Hero/Green Fields Cycle (My Hero Academia/Fate crossover)

[gman391]

I came out of the school clinic. I don't care if it's labelled as a nurse's office, a nurses office has like three beds and a medical cabinet. Recovery Girl's domain had five beds, an x-ray machine, and a blood work lab, which makes it a clinic. I think you need more than one doctor for it to be a hospital though. I flexed my hand and looked down at my side where my rib had been healed by Recovery Girl's quirk.


While I still felt tired it wasn't as bad as last time. Fixing up a hole in your chest took more energy than just a mere broken rib. Yes I know how that sounds, but for me it kind of is. My red gloves stood out on my hands, they really had held up well, my whole costume had. I wondered if the fabric was machine-washable or if I had to go to the on campus dry cleaners. While you might think it's strange to just assume that a high school has a dry cleaner on campus. I would remind you that we had multiple city blocks just for us to blow up.



"Hey" a familiar voice called, startling me out of my thoughts.



Momo wasn't in her hero costume anymore, and I tried to ignore the part of me that wished otherwise. Instead she wore a smart blazer and skirt combination, most people would lean against the clinic wall, but she stood there instead.



"Momo," I said. "Sorry, if I had known you were waiting…"



She shook her head. "No it's fine Izuku, I don't mind waiting for a bit." Momo forced a smile on her face.



Cu Chulainn knew what that meant but I didn't.

"Ah shit." he said.



I blinked for a moment and asked.

<Cu Chulainn?>



"Just talk to your princess kid." He said and gave the impression of folding his arms. "I'm feeling pretty good about that fight even if Peppermint got a drop on you. So I'll save the colour commentary this time."



<Talk to her about what?> I asked.



He didn't answer, Momo looked at me expectantly.



"Sorry," I said with a blush. "Um, how are you feeling?"



Momo's smile grew more strained.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?"



I shrugged. "I'm fine, I've had worse."



The smile ended as Momo stepped forward

"Toru did tell me about that. Izuku, what happened to you that was worse than a broken rib?" Momo asked, her voice filled with concern.



I flushed red in embarrassment. I hadn't told her what my gold standard for pain was and is. Everything is measure in 'did this fuck me up as badly as that one time Cu Chulainn opened my circuits? Scale of 1 to 10. With 10 being just as bad, so far I haven't had another ten yet.



However, I couldn't exactly tell Momo that my standard was 'a magic wielding Irish legend with a bad attitude making me magic'. Not only would she not believe me as a sane and rational person. She also would think I was lying to her and that would hurt so much worse.



So I did what I usually do and deflected.
"My quirk had some problems to work out before I met you…nothing permanent, just painful at the time...but what about you?"



Momo turned and glanced back at me.
"Let me walk you to the locker room and we can talk about it…."



I nodded and followed after her. The afternoon sun wasn't quite ready to set, but if you looked for it you could tell that it would happen soon. Class had ended and the hallways had people moving through it in a hurry. Everyone was eager to just get out of the school and on with their lives. Momo and I were the only ones that seemed to move at a normal pace. I wanted to hurry because of the awkward silence that had fallen between us, but Momo didn't, so I didn't. Instead we just walked. Momo looked everywhere but me as she fiddled with her shirt. I looked straight ahead to make it easier, but I had no idea what to say either. Something was bothering her but I didn't know what. The nearest I could guess was the Battle Trial, but he had done so well there. Yes she had lost but only by chance and we had all told her how amazing she was after, even Mina. It didn't make sense to me. So I said nothing, letting the atmosphere suffocate with that uneasy sensation of when your drunken great uncle just dumped out all the family's dirty laundry in a crowded restaurant.



Finally as we turned the bend towards the first year locker rooms. Momo spoke.

"I do not, logically, have a reason to be upset about how the trials went. I lost…and I won't say I'm happy about it. But I fought well. There is objectively speaking nothing for me to feel bad about. I did my best, and Mina is talented. She had almost the same time I did in the obstacle course and yet…"



"And yet?" I prompted as we came to the door.



Momo pauses and raises a hand to her chest.

"My heart doesn't feel any of that. Only the shame of losing. I may not have lost easily. I made her struggle for it, but I lost."



I stopped outside of the door and turned to face her. My words came out without thinking.
"What can I say to that? No one watching didn't think you did your best, no one thinks Ojiro could have won without you. Mina got lucky, I think even she'll admit that…so why?"



"Did your best" Momo gives a sad smile. "Would you have accepted that if you failed to save me?"



The words weren't fair at all, but at the same time, they were completely fair. No one least of all myself would have accepted if I didn't save her. Even if I had done my best, all I would see is my failure.



"No…" I said softly. "I wouldn't have…because you saved me in a lot of ways…but even aside from that, the idea of failing to save someone." I paused, "is too heavy for me. I'd have to do something to make it right."



Momo's eyes widened slightly.
"I…saved you?" she asked, her lips curled in confusion.



I hadn't meant to say that, but it wasn't wrong either. Momo's smile, and her kidnapping had been what got me out of my whole…thing with Katsuki. The first one I told you about, not the second. When days were hard and I didn't feel like I could do anything else, I remembered that day and took solace.



"Yes" I say. "I was…quirkless, or thought to be quirkless, until basically a few days before then. Things aren't…things aren't easy for quirkless people" My throat thickened as I tried to keep back tears.


Memories of insults, jeers, curses and fists came back.

What a fucking Deku



"I guess some would call it bullying. When my power came about. I couldn't really use it, I couldn't, well, I couldn't fight with it."



"Izuku…" Momo's hand reaches out to my shoulder.



"More than anything I want to be a hero, saving people as a hero has been my dream since I was…four I think?" My eyes shut themselves. "And no one believed that I could do it…I didn't believe I could do it." Tears began to track down my cheeks. "So…when you were in danger, that…that was the first time that I did something good, something I felt proud of. First time I felt like I could be good, could do right...your smile saved me. Just like All Might's"

I didn't see her, my eyes kept shut as I tried to will the tears away. I wasn't, I wasn't alone anymore, I wasn't hopeless anymore. That didn't help, so I stood there and then there was a gentle tap on my shoulder. My eyes opened, and I could see Momo had stepped closer. Her hand moved from my shoulder to the back of my neck, as she pulled it down just enough that our heads met. Resting against each other, so close that I could see the unshed tears in her eyes, and she can see my own tears.



Gentle, almost a whisper, Momo spoke again.
"I'm a hero…I saved you"



My own hand reached up and brushed a strand of hair out of her face.

"You are…you did…"



I watched her eyes close as she took a deep breath.

"I'm a hero…no matter what. I can say that. Even if I lose"



A part of me wanted to say something. But something else kept my mouth shut. She wasn't speaking to me, she was speaking to herself.



Her sad smile turned warm as she opened her eyes, the unshed tears were still there, but less now. Fading along with her heart ache.



"Thank you," she said. "You're my hero too."



I blushed. "M-m-momo…you.."

Then the intimacy of her faces so close caught up to us both as Momo blushed in turn, her hand flinched off the back of my neck as if it had burned her.



"I- I uh need to go no" Momo said. "I will see you at dinner. Again thank you Izuku."



"Okay" I said and gave her a smile. It felt strange, like I should have told her to stay or something, but I didn't.



She walked away and a thought occurred to me.

"Momo" I called



She looked back.

"You'll get her next time," I said.



She smiled back.
"Yes, I will."



------------------------------------



"Man, this sucks," Kyoka said.



She, myself, Momo, Itsuka, Jirota, Rin and Pony stood just at the gates to and from UA. The UA Barrier was up. A thick solid steel wall that was mildly electrified, at least it was by my standards mild. I admit, I'm not really a good judge for that sort of thing. However, because of that there was no easy way in or out, and thus no way for us to get to Cafe Leblanc, which our resident coffee drinkers had all agreed was ten times better than the swill you could get at the cafeteria. Jurota actually called it swill in fact.



As he adjusted his glasses, Jurota frowned.

"Why is the barrier up?"



Itsuka held up her phone where a live stream of the front gates was ongoing.

"Looks like the press is trying to get in, and since we all live here, UA just told them no."



"The press?" Momo asks. "But we're first years…"

Rin looked at the barrier.
"Yes, but first years being taught by All Might"

Pony hung her head and kicked the ground with her hoof, muttering an English curse that I'm not entirely sure how to translate, so I won't.


"{Pony, I don't think that's physically possible}" I said in English



"{Well, I think that no one else in this country knows how to make a San Jose Americano}" Pony said "{And if the press is keeping me from that, then they absolutely can do that}"



Rather then contest Pony's apparent murderous streak. I looked up at the barrier. It wasn't that tall. Maybe twice my height, I could jump it easily.



Kyoka looked at me.

"Em…what are you thinking"



I rubbed the back of my head.
"I was thinking I could jump over the barrier, get everyone's drinks and get back?"



The other five looked at me with a mixture of concern, interest, and apparent confusion.

"Wouldn't the coffee spill out?" Itsuka asked.



Jurota nodded. "It's admirable that you want to help, we'll just have to make do with the cafeteria's pale imitation."



"Wait, Momo…can make stuff right?" Pony chimed in.



We all looked at Momo. She rubbed her arm.
"I could make thermoses for everyone's drinks, it wouldn't be hard. And Leblanc lets you bring your own drinks. But the UA Barrier is notoriously difficult to break through even with flying quirks. I wouldn't think it is safe."



Rin grabbed a scale off his arm and threw it up over the barrier. Then he pointed at three camera's in the trees.
"Probably what they use to watch the barrier, and get rid of anyone who isn't supposed to be here. They should be okay with you."



"I never would have seen that, my word," Jurota said.



Pony gave a large smile.

"Rin is really good at finding cameras"



Rin scratched his cheek. "It's just something you pick up in China you know?"



"Right, I read about this," Itsuka said. "After the Second Civil War, China went all in on quirk monitoring and surveillance in general. Per capita it has more cameras then anywhere in the world. I wondered why you were so jumpy."



"It's not perfect," Rin said. "You learn how to evade cameras by the time you go to middle school in China, which is why it implemented the hero system."



Pony shook her head. 'They tried that in America, and then the Detroit Revolt happened so they stopped."



"As fascinating as that all is, this means Em can in fact get our coffee" Kyoka cut through the noise.



"I supposed it does," Momo said. "One moment, oh make sure to bring me back a snack, I need to replenish my lipids"



Momo pulled up her sleeve and popped out two large thermoses and a smaller one. She then took out her wallet and handed me a ten thousand yen banknote, way too much for just some drinks."



"...I keep forgetting you're super rich somehow," Itsuka said. "That's like twice what he needs to buy all that."



"Momo, I can buy it…" I said. Yes it would hurt my limited allowance, but it didn't feel right to just take that much money either.



"No," Momo waves her hand. "I don't mind really, it's honestly the smallest denomination I carry. For smaller things I use my card but…"



"Fine…" I said and took the thermoses and bank note.



I moved down the wall over to where I remembered the cafe was, and leapt over it. In retrospect, the thought that there might be bushes or something on the other side should have occurred to me. It did not, thus I landed in a thorn bush.



Cu Chulainn laughed.

"That's hilarious"



<Oh you're back?> I asked mildly.



"We've been over this," Cu Chulainm said. "I didn't sign up for your cute kids doing cute things shtick."



I rolled my eyes as I brushed the thorns and leaves away.

<We're hardly cute>



Cu Chulainn glared lightly.

"Bitch we're adorable"



<I feel like that was a reference I didn't get> I thought as I walked towards the cafe.



"The future sucks" Cu Chulainn groused yet again.



I opened the door to the café, a little bell wrung.

<So you've said>



Despite the fact that there were a bunch of journalists nearby, and like most professionals they try to replace their blood with caffeine, the place was surprisingly empty. Which was because of someone else in the café. A man older than me by a few years sat in one of the café booths wearing a dark black hoodie with the hood up. He drank carefully, sure never to let all of his fingers hit his cup. I couldn't say what exactly about him looked so…villainous. It wasn't the white hair, or the sunken eyes, it wasn't the dried cracked skin that covered his body. It was more just this feeling he radiated out. That the only thing that was stopping him from destroying this whole café for kicks and giggles was that he enjoyed his coffee. If he was disturbed he might well try to kill you, or he might not, you couldn't know.



For a moment I just stood there, staring at him and then at the barista, Akira. My instincts told me to get the man out of here, he was nice, and sometimes gave me free doughnuts. He looked back at me and raised a hand, lowering it, as if to tell me to calm down.



I wiggled my finger and made an x, to try and ask if he was a hostage. Akira just shook his head. My fists balled up for a moment, and then I took a deep breath. If the Hooded Man hadn't done anything, and the barista didn't want anything done. All I could do was get what I came for,



So I moved over to the counter..

"Hey," I asked and put the thermoses out. "Can I get black coffee in the large thermos, green tea in the second, Americano and hot chocolate in the two smaller ones?"



Akira looked over the thermoses.
"Sure thing, anything else?"



"Uh yeah can I get um, a dozen pastries. Any kind is fine."



"Ah, getting them for your girl?" Akira asked.



I blushed.
"She's not my girl, and my friends want some too."



Akira gave me a condescending look and then agreed with me.

"Right, it'll be a few minutes to get everything."



I nodded, and turned around to look out the door, the journalists were still trying to get in, they had spotted the cameras as well. At least that would explain the signs.



"Hey kid," Hooded Man called from his seat. "That's a UA uniform isn't it?"



His voice was high pitched for a man but also somehow raspy, it was hard to describe. Sort of like paper being crumpled while you played a low note on a clarinet.



Cu Chulainn seemed to be in thought.

"Something about this fucker doesn't feel right"



<No kidding> I agreed. Out loud I said. "It is, I'm a first year student, mister."



Hoodie almost spat, but stopped himself.
"Tell me something kid, why would you ever want to be a worthless shitty hero?"



The question took me a moment to process.
"Well…I want to help people"



"Wants to help people he says" Hoodie growled. "Heroes don't help anyone. They just make things worse."



"Oh sweet Brigid, not another asshole like this," Cu Chulainn said.



I blinked in confusion.

<Is hating heroes common?>



Cu Chulainn gave the impression of nodding.

"More than you think, and most of the time it isn't our fault"



<Weird caveat> I said. <That said…do you know how to talk them down>


"Kid, I want you to think about who I am." Cu Chulainn said.



I grimaced slightly, that was on me. I focused back on Hoodie.

"Why do you say that Mr…?"



"Shigaraki, Tomura Shigaraki, not that it matters to you brat." He answered. "As for why, I guess it's because I just see heroes as…villains. What right do they or society have to tell anyone anything? None…it's just violence."



"So because heroes fight." I said. "You don't see a difference between that and villains?"



Tomura gave me the second creepiest smile I have ever seen.

"Heh, in the end someone always gets hurt."



I tried to ignore the instinct to punch him right then and there. It wasn't even that I hated him, but everything in my body telling me that he was going to attack, and I should do it first.



Instead I asked: "But shouldn't innocent people be protected?"



"Who the hell decides what innocence means?" Tomura asked in turn. "It ain't the fuckers up top…or the bottom…"



"That doesn't…" I began.



"Order up," Akira said, then whispered. "I'll be okay…"



I looked back at him, and then back at Tomura, but he was gone. What the hell?



Akira said. "He must have figured out I triggered the silent alarm somehow. Anyone talking like that is probably a villain sympathiser…and that's illegal now right?"



Technically it wasn't, but I didn't really care. I was just glad he was gone. I wonder sometimes what would have happened if we had fought in that café. I turned and took the bagged pastries and the thermoses, which Akira had helpfully bagged as well.

"Thanks…you sure you'll be okay?" I asked as we exchanged change.



"Should be, old man Sakurai didn't skimp on a panic room." Akira answered.



I nodded.

"That's a relief. Hopefully we can come normally soon"



"Hopefully" Akira agreed. "But scoot before one of the UA staff asks how you got here."



"Right" I said and moved out of the cafe.



Getting back was easier than getting out. Again I leapt over the barrier, only the second time there were no bushes to land in. Just grass.



I handed out the thermoses to everyone, and the pastries and we had a breakfast of sorts by the barrier. But I couldn't really shake the feeling that that wasn't the last time I would see Tomura Shigaraki.



--------------------------



Aizawa, who still somehow looked like he needed three years of sleep while being wide awake, stood up at the front of his class.

"Alright, your battle results are in, All Might went over most of it. No real complaints other than Kirishima, your head is hard as a rock, that is not an invitation to try and beat someone unconscious with it. Some of you had a rude awakening about just how reliant on your quirks you are, do better." He shuffled papers.



"Now, ordinarily this is where we would decide class reps. But since you already have RA's I'm just going to make them do it."



"Fuck that shit!" Bakugo shouted. "I ain't gonna let High Class and Four Eyes be in charge in class too."



Aizawa ran a hand through his hair. "Explain Bakugo, without screaming. If you have a good reason I might change my mind."



Bakugo glared for a moment but then spoke.

"High Class and Four Eyes, already do a ton of work around the dorm. Class Rep's should have more time to spend, and not be exhausted all the goddamned time. I know you're drinking way too much caffeine Four Eyes, I can smell it in the morning."



"Well, not an irrational observation," Aizawa said. "Class Reps have more responsibility, so one fully focused isn't wrong."



"But wouldn't that just mean arguments?" Tsuya spoke up. "RA and Class Reps are both sort of in charge."



"Excellent point, but that's also a form of training," Aizawa said. "As heroes you're going to have your jurisdictions and designations. You need to learn how to work under people you might otherwise be in charge of…so figure it out. I don't care as long as it's not Yaoyorozu or Iida."



With that, he slunk down to the floor and pulled the zipper up on his sleeping bag.



IIda stood up. "Ahem, while I believe that Miss Yaoyorozu and I could indeed handle the combined responsibilities. Our teacher has spoken." He chopped his hand and pointed at us "This is a holy duty. The Representatives will have to interact with us, and lead the class outside of the dorms. The failures and successes of the class are yours. Thus, I believe that only a democratic vote can decide who should take up this heavy burden."



"I'd say won't everyone vote for themselves…" Tsuya said. "But you two can't, can you? So it'll come down to who wins you over."



"All the same, it's not like anyone has a better idea." Denki mused. "Well, I guess we should let the RA's give us a card and see what happens."



"Well kid, gonna vote for yourself?" Cu Chulainn asked.



I thought about it as Momo and Iida handed out sheets of paper.

<Hmm, probably not? I was gonna vote for Kyoka, she's got a good head on her shoulders, and works well with Momo>



Cu Chulainn scoffed.

"You won't even try to stand out with this?"



<I thought you only cared about fighting> I retorted.



"Well, yeah," Cu Chulainn agreed. "But still, you could at least try to be as good as me"



I shrugged.

<Besides, it's not like anyone else will vote for me, so I may as well give Kyoka her best shot>



There was the sound of a head hitting a wall and then silence.



I wrote down Kyoka's name and handed it back. Everyone seemed to think for a bit about voting, but it couldn't have been more than five minutes before Tenya was at the front of the class writing down names and votes as they came up.



My eyes widened in shock

Four votes? How in the world?



Mina was in second place with three votes.

"I would like to thank everyone who voted for me and promise to get 'im next year" she said with a laugh.



Hanta looked over at me.

"You okay bud?"



"Yeah…" I answered. "Just not sure how I won. I didn't even vote for myself.."



"Well," Hanta said. "You are pretty cool…maybe Mineta was on to something?"



Mineta screamed from behind me.

"I TOLD YOU!"



"You beat me again, you damn nerd…" Bakugo swore under his breath.



Kyoka chipped in. "MIneta is never right about anything. But, yeah you've been a cool guy in the dorms, and Momo trusts you."



I rubbed my face. That explained two of the votes, even if it was misplaced I felt. But where were the other two coming from? I looked over at Shoto who stared back at me. Nah, it couldn't be him I decided.



"Yo Class Rep" Denki called. "Teacher's still asleep, what's your first order?"

"I wish I was," Aizawa growled from inside the sleeping bag. "Finish your homework for the Hero Arts course, I know you aren't done Kaminari. Ashido, Midoriya, head to the student council room after school today."



I moved my hand to the be back of my head,

"Um, I guess finish homework so that Mr Aizawa doesn't give us another hell obstacle course?"



"Yep, that's why he's class rep" Mina agreed. "Come on…let's get to work on ugh math"



So that was how I became the class representative of Class 1A despite not voting for myself, or even saying I wanted the position.

-------------------
AN: Once again I continue to blueball Cu Chulainn by not getting to the next fight. But a quiet character chapter all told. Thanks to Slamu for going over this with me.

 

[gman391]

The School Cafeteria was huge, it sort of had to be to accommodate everyone that went through it. While with the dorms we were expected to cook our own breakfast and dinners. The school cooked lunch for us. Well more accurately, Lunch Rush the Cooking hero made lunch for us. The man's quirk 'Food Requisition' allowed him to make a variety of food so long as he was hooked up to electricity somehow. Weird quirk but it was an absolute godsend in disaster relief, or in feeding thousands of students every lunch. Every day he tried to focus on a different cuisine.

Today was Taco Wednesday. Pony told me later that Taco Wednesday was just wrong, but could never explain why. She said that it had to be on a Friday and when I asked her to elaborate she just looked at me like I had three heads. Still, while I didn't really like Mexican as a rule I wasn't going to complain as I ate a third taco.

To my left, Momo was on her fifth taco. On my right was Kyoka, she couldn't handle spices and thus was eating a quesadilla, the mild kind that Lunch Rush put out for those who like her couldn't handle his other dishes.

Mina and Eijiro plopped themselves down in front of me, their trays laden with food.
"Hey Rep" Mina said with a cheeky grin.

Eijiro gave a thumbs up
"Congrats bro."

Momo swallowed her food "Mina, Eijiro, it's good to see you, what brings you to our table?"

"Well…" Mina drew out the word in a long l. "I um, maybe want to know what a Vice Rep does?"

"It's in the student handbook." Kyoka said. "Didn't Tenya make all of us read it?"
"So unmanly," Eijiro muttered.

Mina laughed brightly.
"Sure, but I didn't remember it. I was focused on the rules!"

"Pretty sure only so she knew how to break them," Cu Chulainn drawled.

"Fair," I said. "Vice Rep is supposed to help wrangle the class, join student council, put in our budgets for the cultural festival, and help with interpersonal drama….although…" I looked down. "I'm still not sure how I got so many votes."

Kyoka lightly jabbed me with one of her jacks.
"Em, really. Cut that out. You won, do your best at it"

I shrugged. I wish I could have voted for Momo but she wasn't wrong.
"Suppose. Guess I'm just curious, what did they see to make them vote for me? I voted for you after all, because you'd be amazing".

Kyoka choked for a moment and then drank some water.
"You can't just spring that on a girl!"

"Bro, you voted for someone else too?" Eijiro asked.

I nodded. "Je--Kyoka is pretty smart, cool, and her earphone jacks make her really good for spotting trouble so I thought she'd be a good rep."

A flush on the punk rock girl's face.
"Well-I- I voted for you. You're smart too, strong, and you're probably the only guy that Explosions actually respects…"

Now it was my turn to blush.
"Oh…thank you, I…I'll try to live up to your expectations"

Kyoka fiddled with her jack and muttered something I didn't catch.

Momo shook her head. "I too voted for you, for much the same reasons. Well and one other…when you're in action you're pretty inspiring."

Eijiro slammed his fist into his chest with a thump like a gorilla. "Right! That was so awesome and manly of you dude. Just taking Todoroki head on like that and saving the freaking day."

Mina's smile turned slightly predatory.
"Although apparently he's into feet"

"W-wh-what, I'm n-n-not into feet" I stammered.

"True" Cu Chualinn agreed. "You're more into thighs going by your taste in heroines"

I tried to glare in the back of my head.
<You shut up!>

"What?" He asked with a light tease. "Perfectly natural, why I was with a Spanish woman once whose thighs were thicker than my head, and let me tell you the things she could do with them. I spent an entire day just----

<I WANT OFF THIS TRAIN! STOP FOR THE LOVE OF LUGH!>! I screamed in my head.
My blush was turning my face on fire, and there was no way to stop it.

Cu Chulainn let out a sigh. "How are you this innocent when the internet exists?"
I swallowed. <I…shut up>

Then he just laughed at me.

"Oh…wow, that's bright," Mina giggled. "Joking, Toru told me how delicate and kind you were is all. Yeesh don't take it so seriously."

I looked down.
"Right….not like that would happen anyways…"

"Huh?" Eijiro prodded. "Bro?"

I ate another taco in lieu of answering. And then as I swallowed, I was saved from elaborating as the alarm bell blared and the lights went red.
A speaker squawked to life and barked: "Security Level 3 breach. All students please evacuate in an orderly fashion."

Momo looked up.
"The intruder alarm? Someone got through the UA barrier?"

Kyoka winced as she held her jacks protectively.
"Must be the news folks, it's only a level 3 alarm."

"Huh?" Eijiro tilted his head.

My mind whirled as I answered. It wasn't Hoodie, there was no way for him to be a mere level 3.
"At the assembly they explained that the security breach system is tier. Level 1 breach means some animal got in or something. Level 2 means that a student or staff went into some place they're not supposed to. Level 3…"

"Level 3 is for non violent trespassers." Momo finished for me.

"That's cool and all," Mina said. "But, we gotta get out of here."

I looked around to see the panicked students moving around. Most of them weren't hero students. They hadn't even had lectures on how to handle this. It was too early in the school year for a drill…

Kyoka shook her head as we stood up. "Look how packed everyone is, if we go in there, we'll get hurt."

"I can barrel 'em down!" Eijiro said as he activated his quirk. "Let me make a path for you!"

No, that would just make more panic, we'd get out but.. I shook my head and looked outside through the cafeteria windows where the reporters were running.
"Eijiro, we can't do that, people would get hurt. If they knew…"

Momo rolled up her sleeve and out popped a megaphone.
"Izuku, if you would do the honours?"

I flushed and climbed onto the table to tower over everyone. "Why me?" I asked.
"Because you're manly as hell!" Eijiro slammed his hand down on the table. "And you're the class rep so this is your job right?"

A part of me wondered if he was gay, but I ignored that. If he was good for him, if he wasn't also good for him. A hero's ability wasn't decided by their sexuality. I reached for the megaphone, now what was I going to say?

Cu Chulainn looked out at the carnage.
"Hey kid, just repeat after me"

My scepticism poked through.
<This isn't going to be a joke is it?>

"No," Cu Chulainn answered. "But you don't know what to say right?"

<I choose not to answer> I said.

A huff of exasperation
"Just repeat after me. Calm down you dumbasses."

I really didn't have a better idea so…I drew on what little confidence I had, and spoke into the microphone.

"CALM DOWN YOU DUMBASSES!" echoed through the cafeteria.

Whether it was the cursing or the literal microphone, the other students stopped and paid attention to me. In a crisis, you don't have to know what you're doing, you just have to look like you know what you're doing.

The tension was broken, and the words came to me at last, so I shouted some more.
"LISTEN UP. THERE WERE REPORTERS AT THE GATE THIS MORNING TRYING TO GET IN! THEY DID BUT WE ARE NOT IN ANY DANGER! YOU HEAR ME?! NO DANGER!"

A student with rainbow coloured hair spoke up.
"How do you know that?!"

"LOOK AT THE WINDOWS!" I barked through the megaphone.
Indeed just outside the cafeteria were a bunch of reporters being chased by Ectoplasm's clones. There wasn't any danger. It was just a precaution.
That seemed to mollify them, whispers began to break out. Most of them sounded like this:

"It's just reporters?"

"Some balls on them to break into UA"

"We just need to go to the classroom right?"

Slowly the crowd began to move out of the cafeteria, and I climbed down.

"Dumbasses really?" Kyoka asked. "That was the best thing you could come up with?"

"...It felt right?" I tried.

"It worked," Eijiro said. "But it didn't feel like Midobro"

Momo, the angel that she is, intervened to save me from further teasing.
"We should get out too."

---------------------------

The sun still shone through the windows as I walked towards the student council room. It was late afternoon heading into evening. Once again everyone hurried to get to their rooms, their clubs, or anywhere but their classrooms.

Beside me Mina walked too with her hands behind her head. She looked at me out of the corner of her eye. "Been meaning to ask, why were you at the assembly?"

"Momo wanted to go," I answered. "And someone told me that I might be surprised by it."

"Surprised?" Mina chirped. "Were you?"

I shrugged. "Well the free cupcakes were nice"

Mina stopped and grabbed me by the shoulder.
"There were cupcakes!?"

"Yes…." I said. I nearly jumped out of my skin as she moved in front of me and started with her yellow and black eyes as if I had told her that Wash the Washing Machine Hero was in fact just a washing machine.

Mina then hung her head defeated.
"I could have had cupcakes instead of being destroyed in Smash Tri"

"Never played," I said mildly. "I'm surprised you lost though"

"You never played? Even my grandma plays." Mina said her head tilted at me.

I winced slightly. People always got strange about my childhood.
"No one really to play with," I said. "Come on, we have to get to the council room."

"That's kind of sad Midori," Mina said as we began walking. "You should come to Denki's room with me after this is over. We banned him from playing Lil Mac so it should be fine."

I shrugged. "We have homework to do, that essay from Midnight on image management won't write itself."

"Uuuugh" Mina hung her head. "Don't remind me. I get why we have to, but I hate school so much"

"Then why did you run for student council?" I tilted my head at her as we began to walk forward.

"Hmm.." Mina put a finger to her mouth. "Uh...hard to put into words, but like Momo is a mom, but not like a cool mom, but a good mom. Figure our class needs a cool big sis to balance it out"

"A cool big sis?" I asked. My mind flashed to Itsuka too easily. "I guess I sort of understand."

Mina gave a big smile.
"Nah you don't. But that's okay. Why did you run?"

"Uh…" I frowned. "Honestly, I just didn't think I'd get any votes, so I didn't bother to say no to running."

"Dammit kid…" Cu Chulainn muttered.

"You really thought Momo and Kyoka would vote for someone else?" Mina's face had a confused expression on it. "Well I guess voting for Kyoka would have made sense…"

"Kind of." I answered. "Why is that strange?"

Mina puts her hands on her hips.
"Geeze, you really don't think your friends would support you? That's kind of strange, yeah."

"No, not that they wouldn't, just that Kyoka was a better pick." I said. "She's pretty smart and she can wrangle people with those earlobes of hers."

"Nah, Kyoka doesn't like the spotlight as much, it's why she's attached at the hip with you two." Mina said far too confidently.

I shook my head. "That doesn't make any sense. She enjoys playing too much not to be okay with being watched."

Before Mina could continue the conversation. We turned the corner and found ourselves before a heavy wooden door made out of what I think was oak. The engraved panelling and sheer size of it made it intimidating, like you were standing before the gates of a castle.

All the same it opened easily enough under my hands. It felt a little heavy, but the wood was nothing compared to a car.

Inside the student council room was a rather large table that was shaped into a U with chairs in front of it. The comfiest looking chair was naturally the president's, it sat at the middle of the bottom of the U. There was a woman with short reddish hair and brown eyes sitting in it. She had an easy confidence about her as she looked up from the papers she was working on.

On one side of the table Jurota and a girl I didn't recognize with long green, vine-like hair sat, both working on what looked like homework.

The red haired woman spoke.
"Ah, the last of the Hero course reps have come. I'm Yuyu Haya from Class 3A, and the Vice President of the Student Council. The President is off doing internship work with Motogatari Pro."

I couldn't stop myself and asked
"The big hero media agency?

Motogatari Pro was massive for the amount of influence it had. The only Top Ten hero in the last twenty years that hadn't had a PR and Licensing Contract with the company was All Might. Oh sure they spun it out into subdivision companies, but everyone knew whether it was Edge Studios or Rabbit Fist Entertainment, that Motogatari was the power behind it all.

Yuyu smiled. "Right, even Gen Ed students can get internships in their field through UA's connections. It's why even people who don't want to be heroes go here. As first years, you four won't have too much to do. But that'll change in your second year." She looked at us. "Sorry Nejire is rubbing off on me, let's introduce ourselves."

Jurota raised a hand. "I am Juroto Shishida from 1B, I won't be here too long, none of the boys could agree on who to pick for our class rep. It was a five way tie, but until we resolve it, I will fill in. Ibara Shiozaki is the vice rep though. Almost unanimous actually."

Ibara stood up and bowed.
"I am blessed to meet you two, I hope you will take care of me."

Mina nudged my foot ah right I had to take the lead.
"I'm Izuku Midoriya, class rep for Class 1A and this is Mina Ashido our vice rep."

"Hey" Mina said loudly. "Pleased to meet ya!"

I looked at Jurota. "You guys split up along gender?"

"Indeed, neither Kendo nor myself wanted to be class reps on top of dorm duties. We agreed that there should be a man and a woman for the other students to go to." Jurota adjusts his glasses. "Alas we were unable to decide which of my male classmates should come. Our teacher said we had until tomorrow to solve it."

Yuyu pointed at us "Well then you three will be the sempai to the new guy" Then she smiled " So your job at the student council isn't too hard. Hero students aren't expected to do much."

"Really? I thought we were going to rule the school with an iron fist" Mina smacked her fist into her palm. "You know, like anime."

Yuyu brought her hand back and coughed into it.. "Well, the Student Council used to have fairly expansive powers to facilitate the hero teachers going out to do hero work…but we don't anymore, not after the Blue Crane Incident."

"Blue Crane?" The other three asked.

It was a bit of an urban legend in Mustafu. Something that seniors in schools told their juniors during the summer camps. Outside of Mustafu, well UA had a hell of a PR department, and a legal department and used both judiciously.

It was a really neat story, so I decided to explain: "Twenty years ago, the student council president got into a fight with the principal of the school. Um, led a coup actually because the student council had the authority to rally people in the event of a villain invasion. He convinced the rest of the council to back him, then the school because he controlled a lot of administrative functions. If they didn't join, he was going to take their funding, their licences and their club gear back.

"This was right after the Kanagawa School reforms were implemented. The President didn't like them one bit, and hoped he could force the school to withdraw. The fighting was pretty intense, destroyed the old school building so they say. Finally they had to get All Might involved."

"Ah you're a Mustafu boy Midoriya?" Yuyu asked. "Good, that'll help. But he's right, that's what happened. To make sure it didn't happen again. The Student Council was stripped of most of its powers, and the President position was forbidden to Hero Course students. "

Mina turned to point at me.
"Okay, but why Blue Crane? Wouldn't it be like 'the School Revolt'?"

The Vice President shrugged.
"His quirk was the ability to make origami into elemental creatures. His favourite summon was a blue crane with ice powers. It's what he used to fight All Might, not that it worked."

"Nothing ever does with him" I said, chipper.

Cu Chulainn snarked.
"Except whatever beat him."

<You shut up> I almost snarled. <All Might doesn't lose to anyone>

"Kid, I get that you worship the guy but that doesn't make me wrong." Cu Chulainn said "I don't lie." His tone between pity and real concern.

Which was true, Cu Chulainn would insult you, refuse to answer, or ignore you entirely. But he never lied, not that he couldn't. I was sure he could, but because he saw lying as an admission of weakness.

Yuyu nodded. "Right, we have meetings after school on Fridays. Your duties are pretty simple. Take our directives whatever they are to the Hero Class, bring forth any concerns to us. The real big thing for you is to budget and present a proposal for the Culture Festival, it's a few months away, but we have to begin prep now."

"What about the sports festival?" Jurota asked. "Will we be involved with that?"

The Vice President shook her head. "No, some of the business course third years will be helping out for their companies. But frankly, it makes UA way too much money to be left to kids like us. You'll just have to focus on doing your best. "

"This is surprisingly chill," Mina said. "Midori made me think it was going to be a bunch of paperwork and all sorts of stuff like that."

"...You do have to do paperwork for the Culture festival" Yuyu said after a beat.

Mina frowned.
"Ah damn…"

"Please," Ibara spoke up. "Please don't swear around me."

"Huh?" Mina tilted her head. "I mean, I guess….but why's it matter?"

Ibara took a breath and then answered.
"It makes me uncomfortable, my family was very strict about such things."

"A vice rep shouldn't be swearing anyways," Yuyu said. "That's about the size of it, any questions?"

"Ah, I guess I have one question." Mina admitted. "Are there other student council rooms we can just hang out in like a lounge?"

Yuyu put a hand to her chin in thought. "There's the old storage shed on the roof of the building, but that's about it. Rumor says that the Principle has a hidden lounge somewhere in the basement, but I looked all over for it with Nejire in second year and found nothing."

Jurto turned to look at Mina "Why would you ask that? "Surely you aren't planning to slack off?"

Mina drew out the word "Nooooooo" in a way that convinced no one at all.

"Please Ashido," Ibara said. "Remember that diligence is a virtue."

Yuyu shook her head. "Ah, memories. Anyways, don't hesitate to ask me for advice if you need it, but I'll leave you to it for now. See you Friday."

With that she got up and left us alone in the room.

Mina hung her head.
"All that energy worked up for nothing." Then she perked up. "Well we should have a party"

"A party?" Jurota adjusts his glasses. "It's not even the first week of classes. Where would we even have one?"

"Licentiousness so soon bodes ill" Ibara says. "Why would you want one?"

"Because we're all stressed from moving in and junk" Mina waves her hands around. "We're hero students, but we need to be teens too"

I tilted my head. I hadn't enjoyed the ice breaker when I moved in. But…it had been fun for a lot of people. I knew that Denki and Sero had really enjoyed it. A night to relax and enjoy ourselves, that was what movie night was all about wasn't it?

Jurota adjusted his tie, and said far too casually. "Well then, a chance to allow our youthful exuberance to express itself in a safe environment? Not an idea I can disagree with at all."

Ibara frowned. "If I might ask why a quiet evening of prayer and meditation would not suffice?" she shivered slightly. "I do not think I would enjoy a party."

"Meditation and prayer don't work for me!" Mina clapped her hands together. "Listen Ibara, I get it, you're not a party gal, but trust me, we'll have stuff for people like you"

While the idea of stuff for people like me sounded nice, I was wary.
"Before you get carried away Mina." I said. "What exactly do you want to do, a party with both class 1A and 1B?"

"Yuh-huh" Mina nodded. "1C, 1F, 1H and all of them too if they want. We should invite everyone."

"That's too many people" I shook my head. Definitely too many people for me to try and mingle with at once.

"Ah don't be a baby," Cu Chulainn drawled in the back of my mind. "You'll be fine once we get enough booze in ya"

I froze for a moment.
<You do know that we're not going to be allowed alcohol right?>

A beat passed. "Then. What. Is. The. Bloody. Point?!"

<Good times and friendship?> I offered.

"Bah" Cu Chulainn dismissed.

"Huh, I guess you're right" Mina's determination didn't wane. "Then just for Class 1A and 1B so we get to know each other."

"That's not a bad idea," Jurota said. "Itsuka would be willing, but.."

Ibara narrowed her eyes. "Your reasoning is not…invalid. I agree" she raised her hand. "However, you and I will work together designing the activities for the party, and I will have veto powers or this isn't happening.

"Sure that's cool" Mina jumped up and down in excitement. "This is gonna be so much fun. I'm always up for making people happy."

"Is that why you want to be a hero?" Ibara asked, her head tilted to the side.

"Wow heavy." Mina jokingly whined. "But yeah…I've always wanted to make people smile. Like Miss Joke, or All Might. It's really easy to be sad, wanna make it harder."

"I…cannot deny that such a duty is admirable," Ibara allowed. "For myself, I wish to rescue lost lambs and save them from danger. But the darkness of the heart is also a worthy foe."

"Hmm." Jurota smiled, at least I think it was a smile. "Well, your talent in this field of heroics is no small thing. Given what I know of my counterpart in 1A. I think we should have the party in the 1B dorm."

Tenya's words about propriety wrote themselves in my head. Ultimately I knew that between myself, Mina, and Momo we could convince him. The guy liked to follow the rules, but he enjoyed fun as much as the rest of us. He just didn't want to help people break the rules.

"Yeaah…Tenya's a good guy in a lot of ways but…" I trailed off.

"He's even less inclined to party then Ibara" Mina finished. "No offence"

Ibara shrugged. "I can hardly be offended by a truth. Still, why is he so ill inclined?"

"'Cause he's legacy" Mina answered without a beat. I looked at her in confusion.

"I'm not good at math! Not stupid!" Mina pouted.

"Right sorry, just surprised you put that together so fast" I held my hands up in surrender. "I hadn't."

"Ah, well you're a bit of a shut in Midori." Mina smiled. "But yeah, looks to me like he wants to make sure that he doesn't let down the Idaten name, so he's way too stiff."

"Ah" Ibara brought a hand to her chest. "I cannot blame him for that. Were I to guess, this party is for him too? To loosen him up?"

Mina's black eyes look at Ibara.
"...You're gonna be really scary one day. I hadn't thought of that, but yeah."

I raised a hand in protest. "Let's let Tenya move at his own pace. For now, a party…we get Sunday off right?"

The other three nodded.

"Next Saturday night then." I nodded.

I would hate it, but a party would be good for everyone I had thought. I had to get out of my shell too, even if Cu Chulainn was pissed there would be no alcohol. It would be a fun night. Ibara would balance out Mina's exuberance and we could celebrate surviving the first week. A small smile formed on my face. It would make a lot of people happy. That too was what heroes did.

Jurota coughed. "Quite so, shall we return to our dorms?"

The rest of us agreed, and I walked back to the dorms with Mina talking my ear off about the games and stuff she planned to bring up to Ibara. For a spur of the moment plan, she was quite thorough. Like she said, bad at math, not stupid.

I'm always a little sad that she had to wait so long to put all of those plans into motion. Grateful that even after everything tomorrow brought, she still went ahead with it. I'm getting ahead of myself. Afterall, even you probably know what happened tomorrow…



AN:
Hello again. Sorry for the delay, some stuff didn't work and I've decided to move to an every other week schedule, that will hopefully make me more consistent in posting. Anyways a lot of character stuff in this one, next chapter USJ at long last.

Once again thanks to Slamu for reading over and giving feedback to this.

 

[gman391]

"So what'd you put down for that hero essay Midnight gave us?" Jiro asked as we sat underneath a tree. Once again I had jumped the fence and bought coffee, tea, and food for our impromptu group.

Jurota looked up from a bagel.
"You mean the one about Hero Ethics? Are you not finished?"

"Hey, I'm finished…Momo made me do it last night," Kyoka said sullenly.

Momo pouted. "You asked my help and I gave it to you"

Kyoka gestured with her earjacks
"The essay isn't due for three days!"

"And that means you have three days for revisions," Momo says with a clap of joy.

Jet black eyes looked at me in a mute plea for understanding.
"Em, tell me you aren't finished?"

"Uh…." I had in fact finished, arguing with Cu Chulainn all the while as I put together my thoughts on the notion of Heroic Ethics.

"How am I friends with a bunch of nerds?" Kyoka asked as she hung her head.

Itsuka chuckled a bit before she answered.
"Because one adopted you, and you adopted the other, and we adopted them."

"Ugh, fine." Kyoka takes a sip of her coffee. "So Midnight went over it with you guys too?"

"Yes, three positions," Itsuka said. "I ended up taking the Steel Foundation. It just spoke to me more."

Jurota adjusts his glasses.
"While the law is the law." He stops for a moment. "I don't think that people are so black and white. There has to be more room for nuance. I don't know if everyone can be rehabilitated but I think most can. So I took the Water Foundation."

"I still don't understand these names," Pony groused."Water? Steel? Willow? Just pick a group."
I was pretty sure Pony meant something other than group.
"[Theme?]"

[Yes that]" Pony nodded. "Theme is what I meant. Water, Steel, Willow…I get that it's because of the heroes who came up with them. But still. "

" The US mostly uses the Willow Foundation?" Momo asked. "I remember reading that somewhere."

Pony takes a sip of her coffee. "Yep, the Portland Convention means we can't use the Steel Foundation. Mandatory sentencing, imprisonment for life, death penalty all of it isn't allowed. What I knew so I wrote."

"I find myself mostly in agreement with Jurota," Momo says. "I do think that most criminals are such because of circumstance. However, they can't be allowed to flaunt the law. Thus there has to be some mandatory sentencing for deterrence."

"How do you get to pick and choose?" Kyoka asked. "I mean sure there's some universal crimes everyone gets up and arms over, but there's so much grey after that. I don't give a fuck about property as long as people are okay. But you've got people like Edgeshot who are all about protecting property from people. Water says we're both right."

Momo sighed. "I suppose that's a fair contention. I take it you took the Willow Foundation then. No one wants to be a criminal and we should work to reform them?"

"Ah, yeah." Kyoka rubbed the back of her head. "Don't listen to as much punk as I do without picking up some Willow tendencies,"

"Oh right, I did try out that band you recommended, Kyoka, it was pretty good, it's no Roman Odin." Itsuka commented." But still pretty good"

"Roman Odin isn't even rock!" Kyoka scoffed.

Itsuka raised an eyebrow,
"They have guitars, drums, and bass, what else do you need?"

"To play more than GreenBubble Pop," Kyoka answered. "If your hardest song is Baby Teeth, then you aren't rock."

"Rather than get into another argument." Jurota raised his hand. "Rin what Foundation did you pic."

The Chinese hero swallowed a gulp of muffin, then answered. "Chose the other option for the assignment."
"The false foundation hypothesis huh?" I said. "The idea that any of the hero ethic foundations are correct is wrong? That was a hard one."

"Right" Rin nodded. "China doesn't treat heroes the same, so while interesting, I didn't agree with any of them. Steel Foundation says the law is the law with no exceptions, but that means that someone working to save their family is hit the same as someone who just did it for kicks. But the opposite, Willow Foundation says that no matter what you have to give people the benefit of the doubt, and that doesn't work either, some people are just {assholes}. Water tries to do both, but then it's just 'hope you get a hero that sympathizes' for villains."

"I guess this is why it was one of our first assignments," I said with a shrug. "I went with Willow. I want to save everyone, and can't do that if they're going to die rather than go to Tartarus."

"But that's naive" Itsuka gestured at me with her hand. "You're really telling me that if a villain and civilian were both falling to their death, you'd pick the villain?"

"No" I shook my head. "I'd save both somehow."

"An admirable sentiment, but I don't think we're going to solve that ethical conundrum anytime soon," Jurota said. "Are you looking forward to the rescue exercise?"

"Rescue exercise?" Kyoka, Momo, and I asked as one.

"Did Aizawa not tell you?" Itsuka tilted her head in thought. "I guess that tracks. But yeah our sensei told us that we're doing rescue training tomorrow as long as you guys don't wreck the place."

"Logical ruse?" Momo asked.

Kyoka and I both nodded.
"Logical ruse"

Aizawa liked surprises because they kept us on our toes, and to be fair they were never that bad outside of the first day. Just…annoying if you didn't like surprises.

"Well, I guess we'll be prepared then" Momo said. "Now, I suppose that aside from Kyoka we all finished Cementoss's essay on the Undreaming Butterfly?"

Kyoka groaned as hands went up again.

-----

Aizawa stood up from the floor, still in his sleeping bag.
"Alright, today's hero foundations is rescue training. So we're going on a field trip. Get changed into your costumes and then get on the bus."
"Will All Might be on the bus?" Tenya asked. "He is our Heroics Foundational Studies teacher, should he not be taking us?"

Eyes closed, Aizawa clicked his tongue against his teeth. "All Might has decided to meet us there. Class Reps, you're in charge, I'll meet you on the bus"

I stood up with Mina. "Come on everyone, let's go" I called out.

"Last one there has to play a penalty game!" Mina laughed.

"What kind of a penalty game?" Denki asked cautiously. "I mean, you're not gonna do anything too bad."

Mina just smiled an evil smile- which, I'll give her this, motivated most of the class to get moving. Even as I brought up the rear, no one straggled at all, which was an accomplishment for most teenagers, let alone us.

"Oooh, Prez is last! Does he get a penalty game?" Sero asked as we reached the bus

"Nope," Mina said. "The penalty game was that I get to do a makeover on you, but Momo would kill me if I did it on Prez"

"...I would not," Momo protested. "As long as it was tasteful"

We all looked at Mina who shrugged.
"It wouldn't be a punishment game if it was tasteful"

"Can we go back to Momo admitting she'd kill someone? I feel like that needs to be addressed!" Mineta shouted.

"Momo wouldn't actually kill Mina," I said. "She's too nice for that. Everyone on the bus"

"Midoriya should we not go in strict orders?" Tenya chopped his hands. "So we might move efficiently?"

I really didn't feel comfortable with making them do anything and didn't see the need. As long as they all got on the bus that was what mattered right? Still, if it calmed down Tenya…
"Uh…get on the bus with your battle trial partner if you want," I said.

Tenya lowered his hands and looked at me.
"...I suppose that's as good a method as any. But should it not be enforced?"

"Never give an order you know won't be followed," Momo said. "That is something my father used to tell me when I was a child."

"And this class…" I trailed off. "We're all going to be great heroes, but a bus ride isn't a time to be serious"

"I see," Tenya nodded. "In order to show trust, you let us choose now so we trust you later. Very forward-thinking!"

"Sure" I agreed after a beat. "Now let's get on the bus people"

It turned out that the bus wasn't the kind where only two people went to a seat anyways. But rather with long benches in the front and seats in the back. I sat on the front bench with Kyoka, Momo, and Eijiro on one side. Across from us sat Ochako, Tenya, Yuga and Toru.

"Man, rescue training, I hope it'll be as manly as battle training," Kirishima said.

"I wonder though," Toru waved her arm in front of us. "What does rescue training mean?"

"Tenya would know better than the rest of us," Kyoka said. "His brother is a pro hero"

There was a small blush. "Ah, I was not keeping it a secret, but yes, my brother is Ingenium, how did you know?" Tenya asked.

"Well your brother did a talk at my school, so I know what he looks like," Kyoka said. "And Iida plus Engines was just kind of a give away"

"My brother loves giving talks like that. Did his words inspire you as they do me?" Tenya's sincerity was almost painful to hear.

"Um, yeah dude. Rescues?" Kyoka deflected.

"Ah, right," Tenya nodded. "Well, my brother tells me that heroes can be in all sorts of rescue situations from fires, and floods to landslides, but since it's our first exercise. I don't know what UA will throw at us, but I would guess a landslide. That seems the safest to deal with the aftermath of without more training."

"Ah, but it's UA so I'll bet they go plus ultra on us!" Eijiro slammed his fists together. "I'm getting fired up"

"Cool it horn buddy" Mina teased gently. "Aizawa's helping so it's going to be super hard and not fun like All Might's class."

"Izuku broke a rib," Momo said snippily. "I would hardly call that fun."

"I got better," I said. "No harm no foul"

"You certainly forgive injuries like that better than I would" Tenya declared. "That must be one of the reasons you were chosen for class rep. Which I approve of"

Momo looked uncomfortable for a moment.
"Yes…Still, you shouldn't be so cavalier about being hurt."

"It's not like it matters" I shrugged "As long as everyone else is safe right?"

Eijiro leaned over to look at me.
"Midobro, that's kind of insane. Manly! But insane"

"Oui! While we belle fleurs are tres magnifique in our blossoming, you should not ignore your own blooming as well!" Yuga said as he stared at me.

In lieu of continuing an awkward conversation, I deflected.
"Uh…did you just call us beautiful flowers?"

"Are we not?" Yuga waved his hands. "Gaze upon us, are we not all works of art mon ami?"

Kyoka raised an eyebrow up.
"One way to look at it I guess"

"It does seem like only hotties got into the Hero course" Mina agreed. "The only one below a 6 is Mineta…and I'm sure he's hot to someone one."

Toru put her hands to her cheek in mock horror.
"Don't speak such horrors bestie!"

"I can hear you, you know!" Mineta shouts from the back of the bus. "Just because I like to perv doesn't mean…I'll shut up now"

"Well, he is smart," Momo finally allowed. "I just wish he wasn't so…determined."

"Indeed" Tenya shared a look of commiseration with Momo. "But we will all have to persevere."

The bus came to a stop.

"We're here" Aizawa called from the front of the bus.

-------

The USJ was insane conceptually. A massive facility that effectively simulated fires, floods earthquakes, landslides, and cave-ins in some sort of demented parody of Universal Studios Japan, it was a monument to UA's sheer ability to burn money.

That doesn't mean I thought it was anything less than awesome, as we came in at the entrance. A long stairway led out to a plaza that then led to a number of rescue zones. On top of the stairway was All Might in his modern uniform. (The Mighty Fans like me called it his Justice Fist costume, but that wasn't official. I digress) Thirteen the Space Rescue heroine was there as well in her trademarked space suit.

"WELCOME STUDENTS TO THE UNFORESEEN SIMULATION JOINT!" All Might boomed.

"Hello, students. I'm Thirteen, pleased to meet you. I oversee this place"

Ochako squeed and jumped up and down. "THIRTEEN YOU'RE MY FAVOURITE HERO! CAN I GET YOUR AUTOGRAPH?!"

"Of course." Thirteen said kindly. "But first, let's talk about your quirks okay?"

Ochako nodded. "Okay, sorry, just…is this what Izuku felt like when All Might came in?"

"Probably," Sero said dryly.

"Right." Thirteen turned to look at us. "My quirk Black Hole functions much like its namesake. It is without a doubt something that most would consider a villain's quirk. However, a quirk is a tool that we use. I have chosen to use my quirk to save rather than destroy. Today you too will learn that same lesson. That Heroes are heroes to save people."

"Tch" Bakugo snorted.

Cu Chulainn snickered.
"Naive."

<Oh, you're back?> I asked.

There was an almost giddy anticipation in Cu Chulainn's answer. Like he had been promised a puppy that could also somehow kill English knights.
"Yeah, tasting a battle in the air"

My eyes swept down to the plaza where a large black ink portal formed, then across the facility, more portals.
<From that?>

A laugh "Hell yes!"

In the central plaza, I would say maybe a hundred or so people walked out. Most of them didn't seem like much, but one stood out to me immediately. Shigaraki Tomura, covered in hands of all things, stood slightly hunched, his eyes wild and manic. He would easily be the most dangerous person in that crowd if not for one thing.

No, the title of the most dangerous person if it was a person, went to a huge…monstrosity is the only word I have for it. It was as tall as All Might with midnight black skin, red gashes seemingly almost painted across its limbs. To complete the sense of not being human it had a beak with fangs lining the inside and an exposed brain.

A part of me was desperately glad that it had pants.

There was another person though, who had similar colouring, but instead of being solid, he seemed to flow in the air like he was some sort of floating ink. He wore a dapper-looking waistcoat, dress pants, and formal shirt. A metal brace along his neck and back seemed to be a form of armor.

Shigaraki's eyes lit up upon seeing All Might, and he screamed.
"NOMU!" Then his finger pointed at our Heroics Teacher. "KILL THE SYMBOL OF PEACE!"

The monstrosity - now named Nomu - began to leap, but All Might was faster. He had already moved down to the plaza to meet the villains head-on…to keep us safe. All I could do was watch as he threw his first punch.

There is a certain moment in a fight between legends where the world just seems to break. The air cracks with the raw power of strength against strength, and every sane and rational person runs away. That's what should have happened as All Might's fist cracked into the Nomu's. The ground beneath them shattered the force of the blow sending everyone flying.

It was the first time in five years, that anyone had taken *one* of All Might's punches. Then the Nomu punched back, a void black fist blurring as it cracked the sound barrier. To his credit, All Might didn't slow a step, a quick jab punching the strike up into the air.

The ceiling broke from the air pressure. It was an insane amount of strength. If such a blow hit anyone, hell if hit me it would probably kill them. The only saving grace was that for all of the Nomu's monstrous strength it didn't know how to fight for shit. Raw brute power will take you far, but raw brute power and skill will take you so much farther.

We stood transfixed as All Might hit harder and harder. Combinations flowed smoothly as he showed exactly why he was the World's Number One Hero. Yet for all the hits landed, the Nomu barely even flinched. Instead, it threw wild haymakers and clumsy hooks. Easy enough to dodge or deflect, but even a single mistake would be enough to hurt everyone.

Finally, All Might seemed to make a decision. He needed to change the venue as he couldn't go all out while people were around him. So he decided to change the rules like all good heroes do.

"SO, A TOUGH GUY HUH?" All Might bellowed. "TAKE THIS!"

A massive uppercut sent the Nomu flying at a diagonal angle off the ground, out of the USJ, out of sight. All Might followed after him, his movement so fast that I could barely follow him. We could hear in the air the crack of thunder. No, not thunder, of fists roaring against each other. Outside of the USJ away from us, All Might could truly let loose with all of his strength.

Shigaraki cackled.
"The fool is going to die alone, that Nomu is made specifically to kill him…but I guess we can have some fun with the rest of you!"

With that, the horde he had brought with them began to move. I had been so focused on the fight that I hadn't noticed that the portals had opened again. While the size of the crowd was about the same, it wasn't the same crowd as before. At a glance that weird lumberjack was gone and so were a few others. Where had they gone? I didn't see them as I looked around from the top of the stairs.

Aizawa put on his goggles and prepared himself to leap into the fray. The numbers weren't on his side. Even leaving aside the Nomu, the man was an ambush fighter. Now he was being forced to hold the line.

"Eraserhead…" Thirteen spoke in a question that wasn't a question. "Communications are down."

"Keep the kids safe. I have trash to dispose of." Aizawa said and jumped into the fray.

The man might be an asshole, but he tore through the first wave as if the god of ninja had decreed that today Aizawa was allowed to show off, just this once.

All rational sense told me I should stay here and wait for backup, even as more and more fighters began to converge on Aizawa they would drown him with sheer weight of numbers. The Ulster Spear formed in my hand as he kicked some woman with sapient hair into a walking refrigerator.

There was a fight, someone needed *help* and---

"You're not going to let him have all the fun are you?" Cu Chulainn asks. "The thing with that Nomu was a duel, but this…this is just a brawl."

My grip tightened on the spear. I watched Aizawa barely dodge a blow. The ringing of blood in my ear intensified. This wasn't like exams or the battle trial, this was an honest to god's fight. How long had I had one where I could just let loose?

"Izuku…" Momo turned to me questioningly. "What are you doing?"

Katsuki snorted. "The exact same thing I'm gonna do, Ponytail."

Thirteen moved in front of us, her arms formed an x.
"As your teacher, I forbid it. Let your teachers handle it."

"Well, kid?" Cu Chulainn needled. "Do you trust your teacher?"

I didn't, that was what I had settled on. That Aizawa was just another obstacle to overcome. Which meant…I had to…had to…

The world settled into clarity for me.
"No, you're not a combat hero and Aizawa can't hold out, not when the leaders aren't any slouches themselves. Momo, you're in charge of giving us cover. Mina, Shoto, get us through that gate. "
"Midoriya!" Thirteen yelled. "If you do this I'll expel you myself!"

My spear burned hot in my hand.
"So I'm supposed to let him die?"

"Eraserhead is more than capable of---"

As if God was out to fuck with Thirteen personally Aizawa was clocked in the face and flew back into the stairs. Credit, where credit was due the man, walked it off and threw himself back in there.

"As much as I hate agreeing with the Nerd," Katsuki half growled. "He's right, either you get in there or we do, but he needs backup."

Thirteen's expression was unreadable inside the spacesuit.
"You're a bunch of brats." she finally said. "But you aren't wrong. I will go and help him. You will stay here, if a villain comes, then you have permission to fight him, but you do not, I repeat do not go down there."

"Fuck that." Cu Chulainn snarled. "Don't let her blue ball us on the fight!"

I looked at Shigaraki and the ink man in a suit beside him. He was looking at us. Why? Did he have a plan? He must…because what sort of idiot doesn't plan for every hero?
<I don't…think that's an issue>

Thirteen walked down to the fray and opened her glove to reveal her frankly terrifying Black Hole power. Yet as she did so, the Ink Man blurred and appeared on the top of the stairs with us.

Katsuki and I both swung for him in an instant and hit nothing but the void. Instead from the sky, more villains fell down. A trap for the teachers; either they left us, or we hotheads would leave them. It wasn't a bad trap really.

"FUCKING FINALLY!" Katsuki screamed as he exploded some poor bastard.

The only issue was that we weren't a normal hero class by any stretch of the imagination. The class exploded into action.

"Keep the door breakers safe!" I shouted before I kicked a triclops hard in the chest.

Then the battle was joined and there was no chance to give any more commands as explosions, guns, sonic attacks, and raw physical power slammed into the oncoming villains.

I ducked under a swing and then swung my spear around into a woman's stomach, she dropped down the stairs from the impact.

Another came from above, I jumped back and then launched forward, burying my knee into a gorilla heteromorph's face. Well, it used to be a face.

I kicked off of him into the sky, and a white whip of some sort bisected the space where I had just been. Yet being airborne opened me up to a hail of projectile fire. Rocks, sticks, rubber, bone, metal, and electricity all came at me.

The Ulster spear blurred as I swung around the crystal bone tip crashing the edge against the attacks sent at me. I got most of them, I got the ones that mattered. Well, all except one. A metal nail about the size of my finger tore through my side.

Fire bloomed in my mind as I called on my mana and pushed forward. The woman who had thrown the nail into me, looked like she had seen a monster my spear thrust forward and cracked through her nailgun, and her arm. The crimson weapon dripped blood as I wrenched it out of her.

The crack of a shotgun took down another person behind me. I looked back to see Momo chambering another round with an expression best described as serene indignant anger. Jirou and Ochako had formed up behind her, Jirou blasting away villains while Ochako threw whoever got too close into the sky and then dropped them to the ground.

The distraction was too much as a slab of metal slammed out of the air toward me. I brought my spear up to block it. The ground cracked under the force. A man with a large steel hammer and golem-like skin grinned.

He drew back to strike again, but I was faster; the first strike of the Ulster Spear didn't pierce his skin, but the second did, and a spider web of cracks formed as it shattered to reveal that it had been a man in a suit all along.

"Hey, hey now…" He began. I body checked him into a wall. Nice? No, but I was lost in the battle. The only thing that seemed to matter at the moment was taking out as many villains as possible.

I turned to see a small group of villains trying to sneak up on Mina and Shoto. I wasn't about to have that, so as the fire continued to burn in my mind I moved, the Ulster Spear flashing crimson in the bright fluorescent lights. None of them had trained their bodies or minds to deal with an insane spearman. They collapsed clutching the wounds that had sprouted in their bodies. None of it was lethal, at least not immediately, but enough to put them out.

"That's quite enough from you." A strange voice that sounded like it was filtered through water.

My spear sliced through the air behind me, but it hit nothing but an inky black mist.

The shadow ink figured from before chuckled.
"My, my…such a violent little hero"

Another strike of my spear, this time I swung it vertically down. The man, creature stepped through a portal and the ground cracked under my blow.

Ink Man adjusted his tie and stepped back.
"We had intended to send Endeavour's son there but I suppose you went up in the rankings."

"The metal brace," Cu Chulainn said.

I had seen it. I would only get one shot at this, I knew that. So I prepared to feint with the spear, once more horizontally.

Despite the fact that he had no face. Ink smiled as I lashed out with my spear. He let it flow through him as I knew he would. I moved with the spear, my feet swung in a butterfly kick towards the man's metal brace.

Then darkness overtook me. Before I could see what was happening, a truly powerful blow from what felt like a tree trunk slammed into my spine. I fell down on my knees. Ink had teleported me right into an attack. I moved to stand but another hit crashed into my side and I flew hard into a rocky hillside. There were ruined buildings around me, this must have been where landslide recovery training was done, a distant part of my brain noted.

I worked my jaw and moved my arm. Oh, that was broken, I realised as it refused to move at all.
"Fuck" I swore.

A deep male voice with an Osaka accent spoke.
"Well he's not Endeavour's brat…but He ain't dead, so give him that"

My head raised up to see the five figures that surrounded me in a half-circle. The middle one, the one that spoke, had an enormous tree trunk across his shoulders. He reminded me of a lumberjack for some reason. Might have been the flannel and the beard.

As I forced myself to stand, I reached into my mind.
<Well guess I know what hit me. You gonna help?>

"If you need it." Cu Chulainn said. "Right now you don't need it."

A snarl came from my lips.
<I am down one arm, with a nail in me, and I think a concussion…>

On the left side of the middle one was a muscular woman who had…razor leaves between her fingers. A part of me wanted to geek out over that but that was something for future Izuku. There was also an animal mutant, probably a bear quirk. I wasn't too sure at that moment and never asked.

"So," I said with far more bravado than I had. "Before we get started…do I get to know your names?"

A figure on the right, a man with an Elvis-style haircut and tentacles on his hands that faintly wiggled laughed. "You don't gotta know that kid."

The last of this little ambush, a woman with some sort of lizard mutation, but the way she held the knives in her hand made me think she had another quirk, spoke after.
"We're all here to get revenge on Endeavour because he put us away."

"You know," Cu Chulainn drawled. "I didn't think people survived fighting the guy. Tree guy is the weakest."

<Thanks> I took a deep breath.

"Alright then…" I took a stance with one good arm wrapped around my spear. "Let's get started."

"Kid…you" Tree guy was cut off as I buried the Ulster spear in his gut.

I wasn't trying to make that a habit, I really wasn't, but it worked.

The Elvis guy screamed, "What the fuck?"

"Take him down!" Razor Lead Lady said and threw a barrage of leaves at me.

Without both my arms, I could only block some of them, I focused on the ones that would actually kill me. I felt the sting of a network of cuts forming. The faint smell of blood tainted the air.

Razor had to go, so I leaped over the Bear as he swung his paws at me. I kicked off his head and knocked him to the ground before I launched myself at Razor.

The woman decided to dodge for some reason. Another brace of leaves launched this time they all hit my back, the edges cutting deep. Mana burned as I began to steam. My costume disintegrated under the heat and the damage it had taken.

I braced with the spear and pushed up off the ground a cartwheel that let me kick Razor's body in. The woman went down, even as Knives from before came in a brutal overhand slash. I had to drop the Ulster spear or be stabbed in my neck.

With one fist up, I found myself weaving between the strikes. They were fast, but they had no elegance to them, no inventiveness. She was easy to read like an open book. So when she swung wide for my eyes I ducked under it and came up with an uppercut. In a move copied from All Might, I sent her into the sky. Unlike All Might I didn't follow after her.

Elvis-Hair, looked at me in shock as I went to pick up the Ulster Spear. Which is naturally when Bear came at me from behind, his arms wrapped around me tight enough to make me scream. My arm and chest creaked under the strain.

"Drain 'em!" Bear screamed.
Elvis-Hair brought his hand up and ran towards me.
"R-right. Try this on for size!"

My head slammed up of its own accord into Bear's jaw, a loud crack as I was dropped to the ground. Elvis-Hair froze, a mistake as I kicked off the stone beneath me and shoulder checked him with my good shoulder hard. The man collapsed as he smashed into a broken building.

I whirled around to see Bear cradle his broken jaw. I could have left him, he wasn't likely to get up again. Yet, as I picked up my spear, I didn't want to take any chances.
With a stomp, I broke his ankle. He screamed and I ignored it. I wish I could say that it was just adrenaline getting to me. It wasn't. Fight to disable, but make sure they stay down. That had been how I had squared the frankly lethal style of fighting that Cu Chulainn preferred.

"What the hell are you?" Lumberjack asked. "No kid should…"

There was no answer I could give him. All I could do was walk down the hill back towards the central plaza to the stairs, to my classmates. I might be half dead, but as long as I wasn't fully dead, I could fight.

After all, who else could I ask to do that?

More villains began to pour out of the ruined buildings.
"Don't they ever get tired?" I asked out loud.

Cu Chulainn snickered.
"Not usually kid. But, you got this."

<Mana's almost tapped from keeping me moving after everything> I let a small smile form <But…I guess you finally got the fight you wanted>

Compared to the five at the start. The rest of the villains were, well, pushovers. It wasn't that their quirks weren't strong, some of them were. But none of them had the mindset. The will to fight and kill divided someone from a hobbyist who liked to fight to a real fighter. Even with one arm, Cu Chulainn's help just put me out of their reach.

I can't tell you how many times the Ulster Spear flashed as I walked down that hillside. I can't tell you how many people I hurt. The memories all become a blur at that point. I had tunnel vision all that I could focus on was getting back to the plaza, getting back to that fight.

What I came upon was a nightmare. As Aizawa was held between life and death in a portal, the Ink Man promised to bisect him, if Eraserhead used his quirk at all. Thirteen was barely breathing off to the side of the plaza. Thirteen had done her best, but I could see the ugly red of blood across her suit. Without medical help, she was definitely going to die.

The rest of my class was lined up, Shoto and Bakugo were in an uneasy stalemate as they faced off against Shigaraki. The others were matched up against the remaining villains, but everyone knew that so long as Shoto or Bakugo fought, there was a chance against the remaining villains.

But, no one was fighting at all. Shigaraki held his hand to Momo's throat, his thumb hovered menacingly above it. From the way everyone else was frozen, I realised that the man's quirk must be a five-point touch quirk. Shigaraki had taken a hostage to ensure no one would fight. We were kids, it wasn't fair to ask us to make a life or death decision.

"Kid…." Cu Chulainn said. "You run in there, and your Princess will die."

<I know> I said. <I just…I just need to think of something. Something that will stop him>

The Irishman gave a sigh.
"Come on Izuku, we both know the solution here. The Gae Bolg will work."

He wasn't wrong, my thoughts went back to the exam. The Gae Bolg was almost tailor-made for this. There was no chance of it missing, no chance of harming the hostage. No chance of anything going wrong. The only thing was…
<It will kill him>

"Yeah," Cu Chulainn said. "And so what?"

I swallowed. <Heroes don't kill. We're not supposed to…we…>

From here I couldn't hear what Shigaraki was saying. Yet as Bakugo looked set to move, Shigarki lowered his thumb just a fraction of an inch, and Momo screamed. I could see her skin being eaten away.

A snort from the Irish Hero
"Out of time kid. Kill him or Princess definitely dies."

She was my first friend, my inspiration, my support, she was….too good to let her die here. Too important, I wanted to be a hero who saved everyone. That is what I said this morning that I would be a hero who saved both somehow. I couldn't see a way to save Momo and keep Shigaraki alive. Her screams tore at my heart. She was too good, too…perfect to let her die. The only thing holding me back was… my own weakness. I wasn't strong enough to save her and him. I wasn't strong enough to do what I had promised to do only this morning. All I was strong enough to do was kill him. The painful realisation felt like a vice around my heart. All I could do to save Momo was murder a man.

So I did.

A fitful fire bloomed one last time in my mind as my mana emptied itself into the spear.. I let my need to protect, my need to save, fall away. Where I found the will to kill I can't tell you. Every time I had backed down and let things go flowed back into me. That rain-soaked day when I had failed everyone, even myself under Bakugo's fist. It curled around me like molten bile surging through my heart as my eyes narrowed down into the reason all of this had happened. The reason why Momo, my Momo was screaming, why I was nearly dead. The mana flowed through me and I never noticed the Ulster Spear changing.

"GAE BOLG!"

I threw the spear with all my might. I watched as it was no longer the Ulster Spear, but rather the true spear of Cu Chulainn. An almost bonelike thing with a single point at one end and a point at the other while the haft was wrapped around in what looked like a thorny vine. All of it pulsed with bloody anticipation.

My arm didn't explode. I had made a choice to cast away my innocence to save a life. I had wanted to kill, I had willed a kill. So all I could do was watch as the cursed spear flew forward to do its bloody work.

Ink Man saw the spear coming. I don't know how he reacted in time, but he did. The strange man opened another portal and the Gae Bolg flew through it out of the third portal he opened. It didn't matter though. The heart is destroyed, ergo it is then pierced. That is the first curse of the Gae Bolg.

So Shigaraki clutched his chest in mute horror. The Gae Bolg was coincidentally hit by a piece of falling debris from the holes that All Might and the Nomu had made. This made it so that instead of being buried in the fountain, it bounced off of it. The blood-red spear spun once, twice, three times before it landed in Shigaraki, piercing his back and exploding through his front right where his heart was.

To everyone else, it looked like a freak accident. Ink Man had tried to save him and because of that my aim was off. I hadn't intentionally just murdered a man.

Aizawa took advantage of the distraction to pull himself up out of Ink's portal, his hair flaring up as he kicked Ink hard in the neck brace. The man went down. It looked like for a moment this would all be wrapped up in a blood finish.

Then Aizawa needed to blink. It was only a moment but it was long enough for Ink to resummon his portals and with it, the remaining villains escaped.

"....Cu Chulainn?" I asked out loud. As the adrenaline began to leave my body.

The battle was over, and my mana began to run out. I wouldn't die, no, but the effort of staying up after all of that was starting to overwhelm me. I had forgotten quite how much mana I needed to use the Gae Bolg. It was on the scale of such things not much I was told, but in my exhausted state…yeah. I was completely spent from using it. Every part of me that wasn't screaming in pain at that moment, was screaming that it was done. But I didn't know if the battle was over, even if the thought of even another step felt like throwing Mt Fuji..I couldn't quite let my guard down, not until I knew it was safe.

There was an odd sort of pride in his voice.
"Yes, Kid?"

I collapsed to one knee.
"We won right? I can rest now?"

"Sure Kid. Don't worry, I'll keep us alive." Cu Chulainn answered.

"Cool." I managed before I passed out face first in the dirt.


AN: That's a wrap for the USJ I hope everyone enjoyed it. Thanks to Slamu again for reading over this, and thanks to everyone whose liked and commented so far. I appreciate it.

 

[gman391]

/Dr Garaki Private Recordings: April 12th 2---/

The Master: "I require an explanation Kurogiri. Your orders were to ensure the survival of my heir."

Kurogiri: "We underestimated the capabilities of the students and luck was not on our side. We arrived with the Nomu and our army. As might be expected, Shigaraki ordered the Nomu to kill All Might, who rushed forward to meet it. As you said he is weaker, though not weak enough. He still possesses that quirk as you surmised. As this was going on we shuffled in our reinforcements just in case."

The Master: "The fool moved the Nomu out of the way, assuming it was the greatest threat didn't he? That lineage has ever been quick to take a battle to a deserted area. They learned too well what I can do with a hostage."

Kurogiri: "It is as you say, master. All Might took the battle to the air, outside of the stadium. Shigaraki…ordered an advance. A pro hero, Eraserhead engaged us, and later the second of the pro heroes remaining, Thirteen, went to engage. Thus we sprung our trap warping in our reinforcement group to kill the students."

The Master: "Was not the plan to separate them and scatter them to the wind? That is what I suggested, what made Tomura change his mind?"

Kurogiri: "Yesterday, he encountered a hero student. 'Some green-haired brat' is what he said of the boy. Said that the way the 'brat' looked him in the eyes made him want to torture the boy. His plan to do this was to crush him without mercy in front of his peers."

The Master: "I have taught him hate, but how to use that hate has proven to elude him. Hate is a knife without a hilt, use it poorly and you will destroy yourself. Use it well and there is no end to the suffering you can inflict on your enemies."

Kurogiri: "Just so master. We sent our reinforcements to attack them. Unfortunately, Shigaraki's target was already in motion to defend. I am not sure how he anticipated us, a normal student wouldn't expect a trap so quickly... He seems to have been their leader, and with him leading the charge the hero students fought back more competently than initially expected. We were losing men at a fantastic rate."

The Master: "So you removed the leader, and that proved our undoing, did it?"

Kurogiri: "Yes master, to my regret. Shigaraki ordered me to break their resistance. I judged the best way was to remove their leader. Many of the students were looking to him as an inspiration. Thus given that the Todoroki child had thus far proven to be less than formidable. I warned our Todoroki kill team of a change of plans and sent the child there."

The Master: "So it was this child then that killed my heir?"

Kurogiri: "Yes. After we defeated Eraserhead and Thirteen, the students split in two. One group retreated to get help. While the others went to assist their teachers, admirable really. We toyed with them while Shigaraki waited for the Nomu to return. In the chaos, we took a hostage and were unthinking of the green-haired child."

The Master: "What did he do? Some ranged quirk? Perhaps an exceptionally powerful gun? Maybe an elemental attack?"

Kurogiri: "...He threw a spear, my master. A red one with an ominous aura, it made my skin itch just being near it. I saw it coming and went to intercept it. Its speed all but guaranteed that it would embed itself in the fountain of the plaza. Instead a freak accident - debris from where All Might had left - fell on the spear changing its trajectory. "

The Master: "I wish to be clear. A freak accident, a random piece of stone, hit the spear, making it so that it hit my heir and killed him? Is that what you're telling me, that all this time and effort to corrupt the Seventh's Legacy has been lost because of some…cosmic whim?"

Kurogiri: "That is…what appears to have happened my master. With Shigaraki's death and the arrival of heroes imminent, it seemed best to retreat. I did as soon as I could with what forces we had left."

The Master: "Doctor Garaki, what have our little birds revealed about this…green-haired child?"

Doctor Garaki: "His name is Izuku Midoriya, his quirk is 'Son of Lugh' a rather fascinating evolution on the quirk singularity theory. While we have long known that the human body is evolving at an accelerated rate due to quirk mutations. We have never seen a quirk itself manifest this way. As the registry describes it, the quirk hearkens back to mythology rather than the innate genetic matrix of the human genome or its neural net. Turning the boy into an incarnation of Irish Legend, specifically its heroes. It's multifaceted… I would love a chance to dissect him and his quirk factor, he'd make a fantastic Nomu…"

The Master: "Indeed…a powerful quirk."

===Several minutes of empty silence===

Kurogiri: "Master? Are you alright?"

The Master: "No Kurogiri, I am not *alright* by any stretch of the imagination. I. Am. Absolutely. Livid. Livid that this child dared to intrude on my heir's debut. The gall to stand in my way is infuriating. However, I know how to use hate, Kurogiri. I will use my hate to flense every last bit of skin from his body. He will beg for death, and I will not give it to him."

Kurogiri: "I see…forgive my impertinence."

The Master: "It's perfectly understandable. It's only natural for prey to be concerned when a predator goes still for that is when prey is about to be consumed. You however are not my prey. I will contact you soon to begin the hunt for our new prey. Now go."

Kurogiri: "I await your command Master."

---Unidentified noise---

The Master: "It seems good Doctor that we will have to move to one of our secondary plans. How comes progress on the high ends?"

Doctor Garaki: "Presuming a steady supply of fresh materials, I would believe that I can finish a single high end within the month assuming I focused on that to the exclusion of all else. However, if you wish for your army, I will require many, many more subjects. Or an assistant. It is difficult to physically move about enough to ensure all the cultures take and the maturation process does not end in cascade failure."

The Master: "You will of course have your supply of materials. I will instruct Kurogiri to increase the number. However, your high-end will need to be repurposed. While I had wanted my heir to build his own legend, that is no longer possible."

Doctor Garaki: "What do you need me to do with the High End my master?"

The Master: "Recall subject Alpha, break his mind and repurpose him as an assistant. We still require our army after all. However, after you complete that work, good doctor. I wish for you to take that High End and make a true masterpiece, the pinnacle of what you can do. Of what science can do."

Doctor Garaki: "Master, even with my considerable skill, I do not think it is possible for me to create a host that can sustain your mental development and quirk factor at the same time. That is why we developed Shigaraki in the first place. To allow nature to develop a body to a point where it could sustain your consciousness without immediate brain death. I am skilled, but I cannot meaningfully alter the time it takes for a maturation process like that."

The Master: "I am aware of the limitations, good doctor. You seem to be under the belief that I lack confidence in your ability to overcome the impossible. I do not, for I know that you would never dare disappoint me. Find a way"

----Tape ends---

AN: I originally meant to pair this with an actual full length chapter, but I got sick so that's not happening. Chapter next week probably. Once again thanks to Slamu for reading over this for me.

 

[gman391]

The steady beats of a heartbeat monitor were what brought me back to the land of the living. I wish I could say that I had a dream or something like that. But no, I didn't get to see anything like that. What little I can remember was some sort of black ocean that I was swimming in? Something like that. My eyes opened to the bright fluorescent lights of a hospital room.
Nothing hurt too bad, everything was sore, but nothing *hurt*.

"So you're back with us" Cu Chulainn drawled. "Good. I was getting bored here all by myself"

<How long was I out?> I asked as I sat up. There was a faint not-quite itching but awareness of something in my arm. I looked down and saw an IV. When? Why? Oh, right. The blood They had probably put it in because of the blood.

Cu Chulainn gives a hum of thought.
"Dunno, can't tell time without the sun. I'd guess… two days?"

I blinked, two days? Just how much damage had I taken?
<That long? I would have thought…>

"You're as much like me as you can be right now" Cu Chulainn answered the question I didn't ask. "But still you're just a weak imitation." he laughs. "Stronger than anything else in this dumb future despite that."

I frowned.
<You're just going to ignore the Nomu?>

A soft hiss as I scored a point.
"I think you could have taken him, might have ended up even worse for you though" the Irishman admitted.

"Izuku?" A familiar, maternal voice asked

I turned to the side to see my mom sit up from a chair, covered in a blanket. Her face looked worn and tired. As if she had only barely managed to sleep since I got into the hospital. Which was true, it's hard to sleep when your kid's in danger.

"Hey Mom," I said. "You---"

Whatever I had been about to say was cut off as she all but tackled me in a crushing hug as she began to sob into my chest.

My arms wrapped around her as I hugged her back. There wasn't anything else I could say so I just held her and started to cry too. I don't know what your parental relationships are like. Maybe they're shit, if so sorry. But for me the one thing that might actually hurt more than making my friends sad is making my mom sad.

I heard the door to my room open and then close after…well I couldn't say. I still didn't know what time of day it was here. I would guess that it was night, but the artificial light made a mockery of timekeeping. Like it had since we invented the light bulb and said 'screw you normal sleeping patterns, you may have sustained us for millions of years, but we've got electricity now'.

Still, the noise seemed to stop us both for a while, as Mom gave one last squeeze and pulled back. Her wide green eyes, so like my own, were streaked red from the tears.
"Izuku I was so worried…"

A frown formed on my face. "I'm sorry, I didn't exactly…plan for this to happen."

Mom sighed deeply. "Of course not, you would never plan for anyone else to get hurt. I just, I hoped that you wouldn't be in the hospital before you graduated. I don't want you to be in the hospital ever, but I knew that wouldn't happen."

"Huh, not forever just for a while…" Cu Chulainn mused to himself.

My face formed into a frown.
"Then why did you…support me so much? Heroes get in hospitals fairly often."

Mom rubbed her face.
"I had two choices, Izuku. I could try to stop you and make you hate me while failing. Because I know that Irish bastard in your head would show you anyways. Or I could support you and hope that it meant you would take care of yourself…and keep you in my life."

"Mom…" I wanted to say that I would never abandon her. That I wasn't that kind of guy.

The truth was though, I don't and didn't know what I would have done if Mom had tried to stop me from being a hero for my own good. Something stupid and reckless that much was obvious. Something that wrecked our relationship.

"Is it weird I resent being called a bastard?" Cu Chulainn asked. "I am one, but still…"

<How many people call you a bastard?> I asked.

A mental shrug from Cu Chulainn.
"Pretty much just your mom. Most people call me Dog or son of a bitch."

"Izuku, no lies. I knew that I never could stop you from being a hero not after…after what happened to you" Mom shook her head. "And I've always felt guilty for not telling you what you needed to hear that day."

My hand reached out to hers and squeezed. "It's okay, I mean, I have no idea what I'd do in your position…but thanks, Mom. I'm sorry for worrying you."

"Apology accepted," Mom says. "I'm going to let your father know you're up. You feel up to talking to him?"

I took my hand back and shrugged. I was sore, but I didn't feel like I had anything to worry about in that sense. There was a niggling feeling that I was willfully ignoring something, I couldn't put my finger on what though. "Should be fine."

"Yeah, the docs here are almost as good as that Greek fucker." Cu Chulainn said. "Well almost. My body took care of the rest."

I watched Mom take out her phone and use it for a few moments, holding it up to her ear as it rang. It couldn't have been more than a second or two since it started when the faint sound of my dad's voice came through the speaker.

"Hello, Hisashi. Izuku's awake." Mom said.

Quick rapid-fire words from the speaker.

Mom nodded. "He seems alright."

It was weird listening to a single side of the phone conversation.

"Okay, I'll let him talk to you, love you," Mom said. Then she handed the phone to me.

I held it up to my ear.
"Izuku? Sport? Is that you?" my father's voice came through. He sounded stressed.

"Hi Dad," I answered.

A sigh of relief from him.
"Oh thank--- Oh go fuck yourself, buddy!"

I blinked for a moment. "Dad?"

"Just driving to work. Rush-hour parking lot and people cutting in you know?" He asked.

"I thought they banned rush-hour in the US" I muttered.

"They also banned pineapples on pizza, no one cares," Dad said dryly. "How are you feeling?"

How was I feeling? It was a simple question. I didn't know how to answer though. A feeling of guilt began to gnaw at my insides. My hand began to shake as I finally let myself remember what happened. I couldn't distract myself with banter or making sure my mom was okay. No the memory of Shigaraki grasping at his chest as a blood-covered spear pushed through a black shirt. The dreadful choice that I had made in a split second, that to save someone I cared for, someone I didn't care for had to die. And I had been okay with that.

My arm being normal was proof enough of that. The Gae Bolg hadn't punished me for lack of commitment. If anything it had rewarded me by unleashing its true form.

"Izuku?" My dad prods "You there?"

Right, how was I feeling? What were you supposed to feel after murdering a man? As much as Shigaraki might have 'needed killing' as old Bratwurst Westerns liked to say. I couldn't ignore how it felt like a murder to me. There was no chance at all for Shigaraki to survive, people don't just walk off their heart being turned into a pincushion. There had been no calls to surrender, no chance for him to repent. Just a weighted judgment, that he had to die, and I wanted him dead so badly that a magical blood-lusting cursed artefact had responded.

"I don't know," I finally answered. "I….it was pretty rough there."

Dad took a deep breath.
"They're talking about it on the news even here."

"It is pretty big," I said. "Hasn't been a hero school attack in twenty years."

"They even say someone died…" Dad said. "I hope you didn't have to see that"

I went silent. My grip trembled, see that?
I caused that.
The thought ran through my head 'your son is a murderer dad, sorry to tell you but as a consolation prize, you get to pretend it wasn't your fault. Because it wasn't'. That my mind was being an asshole didn't help the feeling of numb…emptiness. Numb, yeah that was a good word

"Izuku?" My dad's worried voice carried over. I faintly heard the sound of an engine shutting off. "What's wrong?"

"...It was me," I whispered, almost too quiet for the phone to pick up. "I'm the reason someone died."

"Oh" it was soft like I had punched him in the gut. "I…Oh, Izuku. What happened?"

What had happened? I had thrown a spear and killed a man. I didn't want to say that though, even if it was the truth.
"I…stopped a villain. It…it wasn't something I could do clean"

There's a long silence on the other end. I've never asked Dad what he felt in that moment. Not sure I want to know to be honest.

"That's uh, well, that's um…fuck. That's uh" Dad went on like that for a while before he could finally put a sentence together. "Listen, I and your mom still love you, nothing you do changes that, okay?

"Okay," I said in a dulled tone. "I just…feel like I lost something"

"You should talk to your mother and someone. I…I don't know how to help you Izuku. I wish I did." Dad said his voice filled with something. "But, we'll get through this, it'll be alright. Do you need me to come home?"

I thought about it for a moment. Did I need him to? No, not really, did I want him to? No, not really. It was better if he could pretend that I was still 'Sport' his son he used to carry on his shoulders.
"No, it's okay."

"Let me talk to your mom. I love you." Dad said.

"Bye Dad, love you too." I handed the phone back.

Cu Chulainn's voice was a mixture of disdain and concern.
"You're kind of beaten up about this huh kid?"

<I just murdered a man. I…fuck, I said I'd be the kind of hero who saves everyone and at the first chance, I throw that away and destroy a man's heart.> I snarled in my head.

"You killed a man who was about to murder your best friend," Cu Chulainn said trying and failing to hide his annoyance. "I've told you before, Heroes fight and people die, that's just how it is. I get that it's your first…but it's a lot better than most get."

My fist clenched, Cu Chulainn had his point of view, it is one I had rejected as being from a more brutal, uncivilized time, and yet...
<It's not supposed to be. I'm supposed to be better than that. Use the one fucking thing that's mine, my brain, to find a better solution>

Cu Chulainn's exasperation hadn't relented.
"You saw that teleporting fuck. You didn't have time to make a rune circle. You did the right thing. Even if it doesn't feel like it."

"The fuck I did" I almost shouted. "What kind of hero just gives up like that?

"I'm going to have to call you back. Izuku?" Mom looked at me with wide green eyes as she closed the phone… "What are you and Cu Chulainn talking about?

I looked away.
"...What I did at the USJ. I murdered a man."

"You killed a man," Cu Chulainn said his cold disdain becoming hot. "He put his life on the line and lost. That's on him, not you."

"Cu Chulainn thinks it's not a big deal, that he deserved it. While I'm…fuck, I'm not sure how I feel. Bad I guess." I said.

"I see." Mom reached out and took my head. "You're not wrong to feel that way. You've always cared so much. It's why I think you wanted to be a hero honestly. To save people, but you're one of those people who need to be saved too, and you *did that*."

"Mom…" I whispered as I looked at her.

"You would never murder anyone" Her eyes looked at mine with fierce determination. "And you would never *kill* anyone if you had any choice"

"What if I do?" I asked. "What if…I kill someone again? What if I murder someone because it's fucking easier than coming up with a solution?"

"You're not a murderer" came in stereo from Mom and Cu Chulainn.

They both continued in parallel.
"A murder is done in secret because you can't fight in the open." Cu Chulainn said.

"A murder would be killing someone because you felt like it. Not because you felt you had to" Mom added.

"You had only one choice, and you made the right one."

"I don't know why you chose what you did. But I know you Izuku; I know that you would only have done that to save someone else" Mom finished.

My face remained in a frown. "He had no chance, no way to defend himself."

Cu Chulainn snorted.
"Kid, how was your princess going to defend herself?"

"I am sure that a villain attacking the USJ stacked the deck," Mom added. "They would have done everything they could to win. That you could stop that, doesn't mean they didn't defend themselves."

Their words made sense, but it didn't help the gnawing numbness inside me. I had lost something, call it the last bit of innocence if you want to be gothic about it.
"But I…"

"But nothing." Mom said. "I can't understand how you feel, I do understand that you need to be told that you are still good, and we still love you."

"...what she said except the love you part" Cu Chulainn added in.

<Fuck you too> I said dryly.

The door opened and a doctor came in, an older woman whose head was that of a butterfly. You know I'm really glad I don't have any animal-based phobias because walking into someone with a head like that must be hell.

"Mr. Midoriya?" The woman said. "I'm Doctor Akutami, it's good to have you back with us. If you'll let me do a quick examination we'll see how much longer you need to stay."

I nodded as she walked in and began to look me over. Mom gave me a smile. I still felt like shit inside…but I was having trouble arguing their words even in my own head.

----------------------------

The tests had gone well, remarkable even according to Akutami. All things being equal they just wanted to wait for the bloodwork to come back before they let me go. The latest I could expect to be out was the afternoon.

While I waited for that Mom went off to eat a proper meal for the first time in days. It was hospital food, but it was better than living on granola bars and whatever the hell was in R-Juice. I looked at the dull white walls of the hospital and wondered if the beds were intentionally uncomfortable so people would be motivated to leave.

The door opened and I turned my head to see someone I didn't want to see. Nobukazu gave me one of his empty smiles as he gave a greeting.
"Mr. Midoriya, I'm glad to see you're awake."

"What the fuck does he want?" Cu Chulainn hissed.

I frowned, the obvious answer was…the whole killing Shigaraki thing.

"Nobukazu," I said resisting the urge to curse. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again."

The man adjusted his tie. "Neither did I, but you've been quite…productive on reasons why the Public Relations Department needs to work."

My arms folded across my chest.
"I didn't ask for the attack."

"Of course not. However, Mr. Midoriya, the attack happened and you were rather active within it." The man walked into my room and closed the door.

"What do you want?" I raised my eyebrow. "Even by the strictest interpretation of the anti-vigilante laws, I'm in the clear for using my quirk to fight."

Nobukazu pulled up a chair and sat. "Oh, I don't particularly care about that. What we're here to do is to ensure our narratives align. To do that, I need to know what happened from your point of view Mr. Midoriya."

"Narratives?" My head tilted. "Villains attacked us, we fought them off, I got teleported into a kill trap set for Todoroki, I beat them."

"Quite brutally, it seems. Several of them are never going to walk again," Nobukazu interjected dryly.

"I beat them," I said my fist tightening again. "And saw their leader, Shigaraki Tomura holding my best friend hostage"

Nobukazu nodded. "At which point the other eyewitnesses agree you threw a spear and through an improbable series of events, killed the now-named Shigaraki Tomura."

"Wait you guys didn't know his name?" I asked.

"DNA tests suggested his name was Tenko Shimura. However, that does raise a question about how you met him."

Cu Chulainn snorted.
"He's going to hold this over your head you know that right?"

<Yeah, but I don't know how to lie>

"Fuck, so that's what it feels like." Cu Chulainn cursed for some reason.

"I met him before the attack in Le Blanc's, the coffee shop just off campus," I said. "We talked, exchanged names. I thought he was casing the shop, but the barista said things were okay."

"Interesting. If the Barista confirms your story then we have several things to take UA to task over." Nobukazu says. "But that's not what we're here for. You are one of the most promising students in the first year. To have your career…marred, so to speak, by even manslaughter would be unfortunate."

I growled. "What do you mean?"

"Only the obvious" Nobukazu said with an almost predatory tone. "Society at large needs its paragons. You will serve better than the other hopefuls in your class. So we will help you. The death you caused will be ruled accidental. A tragedy to be sure, but not one you had any hand in. The increase in violence as you returned to the plaza was the unfortunate result of those villains over-exerting themselves."

Blood pounded in my ears. A lie. They wanted to lie and pretend that somehow throwing a spear with the intent to kill wasn't a problem. To pretend that I hadn't ruined lives as I walked back in a blood haze.

It was wrong.

"I don't want your help," I said. "I don't want to…whatever the hell this is. I hurt those people, I killed Shigaraki. I won't run from that."

"Do not let your antipathy towards me or my methods jeopardize your future Mr. Midoriya" He adjusts his tie again. "You want to be a hero. We want to help you be a hero. However, that help only lasts as long as you are compliant."

"Tch…I hate guys like this" Cu Chulainn spat.

'As long as I remained compliant' meant that if I ever stopped complying they could manufacture a reason to redo the records, assuming they didn't just try to kill me or something.

"Is this really what the Committee is about? Strong arming hospitalised teenagers into going along with coverups?" I demanded.

Nobukazu rolled his eyes. "The Committee is for the preservation of society. To let all those people out there sleep soundly at night knowing their heroes, their government will keep them safe. If we have to break a few eggs, then we will break them. You should be grateful that your potential warrants this much. If Miss Kendo were in your position I wouldn't be here, and neither would she."

"You leave her alone!" The words snapped out before I could think.

"Of course." Nobukazu's hands came up in a placating gesture. It was as slimy as his empty smile. "Do keep in mind Mr. Midoriya, that it's your future you can choose to ruin or not. I am merely the messenger."

"...Get the fuck out." I snarled.

"I would work on that language," Nobukazu said. "But as you wish." He rose and gave me one final look.

"The narrative I gave, I would hold to it Mr. Midoriya. I hope we can have a more…congenial relationship in the future."


With that, he walked out of the room.

Cu Chulainn grunted.
"Fuck that guy. You sure you don't wanna go burn down a tower or two? Doesn't have to be a tower."

I stared down at my white-knuckled fist.
"No…I just…want to really deck that guy in the face."

"Won't hear me telling you not to" Cu Chulainn said dryly.

If Cu Chulainn thought it was a good idea, it usually was in the strict 'get things done' sense. But not in the 'is it actually a good idea sense'

"...Which is why I'm having second thoughts," I admitted.

"Fuck you," Cu Chulainn said with surprising calm.

I sighed and fell back on my bed.
"Fair, I guess I want to know why they're leaning so heavy on me. They didn't have to tell me anything. To let me know they had leverage."

"So you know who holds your chain." Cu Chulainn said. "They want you to be a good dog and come when they call."

"They did say I have potential…what do you think that meant?" I wondered aloud.

"Kid, you aren't this dumb." Cu Chulainn said tiredly. "The only ones in your class that really matter for being a champion are Peppermint and Small Fry. They want you to be one of their mascots when All Might buys it."

It made no sense, but wasn't that what Hawks was for? But then, Heroism wasn't exactly a casualty-free profession, even the third top-ranked hero could die. But, still, I couldn't be a champion, I was just…Izuku. Even if they did for some insane reason want me to fill in that role, why go out of their way to piss me off? I thought about it for a few minutes. Hawks was a pilot project and had done amazingly well, but they had already begun bringing other people with strong quirks at a young age that were…available. Hawks was an orphan. I wasn't, and my 'quirk' hadn't been registered until three years ago. They were taking every chance to get leverage on me. Trusting that I was too much of a good person to snap and begin tearing up HSPC headquarters. And if I did snap, well they had enough now to just declare me a villain and sweep me under the rug.

""Fuck…" I swore.

"You're going to fight them right?" Cu Chulainn asked. "You won't let them just use you?"

I think I must have still been out of it then. My thoughts didn't go to my usual refrain of 'not everyone in the Commission is terrible' or anything like that.
Instead all I could say:
"When I get the chance. I'm taking the whole damn thing down."

"Heh, we'll make an Irishman out of you yet." Cu Chulainn said.

-----------------------------

It had been two days since I was released and UA was still closed while they came up with a way to stop a teleportation quirk. I don't know how they did that, I've asked and I lost track of the conversation when they began with 'do you know how quantum instertational dynamics work?'

No, I don't know what that means either. They thought I did for some reason, and that was a very confusing hour. At least they had coffee I suppose.

I stood at the entrance to Takoba beach. The place hadn't gotten any cleaner since December. There was a new car though. I didn't actually want to go down there, so instead, I just leaned on the railing and looked out at the ocean. The house had become oppressive, Mom didn't know how to comfort me, and I didn't know how to be comforted.

Shigaraki…no Shimura. Shimura had died at my hand and whatever lies Nobukazu cooked up, and everyone else believed I couldn't ignore the fact that I had killed him. It felt hollow. I didn't want to kill him. For the longest time, I hadn't thought I could kill anyone. The Exam had only proven that.

Then in one horrible afternoon, I had been proven wrong. I could kill, and what was worse was how easy it was. I had hesitated only for a moment, and then found…found a lot of hate a lot of anger, a lot of ability to just kill a man.

"You gonna stare at the ocean forever kid?" Cu Chulainn drawled.

I shrugged. <Maybe, wanted out of the house.>

"Should go visit Princess." Cu Chulainn said, "if you don't wanna talk on the phone."

A low blow, but it was true, I hadn't turned my phone on since I got out of the hospital. I didn't want to see their worry, their disappointment, their fear. I might have deserved the last two, but the worry? No, I didn't deserve that.

<She's probably scared of me.> I said. <I would be if someone murdered a guy for me.>

Cu Chulainn snorted.
"Yeah, but you're a bitch"

<I'm just not ready…>

"Young Midoriya" a voice called from behind me.

I turned around to see….All Might in casual clothes, brown khaki pants, and a hoodie that covered his hair. How did someone that huge manage to be so stealthy? I hadn't heard anything.

"Al-All Might wh-what are you doing here?" I stammered out the question.

"You haven't booked your mandated session with Hound Dog, young Midoriya."

Right, I remembered Mom had told me about that, but I had brushed it off. It wasn't like I could admit what I had done, not really. Not without revealing magic.

"Others need it more," I said. "I'm fine."

All Might moved around to lean on the railing with me. It was a testament to the metal that I only heard a slight creak. "I think we both know that isn't true"

It was weird not to hear him boom. I shook my head, of course, he wouldn't not if he didn't want to be mobbed by fans.

"Uh…that um…" I was as eloquent as ever. Which is to say not at all.

"Per our own guidelines, you need to touch base with at least one teacher before we let you go back to class. Since you seem not to want to go to therapy I volunteered."

"Why?" I asked. "Why would you? You fought that Nomu, and you should be resting."

"That thing?" He gave a hearty chuckle. "No need to worry, he was tough, but I'm tougher. Besides…on your hero essay, you said that you looked up to me the most."

I shrunk and looked down at my feet.
"Yeah…the hero who saves everyone with a smile on his face."

"A smile yes, but I have not saved everyone young Midoriya." All Might said, his gaze fixed on the blue ocean waters.

My head snapped up in question.

All Might glanced down at me.
"Even I have unfortunately been in this situation where I took a life. It is something every Hero eventually faces. We should strive to save everyone. I truly believe that. However, only a god could actually do that. You should not let this stop you."

My hand clenched and unclenched in front of me.
"I…feel like I murdered him. A man is dead because of me."

A large hand came down on my shoulder. "Young Midoriya I know it doesn't feel like it right now, but it's not your fault that young man died. It was a tragic situation, and if anyone is to blame for what happened, it is us, your teachers. We should have never allowed you to be in that position. I know you would never knowingly try to kill anyone. Everything I've seen says you are too fine a young man for that"

His words meant well they really did, he wanted to reassure me. To tell me that it was okay, that I wasn't any less of a hero in his eyes, and that he believed in me. Yet, his words did nothing of the sort. Because I had willingly killed him.

"How--how do you know that?" The words were rough almost a whisper.

"No one who takes such good care of his partner like you did in the Battle Trial is someone who is a killer at their core." All Might said confidently. "I don't know you as well as I would like Young Midoriya, but I do think you will be a fine hero."
What could I say to that?

What can you say when the man you idolize unreservedly believes in you and you don't deserve it?

"...Thanks" I got out half choked.

He patted my back. "There, there my boy. It's okay, it's going to be okay."

No, it wasn't I felt my tears fall out. "W-wh-what if I kill on purpose…intend to…am I a hero then? I-"

"You're scared that since you did it once, you might again?" All Might asked.

I didn't trust myself to answer and instead rubbed my face. I needed to hear it, I needed to hear that even if I had willingly killed Shimura, I could still be a hero.

So he continued.
"I know you wouldn't. You aren't someone I think who is a killer. I would never let a killer continue to be a hero. My judgment of you is that you are a hero, a great one in the making. You didn't kill willingly, you made the best of a bad situation, and for that, I do apologize young Midoriya."

"....Fuck." Cu Chulainn said, for once not being an ass.

"I--I---see…" I managed to say between the tears.

All Might gave me a hug, I had dreamt since I was a small child of being hugged by All Might.

It felt like ash in my soul.

"It'll be okay my boy, trust me." All Might said in a soothing tone.

Cu Chulainn sighed.
"Tell him you need to be alone right now. You'll see Hound Dog soon"

"I…thank you…I just need to be alone…I-I-I'll book an appointment"

All Might let go of the hug and stepped back.
"Are you sure young man? I am busy but I can make a few more minutes for you"

"Y-yeah" I rubbed my eyes.

All Might gave me a thumbs up.
"I will see you in class then Young Midoriya. Please, don't hesitate to reach out if you need help."

The most I could manage was a shaky nod to him.

I watched him go for a long time it felt like before I went down to the beach and just collapsed.

All Might thought I couldn't be a hero.

I had no idea what to do about that.

-----------

The sun was beginning to set by the time I picked enough of myself up in order to begin the walk home. It had been, a day to say the least. My hero, my idol all but said that a killer like me couldn't be a hero.

I didn't want to be anything else. I never had since I was four years old. Most kids they have big dreams like that. I want to be an astronaut or a fireman, or a doctor. Then they get older and find out that those childhood dreams didn't actually live up to what they wanted to do now. So they move on and find new dreams.

Cu Chulainn had been silent while I just sat there on the beach. Either he didn't have anything to say, or just realized I wouldn't listen to him right then. Either way I was thankful for the silence as my feet hit hard pavement and the clouds overhead promised rain.

A car I didn't recognize was parked outside of our apartment. A black SUV that screamed *I buy this because you can't.* At a glance it reminded me of that HSPC vehicle I had been picked up in not so long ago.

"Nope, not dealing with that." I said. "I cannot deal with Nobukazu right now."

"You could, a punch to the face solves a lot of problems" Cu Chulainn answered.

"See that's why I can't because breaking him and his stupid SUV sounds like a real good idea right now."

"Well, you can't live in the wild." Cu Chulainn said a little sad. "Not like there are any boars to hunt and eat anymore."

"That you think I would says a lot." I retorted tersely. "I would never let a killer become a hero"

Without words I spun on my heel and walked well I wasn't sure where I was going right then.

"You know that's bullshit right?" Cu Chulainn asked. "Heroes kill, if we weren't killers we'd be doctors or something."

"Like you would know," I growled. "You probably danced when you killed the first time."

"Maybe" Cu Chulainn agrees. "I don't really remember it."

"Huh?"
Cu Chulainn was distant as he spoke as if he was still on some Irish field far away.
"I was younger than you are when I first killed three men. Fannell, Foll, and Tuchall, the sons of Nechtan Scéne. The woman herself was supposed to be a chieftess of great power who protected her sons even after she died. They bragged about the murders they had done in secret against the men of Ulster. Of how they snuck into holds and slaughtered families and then ran, hiding behind their mother's power to get away with it. They insulted my teachers, my family, sure that I wouldn't do a thing."

A snort from the man. "I was so angry, I took the Spear of Del Chiss, Fannell's own spear, and slew them with it. Losing myself in the ríastrad I kept killing and killing until I made my way back to Ulster where I would have kept killing if not for the quick thinking of Lady Mugain. Even then I had a weakness for women; she and the other women of Ulster bared their breasts…and that distracted me long enough for me to cool down."

"But you don't remember killing those three really?" I asked, the memory of Shigaraki clutching at his chest would stay with me for life.

"Flashes. Tuchall screaming, Foll scrambling, but no not really." Cu Chulainn answered. "I've found the men mostly die the same anyways. The good ones don't let out a sound, the cowards scream for someone to save them, and the arrogant don't quite believe it."

"I don't have this ríastrad though," I mused to myself. "So it wasn't even me being too angry to think straight."

Cu Chulainn half-shouted in exasperation.
"Nuada's Silver Hand, kid how long are you going to beat yourself up over this?"

"Dunno" I shrugged. "I know no one else but me thinks I did anything wrong…but…fuck, shouldn't I be remorseful for killing a man?"

"Why?" Cu Chulainn's one-word question brought me up short.

"Because murder is wrong?" I offered.

Cu Chulainn sighed.
"Murder is wrong. Murder is sneaking into a man's home and killing them without giving them a choice in the matter. What you did isn't murder. It's killing, but it's not murder."

"It feels like murder," I said.

Cu Chulainn seemed to stop for a moment.
"Hold up. I hear steps."

I stopped and cocked my head, I heard it too, the footsteps of someone running towards me. Who would be running toward? The thought died as I turned to see Momo running pell-mell towards me. A simple red blouse contrasted with black dress pants and a silver scarf around her neck.

"What the-?" Was my eloquent thought as she caught up and slammed into me.

Momo's arms wrapped around me like a vice, could I break out of it? Yes. Did I want to? No. Instead, my own arms came around to hold her in turn as she said something too fast for me to understand.

Gently I asked.
"Momo?"

She looked up at me unshed tears dimmed her dark eyes, usually so bright. I felt like a monster for being the cause of this. Well, I thought I was the cause of this, but I wasn't sure.

Her fingers tightened around the fabric of my shirt as she glared at me.
"Stop running away."

"I…" My voice failed me as I didn't know what to say.

"You have been out of the hospital for three days. Three days without a phone call, a text, or anything!" Momo shouts in my face. "Do you hate us now? Are you going to leave us? I don't know, we don't know…" she closed her eyes and her voice became soft. "Don't know what we did to make you avoid us. But we're sorry."

My own hand moved on its own to hold Momo's cheek. I might be a killer who didn't *deserve* to be a hero. But, I had to fix this now.
"You have nothing to be sorry about"

Momo nuzzled into my hand for a moment before she pulled back. "Then why, why are you running from us? Why are you running from me?"

"Because I thought it was someone else's car," I said. "Someone, I can't handle right now…I didn't know it was yours.

She swallowed and took my hand in hers. "I see"
Then Momo crushed my hand not on purpose just to let out her worry. At least I hope it wasn't on purpose. "That doesn't explain the phone though. Did you have any idea how worried we were? How worried we are still?"

I looked away at an interesting weed that had pushed up through the concrete.
"No, that didn't seem important? I just…"

Had run because I didn't want more people telling me it was okay that I had made a heart disappear like a cheap magic trick. Or worse, people telling me it wasn't okay.

"Just what?" Momo asked softly, her thumb moved over the back of my hand as she stopped squeezing it.

For a minute I couldn't answer, "Was scared. Scared that you would either tell me it was okay, or that it wasn't okay. I murdered someone Momo….I didn't want to see how that changed things."

Momo lets out a soft "Oh" and we just stayed like that for a moment.

"How'd you find me anyways? I didn't think I told you where I lived…" I asked.

"Dorm RA's like myself have the contact information for all the student's emergency contacts. From that it was easy" Momo said. "Izuku, do you blame me for what happened?"

I shook my head. "No…if anything I wonder if you hate me. I mean…I did kill someone."

"No." Momo said. "I…it was a shock, I spent, goodness quite a few hours scrubbing myself clean, I can still feel his blood…" she shook herself. "But, I don't hate you for that."

I glanced towards an apartment building. It didn't seem real to me, it couldn't be. I had killed someone, I had given up at the first sign of trouble. "Even though, I went back on my word…on what I just said that morning?"

"Miss Kayama told us that while we might start with whatever positions, we would likely change them as we got more experience and understanding. That was why it was important to figure out where we *are* so we don't lose track of ourselves." Momo answered.

"That doesn't mean…" I began.

Only to be cut off by Momo.
"Do you know how we found you?"

"Huh?" I grunted with the elegance of Cu Chulainn.

"We found you face down on the ground. Your arm bent at an unnatural angle, your back cut up with knife leaves. There was, there was a lot of blood." Momo's voice trembled. "I thought you were dead. Until Kyoka told me your heart was still beating."

"Momo, I…" Words failed me. How do you tell someone 'sorry about looking dead didn't mean to be a bother'?

"At that moment, I couldn't care less that you killed someone. All I wanted was for you to come back to us." Momo said her voice thick with emotion. "I never want to lose you, call me selfish or what have you, but I would make the same choice you did. I would choose your life over someone else's. You're not a murderer, you never could be."

The words so like All Might's felt bitter to hear. I swallowed down my reflexive denial, that wasn't what Momo needed right now. I could break down some more later.

Instead, I gave her a head pat and deflected.
"You won't, lose me I mean. Um, what happened anyways?"

"Well…" Momo looked down. "When you were kidnapped and that threw us all out of our rhythm. You had been so confident, so…strong I suppose that we believed we could win because you believed we could win. Mina was the one who rallied us then, I was too busy trying to shoot that blasted teleporter in his face."

A frustrated snarl crosses her gorgeous figures. "I couldn't, even when I started using dragonbreath rounds and other esoteric ammunition, he just kept teleporting out of the way. I even figured out it was his brace that was the problem. Projectiles just didn't work, and we didn't want to come near him though, because that's how he teleported you."

"Yeah, I don't think he actually needs to be near you." I rubbed the back of my head with my free hand. "Should probably have mentioned it…sorry."

A flicker of amusement in Momo's eyes died too quickly. "You believed you could beat him, we all did. Our own assumption was proven wrong just as Todoroki finished breaking through the door. The man opened up portals for all of us. I remember vividly Bakugo using his explosions to avoid the one under him, and Tenya all but throwing Toru out to get help. He succeeded, but we were brought to the plaza."

"Where you guys were already exhausted and disoriented," I said. "I was too for a moment, that's when my arm got broken."

"We were fortunate not to have that happen to us." Momo's fist balled in her hand "But we were thrown off balance, and worse our teachers were as well. Their leader took advantage of it, I'd never seen someone move that fast besides you. He broke the formation we had with a series of kicks, one at me, Kyoka, Ochako and Todoroki. Which let the other villains pile in. We fought for our lives, I know we did…but it still feels like we were being toyed with! He kept saying we were mobs….whatever that means."

I watched her hand tremble, whether in anger or remember fright I didn't know.
"But, what about Aizawa and Thirteen?"

"He used us as *bait*. Aizawa, he tried to get to us, he tried so hard, and each time that teleporter made him suffer for it. Thirteen was the same, we would be set up to die and they had to save us, and then they would be *punished* no matter how much we told them we were fine."

"Were you fine?" I asked. I didn't sound find.

"Not at all…but none of us wanted to be the reason our teacher died." Momo answered. "Then, well Todoroki finally got room to try his signature technique."
Signature technique…I'd only ever experienced Shoto's fighting style once at that point. It was pretty brute force. Ice, ice, and if that don't work, more ice.
"Freeze 'em all and let Buddha sort it out?"

"Precisely, and I think he was waiting for that. The leader…because even as Todoroki launched, he moved…behind me. I tried to hit him, but he just moved his head before he kneed me in the gut. By the time I got my bearings back he had his hand around my neck." Momo touched her scarf.

"Oh," I said softly echoing her from before. "Then he used you to get the others to back off?"

"More or less…I felt so helpless" Momo's hand balled into a fist. "Three years of training and I became nothing more than a damsel."

"Momo…" I wanted to reassure her. That Shigaraki was someone made for fighting in a way that she just wasn't. But her angry stare told me to shut up so I did.

"Worse. I hurt you because of it" She finishes.

I blinked at the whiplash.
"Huh?"

"I hurt you, I made you feel like a murderer because I couldn't take care of myself," Momo said.

"That's ridiculous. I made a choice to kill Shigaraki." I snapped. "I made that choice with my own two hands, and I'd do it aga---in"

Momo's other hand went to her mouth. She didn't seem to know how to process that her best friend was ready to kill for her sake. I didn't know how to process it.

<Is that…Is that what's been bothering me?>

"I mean, I'm not a doctor let alone a head doctor. But probably. You and I both know how the Gae Bolg works. Worse since it's in its true form, you figured out that you were willing to kill again." Cu Chulainn answered.

All Might's words echoed in my head.
My own answered them.

I was willing to kill to protect someone, a killer wasn't someone All Might would allow to be a hero. Momo must feel the same, I waited to hear the words of disgust, of her realizing that I was not someone she should be friends with. To lose her really.

What I didn't expect was for her to wrap me in a hug again.
"Oh Izuku…" she cooed gently. "I'm so sorry…"

"M-m-Momo?" I stuttered.

"I'm sorry you had to make that choice, sorry that you feel like a murderer because of that. Sorry that you felt so alone….sorry that I just ambushed you like this" Momo answers.

"I…don't you?" I couldn't finish the question.

"No," Momo said answering it anyways. "I…it isn't what I expected from you. But I can't look at my best friend who feels so guilty he couldn't find a way to save both my life and my captors and see someone I should abandon. I told you, I never want to lose you."

"You've lost me." I said. "I killed for you, doesn't that scare you?"

"A little," Momo admits. "However, what sort of person just abandons their best friend out of fear?"

"A smart one?" I half answered, half asked.

"But not a real one" she said. Momo rested her head on my shoulder. "I promised myself not to abandon you, or let you abandon me."

"Oh…" I said. "I don't know if I'm still going to be a hero Momo."

"Of course you are," Momo said with such utter conviction that I couldn't refute her. "Because Izuku Midoriya is the man who saved *me* and that's what heroes do."

My own words used against me, I couldn't say anything to that. So I stood there and just held her for a while. It felt nice.

"Let's go back to your home Izuku" Momo said finally. "It's getting cold."

----------------------
AN: As promised here is last week's chapter this week. I'm feeling a lot better now. A lot of things coming together for this chapter. We should be heading into Sports fest in one or two more chapters after this. Once again thanks to Slamu for helping me with both editing, and pre reading this chapter.

 

[gman391]

Momo adjusted her scarf as we walked back to my house. Despite myself, I couldn't stop looking at it every few minutes. Underneath was where Shigaraki had begun to kill her, underneath was the reason why I put a spear through his chest. It was only natural to wonder about it, I told myself.

"You know Izuku," Momo's voice was tired. "If you want to see how hideous I am now, you can just ask."

Old memes will have some poor schmuck minding his own business right before he gets hit by a train. I felt like that schmuck.
So I think I can be forgiven that my response was "What? I? What?"

The scarf came loose and I saw the patchwork of decayed skin spiderwebbing its way across her neck out from ugly dimples the size of fingerprints. The green-grey flesh cracked and broke out into what looked like broken patches of mud on human form.

"Quite hideous as you can see," Momo said as she put the scarf back on.

"I…no, just," I grasped for the right words. "Are you okay?"

A long level stare at me from onyx black irises. Right, I thought to myself. Stupid question.
"Sorry, I mean, does it hurt?"

"Not too bad. Nothing Tylonel-Ones can't handle before I go in for surgery again." Momo said. "Have to clean it pretty regularly. And it's…distracting to look at, to say the least."

I frowned at how blase she was about it. While Tylenol-Ones weren't the most powerful of painkillers, a mixture of acetaminophen(Tylenol) codeine and caffeine, they weren't things they handed out like candy either. Also Surgery?
"Again? How many surgeries have you had Momo?"

"One so far, looking to be three." Momo rubbed her hands together. "Father doesn't want his precious little girl looking ugly at all. The first was to cut out the failed healing. The second will be to be implanting new skin and the last will be clean up."

Failed healing? My eyebrows rose in concern.

There was a wan smile from Momo. "Recovery Girl hoped that I had enough skin layers left that accelerated healing from her would be enough to help. It turns out that I did not in fact have enough left and it made a mess of things."

"You are surprisingly okay with this." I said as I placed my hand on her shoulder.

"I'm not." Her hand came up to hold my own. "However…" she trailed off. "I don't want to be a further burden, so I won't complain."

Cu Chulainn gave a snort.
"Fucking hell, no wonder you two get along"

<I'm not like that at all. I can take it so why shouldn't I?> I retorted.

The sound of a hand hitting a forehead echoed, but he didn't respond. So instead I focused back on Momo.

"Friends sharing stuff is what we're supposed to do right?" I asked.

She thought about that for a moment. "I suppose, but you're already…never mind. Besides, it is getting fixed"

I lowered my hand as we started to walk again. I don't remember stopping but we must have.
"Doesn't really matter" I said. "I'm glad it's getting fixed, but it's hurting you now."

A low hum from Momo as she waited to see where I went with this. Unfortunately for us both, I had no idea where I was going with this. So instead of something helpful, I said something embarrassing.

"For what it's worth. I still think you're pretty."

Red blossomed on her face as my own began to burn. What the fuck was that? I demanded my brain give answers. It just gave me a dial tone. She was my best friend, she didn't want to be hit on by me no one did.

"T-thank you Izuku," Momo said and walked in front of me.

I let her, not sure how to salvage this at all. The awkward silence lingered as we turned the block to my apartment. Outside standing in the front of the SUV was a tall white-haired woman with piercing red eyes and a physique that made me think she could snap trees in half. Her uniform said business, but her eyes said that business probably included murder.

We approached, and she glared at me as if trying to figure out how good of a javelin I would make.

"Erika?" Momo said. "I thought you were waiting with Mrs. Midoriya?"

In an accent, I couldn't place the amazonian woman answered.
"Your father called, and when you ran off you left this."

She held out a phone that looked to be a high-end custom-built thing where the price was 'yes'.
My family computer was probably less powerful. No, scratch that, it definitely was.

"Apologies Erika." Momo said with a slight bow. "What did Father require?"

"He wants you to come home. He managed to convince Doctor Laghari that he didn't need to be at his sister's wedding and they're doing the operation tonight," Erika answered.

"I…I told him it could wait." Momo frowned. "How soon?"

Erika's so far stoneface demeanour changed to a smirk.
"I get to use the nitrous."

"Oh dear," Momo said. "Well, as much I wish I could stay Izuku, I have to leave now. Before you go this is Erika Shiawase, a Personal Assistant for my father."

"If she's just an assistant, then I'm just incredibly good-looking," Cu Chulainn said.

<Was wondering when you were going to tell me to hit on her.> I drawled with sarcasm.

"What?" Cu Chulainn scoffed. "You don't hit on the bodyguard while the princess is there, what are you even learning from me?"

I decided not to needle him more.
<No comment.>

"Asshole, besides she looks like the woman where you need to kick some ass before she looks at you." Cu Chulainn finished.

"Nice to meet you." I said. "I'm Izuku Midoriya, her classmate."

Momo glared at me for some reason. Right, we were friends, I realized that I should have introduced myself that way. I wasn't quite used to that idea yet, but it was probably why she was glaring at me.

Exasperated, she said.
"He's my friend."

Erika looked me over. "I see, a friend. Hopefully we will see each other in better circumstances. Have a good evening."

With that, she hustled Momo into the SUV who waved goodbye to me.

I wonder sometimes if I had failed some test in that moment. That if I had said something else Erika wouldn't have later tried to kill me. I like to think we might have been friends, sorry, getting ahead of myself.

-------------

I came back inside and turned on my phone for the first time in four days, and the poor thing nearly exploded with an incoming storm of texts. Most of them were from Momo but there were a few from everyone. Most of them asked me if I was okay, some just told me that I was going to be okay or else, and others were just well wishes. I slowly answered all of them, as a heretic in the ways of the Japanese teenager I wasn't that fast at typing on a phone. Like I could do it, but it took me time. Went through them and did my best to answer before I came on the last one, from Tenya, informing me that we would be moving back into the Dorms on Sunday.

"Izuku," Mom called from the living room.

"Yeah?" I called back as I looked up from the screen.

A pause before she answered
"They're talking about the attack on Sky High Heroes, did you want to watch?"

SHH was a weekly program on the national television service that did a round-up of all the most important hero news for a week along with editorial debates. It had been one of my favourite programs, but I hadn't really been able to watch it in the Dorms.

Honestly, I wasn't sure if I wanted to see what they had to say about the incident. But I wanted to hear what they thought about the UA procedures to ensure it didn't happen again, so I closed my phone case and went into the living room.

Mom sat beside me on the couch and offered me a chip as an inane commercial for better eyelashes came to an end.

On-screen a handsome older man with dark hair spoke, Daiki Takada, once a sidekick of a pro hero himself, he had retired years ago. The official reason was to make sure he came back to his newly born son, gossip was that his wife threatened divorce if he didn't. He was a long mainstay of the program, along with his two guests: Emi Kawase a pretty woman who brought the 'official'' perspective to things, and Shunichiro Ikari a not-quite-as-handsome man with green hair and glasses, he was the designated devil's advocate.

With a perfect smile (Winner of best talk show host smile for five years running) Daiki began.
"Welcome back, I'm Daiki Takada, and with me as always are Emi Kawase and Shunichio Ikari, I hope you're doing well?"

Emi was bright and peppy.
"Super well Daiki, my sister sent me the cutest dog pictures today, and I got to hear a live performance in the subway by The Three Koto Group."

"Well my day isn't going quite as well," Shunichio said with a chuckle. "But I was able to catch a showing of that new American action movie, Rocky X: The Revenge of the Hulk. It was a real intense movie, but it didn't have any cute puppies."

"And we all know that movies should have cute puppies isn't that right Emi?" Daiki asked with a laugh.

"Of course!" Emi chirped. "They're adorable."

Daiki gave a wince. "Oh, my producer is telling me that we can't talk about cute puppies all day. So let's get down to business then. UA High after a tragic and just horrific attack is planning to reopen on Monday. Is it too soon? Do you think it's right to put the students back where they experienced such a trauma? Emi you go first."

"Thanks, Daiki. While I admit, I think those children could use more time," Emi said before she looked at the camera "The UA staff and Principle Nedzu have been working around the clock to make sure everything is safe. They even brought in the famed Teleportation Specialist Chandha Mehta to make sure. UA has made so many good heroes like All Might, Endeavour, and Triton. I think we can trust them."

"But, only two of those are in the top ten." Shunichio pointed out and adjusted his glasses. "Indeed this attack happened with All Might there. How can we be sure that the foolhardiness of villains won't happen even with precautions?"

A determined look on Emi's face.
"Because it's a one in a billion that can fight All Might, and All Might is still there, he'd never let anything actually happen to those students."

Shunichio waved a hand.
"Yet most of the students were injured, one of them even had to go to the hospital. If anything this proves that Koku Hanabata's questioning of the quirk laws was right."

Daiki raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow.
"A bold statement, the Hearts and Mind's party did make ground last election. But their radical platform for doing away with quirk licenses turned away most people. Why do you say that Shunichio?"

"If you look at the criminal reports for most of the villains who were actually *there*," Shunichio answered. "You see the same story played over and over, people who happened to use their quirk by accident, sometimes even to help people, and because they didn't have license they were put in jail. Then after they get out, they're villains and they have nowhere else to go. If our laws didn't create an underclass, then the leaders would have gotten nowhere."

Emi shook her head.
"But quirk regulation is there to protect us. My quirk is weak, all I can do is change the colour of my dress. But what about someone like now captured Hiro Yakisoba? His quirk can kill someone very easily, even by accident, and on purpose, it's only luck that a hero student was able to take him down."

A picture flashed on the screen of the lumberjack guy that I had injured badly. Why do they always pick the photo that makes you look like a crazy person?

"A child took down Hiro Yakisoba, he wasn't that much of a threat." Shunichio waved his hand.

"I feel like I've been insulted' Cu Chulainn growled.

There was nothing to say to that, I agreed with him.

"Okay, what about the villain Muscular?" Emi countered. He's a threat, and clearly, if he was just allowed to use his quirk, we wouldn't know about his rampage for years."

Shunichio swallowed. "Well, that may be, we don't know. For every Muscular, there are literally tens of thousands of people whose quirks aren't a danger and do no harm to anyone not even themselves. Why should we be forced to lock up a part of ourselves because of one bad actor?"

"I'm okay with locking up a part of myself if it saves human lives Shunichio." Emi said.

"Well, I don't know, you both make excellent points, although I do admit, I'd like to keep my own quirk out of use. Who ever heard of a Clown Anchorman?" Daiki chuckled. "However, we do have to move on to the second part of our program. Use of force, as you both know the students at UA were forced to defend themselves when attacked. And while we cannot expect such young students to do things as well as fully trained adult heroes. There have been a number of people who are of the opinion that students need more restraint training after images like these."

Another picture flashed of a woman I had stabbed and then thrown into a building. Then another of a man with extensive explosion marks. A third showed acid burns, and so on.

"What do you think, do you think UA still has what it takes to teach top heroes?" Daiki asked. "Shunichio you go first."

"Frankly, I think we should talk first about the dead man. While the police investigation has labelled it an accident" Shunichio adjusted his glasses. "Even accidental death means manslaughter should there be something done about that?"

"All the reports indicate that the nice young man was trying to save one of his classmates who was in the process of being murdered Shunichio," Emi said with some venom. "Yes of course it is a tragedy, and we never applaud a death. However, if a police officer shot a hostage-taker would you be upset?"

"No," Shunichio said too quickly. "But this wasn't a trained police officer, this was a child. Is he really fit to be a hero after that? Is he okay with who he is after that? And if he is should he still be a he--"

The TV shut off. I looked over and saw Mom's hand almost crack the remote.
"That utter bastard"

"Mom?" I stammered.

"How dare he say that you are not worth being a hero." Mom said as the remote cracked in her grip. "How dare he judge my son, when he wasn't there."

"Mom?"

She ignored me as she stood up.
"I am going to take those glasses and shove them into his eyeballs!"

"Mom!" I shouted.

Then she blinked and stopped for a moment.
"Oh…sorry…I just got so angry. First he says al that MLA nonsense, and then he goes after you?"

"Well, it is his job to be the bad guy…" I offered. "He probably doesn't mean anything by it."

"I don't care." Mom huffed. "He still said something wrong, you more than anyone I know should be a hero."

"Even Katsuki?" I asked.

Mom rolled her eyes.
"Yes even Katsuki, why is that even a question?"

Cu Chulainn laughed.
"She's right kid that was a stupid question."

<Shut up…> I mumbled.

In truth, Katsuki had always been praised that he was going to be a great hero, and declared he would be the new number one. I hadn't ever asked about whether my mom thought I would surpass him, because the question had never been about if I could be a better hero. But if I could.

I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly.
"Sorry…just used to everyone praising him is all"

"Mitsuki might hate me, but I always thought you would be a better hero than him even before your….change." Mom gave a shrug. "A hero should make you happy, Katsuki make you happy he left."

I smiled slightly.
"...Thanks, mom."

"Of course dear, now do you want to cut up some potatoes for me?" She asked.

With a nod I rose and went to the kitchen, I felt better even if some of the media was trying to crucify me. My friends believed in me, and my mom did, and that wasn't nothing.

---------------

"Dude, the way you came back? Manly as hell" Eijiro Kirishima slapped my back.

Hanta chimed in.
"Like wow, we had each other but you just fought through all of them, that's impressive!"

I looked around to the rest of the Dorm floor, there were some other students, but most were clustered around me, except for Koda who seemed to be scared of me, and Shoto who seemed to be judging me. It didn't feel right, I didn't deserve this, but what could I say? 'Please stop saying nice things because I straight up killed a guy and I'd do it again.'

"Shut the fuck up" Katsuki barked. "And move your damn ass Nerd."

Right, I remembered I had blocked the doorway. So I moved to the side, and let a Katsuki angrily stomp through.

Denki let out a whistle.
"Wow, you know I was rethinking you being a cool guy after everything, but holy shit dude."

"Fuck off Sparky!" Katsuki said as he looked back from the stairs. "The Goddamned Nerd didn't do anything impressive."

"Dude took out a zone of villains by himself," Denki said his eyes widened in something.

"And nearly fucking died. Shit's not impressive." Katsuki snarl-shouted.

"Didn't see you doing better." a female voice called out.
Kyoka stepped out of the kitchen with a melon soda.

Oh, sweet Morgan no.
Katsuki glared.
"The fuck you say Earlobes?"

"I said, I didn't see you doing better Bakugo." Kyoka said. "You had all of us watching your back, he didn't, and he was still the one that saved Momo."

It was surreal seeing someone else tell Bakugo off. More surreal that I didn't agree with her. While Katsuki and myself would never be close. I know that he would have come through that challenge as well as I did.

"Ease up guys." I found my voice. "Bakugo's right, it wasn't impressive, I nearly died…and I'm sure you all would have done just as well."

"FUCK OFF NERD!" Katsuki shouted before he stomped up the stairs.

"...The hell?" Denki spoke for all of us.

A deep sigh from Cu Chulainn.
"He's mad that you put the rest of the class at the same level as him when they haven't earned it idiot."

I asked.
<You speak Bakugo?>

A shrug.
"I speak Conall, it's basically the same thing."

<Who?>

Cu Chulainn chuckled.
"Irish Bakugo."

That wasn't a line of thought I wanted to pursue, so I decided instead to focus on the others.
"Sorry…he's uh prideful I guess? Works really hard to be the best."

"So what?" Kyoka asked. "Doesn't mean he has to be an asshole."

"I get it" Eijiro answered. "Baku-bro is…"

"The worst?" Hanta asked.

"Literally an explosion mixed with gym socks." Denki continued.

"Volatile." Tenya added, when had he got there?

"Yeah that," Eijiro put a smile on his face. "But he's like the kind of guy who you gotta earn respect from."

Kyoka took a sip of her drink.
"I hear you. But that doesn't make it okay."

"Regardless. We should let Midoriya get back to his room." Tenya said. "While what he did is impressive. I'm sure that he would rather not dwell too much on it. We have classes to prepare for tomorrow!"

"...Really dude?" Denki asked.

Tenya gave a painfully awkward thumbs up.
"Always time for revisions Kaminari"

He was buying time for me, a distraction. Tenya Iida might literally be part rule book, but he's not a bad guy.

I gave him a nod of thanks before I went to my room.

---------------

The dorm bed was its usual curious mix of both too soft in some places, but too hard in others as I laid down on it. Hands behind my head. I had to go out soon and interact some more, but still, it felt weird to see people looking up to me.

I had really thought they'd all look at me like a monster because I killed a guy. But it was like…they saw my strength and wanted to make excuses for what happened. That because my quirk was 'heroic' my actions had to be heroic.

Was this what happened to Katsuki all the time? I wondered absently. It'd explain a lot.

Although to be fair, Katsuki never killed anyone, at least I don't think he did. It wasn't like anyone in class besides Momo knew I had intentionally killed Shigaraki either.

There was a knock at the door.

"It's open," I said.
The door opened to reveal Kyoka and my friends from 1B.

Itsuka looked around and quipped.
"Huh, less All Might then I was expecting."

I sat up.
"Guys what are you doing here?"

Jurota adjusted his glasses.
"Really Izuku, did you think your compatriots would be content to wait until our morning coffee?"

"That's dumb," Pony chirped. "[Really dumb, you're our friend and ghosted us for four days, of course, we're going to check in on you]"

"What did we say about using English?" Itsuka lectured.

Pony pouted.
"To not do it outside of class, but easier!"

Rin gave a quiet wave
"How are you doing?"

"I…surprised, I guess?" I answered. "I didn't…"

Kyoka sat down beside me, while Jurota stole my chair, Pony and Itsuka sat on my desk and Rin took the window sill. It was crowded, but it also felt nice in a way as they looked at me.

"We were all kind of surprised when the school shut down," Itsuka said. "Worse when they told us what it was for."

Jurota gave a smile.
"Indeed, while I myself was not in particular wor---"

"Dude was fighting Momo to find the best docs for you," Kyoka said. "Which we're all glad for."

I think he blushed under his fur, it was hard to tell really. Side Mutations always made it harder to read people. The man looked away at the unoccupied corner.
"It was the least I could do, since none of us could be there for the actual fight."

Rin looked at the ceiling. "Neito's probably going to start something."

"He will do no such thing or I will turn him into mochi." Itsuka almost snarled.

"Murder is illegal Itsuka." Jurota said.

Far too innocent for the brutal words that came from her mouth, Pony asked. "Is Monoma human?"

"Yes…just a pain in my neck." Itsuka rubbed her neck. "But no Ibara and I will keep him in line."

Kyoka put a hand on my shoulder.
"Em, you said you were fine in your texts, but be honest with us okay? We're your friends"

Honesty huh. I looked down at my hands. Was I okay? I don't know if I was okay then, but they all looked at me with concern, Momo had looked at me with concern. I didn't want to lose them, telling the truth, would that be enough to drive them away? But if I lied to them and they would find out, and someday they would find out because I wasn't that great at lying to people. By omission, I could manage but actually saying 'The sky is kumquat of course' lying? No.
I hadn't even told Momo exactly what I did, only that I had intended to kill Shigaraki even if the actual method looked like some joke.

They were my friends, but we had only been together for a week and a half. Not even that with the break.

"I'm scared of losing you guys." Came out as I was navel-gazing.

"Losing us?" Rin asked. "We still like you even if you…"

My head shook. "I didn't really…have friends in middle school? Momo was my first one really, you five are some of my first real ones in a long time. But we haven't known each other that long so…"

"You got me coffee, I figure that's enough to stick around," Itsuka said dryly.

"{Even if you were Monoma, I'd still hang out with you just to speak my native language, but you aren't him. You're a good guy Midoriya}" Rin said rapid fire.

"Japanese dammit!" Kyoka said without bite. "But yeah, you're a pretty cool dude, it's pretty clear from how you act."

"It's fine I understood him," I said.

"You were put in an impossible situation, what sort of individual holds that against someone they would call a friend? I am not happy with what happened. No one should be, however, I will not hold it against you." Jurota said.

Pony gave a too-bright smile
"[Big sis is gonna yell at me. But, you care too much to be a bad guy Izuku. I see it by the way you're beating yourself up over this]"

"Pony!" Itsuka did indeed yell.

"So why'd you think you'd lose us Em?" Kyoka asked. "Momo said that was why you didn't respond for a while."

I swallowed, I didn't want to lie to them, and I wasn't sure I could and look them in the eye.
"The news and the police report say it was an accident. Thing is when I threw that spear, I really did mean to kill Shigaraki. A part of me feels like a murderer, and a part of me feels like I can't be a hero. I don't deserve to be one after that."

Kyoka stabbed me in the side with her earphone jack.
"Of course you do, idiot."

"While not exactly condoning her method…" Itsuka gave a smile. "She's not wrong either. Like Jurota said, I'm not happy you killed a guy. Yeah, I know coming from Miss Steel foundation that's rich, but I can't change that. But come on dude, if I had to choose between Momo and some guy, I'd choose Momo every time. I can't hold that against you."

"Momo's nice, easy choice." Pony walked over and hugged me with an American forwardness that made me wonder if anime had been right. No that was impossible, it's anime.
"Izuku is nice too, even if Izuku did a bad thing."

"My sentiments remain the same," Jurota said with a quiet look of concern. "It was an impossible situation. I don't know what choice I would have made, and I will not judge you for yours. It would hardly be polite"

"You guys…" I whispered.

"Sometimes, you just have to have faith in your friend." Rin drawled. "I have faith the man who wanted to find another way would have if he could. Not your fault you're only human."

"Thank you." The tears flowed down my cheeks.

I really did have a lot of good friends now didn't I? Who had faith in me, and believed in me.

Kyoka gave a gentle pat on the shoulder as Pony lets go.
"Of course…and Momo will tell you the same thing as soon as she gets here. I don't know why your old school didn't like you. But we do Em, have faith in us."

The words came out too easily.
"Always"

----------------------
AN: This chapter was a bit of a bear to write. Still I think it works well to get a glimpse into the wider world. Thanks again to Slamu for editing and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it. Next chapter we get into the Sports Fes proper, yay.