulder. “Shut up!” He hissed. “Of course I haven’t! I’ve only just barely started calling them by their first names.” Izuku buried his face in his hands as Kacchan chuckled and threw an arm around his shoulders, pulling him in close. 

“Let’s just get changed and kick everyone’s ass,” Kacchan smirked, pushing open the door to the locker rooms. 

“Sounds good, Kacchan,” Izuku laughed, glad for the subject change. He grabbed his hero costume case out of his locker and set it on a bench and changed into it as quickly as possible before following his friends to the training grounds where the rest of their class was slowly gathering. 

“Alright, chicks!” Hawks called out. “Everyone’s here, so let’s go over the details and rules of today’s exercise!” 

Nedzu peeked out from behind one of Hawks’ wings and clapped his paws together. “Today we will be conducting team versus team battles. You all have had enough training at this point as well as real time experience that this should be a comfortable setting. This will help you in the future to remember that teamwork is important and sometimes in a battle, you don’t get to choose who you’re working with.”

“Alright there will be 4 teams of 5 people which means that there will be two different battles today,” Hawks continued. “And no, you’re not choosing your own teams,” he added as some people started grouping up. Izuku grabbed Kacchan’s hand again and squeezed it as he thought of who he might get placed on a team with. 

“I’ve put together the teams, and there will be no arguing, swapping, or anything else of the sort,” Shouta said, coming up from behind the two teachers. 

A couple of the students voiced their complaints at this before Hawks raised a hand to quiet them. “Alright, before we go over the teams, let’s get into what exactly you’ll be doing.”

“Each team will have their own base to defend,” Nedzu announced. “They will be on opposite sides of the map, and you’ll essentially be playing capture the flag. There will be a flag posted inside each of your bases that will need to not only be grabbed, but brought back to your own base. You will only win if you have both flags or if the time runs out and you’re the only one with a flag.”

“You will also be given capture tape,” Hawks announced. “I assume that you all are familiar with this from previous exercises?” Izuku and some of his other classmates nodded their affirmation. “Good, if the time runs out and both teams still have their flag, the next thing we’ll look at is how many members you still have on your team.”

“All in all,” Shouta finished. “Your goal is not simply a game of retrieving your opponents’ flag, but also in capturing as many of your opponents as possible.” 

“What if both teams have their own flags and the same number of teammates?” Kaminari asked. 

“Then it will be a draw and we’ll let the next battle play if needed, then have you retry,” Nedzu answered. “Any other questions?” 

“What if we don’t feel safe with our team members?” Uraraka asked, cutting a glare at Izuku and his friends. Izuku rolled his eyes. 

“There will be times when you’re a Pro and either do not like or are not able to trust those you’re teamed up with,” Shouta said. “No matter the circumstance, the objective of your mission and keeping civilians safe is your top priority. You must learn to overcome your dislike or distrust of others if you wish to succeed as a Hero.” 

“Alright, if there’s no other questions regarding the exercise, then we’ll go ahead and announce the teams!” Nedzu said, clapping his paws together. 

Nobody said anything, so Shouta stepped forward and pulled out a tablet. “Team 1: Bakugou, Midoriya, Todoroki, Shinsou, and Kaminari. Team 2: …” 

Izuku quickly turned to Kacchan, eyes gleaming in surprise and excitement. All of his friends would be working together! They could totally beat whoever they came up against! 

“Of course he put us all on the same team, nerd,” Kacchan whispered, laughter lacing his voice. “He’s your dad and protective as hell even though he only gained custody of you like 3 days ago.” 

“I’m telling you! Helicopter dad!” Yoichi cried out. 

Izuku nodded, not able to wipe the smile off his face as he turned back to the teachers, noticing that Shouta was already finishing his list. 

“First up will be Team 1 versus Team 2. Team 1 will follow me into the city and Team 2 will follow Hawks. The rest of you will follow Nedzu up to the command room where we’ll be able to announce everything as we watch the battles,” Shouta said. 

“Shit,” Izuku hissed. “Who’s on Team 2?” He asked, turning to Hitoshi and Shouto.

Hitoshi snorted. “Aizawa would ground you if he heard you ask that.”

“He’d actually probably expect it,” En sighed in an exasperated manner. 

Izuku punched his shoulder, but luckily Shouto came to his rescue. “Team 2 consists of Uraraka, Iida, Asui, Aoyama, and Hagakure.” 

“Oh, they’re so gonna get fucked,” Banjo laughed. Izuku sighed as he realized there was no way they’d be quiet during this exercise now. 

“Hey guys!” Kaminari shouted as he skipped over. “Looks like I’m with you!” 

“Hope you’re ready to win, Dunce Face,” Kacchan said with a smirk, cracking his knuckles. “I’ve been waiting for a school sanctioned beating of those assholes.”

Denki laughed off Kacchan’s statement, but his smile slowly dropped as he took in Shouto and Hitoshi’s agreeing nods and Izuku’s own fierce look of determination. 

“Let’s go to Aizawa and get started,” Izuku said, already thinking of several different strategies to beat the other team. “The faster we get there, the more planning time we have.”

“I’m headed into a war,” Kaminari groaned as he followed the group towards Shouta. 

The other team was still forming, so they were already one step ahead as they reached Shouta and he waved for them to follow. 

As soon as they were all inside the actual testing grounds, Shouta finally spoke up. “Alright, the team pairings were not fully my decision, so please do not kill one another,” he sighed. 

“He means he didn’t want you paired against your recent bullies,” Second scoffed. “I bet the rat did this so you could prove everything they’ve been thinking wrong.”

“We’re here to win, not get expelled and arrested,” Izuku chirped before looking at his boyfriend, effectively ignoring the vestiges at this point. “I mean it, Kacchan.”

“Tell him he’ll have extra guests at your next date if he doesn’t let you work your magic!” Banjo laughed. 

“It would be their first date, actually,” Nana corrected. 

Izuku rolled his eyes as he leaned in to whisper in Kacchan’s ear, “the vestiges are threatening to be… present, at our first date if you don’t listen.” 

Kacchan huffed and looked away. “Fine, I won’t kill the assholes.”

“Thank you,” Shouta nodded, leading them through a cityscape. “That being said,” he turned to look mischievously at Izuku, “I do expect you to give them absolute hell.”

Izuku smirked up at his parent/teacher. “Oh, trust me, Shouta, they will never be the same.”

Shouta nodded as he took them inside a building. “Alright this is where you’ll be beginning the exercise,” he explained, leading them through a hallway and into an office. “And here’s your flag.”

“Was this Nedzu’s idea?” Izuku asked, looking at the red flag sitting on the desk. 

“He had this planned since before you even got released from the Commission,” Shouta sighed. “That being said, we all believe that you all are capable of winning this exercise.”

“Hah! Fucking called it!” Second cheered

“Of course you did, love,” Yoichi laughed. 

“With Izuku as our mastermind?” Hitoshi asked, slinging an arm over Izuku’s shoulders. “We could beat anyone.”

“Damn straight,” En huffed. 

Shouta ducked his head into his scarf in a telltale way of hiding his smile. “I don’t doubt it. I’m going to head back now and the battle will begin as soon as both Hawks and I are in the control center.”

“See you when we win this thing,” Kacchan said with a smirk and a two finger salute. 

Shouta rolled his eyes as he left the building and Izuku took a seat at the desk chair, looking over the materials laid out on the desk. 

“Alright, everyone grab a headset and capture tape,” Izuku commanded, grabbing his own materials before turning to the map. There was a red pen next to it, so he used it to circle their base’s building before turning to the others. “I apologize for how I may act in this exercise, but given that we have a red flag, I’m assuming that we are essentially the villains while the other team are the heroes. I’m willing to risk everything to prove to them that I am here to be a hero just as much- no, twice as much as they are. If I need to enter a villain’s mindset, then so be it.”

“Just give us the rundown already, Izu,” Hitoshi huffed, rolling his eyes. 

Kaminari looked a bit nervous, but just as determined as Izuku’s friends, so he nodded and continued, moving to look at the map again. “Here is our base,” Izuku said, tapping the building they were in. Which leads me to believe that the other base is…” Izuku drew the pen down the map and tapped a similar building. “Right here,” he said, circling it. “We will need defenders, attackers, and retrievers, but given that we only have 5 people on our team, I think that we should only have one retriever.”

“I like this kid more and more everyday,” En said proudly, making Izuku blush. 

“It should be you,” Shouto said. “You have the most versatile quirk of all of us, which lets you fight more than one person at a time easily.”

Izuku nodded and wrote down the categories of people on the side of the map. “Alright, I want Hitoshi and Kaminari on defense and Shouto and Kacchan on offense then.” 

“Sounds good to me,” Kacchan said, crossing his arms and leaning against the chair that Izuku sat in. “How are we going to scare them exactly?”

“Everybody shut up,” Third said, “I wanna hear this.” There were a couple protests, but they eventually quieted after Nana knocked a few of them over the head. 

“Nobody knows just how many quirks I have,” Izuku said when the vestiges finally quieted, looking at the group with a smirk. “While I’m on my way to retrieve the flag, I can use Smokescreen to provide a cover for you and distract the other team. I’m sure that they’ll be targeting me and will assume that we were either given different materials to start with or they’ll know it’s my doing.”

“If they’ll be targeting you, then we should all head out together so that we can provide backup,” Shouto said. 

Izuku shook his head. “Well, no but yes. I want us to head out at the same time, but I want you guys to stick to the streets while I take to the roofs. Uraraka might meet me up there, but I can send her back down to you with Air Force or capture her on my own.”

“What about Asui?” Hitoshi asked. “She can use her tongue to maneuver Uraraka or get to the roofs herself.”

Izuku nodded. “She can, but we also have to think of their own strategy. Iida will probably be the retriever because of his quirk, and they’ll send Hagakure as backup. Uraraka will want to come after me, so she’ll be on offense. That leaves Aoyama and Asui. Part of Asui’s quirk is being able to blend in with a space if she stays still long enough, so they’ll probably have Aoyama out front and Asui inside.”

Kacchan nodded. “That leaves them with only one person on offense though, do you really think they’d do that?” 

“They might send Iida as a mock retriever and really have him on offense,” Kaminari suggested. 

“Exactly my thoughts,” Izuku nodded. 

“Alright everyone!” Hawks called out over their headsets and the speakers. “The battle has officially begun! Go get those flags!” 

“Showtime!” Banjo cheered out, the others quickly shouting excitedly as well. 

“Let’s go,” Izuku said, waving to Shouto and Kacchan as he stood from the chair. “Iida can get here within 2 minutes if he goes all out immediately.”

“Should we stay here?” Kaminari asked as Izuku walked out the door. 

“However you believe to be the best bet for defending the flag!” Izuku called out. “Though I believe mixing electricity and engines isn’t very pretty!” 

“Yeah, don’t be a dumbass,” Second snickered. 

“Do not be mean to him and call him stupid,” Izuku told the vestiges sternly. “He has been told that enough in his life due to his quirk.” Izuku threw out Black Whip and flung himself up onto the nearest roof. 

“Sorry, kid,” Third muttered. “Won’t make the mistake again.”

Izuku nodded resolutely as he ran across the rooftops, searching for movement. He got three buildings down before Iida ran past him. He clicked his headpiece on as quickly as he could. “Iida incoming. 30 seconds out, full speed.”

“Copy that,” Shouto said. 

Izuku kept running and felt the air grow colder. Shouto must have frozen Iida then, and hopefully captured him. He perched on the side of the roof and looked down at the streets when a slight movement caught his eye. 

“Sneaky little twerp, that one is,” Banjo huffed. 

“Guys, I have eyes on Hagakure,” Izuku said. “She’s following Iida’s path and attempting to stick to the shadows, though it seems she needs more stealth training.”

“Keep going, nerd, we’ll keep an eye out for her,” Kacchan huffed. 

“Iida has been captured!” Nedzu cheered out over the speakers in the arena. 

“Good work, you guys,” Izuku whispered as he continued his path towards the opposing team’s base. 

“Deku!” Uraraka shouted. 

“Shit, got eyes on Uravity,” Izuku whispered. 

“Kick her ass!” Second shouted. 

“Don’t forget you can fly too with my quirk,” Nana reminded. 

“Ruin her, nerd,” Kacchan said over the headpiece and Izuku could hear the smirk he wore. 

“Gladly,” Izuku responded before launching into the sky to meet Uraraka. She was floating in the space between two buildings, one of her cords wrapped around a fire escape. 

“You know, Uraraka,” Izuku said with a smirk. “You may be able to float, but you can’t fly.” 

He used Air Force to propel himself forwards towards the girl, whose eyes had widened in shock. Uravity slapped his arm, which was only effective in making his shirt weightless. 

“Tell me how you got your quirks!” Uraraka cried out. She used the motion that resulted from hitting him to propel to the side and dropped her quirk to land on the roof, which also released the weight on his shirt. 

“They’re inherited, what can I say,” Izuku laughed, dropping down to meet her on the roof and immediately activating Smoke Screen. 

The rooftop was covered in smoke, but Izuku was prepared to not see Uraraka as he used Float and Black Whip to propel himself two rooftops away. 

“Is all that smoke from you, or did Katsuki blow a building up?” Shouto asked over the comms. 

“Just me, have you found Hagakure yet?” Izuku asked. 

“Just found her,” Kacchan huffed. “Shouto, get your ass over here. A block northeast from the base.”

“Coming,” Shouto responded grumpily, causing Izuku to laugh. 

“Hitoshi, Kaminari, northwest and make your way to the base,” Izuku directed. “Leave the flag; we have a guaranteed win.”

“Copy, on our way,” Hitoshi responded. 

“So you plan on defeating the brat or leaving her for the others?” Third huffed. 

“Let’s combine some quirks and freak her out by sending her over to Kacchan and Shouto once they’ve captured Hagakure,” Izuku said, watching as the smoke started to clear. 

“On your twelve!” Yoichi shouted. 

“That’s his six, dumbass,” Hikage corrected, Danger Sense activating as well. 

Izuku jumped into the air using Float and spun to see Asui landing where he’d been standing. 

“Asui has engaged, let me know when you have Hagakure so I can send one of the girls your way,” Izuku whispered hurriedly, thinking of all of his options. 

“Give up, kero,” Asui demanded. “It’s soon to be two on one.”

“And why do you assume that?” Izuku asked, making sure with Danger Sense that Uraraka wasn’t approaching yet. 

“At first I assumed the smoke was Bakugou, but there haven’t been any explosions,” ASui explained. “Therefore, I’m left to assume that it’s one of your many quirks.”

Izuku shrugged, staying in the air and sitting cross-legged. “Perhaps, perhaps not.” 

Asui narrowed her eyes before throwing out her tongue, but Izuku used Black Whip to counter the attack while still sitting. He could hear the sounds of fighting over his headpiece, and just as Asui jumped for a new attack he also heard Uraraka approaching. Izuku grabbed Asui’s arm and spun her back to the roof, feeling like he was on a merry-go-round as he activated Gear Shift and accelerated the force of her jump. 

Asui went flying back into the roof just as Uraraka finally reached them, Izuku still spinning in circles. 

“I could go at this all day without even standing up!” Izuku cackled. 

“With how much you deny being a villain, you play the part very well,” Uraraka snapped, helping Asui to her feet. 

Izuku shrugged again, his eyes hardening in anger as he sent out Black Whip to stop him from spinning and face the girls full on. “Maybe you should have thought twice before labeling me as a villain, Uraraka. 14 years of harassment, abuse, and discrimination can easily turn one to villainy if they don’t have the right mindset, and even with a change of environment, that mentality never goes away.”

Uraraka and Asui’s eyes widened in fear and shock respectively as they both took a step back from their classmate. 

Izuku slowly lowered himself down to the roof, standing to face them. “I easily could have become a villain,” he said, taking another step forward. “I easily could have committed suicide.” Another step. “Yet, instead I followed my dream to become a hero.” He was now standing directly in front of them, and they were both shaking. “You should be thankful for that.”

“Hagakure has been captured!” Nedzu chirped, sounding extra gleeful. 

“Three blocks directly south of you,” Shouto said into the headpiece at the same time as Nedzu’s announcement, sounding out of breath as he ran. 

Izuku smirked at the girls and took a step back. “But, I’ll throw you a bone just this once. Don’t read a book by its cover.” He activated Black Whip and wrapped the two girls in it before launching them towards his friend and boyfriend. 

A slope of ice shot into the sky two blocks down, but Izuku was already running again. He reached the base just as Nedzu announced the girls’ capture and he smirked. Only one person left as well as the flag and then they had a complete victory. 

Kaminari and Hitoshi reached the building seconds after he did and Izuku dropped down to the street using Black Whip. Kaminari jumped and Hitoshi rolled his eyes at the action. “Kaminari, cut the building’s power, the breaker is on the left side of the building halfway down the alley.”

“Y-yes!” Kaminari stuttered, running towards the breaker box. 

“Shouto, Kacchan,” Izuku called over the headpiece, waiting for an affirmation from both of them before continuing, “head back to base. We’ll be there soon.”

“What’s the plan?” Hitoshi asked. 

“I’m going to distract Aoyama and you’ll brainwash him while Kaminari grabs the flag. Then I’ll bring all of us back to base.” 

Hitoshi nodded just as the power inside the building went out causing a shriek to come from inside. Kaminari quickly ran around the corner to meet them again. 

“I’ll distract,” Izuku said. “Hitoshi, adjust your vocal chords to match my voice and Kaminari, go around to retrieve the flag. Meet back here when we’re done.” 

Hitoshi was already adjusting his mask as Izuku ran into the building using Danger Sense to detect where Aoyama was and letting off a small percentage of Smoke Screen to obscure the boy’s vision. 

“What’s happening?” Aoyama cried out. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this! It was supposed to be easy!” 

“And what exactly did you expect to be so easy?” Hitoshi asked in Izuku’s voice, hiding in the shadows. Izuku could barely see Kaminari inching his way around the room to get to the other side, but Aoyama was still blocking the doorway. 

“Infilt-“ Aoyama’s words were cut off and Izuku almost wished they weren’t, but ignored the extra ringing of Danger Sense as Hitoshi forced Aoyama to tie himself up with capture tape and move away from the door. 

Izuku let Smokescreen go as he stepped back outside, waiting for the others to finish their tasks. 

“He’s the traitor,” Hikage said determinedly. 

“Looking back, he was constantly feeding into people’s opinions and twisting Izuku’s image,” Third noted. 

“We don’t know this for a fact yet,” Izuku countered. 

“Danger Sense doesn’t lie kid,” Hikage huffed. 

“He was literally about to say ‘infiltrated.’ Not much to argue against,” Nana added softly. 

“We’ve got the flag,” Kaminari shouted, effectively cutting off the vestiges. 

“Good, let’s go,” Izuku said when he turned and saw Hitoshi there as well. “Hope you like flying.” 

He wrapped his friends in Black Whip and used Air Force and Float to propel them back to the base. As soon as they stepped inside, they were greeted with Kacchan, Shouto, and an announcement of their win.

“Alright hellions, settle down,” Shouta huffed, walking into the classroom. “Whilst in the arena, many of you made very poor decisions which will reflect on your grades. First battle, who was the MVP?” 

Izuku laid his head down on the desk as the vestiges snickered. Several hands around the room shot up and Aizawa chose Tokoyami to speak. 

“Midoriya was the clear MVP,” Tokoyami stated, making Izuku’s head shoot up. “He came up with the strategy, analyzed the other team, and even participated in the battle.”

“Are there any counters?” Shouta asked. Again, several hands shot up. “If you’re going to say anything against Midoriya for the mistake the Commission made, then you’re getting detention.”

All the hands shot back down immediately and Izuku rolled his eyes as he laid his head back down. He’d slept horribly last night and now sounded like a perfect time to catch up. 

“Midoriya,” Shouta called. Guess he wasn’t catching up on sleep after all. “Want to explain the reasoning for your strategies in the battle?”

“Consider this the death of Deku,” Izuku said, not raising his head. Kacchan and Shinsou snickered at his response. 

Shouta sighed. “We can change your name later. Explain.”

Izuku groaned as he sat up, noticing that some of the students were watching him in curiosity, some sending him glares, and all of his teammates had been sending him proud looks. “You colored the flags red and green, so I assumed it was an implied villain versus hero exercise and that we were the villains. I used this exercise to prove that I could be a villain, and if I was, then I wouldn’t stoop to such levels as infiltrating a school and pretending to be a student given that I clearly could have taken on each of the students myself.”

“Why didn’t you?” Momo asked, tilting her head. “You fought Asui and Uraraka easily on your own, but I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we were surprised that you left them for Shouto and Katsuki to capture.”

Izuku shrugged. “Two reasons. The main reason is that I wanted my friends to be able to show their own power and skills in the exercise. The second reason is that I didn’t need to.”
“What do you mean you didn’t need to?” Uraraka cried out. “All you did was play with us then threw us away!” 

Izuku rolled his eyes at her. “I had already proved to you that I could beat you easily, Uraraka. There was no need for me to continue to show off, so I let Kacchan and Sho capture you.”

“Sounds like you just wanted the others to do the leg work while you jumped around and played with your quirks,” Aoyama muttered. 

Izuku sent a glare at the boy, hatred seeping through as he thought back to what had been revealed during the exercise. “Big talk from someone who sat in the base cowering in fear.”

“Out him!” Banjo cried. 

Aoyama was stuttering, but now the vestiges had risen up in arms and he could barely hear anything from his surroundings. “I know, I should out the traitor,” Izuku muttered. 

“Midoriya?” Shouta called out, as Kacchan grabbed his arm. 

Izuku blinked and looked at Kacchan first, who had surprise and anger etched over his whole face, and then at Shouta, who was just barely able to contain his worry as he texted someone discreetly under his own desk. 

“Sorry, the vestiges,” Izuku said, waving his hand around his head. 

“Midoriya, who’s the traitor?” Shouta asked. 

“Fuck,” Izuku said, looking back at Kacchan. “Did I say that out loud?”

Kacchan huffed a laugh and squeezed Izuku’s arm gently. “Yeah, nerd. Now tell us who it is.”

Izuku sighed, looking at Shouta who nodded, before looking up to the camera in the room and glad to see that it was recording. “Aoyama Yuuga.” 

Glitter flew across the room. “That is a lie!” 

Izuku raised his eyebrows. “You literally admitted to it. Well, you practically did. Hitoshi’s quirk kinda cut it off, which was a little frustrating.”

“Sorry?” Hitoshi said. “You told me to Brainwash him, though.”

“I don’t blame you!” Izuku said, turning to Hitoshi and waving his arms around. “It was just an observation. We talked about about what we had heard and came to the conclusion that the only possible response he was about to say was some form of ‘infiltrate.’” 

“How does that make him the traitor?” Hagakure asked. 

Izuku looked around the classroom, having forgotten where he was for a moment. Shouta had wrapped his capture weapon around Aoyama, who was now laying on the floor in front of the door, crying, and the rest of the class, besides his close friends, were staring at him in a mixture of confusion, anger, and shock. 

Hitoshi sighed. “Before I brainwashed the asshole, he was talking about how ‘it’ was supposed to be easy and ‘it’ wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he said, using air quotes. “So, when I asked what was supposed to be easy, as Izuku explained, he responded by starting to say something about infiltration. Though, all he really got out before my quirk took hold was ‘infilt-.’”

“Couldn’t he have-” 

Uraraka’s counter was cut off as the door slammed open and Naomasa came in with Nedzu on his shoulder, Hizashi and Nemuri standing behind him. All four of them barely contained the rage in their eyes as they scanned the classroom and kept their eyes on Aoyama who was now whimpering. 

“Aoyama Yuuga,” Naomasa said, vitriol dripping from his voice. “Are you the UA traitor that has been working for All for One?”

“Yes!” Aoyama screeched. “I am! Don’t hurt me please.”

“True,” Naomasa hissed, reaching for his quirk-canceling cuffs. 

“Take him away, detective,” Nedzu snapped, hopping over to Yamada’s shoulder. 

“Wh- but- how?” Uraraka cried out. 

“Will you believe I wasn’t the traitor now?” Izuku asked lazily, resting his chin on his hand as he watched the scene play out. 

“But you- and he never- you were-” 

“Uraraka, shut the fuck up, kami,” Hitoshi huffed. “There’s literally nothing to argue about. Naomasa used his quirk to ask the same exact question to both of them, and only one of them was proven to be the traitor.”

Izuku ignored the class as several shouts rang out in confusion and betrayal as the true traitor was revealed. Instead, he watched as Aoyama’s chest heaved as he sobbed and begged not to be hurt as he was dragged out the door. 

“All for One really did a number on the kid,” Nana said, wincing. 

“I bet that wasn’t even his quirk,” Banjo huffed. 

“He was born quirkless,” Yoichi stated. 

Several of the vestiges questioned that, but Izuku cut in. “Ever notice the shoes he’s wearing? Here in Japan, the only shoe company that makes comfortable quirkless shoes is forced to make them in red, but in France, they have different laws. It’s all the same shoe company though. They have a mark on the tongue.”

“No offense kid, but why would we be looking at the tongues of your classmates shoes?” Third asked. 

“You wouldn’t,” Izuku said, mentally shrugging. “Not unless you were born quirkless or were presumed to be quirkless.”

“Yoichi, you weren’t quirkless though,” Nana said in a questioning tone. 

“No, but my brother assumed I was, and I’ve done my best to keep an eye out on the quirkless population my whole existence,” Yoichi explained. “I was watching one night when Izuku was looking for a new pair of shoes and he explained the markings to me.”

“His quirk also isn’t compatible with his body just like how One for All was with Izuku,” Second said. “It happened a lot when All for One first started forcing quirks on people.”

“Midoriya, you with us?” Shouta asked, resting a hand on his shoulder. 

Izuku blinked back into the present and found Kacchan still holding his arm, rubbing circles into his wrist and Shouta kneeling in front of him. He nodded to his teacher and father, not wanting to look up to see the rest of the class’ reactions. 

“Thank you for finding the traitor, Izuku,” Shouta said softly in a tone low enough that only Kacchan and Hitoshi, who sat right behind him, could hear. “You saved Naomasa a lot of trouble, given he was about to start questioning each and every one of the first years today,” he added, raising his voice a bit. 

“Is that how he got here so quickly?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Yes, he was already in Nedzu’s office with Mic when I texted them,” Shouta answered. “Alright!” Shouta called out to the class as he stood, ruffling Izuku’s hair as he returned to the front of the room. “I know that there’s been a lot going on, but now we’re resuming class.” There were several grumbles and complaints, so Shouta activated his quirk. “If you continue to complain like children, I will be giving you a pop quiz.” 

Everyone quieted down immediately and Izuku smiled as he rested his head back onto his arms, Kacchan turning around to take notes. Izuku could only hope that things would get better now. 

Izuku was woken from his impromptu slumber by Kacchan combing his fingers through his hair. He blinked up at his boyfriend as he yawned. 

Kacchan smirked down at him and shook his head. “Come on, nerd, it’s time for lunch.

“Okay,” he said through another yawn, standing up. 

“Also, you should’ve seen everyone’s faces when they realized you were sleeping,” Hitoshi laughed from behind him. 

“Fuck,” Izuku sighed. “I’m going to have to apologize to Shouta.”

“Given that he told everyone to shut up and leave you alone when they tried waking you,” Shouto cut in, “I’m sure he didn’t care all that much.”

Izuku shook his head. “Still, I just didn’t sleep well last night. The rest of my injuries were finally healing and I just felt itchy.”

“Sorry, nerd,” Kacchan said, wrapping an arm around his waist. “Let’s get some food in you, yeah?” 

“Yeah,” Izuku nodded. “We have to go make sure Mei doesn’t blow up the school.”

They left the classroom and walked down to the cafeteria. It was just as loud as always, so they quickly got food from Lunch Rush before heading over to the table where they spotted Mei sitting with the Bakusquad, Momo, and Jiro. 

As soon as they sat down, an explosion rang out, and Izuku sighed amongst the shouts sounding around him. “Really Mei?” He asked. “We couldn’t go one lunch without an explosion?” 

Mei was cackling as Denki took back his exploded fidget toy, looking at it in shock and betrayal. “You said you wouldn’t turn this one into a bomb!” 

“She turns everything into an explosion,” Shouto deadpanned. “Why are you still surprised about this?” 

“Because there’s no electronics in it!” Denki cried. 

“Yeah, that doesn’t matter with her,” Kacchan huffed. 

“It was your welcome back explosion Izu!” Mei said, scrambling up to hug him. “You had to come back with a big bang!” 

“I think the bang he came back with was revealing the traitor,” Momo noted. 

“Or controlling Katsuki,” Jiro added. 

“Or fighting two students without breaking a sweat,” Kirishima said, punching his hands together. “That was so manly, bro!” 

“Okay, okay,” Izuku said, hiding his face in his hands. “I get it!”

“Seriously, dude,” Sero said, setting down his chopsticks. “I think you scared the shit out of everyone.” 

Mei finally let go of Izuku and walked back to her seat, digging into her food. 

“I just can’t believe how whipped Bakugou is!” Mina cackled. 

“Oi!” Kacchan shouted. “The fuck did you just say?” 

“You heard me,” Mina smirked. 

Kacchan stood up, but Izuku placed a hand on his arm and he sat back down with a grumble. “Hush, Kacchan,” Izuku whispered, laughing. “I’m sure they’re just glad to see you happy.” 

Kacchan rolled his eyes, but conceded as he dumped hot sauce onto his food and dug in. 

Izuku smiled and laughed along with his friends as they chatted throughout the lunch period, and he realized that things might not be so bad after all. 

Izuku laid in his bed, his head on Kacchan’s chest and Kacchan’s fingers playing with his curls as they both scrolled on their phones. He was finally back in his room in the class dorms rather than his new room in the teacher’s dorms. He still went back to his guardian’s dorm often, to both visit his guardians as well as Eri, but it still felt weird. He wasn’t actually their son, more like a stray they were temporarily taking care of. 

A knock sounded at his door and they both looked towards it as Izuku called out to whoever it was that the door was open. It was probably one of their friends coming to bug them or-

“Hey Izuku, Bakugou,” Shouta said as he opened the door, Hizashi standing behind him. 

They both sat up quickly, a blush blooming on both of their faces. “Hey Shouta, ‘Zashi, what’s up?”

They both stepped into the room and Hizashi closed the door behind them, making Izuku concerned for what was about to be discussed as his breathing started to stutter. Were they going to rescind their guardianship? Not allow him to see Eri anymore? Were they expelling him? 

“Hush, sweetheart,” Nana soothed. “Hear them out.”

“Yeah, stop overthinking so much, kiddo,” Banjo huffed. 

“He has a right to be anxious with all the shit other adults have done to him in the past. We watched Eight and his bullshit ourselves, don’t forget,” Second reminded. 

“You’re not helping, love,” First chided. “I agree with Nana and Banjo, these two are good. They have kind hearts.”

Izuku’s breathing started to even out as Shouta came to kneel in front of him. “It’s okay kiddo, we just have a question for you.”

Kacchan hugged him from behind and Izuku relaxed back into his boyfriend as he met the eyes of his two guardians. The vestiges were right, they both had shown him nothing but kindness. 

“It is a serious question, though, Little Listener,” Hizashi added with a hopeful yet anxious look on his face. 

Izuku wrung his hands together. “Am I in trouble?” Kacchan growled a bit as he squeezed him tighter. 

“Nothing like that,” Shouta said with one of his rare, warm smiles that made Izuku smile back.  

“You know how we took you in as emergency guardians?” Hizashi asked. 

Izuku looked over to him and nodded, not sure where this conversation was going to lead. 

“Well,” Shouta said, drawing his attention again. “We were wondering if you would be okay with us adopting you?” 

Kacchan took a sharp inhale, but Izuku barely noticed as his mind blanked at the question. They wanted to adopt him? Him? But he was-

“Don’t you dare say anything along the lines of quirkless or useless, brat,” En hissed. “These men obviously care about you and want to make sure that you’re cared for and loved.”

“But-”

“No buts here,” Yoichi cut him off. “It’s about time that you realized that you are cared for, loved, and appreciated. Starting with us, your boyfriend, your friends. Now accept them and add your dads to the list.”

“Izuku?” Shouta asked, bringing back to his surroundings. Shouta’s hand found his own and he held it gently. 

“I-” Izuku shook his head and Kacchan gave him a light squeeze. “Are you sure?”

Hizashi chuckled and grabbed his other hand, rubbing soft circles into his upturned palm. “We would love to have you as a permanent addition to our family, Izuku. In all seriousness, we all love you and care about you. We just want you to feel loved and be happy.”

“Told you,” Yoichi snickered. 

“I- um- yes,” Izuku said, tears rolling down his cheeks as he gave them a nervous smile. He felt Kacchan give a quick, soft kiss to his shoulder before he let go of him and all of a sudden Izuku was being pulled into a hug with Hizashi and Shouta both. 

“This calls for a party!” Hizashi cheered, everyone separating from the hug. 

“Can we at least have him sign the papers first?” Shouta laughed. 

“Fine,” Hizashi groaned as Shouta reached into his capture scarf and pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper. 

He held it out to Izuku. “With a signature here, you’ll officially be ours, kid.”

Izuku grabbed the paper with shaking hands and Kacchan reached over to grab a pen and notebook from the bedside table. He took the materials from his boyfriend with a thankful smile and wiped his tears away before finally unfolding the paper. ‘ADOPTION FORM’ was written in bold across the top and everything was already filled out besides one line that was meant for his signature. He clicked his pen open and quickly signed it before giving the paper back to his new dad with an excited smile. 

Shouta smiled back and ruffled his hair as he stood. “While Hizashi gets an impromptu party together, I’ll be turning this into our favorite detective.”

“You better come back, hobo,” Kacchan huffed. “If we have to deal with your overexcited husband, so do you.”

Shouta threw a glare at him and left the room without a word. 

“Oh, he’ll be back,” Hizashi chuckled, standing now as well. “He has to be here to make sure nothing breaks and there’s no fires.”

Izuku laughed as he stood and pulled Kacchan off the bed. “I can’t deny that I’m curious as to what kind of party you’re thinking of, ‘Zashi.”

“Curiosity is a danger, my dear child,” Hizashi said with a mischievous smile as he threw an arm around Izuku’s shoulders. 

“Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back,” Izuku countered as they left Izuku’s room. 

Kacchan came to walk next to him and interlaced their fingers as they went to Shouto’s room first. Izuku knocked and Shouto quickly answered. 

“Party time!” Hizashi greeted. 

Shouto raised an eyebrow. “What?”

Izuku chuckled. “Hizashi is making us throw a party in order to celebrate their adoption of me.” 

“They’re adopting you?” Hitoshi shouted, stepping out into the hall. 

“Izuku already agreed and signed the papers!” Hizashi screeched. 

“Wait, so, why is there a party?” Shouto asked. 

“We have to celebrate!” Hizashi explained excitedly. “Izuku is finally getting the parents he’s always deserved, we caught the true traitor, what’s not to celebrate?!” 

Izuku chuckled. “We can make the food if you get everyone else,” he suggested. 

“Oh!” Hizashi said, clapping his hands, “that’d be amazing kiddo!” 

Izuku shook his head as they went down the stairs to the kitchen. 

“Should we go get Mei?” Shouto asked. 

“Oh sure!” Izuku nodded, setting up the rice cooker as Kacchan started grabbing ingredients for katsudon. 

“Okay, we’ll see you in a bit,” Hitoshi said, him and Shouto quickly walking to the door. 

“The Old Hag is gonna be so pissed that she didn’t get ahold of you first,” Kacchan said as soon as they were alone in the kitchen. 

Izuku whipped his head over to his boyfriend. “Auntie can’t adopt me,” he said with a disgusted face, turning off the water that was washing the rice. 

“Oi, why you gotta look so upset about the notion?” Kacchan asked. “My ma isn’t that bad!” 

“Kacchan.” Izuku folded his arms across his chest as his boyfriend turned to face him, mimicking the stance. “We would be brothers. Brothers. I’m not going to date my brother, blood or not.” His face screwed up again as he turned back to the rice. “Gross.”

Kacchan chuckled as he went back to prepping his portion of the meal. “Okay, that’s fair. And yeah, gross to think about. I guess I was just thinking about you living with us, not the whole brother thing.”

Izuku rolled his eyes as he poured the water and rice into the machine. “You’re absolutely ridiculous, Kacchan,” he said as he started the machine and walked up to hug his boyfriend from behind, resting his chin on his shoulder. 

“I am happy for you, though, nerd,” Kacchan said, turning to place a kiss on the crown of Izuku’s head. “You deserve good parents and a happy family.”

Izuku could feel tears welling up again as he squeezed Kacchan softly. “Thank you.”

Momo and Jiro were the first ones down the stairs and Momo immediately set about making tea. Izuku went to sit at the counter with Jiro as Kacchan and Momo danced around each other in the kitchen. 

“So, you think Eraser is gonna give you better grades now?” Jiro asked. 

“Wh- no!” Izuku shouted. “He would never do something like that.”

Jiro laughed as she bumped their shoulders together. “I’m just kidding, Izu. I know he wouldn’t. I don’t know what your family situation was like before, but I’m happy you’re getting out of it.”

Izuku smiled softly. “It wasn’t the best-”

“It was fucking horrible and he didn’t tell anyone,” Kacchan cut in with a huff as he threw the meat into the pan. 

Izuku rolled his eyes. “It wasn’t the best, but yeah, thank you. I’m excited.”

Not long after, more people started trickling down the staircase. Kacchan’s friends came up and congratulated him, some making similar jokes to Jiro. Tokoyami, Shouji, Kouda, and Asui also all joined them. Tokoyami and Shouji apologized for never standing up for him after confessing that they never believed that he was the traitor. Izuku just smiled and hugged Dark Shadow who flew at him, crying. He accepted their apologies and told them he didn’t hold anything against them. Kouda came up to him, signing in rushed, stuttered movements until Izuku covered his hands and made him look up. Then, he used sign to tell Kouda that it was okay to trust the government and that this was a lesson for everyone to learn about trust and how the government works. Kouda nodded and gave him a quick hug before running over to Tokoyami. Asui was the last person to approach and waited until Izuku was alone, which wasn’t until Hitoshi and Shouto came back, Mei, Nemuri, and Eri following. By the end of her apology, she was crying and bowing to him. Izuku gave her a hug as well and reminded her that she was one to see the logic in everything just like Shouta and that she needed to trust in herself more. She nodded and soon enough Mina was pulling her towards where Hizashi was setting up a game for everyone and Izuku was hiding in the kitchen with Kacchan again. 

Several of the other students had asked about his previous housing situation, asking why the teachers were adopting him, and he didn’t know what to say to them. He’d just gone with something similar to what he’d told Jiro. Izuku had been told that she was arrested and he still didn’t know how to feel about that. Sure, she wasn’t the best mother, but she was also the only family he’d ever had. It was weird to think that he wouldn’t be going back to their apartment. 

Shouta came in about thirty minutes later and immediately sighed at the sight. 

Hizashi had started up a tournament of Just Dance on the Wii and Izuku was keeping everyone’s score on a large whiteboard that Momo had made. The current match was Hizashi against Mina and everyone was cackling at how frustrated Hizashi was getting about their score difference. 

Shouta walked over to him and ruffled his hair, earning a soft smile. “Hey kid, Tsukauchi says that it will all be processed tomorrow. Given that there’s no chance for resistance, it should go through by the end of the day.”

Izuku nodded as he looked back towards the others. The dance had just ended and Hizashi was lying on the floor crying about how his championship had been sabotaged. “Thank you for everything, Dad. For believing in me from the start, getting me out, supporting me, adopting me.”

Shouta pulled him into a hug. “You deserved it all, kid. That was the bare minimum.”

A slow stream of tears started to flow from Izuku’s eyes as he held his Dad back. A small body quickly slammed into them and joined the hug, making Izuku and Shouta laugh as they looked to find Eri weaseling her way in between them. 

“Hey Eri,” Izuku said, ruffling her hair. 

“You’re my big brother now! I’m going to be the best little sister for you!” Eri said determinedly. 

Izuku laughed harder and picked the girl up, twirling her around in a circle. “I don’t doubt it all.”

“Where are all the other problem children?” Shouta asked, scanning the scoreboard and all the kids in the room. 

“Most didn’t want to come down, or quickly left if they already were down here,” Izuku said with a shrug as he settled Eri on his hip. “Either they feel guilty or still don’t like me, but either way, I don’t care.” He turned back to the party and watched as the next match started. Mina was competing against Nemuri now, she was determined to beat the two teachers. “I’ve got enough friends and family right here. I don’t need anybody else.”

Shouta put a grounding hand on his shoulder. “You’re absolutely right, kid.”

“Come on, Izuku tell us the story!” Mina cried. 

“Why me? It’s Toshi’s story,” Izuku laughed. 

“I don’t know, you’re the bard of the group,” Hitoshi said with a smirk. 

“Wait, you’re that type of nerd?” Denki asked excitedly. 

A slow blush creeped over Hitoshi’s face, making the group laugh. “That’s not the point! The point is that if you want a story, Izuku is the one to tell it!”

“It’s literally your story,” Izuku said, shaking his head. “You can be the bard for tonight.”

“... I like being a druid,” Hitoshi muttered. 

“Of course you do,” Izuku laughed. 

“Is anyone going to tell the damn story?” Kacchan asked. 

“Mmm, no,” Izuku decided. 

“What?” Mina cried. “We want to know how you went feral on Hitoshi!” 

“Yeah, it’s really not necessary,” Hitoshi said, ducking his head. “All you need to know is that he’s scary when he’s angry.”

Kaminari laughed. “Yeah, learned that one real quick during the training exercise a couple weeks ago.” 

“Guys, it’s raining outside!” Mei cheered, jumping up from where she was sitting on the floor. They were all sitting in the common room, playing random card games at the coffee table.  

“That is what the forecast warned,” Shouto laughed. 

“Can we take a walk in the rain pretty please?” Mei asked. “I love the rain!” 

“I’m so down!” Mina said standing up. 

“I like the rain as well,” Momo said, standing and offering a hand to Jiro who shrugged and accepted it. 

“Rain is super manly, bros!” Eijiro said, punching his fists together and making everyone laugh. 

They all stood to join their friends, forgoing jackets as they put their shoes on and stepped out in the soft rain. 

“This feels so nice,” Izuku said, tilting his head back and spinning in a circle as the water cascaded around them all. 

They continued to walk around the grounds a bit, until they spotted someone walking their way. 

“Monoma?” Izuku asked, stepping to the front of their group. “What are you doing out here?”

“What are you doing out here?” Monoma parroted. 

Izuku raised his hands up and smiled at the other boy. “We were just out for a walk in the rain,” he explained. 

“Well, I was looking for you,” Monoma said, turning his head to the side. 

Izuku looked back towards his friends in confusion. Several of them shrugged back. No one knew what he wanted then. “Why were you looking for me?” Izuku asked, turning back to the 1-B boy. 

Monoma scuffed his shoe on the floor. “I just- Listen. Your classmates are stupid.”

“Hey!” Mina shouted. 

“We’re literally right here,” Hitoshi deadpanned. 

“Obviously I don’t mean you guys,” Monoma huffed. “The others. Who thought you were a traitor. It’s not even believable, no matter what the Commission or All Might claimed.”

“Um, thank you?” Izuku said in confusion. “I mean it wasn’t true, but why didn’t you believe it?”

“Because,” Monoma scoffed. “I might hate 1-A, but we all went through the Summer Camp together. No one in 1-B believes that you’re a traitor or ever could be. I mean, you almost died fighting the League of Villains. You protected all of us, and that kid.”

“Kota,” Izuku said with a soft smile. “Yeah, the League has been out to get me the entire time. I’m glad you could see that.”

“It started because you have multiple quirks right?” Monoma asked. 

“Um… yeah?” 

“That's why I can’t copy your quirk,” Monoma nodded. “It may all be one giant quirk, but there’s so many variations that Copy tells me that it’s a blank.” 

“Oh!” Izuku said, lighting up. Kacchan and Hitoshi started grumbling behind him, but he flipped them off and otherwise ignored them. “That makes sense! I have about seven different ways to activate my quirk, so you quirk doesn’t know how to copy it in a way for you to use it!” 

“I- wh- Seven?” Monoma shouted. 

Izuku laughed and rubbed the back of his neck as a shiver passed through him from the rain. Maybe they should have grabbed jackets. “Yeah, it’s a lot and it took me a while to master them.”

“It took you like a week to learn each of them,” Kacchan countered. 

“It just took you a while to learn there were so many and to master the first method,” Shouto added. 

“Your analyzing really came in handy,” Hitoshi snickered. 

“Okay, that- that’s crazy,” Monoma said, shaking his head. “Anyways, I just wanted to come tell you that 1-B is on your side and we were the entire time.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything before?” Mei asked. 

“Vlad told us not to,” Monoma shrugged. “He told us that the teachers were figuring it out and that they’d put a stop to everything.” 

“Lot of good they did,” Mei huffed. 

“They got me out,” Izuku said, reaching back to grab her hand. “Besides, I’m here now and everyone knows I’m not the traitor.” 

“We should probably get back inside,” Momo said. “We’re all going to catch colds if we stay out too much longer.” 

“Yeah, you’re right,” Eijiro said. “Not everyone has quirks to counter the cold,” he added with a look towards Kacchan and Shouto. 

“You’re all just weak,” Kacchan scoffed. 

They started walking back to the dorms, Monoma joining them and then separating to go to his own dorm as they passed it. 

When they got back inside, they were faced with a glaring Shouta whose arms were crossed, a foot tapping on the floor. “If you all get sick, you’re not going to Recovery Girl.” 

“But that means we’ll miss classes!” Denki cried out. 

“That’s your own fault,” Shouta huffed. 

Izuku snickered. “We should all take warm showers and have a slumber party!” 

Shouta pinched the bridge of his nose. “You all have classes tomorrow.”

Hitoshi faked a sniff. “I don’t know, teach. I’m feeling pretty sick.”

Sero coughed into his elbow. “Yeah, I think we all caught something already.”

Shouta rolled his eyes at the group. “You’re all going to classes tomorrow unless you have a fever.” He glared at Shouto and Kacchan. “A natural fever. Now go shower and get warm, you damn problem children.” 

“I’ll make hot tea for everyone when we come back down,” Momo offered. 

“A life saver!” Mina cheered, the girls all heading to their side of the dorms, Mei getting dragged along as well. 

“Dad, can we have a sleepover in the common room, pretty please?” Izuku asked, giving his best puppy dog eyes. Denki and Sero snickered and Eijiro pushed Kacchan’s shoulder, whispering something that Izuku didn’t catch. 

Shouta sighed. “Fine, but that means you’re babysitting your little sister tonight.”

“Okay!” Izuku said, giving his dad a quick hug. 

“Eri cuddles!” Eijiro cheered, punching the air. 

“Just hurry up and go take showers. You better be back before Mic gets here with Eri,” Shouta snapped. 

The boys ran towards the stairs, splitting up on their respective floors and taking quick, but very hot, showers. Izuku almost felt bad for anyone else if they needed a shower, because by the time everyone was done, there was definitely no hot water left in the building for a while. 

When Izuku came back down with his floormates, all of them in pajamas and carrying blankets, Mic was just walking in with a bundled up Eri. 

“Just on time,” Shouta said. “Alright, let’s go Hizashi.” 

Hizashi finished taking off Eri’s rain jacket, boots and gloves before turning to his husband and taking his hand. 

“Have a nice night, alone,” Izuku snickered. 

Shouta shot a bright red glare at Izuku, but he and his friends were all howling with laughter and their two teachers quickly left the building, both of their ears pink and not from the cold. 

“Pops said I get to have a sleepover with you, oni-san!” Eri said, running up to Izuku. 

“That you do, munchkin!” Izuku said as he picked up his sister, still laughing. 

“Tea’s ready!” Momo called from the kitchen. 

Slowly, everyone gathered in the common room, the coffee table quickly covered in snacks and drinks, the couch pushed far back, and bodies and blankets all huddled together. 

“Movie night?” Denki asked. 

“Ashitaka!” Eri cheered. 

Izuku chuckled. “We just recently watched that one, Eri.” 

“It’s a good one!” Eri countered with a pout. 

“Can’t deny that, but why don’t we watch something new?” Izuku asked. 

“How about a Disney movie!” Mina asked. 

“Halloween’s next week,” Hanta said. 

“Oh! Nightmare Before Christmas!” Denki cheered. 

“Have you seen that, Eri?” Eijiro asked. 

Eri shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“You’ll love it!” Mina said. “It’s where there’s different towns for each holiday and the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown goes to Christmas Town!” 

“Okay!” Eri cheered. 

Momo scrolled through their media channels and finally found the movie and put it on. Jiro had made several bags of popcorn, so there were a couple bowls spread throughout the group as they settled in to watch the movie. Eri, Shouto, and Denki were asleep by the end of the movie. Everyone quickly followed after the second movie. 

“Alright, everyone up!” Shouta called out, kicking Hitoshi in the leg since he was the closest. 

There was a chorus of moans and grumbles as the students blinked their eyes open to see Shouta and Hizashi standing in the common room trying to wake them. Well, Shouta was trying to wake them up, Hizashi was giggling as he took pictures of them. 

Izuku quickly closed his eyes and snuggled into Kacchan’s side more. Apparently, Hitoshi was also trying to hide.

“Really, Hitoshi? Hizashi, go get the thermometer,” Shouta sighed. “Todoroki, Bakugou, up. You two don’t get fevers.” Izuku could vaguely hear Shouto getting up, quiet as he was. 

“I have a parasite,” Kacchan grumbled tiredly, running his fingers through Izuku’s hair. 

“I’m not a parasite,” Izuku pouted. 

“Izuku, let go of your boyfriend so he can get ready for classes,” Shouta huffed. 

“I have the thermometer,” Hizashi called. Izuku winced and hid further into Kacchan at the loud noise. “Eri, baby, come on,” Hizashi cooed. He must have given the thermometer to Shouta. There was a weight and a lot of warmth taken off of Izuku and he cuddled further into Kacchan. 

“Migraine,” Hitoshi whined, apparently having a similar problem. 

“Correction,” Kacchan huffed as Izuku could feel Hitoshi getting closer. “I have two parasites.”

“I’ll go make sure the others are getting up,” Momo offered. There were sounds of shuffling blankets and padding feet as Momo left. 

“I’ll do the same on the boys’ side!” Eijiro said as he left as well. 

“Did you seriously get sick over a little walk in the rain, Izu?” Kacchan huffed, still combing through his hair. 

Izuku shrugged as he melted into the touch. 

“Kaminari, get your ass up, you don’t have a fever,” Shouta huffed, sounding much closer. “Hatusme, you’re not even my student, why am I dealing with you?”

“Because I also have a fever,” Mei groaned. 

Izuku let out a small chuckle. Looks like Dad jinxed himself last night. 

“Sero, Ashido, Jiro,” Shouta hissed. “Get ready. If you’re late for class I’m assigning extra homework.”

The three jumped to their feet and ran away quickly as Hizashi laughed. 

“Alright you two,” Shouta said in a much softer tone than he’d been using with the others. 

Izuku could hear the thermometer as Shouta placed it in front of his forehead. Shouta hissed when it finally showed the results. “Hitoshi, lift your head up, kid.” There was a slight movement and then another beep. “You idiots,” Shouta sighed. “Alright, you four are staying here today.” 

“Why am I staying?” Kacchan huffed. There must have been some silent communication because Kacchan sighed. 

“Make sure that they all actually take their medicine and get some rest,” Shouta commanded.  

“Yeah, yeah,” Kacchan rolled his eyes. “I’m on babysitting duty.” 

“I’ll have the kids take notes for you guys and I’ll come back during lunch,” Shouta said. “Just get some rest, brats.” 

“Okay, Dad,” Izuku said. “Bye Pops, bye Eri,” he added. 

Hizashi and Eri chimed their goodbyes just before they heard the door open and close. 

“Alright, fuckers,” Kacchan hissed. “Get off me, I’m getting your medicine and then we’re moving up to one of the rooms.”

Izuku grumbled but rolled off Kacchan. When he stepped away, he rolled over and placed his head on Hitoshi’s chest and Mei scooted up behind him to wrap an arm around his waist. 

“Damn, you guys all actually got fevers,” Eijiro said. “Sorry, bros.” 

“Let’s just clean this up,” Momo said. 

Izuku could hear the crinkle of chip bags and the clink of cups tapping against each other, but he quickly fell asleep again. 

“Izuku, come on,” Kacchan grunted, slow circles being rubbed on his arm. 

“I don’t wanna,” Izuku mumbled, burying his face in Hitoshi’s chest further. 

“We gotta go up to bed,” Kacchan said. “You guys will be in even more pain if you keep sleeping on the floor.”

“We don’t all fit on one bed,” Hitoshi mumbled tiredly. 

“Yeah, that’s why I had Eijiro and Shouto move Izuku’s bed into my room, now come on,” Kacchan huffed. 

In the end, he had to help them all stand up and made them take their medicine before he herded them into the elevator. Mei kept her arms wrapped around Izuku and buried her face in his back which made it even harder to walk. 

When they finally got up to Kacchan’s room, he helped them all into the bed and tucked the blankets in for them before leaving again. Izuku was on the end with Mei cuddling into him and Hitoshi cuddling into her. Kacchan came back a couple minutes later and sat in the bed next to Izuku. Izuku immediately cuddled into him and was half-lying in his lap with Kacchan running his fingers through his curls again. 

Izuku fell back asleep, surrounded by his friends with the promise of his dad coming back in a couple hours. He may be sick, but things were getting better and he had a new family to take care of him and help him through anything that might come. 

1. Yagi confrontation

“I don’t know,” Izuku admitted, swinging his and Kacchan’s linked hands, “I think Dad might actually start expelling kids soon.”

“Well,” Kacchan huffed, “it’s about damn time. The only reason he didn’t expel anyone while you were arrested was because he knew you’d feel guilty about it and then your dumbass went and requested he didn’t!” 

“If I’d known how bad it was, my answer might have been different!” Izuku countered. 

“Well, now he can be as overprotective as he wants,” Kacchan said with a smirk. 

Izuku could feel the vestiges laughing, although it was much more muted than usual. Despite their threats, they were actually leaving him and Kacchan alone for the day given that they were finally going on their first date. “I guess you’re right. I just wish no one had to be expelled and that they’d actually think things through.”

“At least Iida seems to have pulled his head out of his ass,” Kacchan said, rolling his eyes. 

Izuku laughed as he squeezed his boyfriend’s hand. “Dad and Pops told me that Tensei had a very long talk with Iida about everything. I’m sure that’s why.”

“I mean, he’s not nearly as rule-abiding as he demands everyone else be,” Kacchan huffed. “He literally tried to murder someone. For revenge. And nearly got you and Shouto murdered as well.”

“Yeah,” Izuku said, bringing his free hand up to scratch his neck. “But, that was him going off on his own. He’s never had any reason to doubt the Hero Commission before.”

“You’re just coming up with excuses,” Kacchan scoffed. “No matter what, he was one of your closest friends. He should’ve realized that you wouldn’t do something like that.”

Izuku shrugged. “I guess…”

Danger Sense spiked and Izuku winced and grabbed his head, quietly muttering profanities as he stopped walking. 

“Izu,” Kacchan said, coming to stand in front of him as he scanned the area. “Come on, talk to me, what is it?”

“Danger Sense,” Izuku muttered. “Fucking hell. Why does this quirk have to hurt so fucking much.”

Kacchan laughed even as he kept a sharp eye on their surroundings. “Can’t wait to see the rest of the class hear you curse like a sailor.”

“Correction,” Izuku hissed, looking up as he turned the stupid quirk off. “I curse like you .”

“Same thing,” Kacchan shrugged. “There’s nothing around us.” 

“Alley to the right,” Izuku whispered. 

Kacchan nodded and led Izuku to the alley he pointed out, peeking around the corner before groaning at what he saw. “Oh, you gotta be fucking shitting me!” 

Izuku peeked around the corner and saw Yagi, in his powered down form that he was now forced to live in. “This quirk really has got to learn to be more specific,” he said, rolling his eyes. “This skeleton isn’t nearly dangerous enough to force that much of a migraine on me.”

“Hello boys,” Yagi said, forcing a smile as he ignored their reactions. “My boy, I was hoping that I would be able to speak to you alone?” 

“First off: not your boy. Second off: no.” Izuku crossed his arms as he stood at Kacchan’s side in the mouth of the alley. 

“This is a private matter, Izuku,” Yagi insisted. 

“Kats is staying,” Izuku said through gritted teeth. 

Yagi looked around before whispering, “this is a OFA matter.”

“That’s why he stays,” Izuku huffed, rolling his eyes. “Kacchan knows just as much about the damn quirk as I do and that isn’t going to change.” 

Yagi stared him down for a minute before sighing. “Fine, have it your way-”

“I will,” Izuku stated, not backing down in the slightest. He had several of his quirks up and ready to use within seconds. “You’re lucky I don’t have a restraining order on you.”

“Yet,” Kacchan grumbled. 

Yagi spluttered. “What in the world do you mean? Why would you want a restraining order against me?” 

Izuku rolled his eyes again. “Why don’t you just tell us why you’re here, Yagi?”

Yagi’s shoulders curled inwards. “I wanted to express my deepest apologies for-”

“No, you don’t,” Izuku cut in. “Tell me the truth. Why. Are. You. Here?” 

“I honestly want to apologize!” Yagi cried out. 

“You honestly just want your quirk back,” Izuku mocked. “That’s why you tracked Kacchan and I, isn’t it?”

Yagi waved his hands in front of him defensively, muttering incoherent excuses. 

“Kami, will you shut the fuck up ?” Kacchan hissed. He took a step forward, arms swinging as his hands opened and closed threateningly. 

“Yagi,” Izuku said, eyes narrowed as the hero finally stopped trying to come up with excuses. “We all know you’re here because, despite me offering the quirk back, the vestiges cut you off from the power. Tell me, how long did it take for the power to leave you once and for all?” 

Yagi’s shoulders slumped again. “A day or so.”

“And you think that you can force me to try and give it back to you again?” Izuku asked, tilting his head. 

“It’s my quirk, child!” Yagi shouted, finally straightening his form, shoulders thrown back and glaring at Izuku defiantly. 

“Who’s acting like a child, Skeletor,” Kacchan huffed, rolling his eyes as he crossed his arms. 

“Kacchan, no,” Izuku said. “Just text Dad, I’ll handle this.” Kacchan huffed, but took a step back as Izuku turned back to the former Number One Hero. “Yagi, you gave me this quirk. You said that it was my power. Not only that, but the vestiges approved the transfer. They prefer me to have it over you as well, which was proven given how you weren’t able to steal it back and instead only had your power depleted. Our story is over, Yagi Toshinori. I will use my quirk however I see fit and become a hero on my own terms.”

“They’re obviously just confused!” Yagi countered. “They’re being overwhelmed by your own emotions and not thinking clearly!” 

“You’re the one who is letting your emotions cloud your judgment,” Izuku stated. “Look at you,” he added, waving his hand up and down towards Yagi. “You’re practically a skeleton. You could barely hold your Hero form for an hour before the power left you and you were already retired. What on earth could you even want the power for now?” 

“Because I obviously made the wrong decision when I chose you as my succ-

His last word was cut off as Izuku jumped forward and slapped the hero across the face. “Try and say that again, Yagi ,” he hissed. 

“You were the wro-”

A well placed punch to his injured stomach shut him up that time. Kacchan was cackling in the background, but Izuku could barely hear it over the blood roaring in his ears. “You are pathetic, All Might ,” he mocked. “I can’t believe that I ever looked up to you. I’m done here.” 

Izuku spun on his heel as Yagi kneeled on the ground, coughing, behind him. 

“Yeah, um no. Izuku dealt with it. Maybe. …yes. Yup, okay, we’re on our way back now,” Kacchan said into his phone. Izuku stormed past him as Kacchan tucked his phone away before following. “So…” he said as he fell into step with Izuku. “How did that feel?”

Izuku couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him. “Really refreshing, honestly.”

Kacchan practically beamed as he grabbed Izuku’s hand again as they headed back towards UA. “The group is gonna absolutely flip that they weren’t here.”

“Good thing there was a camera facing us the entire time,” Izuku said, looking over with a smirk. 

“We need to get our hands on that footage immediately,” Kacchan said with wide eyes. 

Izuku laughed again. “Happy to entertain.”

“You going off on deserving people is the best form of entertainment, Izu,” Kacchan said sincerely. “Plus, Aizawa needs proof that you actually bitchslapped the former Number One Hero.”

Izuku laughed again and felt a lot lighter as they made the trek back home. He was definitely looking forward to the reaction of his dads and friends when they saw the footage. 

    2. Adoption

Izuku tapped his foot as he stood outside the classroom with his dad. It was weird not being there earlier than him, but Shouta had held him back that morning and told him they would be entering class together today. He knew that his dad had something up his sleeve, and it honestly probably had to do with the fact that his name was finally legally changed, but he didn’t fully know how it was going to go. 

Just as the bell rang, Shouta finally pushed open the door and all the chatter immediately cut off as the class went silent. It was weird not seeing Uraraka and Ojiro in the class anymore, but Izuku finally relented when Shouta’s patience wore through and admitted that he had no choice but to expel them. Uraraka had persisted to believe that even though Izuku had been proven innocent, there was still something apparently wrong with him and she wouldn’t cooperate in regular classes or heroic training. Ojiro had shown just how quirkist he is and Shouta could only take so many comments about Quirkless people not deserving a chance at life. 

“Alright hellions. Listen up,” Shouta said as he walked in. Izuku dutifully followed his dad through the door and stood behind him when Shouta stopped at the podium. It was rather unnecessary given that the class was already staring at him attentively. “I would like to reintroduce one of your peers.” He waved towards Izuku, stepping to the side so the class could fully look at him. “Aizawa Izuku. The Hero That Never Falls: Icarus.” 

The class exploded as Izuku gaped at his dad. “Dad! Why?”

Shouta smirked as he shrugged.“You wouldn’t decide, so Hizashi and I picked one for you.” 

“Fuck yeah, Zu!” Hitoshi called out. “You needed a new hero name!” 

“Can I announce my hero name too, now?” Kacchan asked, making the class erupt once more in surprise. 

Shouta raised an eyebrow. “The Loud Blonde: Bane of Eraserhead’s Life?” 

Izuku bent over cackling not only at Shouta’s response, but the look of outrage on Kacchan’s face. 

Kacchan was, unsurprisingly, already exploding. “That’s your fucking husband, you fucking hobo!” 

Shouta shrugged again. “Apparently, my son and I both have a penchant for loud blondes. You can be The Loud Blonde: Bane of Icarus’ Life instead.”

Izuku laughed even harder, making it hard to voice his disagreements. “He’s not! I love him! Dad!”

At the same time, Kacchan had been shouting over the class’s reactions. “My hero name is fucking Explosion God Hero: Apollo and that bastard loves me! I’m not a bane of anyone’s existence!” 

“Oh, you love each other now, do you?” Shouta asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Izuku instantly sobered as he fell to the floor. 

“Looks like Icarus can fall after all,” Shouta said with a smirk. 

“Ca- Can we just start class?” Izuku asked, hurriedly picking himself off the floor and running to his seat as soon as he’d voiced his request. 

The class laughed to his dismay, but luckily Shouta did listen and only gave them half a minute before starting the class. Izuku plonked his head down on his desk, but couldn’t stop a smile from forming. 

Later, when they had time to calm down and process everything, Hitoshi pointed out that Apollo is, in fact, not an explosion god, which caused a whole other round of off-topic conversation and several explosions that did not prove any points. 

3. Onward and Upward

Izuku smiled up at the agency in front of him and couldn’t help but be grateful for everything that led to this point in his life. 

The Labyrinth agency was finally open and Izuku couldn’t be more proud of himself and his friends. 

“We gotta get a selfie!” Denki shouted. 

“Yes yes yes!” Mei screamed beside him. 

“If it’s a good enough photo, it would be good advertisement,” Shouto pondered. 

Izuku laughed as Hitoshi and Kacchan both grumbled beside him. He grabbed their hands and led them over to where the others had already lined up for the photo. “It’ll be good, we need to cherish this memory.”

Shouta and Hizashi stood in front of the group, Hizashi undoubtedly having already taken hundreds of pictures ever since they finally pulled up to the agency. 

“3, 2, 1, smile!” Hizashi shouted. 

Izuku’s friends all smiled around him, even Kacchan and Hitoshi, no matter how grumpy they’d previously seemed. Izuku knew they were happy too. 

“Perfection!” Hizashi cheered, already rushing forward to show the group the pictures he’d taken. 

“Proud of you, kid,” Shouta said, coming up to Izuku and ruffling his hair. 

Izuku smiled up at his dad. “Thank you for helping us.”

“If I had to sign on as part of an actual agency, there’s no other one I’d choose,” Shouta said with a smirk. “Besides, I can’t leave you kids alone for even a second without something catching fire.”

Izuku laughed as the group started to head inside. He could already hear the oohs and ahhs as they looked around the interior and followed them in with his dad on one side, and his fiance on the other. 

When Class 3-A finally graduated, Katsuki proposed to Izuku under the stars and of course, he’d said yes. Not only that, but the class had pulled together to open their own combined agency with the help of Shouta, Hizashi, Nemuri, and Nedzu. It was a mixture of Daylight Heroes, Twilight Heroes, and Underground Heroes, with its very own support department led by the one and only, Hatsume Mei.

As soon as the UA traitor case had been settled, Nedzu had taken Izuku on as a personal student and found that Izuku could test out of several of his classes, which only led to him taking on other, different classes. He could now fluently speak 4 languages on top of Japanese and English, code programs and hack into others, and could properly take down the government if he so wished. That last fact, Izuku wouldn’t actually admit out loud, but all of his teachers and classmates knew it. After all, it was the settlement money from suing the HPSC that had funded their new agency. 

Izuku himself had changed his hero image as well as his hero name. No longer was he Deku, aiming to be the next Symbol of Peace. Now he was Icarus, a hero that could and would take you down whether the sun or the moon were shining. Kacchan was his sun, his Apollo, his fiance, his partner, and the co-owner of The Labyrinth. Hitoshi was his moon, his Khonsu, his partner at night, his friend. And last, there was Shouto, his Boreas, whose chill breezes calmed the group down and brought wild theories and practicality both. 

As Izuku looked around at his new agency, his friends, his family, he couldn’t be happier. They had finally made it. They were happy. They were heroes. And they were together and all the stronger for it. There was so much to look forward to.