Chapter Text
He should have realized that something was very wrong the moment that Bakugo had lunged at Midoriya doing the Quirk Physical Examination that first day.
Though to be fair, all Aizawa had seen at the time had been an aggressive prideful teenager and a scrawny reckless kid starting to butt heads. So he had just waved it off and continued on with the examination and his pronunciation.
He really should have known that it was even worse than just a little schoolyard scuffle when Bakugo had just about blown Midoriya up during the Hero Battle Exercise with All Might. The results had been brutal and the video of the battle even more so. Really, he should have figured it out just from that but he again ignored it and let it go.
He even ignored the whispers among his students as time passed on.
“Have you seen how he cowers?”
“All I did was call him, so why did he flinch?”
“He hasn’t made eye contact with me at all! Did I do something?”
“We need to keep him from Bakugo, Iida, it’s not healthy for him to act like that around him.”
“What did Bakugo do to make Midoriya react like that?”
And so many more things as well. It all wormed his way in one form or another, but he just waved it away once more. There was nothing wrong. Midoriya was strong and stood up against Bakugo all the time. During the Battle class, during the Sports festival, during the training, and then he even went out of his way to rescue the other boy.
There was no way that Midoriya was scared or frightened or anything else when it concerned Bakugo. He was just too stubborn and heroic to be.
And that was the greatest mistake in his teaching career.
He ignored all the signs, the warnings, and the whispers that came from students and other teachers alike. It was all a huge cluster fuck that came and hit him in the face when during a training session after Bakugo had been rescued, after the license exams, and just before the cultural festival, that proceeded to explode and reveal the situation for what it was.
CP
He couldn’t help but stare at the bathroom with a twitching eyebrow and a dark aura that had all the students shudder at the horror of it all. None of them wanted to be there and witness the horror that was Aizawa in a rage.
Though unfortunately they didn’t have a choice at the moment. They would have to suffer through this because two students just couldn’t seem to get along. Aizawa would make sure they paid for interrupting his nap.
Not to mention the destroyed bathroom in front of him. The boys’ bathroom was completely decimated. Mirrors were shattered on the floor, toilets were broken apart with water gushing out of them and flooding the floor. The cupboards that had been filled with towels and washrags and all sorts of things were now destroyed completely. Burnt pieces of plastic bottles that once held cleaning agents for bodies or floors littered the ground. The smell of destroyed cloth filled the room along with just the smell of burning skin and hair.
“And here I thought you two were getting along better.” Aizawa growled as he turned from the scorched and burned bathroom to the two students that were sat in front of him. One hiding his face in his knees with his arms wrapped around his legs while the other was cross legged and glaring up at him with crimson eyes. “Was I wrong?”
“No shit Sherlock.” Bakugo spat as small explosions erupted from his hands. “This fucking useless Deku fucking came in while I was fucking busy! Bitch didn’t even give a shitty announcement.”
Not really a reason to attack the other student at all. It was weak and screamed of childishness that didn’t belong in the hero program. He was half tempted to kick him out of the program and out of this school that instant.
Which would mean he’d have to kick Midoriya out as well, which was very tempting as well.
Aizawa turned his eyes onto the ball of green next to the ball of rage. Eyes assessing and looking for any injuries on the other teen. He could see some burn marks on his arms poking through burnt holes of his black under armor, and legs, hints of one on his neck and he could have some hidden on his face. The teen though had only stayed in the balled up form since Aizawa got there and from what he heard, before he had arrived as well.
A scared little ball that had refused to respond to anyone or anything. This wasn’t someone who should be in the hero business at all, especially if an ally could put him into this kind of state and not a villain.
He sighed as he kneeled in front of the ball of nerves. “Midoriya.” He called as he reached out towards the boy’s shoulder.
Only to blink when the boy jerked his shoulder away before he could even touch him. “I’m okay.” The whisper came and Aizawa blinked as his tired grey eyes found teary green eyes. “I’m okay. I’ll be fine.” He grinned even as it pulled at a rather nasty looking burn that lay on part of his mouth and cheek.
The teacher in him screamed that he wasn’t okay, but there would be little he could do now. This kid was as stubborn as All Might could be when he wanted to save someone. Instead he sighed once more and nodded his head. “Go to Recovery Girl and have her heal those burns. You don’t need to suffer from them.” He stated before he turned to the growling ball of rage that was Bakugo. “You are under house arrest again. You’ll be cleaning the common room, kitchen, and all the bathrooms for a week.”
“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK! WHAT ABOUT DEKU!?” Bakugo shouted as he shot to his feet.
Aizawa kept his eyes on Bakugo and so missed the hasty scramble of Midoriya to get away from the other. “He was apparently just going to use the bathroom like he was allowed to. Your attack was unprovoked and unwarranted.” His glare turned crimson and his hair flew up into the air as soon as the sounds of popping reached his ears. “You will serve your time and until you have learned your lesson about restraint, you will not be allowed back in the hero courses or even normal courses.”
The boy looked outraged but he knew that he would listen. Bakugo was headstrong, arrogant, ferocious, and hot tempered, but he was also smart and quick witted. The boy knew that he would serve this punishment and then return to become a better hero. He could see the potential there.
“One other thing.” Aizawa said as he released his quirk. “Stay away from Midoriya. I don’t want any more unprovoked attacks between the two of you.”
With that he walked away from the crowd of students and a furiously boiling explosion. Hopefully Midoriya was already on his way to Recovery Girl. He didn’t need to deal with another broken boy tonight.
CP
“Alright. This exercise is to simulate the occurrence of multiple villain attacks that congregate within the same area of a city. Your opponents will be the robots from the entrance exam and then there are multiple buildings here that have bombs located within them. The goal is to separate into teams and take out all the villains, deactivate or contain the bombs, and save any civilians that you see.” Aizawa explained as he looked over Testing Area B. They were all familiar with this particular testing area except for a few but that mattered little.
“What will the civilians look like, ribbit?” Tsuyu questioned with a tilt of her head. Always ready to speak her mind and ask questions. Something that Aizawa appreciated greatly due to the fact that her poker face was rather good for a teen.
“You’ll know when you see them.” He acknowledged before turning to them all. “I’m going to pair you up in groups of two and one of three. Nine teams all together. You should be able to cooperate and coordinate the rescue of the city in this way.”
“Is there a time limit?” Ochaco questioned next, bouncing with a smile on her face. That girl was always filled with energy that would disappeared the moment she started floating herself.
“You won’t know it.” He dropped cruelly. “I’ll call it and if this city isn’t cleared of the bombs and villains both, you will all fail. This is a group assignment so if one fails you all fail.”
Horrified looks littered everyone’s faces. His smirk grew as he prepared to reveal the last surprise as well.
“And if you fail, then you get to do this over and over and over again until you complete it.”
The horrified looks on the students’ faces was hilarious but he didn’t allow it to change his facial expressions.
An explosion rocked a nearby tower, causing it to crash completely. “Get to it.”
With that the students were off in their pairs, moving in such a way that he knew they would pass this test with ease.
CP
“Shoji, Jiro, Mineta, Sero, are you all in position?” Izuku asked as he held a finger up to his communicator. He was settled next to a building’s wall with Todoroki right next to him. The two of them were partnered up for this task, though Izuku felt like there was an ulterior motive to Aizawa putting him with the fire and ice user.
“We are.” Jiro assured as her ears plugged into the ground. Shoji just next to her with all arms sprayed out and gathering information. “You were right, all the robots are strategically placed among the city to make it hard for us to get them all within any amount of time.”
“But that’s the point of this exercise. To make it hard.” Izuku muttered before looking across the street where Iida and Kirishima were sat waiting. “That’s why we need a plan. Okay, listen up you guys.” And he laid it all out for them.
Soon a civilian was uncovered. “Guys…we have a problem.” Ojiro groaned as he was met face to face with Monoma.
“Well hello there! It seems it took you way long to find me! The 1-A Class was so slow in rescuing me! How pitiful!” Monoma laughed and cackled at them.
“Great. Class 1-B are the civilians. This just got a whole lot more troublesome.” Ashido groaned from where she stood at Ojiro’s side.
“We better get him out of here and find the other nineteen students.” Izuku said as he turned to Todoroki who was hovering over a calm brunet that was staring at them. “Make that eighteen. We just found another. From what I’ve been keeping track of as well, we still have six groups of twelve robots running around as well. Keep moving guys and follow the plan.”
With that he let go of his communicator and turned to the class 1-B student. “Follow us and we’ll take you to the safe location. There you will be treated for any injuries you have sustained.”
The teen nodded and followed the two out of the area and to the safe zone, which was the gate that led outside of the city limits. Once they were sure that the teen was truly out did they turn and head back into the city. “We are still going to enter that one building Shoji said had laughter in it?” Todoroki questioned as he skid along the ice he created, Midoriya holding onto his hand as he led them further into the city.
“Yes. That’s in our area. We’ll work on that building first before we continue onto the next section of our area.” Izuku explained as he looked around and kept an eye out for anymore robots. They didn’t need to get ambushed again.
“The building once more Jiro.” Todoroki said and then waited for the response needed.
“Three rights and then a left starting now.” She informed quickly. “Get moving, two more groups of robots are heading for that building. Be careful you two, looks like the Zero Pointer is in that group.”
“We got it handled.” Todoroki informed as he further used his ice to skate them across the ground. It was simple way of travel but if he didn’t warm his body up occasionally he would freeze almost to death. “You ready to head up the building Midoriya.”
“Oh yeah.” Izuku said with a wide grin on his face. They moved quickly, running up the stairs and coming to a room where three people were chatting amicably with four robots surrounding them.
And then the bomb.
Oh yeah, don’t forget the bomb attached to the floor in the middle of the three people and the robots.
With only five minutes.
“We gotta take the robots out first.” Izuku said as he moved towards the right. “Take the left Todoroki. I’ll get the right.” With that the two moved.
Todoroki froze the bots before they could move and then proceeded to smash them against the floor to keep them from escaping from the ice.
Izuku quickly slammed a fist into one, smashing it completely. He had to dodge the attack of a robotic fist before he slammed his foot into the thing’s chest and made sure it wasn’t getting back up.
“Alright, how much time….” He trailed off as he looked at the one minute they had on the clock.
“I got it.” An ice like slide appeared outside of the window. “Go on, this’ll take you to ground level.” He explained with a calm appearance as Class 1-B students quickly did as told and got onto the ice slide, squealing or screeching at the coldness of the slide as they went down.
“There’s no time to disable it.” Izuku cried out as he looked at the ten seconds left on the clock. “We’ll have to contain it.”
“We can’t do that here.” Todoroki stated as he grabbed a hold of the other boy, making sure he was held tightly in his arms as the clock moved down to three seconds. “Time to take a leap of faith and pray this works.” He stated as he threw the two of them out of the window, shoot over the ice slide and down towards the ground.
Todoroki concentrated for a moment, moving Izuku just enough that he could flare out his flames and flip them so that his feet were towards the ground. HE quickly formed another ice slide, the building blowing up right behind him, gritting his teeth when he bounced on it but otherwise they slid to the ground safely. He created a large shield around himself and Izuku to avoid the debris that flew right at them as the building began to fall down to the ground.
He kept himself over the other teen the entire time, keeping a tight grip around the other’s shoulders and head just in case his ice breaks. He waits several moments before he looks up to see several pieces of wood and metal sticking out of his ice, but none of it had penetrated fully. They were safe.
He looks around and sees that Kirishima was in front of the rescued individuals while Iida stood off to the side with his armored arms held up to help block some of the debris. “You guys alright over there?” Todoroki questioned.
“Yeah, we are!” Kirishima grins with a wave before it fades away to be replaced with a frown. “Hey, what’s wrong with Deku?”
Todoroki blinked and looked down at the trembling form of his friend. The shaking was so hard that he could feel it vibrate all the way up to his shoulder and then teen’s eyes were so wide open that he should’ve seen the worried looks of the others…only he didn’t. His eyes were open but unseeing. “Midoriya?” He questioned as he shook his shoulder gently.
No response.
“Guys! Zero Pointer is right on top of you with the rest of the robots as well!” Jiro shouted to them in horror. “We have the others on route now but it’ll be a minute or two!”
“Shit.” Todoroki growled as he stood up, keeping his unresponsive friend between his legs just as the hulking figure of the zero pointer appeared above a building with a stampede of smaller robots appearing around the buildings. “Somethings wrong with Midoriya, he isn’t responding.”
“Keep him safe.” Ochaco said next. “Just keep him safe and we’ll get him Med as soon as this is over.”
“We’ve got your back too bro!” Kirishima said as his fist slammed through a robot, ripping it in half easily. “They won’t get to him with us here.”
“That’s correct.” Iida confirmed as he used his speed and momentum to send the bots flying away from his downed friend. “Just make sure nothing gets to him until help arrives. We’ll keep the civilians safe until then as well.”
Said group of civilians were stationed just behind Todoroki and were sending the group doubtful looks, along with worried ones to the downed greenette.
And that’s what happened for a long moment, just blasting robots and keeping the zero pointer at bay for the time being. He couldn’t move away from his friend and the civilians until help arrived because of the precarious position he held. He had to protect them with all he got and just keep the bots at bay.
That was until the zero pointer’s main eye began to glow a bright red. Todoroki just barely got a dome of ice up around them to stop the laser from tearing them apart.
Even then the laser gave a tremendous hit that shattered the dome and sent them all flying.
The only one able to stay on their feet was Kirishima and that was by him digging his arms into the ground to hold himself in place. He growled when he saw the Zero Pointer charge up another attack.
Only to watch with excitement as the entire robot seemed to jolt and then shut down. “We’re here!” Mineta shouted as he ran out with the rest of class 1-A, Kaminari having to be dragged by Jiro, who was trying hard not to burst out laughing, as it had appeared he’d short circuited. “Kaminari was able to short circuit the Zero Pointer!”
“Amazing!” Kirishima shouted enthusiastically. “What about the other civilians?”
“Already evacuated.” Ojiro informed as he swatted a robot with his tail and destroyed it. “Those are the last ones in the city.”
“We need to hurry then.” Iida said as he looked around, brushing dirt off of his armor. “We don’t just have civilians to worry about now.” He stated seriously as he turned to stare at where Deku lay in a puddle of vomit and still unresponsive.
“I’ve got him.” Todoroki said as he stood up from where he lay and limped over to the other. He had landed wrong and now his ankle hurt something fierce, but he was sure it wasn’t broken. “Get the rest of those things and we can get out of here.”
“Here, I’ll help.” Ochaco said as she tapped Deku on the head and lightened enough for both herself and Todoroki to lift up and move over towards the civilians before setting him down. Todoroki summoned another dome around them to make sure nothing could hurt them further and proceeded to wait.
A knock on the dome informed him that it was over and he melted the dome so they could get out. “We need to get everyone to the safe point to end the exercise.” Yaoyorozu explained.
“Someone is going to have to carry Midoriya.” Todoroki said as Kirishima took his arm and threw it over his shoulder to help him walk.
“I’ve got him.” Shoji stated as he easily picked up the other boy, carrying him in his huge arms. “Let’s get out of here and get him looked at, along with you.”
With that, Class 1-A made their way to the safe point, all trying to figure out what was wrong with their friend and teammate.
CP
Aizawa wasn’t sure of what to make of the group when they all appeared at the safe zone together. The last of the civilians were with them and it appeared that two of them had sustained enough injury to need help making it back.
But the thing that really threw him was the looks they were all throwing at Shoji and the little green figure he carried in his arms.
Even from fifty yards away Aizawa could see the little body trembling horrendously. Dread rose within the teacher and he was sure something was horrendously wrong, though he wasn’t sure what it was that was putting his sense into overdrive. Midoriya was always hurting himself, nothing new, but this was something else, something he couldn’t fight or fix or control. He knew that much already.
“What happened?” He questioned instead of the congratulations he wanted to give, because whatever happened didn’t deserve praise.
“We’re not completely sure.” Iida admitted with another glance to his friend. “He and Todoroki jumped out a window just before it exploded, they landed safely, but Deku was already like this by the time we realized something was wrong.”
“Lay him down here.” Aizawa said as he waved to a cot. “Put Todoroki there.” He pointed at another cot not too far away. “I’ll take a look at him before I call in Recovery Girl.” Hopefully whatever it was he could fix himself but if it was worse than he thought, the kid might have to go through surgery again.
Shoji gently settled his package onto the cot and the teacher quickly moved to check the kid over. As he went over each body part, making sure each worked and nothing was bleeding or broken, his frown became more pronounced and worried. Something was definitely wrong but the further he went with the body check, the more he suspected that it wasn’t the body that was hurt.
Finally, when he had checked the kid from head to toe, he turned to the dull eyes that were staring at nothing. The once bright emeralds were now a dull jade. He groaned as he realized what was happening before turning to the rest of his class. “Don’t worry, he’ll be fine.” Physically at least, mentally was a whole other sandbox he didn’t even want to get into right there. “For now take Todoroki to Recovery Girl to look at, I’ll take care of Midoriya from here. Dismissed.”
He didn’t even give them the chance to respond before he gathered up the teen and walked away with him.
There was a lot to do if he was going to help Midoriya and the first thing he had to do was to make the teen let him help.
He could feel the headache already.
CP
Burning and screaming and pain.
That was all he knew as he tried to desperately get away. Get away from the pain and the horror he felt as his once upon friend tore him apart.
No.
That wasn’t right.
He wasn’t his friend. Hadn’t been for years. No, he was a bully that was destroying him little bit at a time and it was just going to get worse, he knew it would.
But he tried anyways. He struggled against the blonde with all of his might, kicking and hitting the other to try and get him to let him go.
But the smoke in the air from the flames and explosions choked him and burned him and pained him. God how he could feel his skin peel back from where he was hit with the quirk. Explosions booming in his ears and causing him to go deaf for seconds or months on end.
This was torture and cruel and so much more. He cried heavily as he suffered under those unforgiving hands, screaming as pain lanced through his body and brought him down onto such a level that no light would shine on him.
“Useless Deku! Why are you still even here?”
“You, a hero? A quirkless little wimp like yourself?”
“Oh god, what a joke!”
“Look at the quirkless Deku cry! I bet we can make him cry even harder!”
“Come on Katsuki! Show him what for, for even daring to think he could be a hero!”
“Give it up Deku, you’ll never be a hero! Not like me!”
“You’ll never make it to U.A. So stop dreaming and realize how weak and pathetic you are!”
Only the explosions would come and tear him apart. Along with the words and insults and hatred from all those around him. He was quirkless after all, he was useless.
“You know…there is a way for you to get a quirk.”
No. No, he didn’t want to hear this again. He had to hear it once and it had destroyed him! He didn’t want to hear those words again.
“Go up to the roof and take a leap of faith that in the next life you’ll have a quirk.”
He screamed as he tried to drown out the words he had considered for a very long time.
CP
Dull Jade eyes snapped open and a body shot up. He gasped in air and struggled to return to reality, but his mind was continually spiraling down a dark chute to a pit filled with explosions, flames, and smoke. God, how he just wanted to die at that moment.
“Seems like you’ve finally woken up.” Dry and slow, he knew that voice. He turned his head to stare at the man with pale skin and dark dark eyes. They watched him intently, analyzing him and looking for something that he wasn’t sure of. “Maybe not.” He sighed before walking over to him and reached a hand out towards him.
Instinct took over at that moment and his body flinched so violently that it curled forward to avoid the hit that had to be coming. That was all there ever was with touch that wasn’t his mother. Pain and horror and blood and smoke and ridicule. It was never kind and never gentle. It was always just painful.
He didn’t want anyone to touch him ever again. It was just too much.
“I’m not going to hurt you Midoriya.” The man said and that just made him curl up tighter. He had been told that before and it had been a lie. A lie a lie a lie a lie a lie! He was always hurt in the end. “Snap out of it Midoriya, you know who I am, now wake up!”
He blinked at the tone of voice, his mind reeling back in as he remembered that tone. It had been used on him several times now since his arrival to U.A. and he knew that it meant business when it came out. “Ai...za…wa-Sen…sei?” He got out slowly, his throat sore and dry. He looked up with dark emerald eyes but fully aware of his surroundings this time.
Aizawa sighed in relief as he stared at the boy in front of him. “Yes, now that you’re back with us, maybe you can tell me how long you’ve been having panic attacks.”
Izuku stared up at him with wide eyes for a long moment, his hands clutching at the thick yellow sleeping bag draped over his lap.