Chapter Text
Izuku rolled his shoulders and began to stretch, the greenette preparing for his first special course.
After some debate, the healer chose the Combat and Search and Rescue courses, turning his sheet into Aizawa the next day with complete certainty.
My quirk is versatile enough to be of use in just about any of the courses, he thought, leaning forward on a nearby railing and stretching his leg into a near perfect 180 degree angle, but realistically it’s the most useful in Combat and Search and Rescue. Being a stealthy hero would be hard now that I’ve spent so much time in the public eye.
He thought about the Free Pucker Up signs he’d seen at the Commission and had to bite back a laugh, switching to the other leg.
A low whistle caught his attention, and the healer turned to see Katsuki and Shoto approaching.
“Looking good, Princess,” Katsuki said, a predatory smirk on his face.
Shoto nodded in agreement, his left side beginning to smoke.
They joined the freckled boy in stretching, Katsuki’s flexibility nearly as good as Izuku’s, much to his astonishment. Soon the rest of the class had arrived, and Izuku was happy to see Momo, Iida, Aoyama, Uraraka, Kirishima, Ashido, Kaminari, Sero, Sato and Ojiro amongst them. Class B’s Kendo, Tetsutetsu, Kaibara, Shishida and Tokage were there as well, and the two classes greeted each other warmly.
The class began in earnest when All Might arrived, the man clad in a smaller version of his golden age suit to match his skinnier form. “Greetings students, it’s good to see you all again!”
Those who hadn’t yet heard of the teacher’s return were enthusiastic in welcoming him back, while the rest were more restrained but by no means less happy to see him.
He made sure all of his students were accounted for before starting his lesson. “Combat is one the most essential parts of being a hero; no matter how much of a pacifist a hero tries to be, they will inevitably face a situation where fighting is their only option.”
Izuku thought back to his fight with Stain, the first real fight he’d ever been in, and nodded.
“We have to remember that while we might have the strength to defeat our enemies, we can’t go too far. Restraint can often be the thing that separates a hero from a villain. Brute force can be useful, but should never be excessive.”
He shot an apologetic look to Shoto and Katsuki, likely remembering how aggressive he’d been during their exams the year prior. Izuku hoped that meant he wouldn’t need to fix too many fractured spines in this class.
They started of simple, running through drills most of them had memorized by heart. Once All Might was convinced they were sufficiently warmed up, he moved to the next part of the exercise.
“You’ll be engaged in a two on two sparring match; your goal is to defeat your opponents whilst making sure your partner is not defeated.”
“You’ll also be restricted to no quirks for this match,” He informed them, turning to Izuku. “That means no healing your partner during your match, Midoriya; if they’re out, they’re out.”
“Right!”
“Good! Now, everyone find your pairs!”
Izuku was excited to be paired with Ashido, taking part in a rather elaborate handshake with the pink skinned girl. As the groups were called up to spar, Izuku watched with a critical eye.
It’s a lot more challenging, keeping an eye on both your enemies and your allies, he realized, watching as Kendo and Aoyama fumbled in their fight against Kaibara and Uraraka. If I want to do well, I’ll have to find a way to balance both tasks…
He turned to Ashido, muttering a potential strategy to the girl. She looked to him. “That’s not bad, but I think I have a better idea.”
She finished giving her partner the general idea just as Kaibara and Uraraka won their match, though not without difficulty.
“Good work, students! Now, on to our next match!”
Izuku and Ashido’s names were called, and the two began to worry as they realized their opponents would be Katsuki and Momo.
“Okay, so maybe this won’t be a piece of cake,” Ashido muttered, shifting her stance to match her partner’s, “but we can do this, Izu!”
Izuku nodded, his expression determined. “Right!”
All Might started the match, and Katsuki immediately lunged for Ashido. She blocked the attack, quickly countering with a kick of her own.
Izuku had only a moment to process what his partner was doing as Momo threw her first punch, Izuku grabbing her arm and pulling her forward. He got in a good right hook before Momo countered with a roundhouse kick that sent him sprawling.
“Focus, Izu!” Ashido called out, skirting past Katsuki’s attempts to grab her.
Izuku sprang back up, eyeing his opponent carefully.
Momo knows all of my moves, and uses quite few of them herself. She’s also smart enough to predict what I might do next, which will make this fight a lot harder.
He glanced over as Ashido managed to land an axe kick on Katsuki before darting away, still largely on defense. His eyes widened slightly. That’s it! I need to fight more like Kaachan!
He turned back to Momo, who had closed the gap between them and was throwing out another punch. Izuku let the blow land, wincing as bony knuckles slammed into his cheek. He recovered quickly and got in three quick jabs that broke through Momo’s defense before landing a strong kick of his own. He followed up with another right hook and an elbow, launching himself backwards to gain some distance.
“Now, Izu!”
The greenette darted over to his partner, flipping over her back and launching into the offensive against Katsuki. Ashido did the same, managing to catch their opponents off guard.
“Excellent work Young Midoriya, Young Ashido!” All Might boomed, watching the display with excitement.
In the end, despite their quick thinking and agility, Izuku and Ashido lost the match as Katsuki and Momo overwhelmed them.
True to form, Katsuki was quick to gloat over his success, though the match was much closer than he’d ever admit. Momo accepted the win with grace, though her opponents could see the cocky glimmer in her eye.
Ever the optimist, Ashido high fived her opponents before hugging her partner. “Cheer up Izu, we did great! And next time we’ll totally crush them!”
Katsuki scoffed. “In your dreams, Pinky.”
Izuku smiled at her. “You’re right; our strategy didn’t win us the match, but switching opponents like that caught them off guard! We’ll just have to find a better way to do it next time.”
“You two fought like you were dancing,” Momo commented, joining her friends to the side as the next group went in to spar, “I’m guessing that was Ashido’s idea.”
“Yeah; she figured since we couldn’t us our quirks, we should play to our physical strengths: her dancing and my gymnastics. I only got the idea to start fighting like Kaachan after I saw how well you were predicting my moves.”
They talked until All Might brought the class back together, the last of the matches complete. “You all did well today, especially for your first lesson! Remember that combat won’t ever look the same twice; you have to treat each fight as something brand new, and one that you may not have the luxury of losing. That’s all for today, young heroes!”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Izuku didn’t get the chance to speak to All Might again until two days later, when the Commission called together its weekly agency meeting.
The idea had come from Nezu, the principal suggesting the best course of action to keep both the heroes and the Commission accountable was to have regular check ins. Each agency had a representative that would attend, sometimes the pros themselves, sometimes their sidekicks.
Currently Izuku, Momo, Shinso, Iida and Shoto were the only UA students in attendance, the rest all full time heroes. Momo was Ryukyu’s representative, as she hadn’t yet made the switch to FatGum’s agency, and Iida was the representative for Idaten. Shinso and Shoto were present despite their mentor’s attendance at the meeting as well, and Izuku was there as the Commission’s resident healer.
All Might was seated closer to the head of the table alongside Mera, Gran Torino and Detective Tsukauchi. Towards the back of the room, nestled in a dark corner, Aizawa watched the scene intently.
The proceedings were often quite dull, with reports of patrols, changes in protocol and redistributing of agency jurisdictions a large portion of the meetings. Izuku would chime in occasionally whenever a pro was recovering in the infirmary, though he often kept details to a minimum for privacy’s sake. There were questions occasionally thrown his way about patients suffering from Trigger withdrawals, but cases of its use had diminished to the point that it wasn’t a frequent topic of conversation.
The first time he’d been invited to one of these meetings, Izuku had been fascinated by the inner workings of heroics. By the sixth time, he was determined to find a way to knock himself out with his own mist.
Fortunately, Mera turned the conversation to something of import. “There have been reports of suspected League activity; a fire at a warehouse used by a local gang to move weapons a few weeks ago our first indication of it.”
Izuku tried not to think too deeply about that timeline. He never asked what Hawks, Dabi and Mirko were up to when he went to heal them, nor did they offer that information to him. It was a mutual understanding that the less the healer knew about their activities, the better for everyone involved.
I know they can’t be up to anything truly evil, because Mirko would never put up with that sort of thing, he thought, keeping his expression neutral as Mera moved on to the next report. Still, that doesn’t mean what they’re doing is heroic. I just hope they know what they’ve gotten themselves into…
“-our current focus is tracking down where the League is manufacturing its Nomu,” Tsukauchi told the group, putting a map of the country on the screen. “We have a couple leads on where that might be, but nothing concrete so far.”
“The villain Kurogiri let slip something about a hospital,” Mera cut in, “but that’s about as useful as telling us it’s in a building; there are too many hospitals that could potentially be our target to search each one without drawing suspicion. For now, we need to do what we can to gather intel elsewhere.”
Tsukauchi nodded. “Please send anything you can my way; the more eyes we have on this, the better.”
The meeting adjourned, and Izuku swiftly made his way over to All Might.
“Young Midoriya! I take it you're ready to learn more about the vestiges?”
“I am, sir.”
“Good; follow me and we’ll get started.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Aizawa watched as his students began leaving with their respective mentors, noting that Shinso was still there and chatting with Gran Torino.
“Hey, Eraser!” The man looked up to see Fatgum approaching.
“Oh, hey Fat.”
“Pretty boring meeting today, huh?”
Aizawa shrugged. “I suppose so; hopefully we’ll be able to find a lead on those Nomu soon."
Fatgum let out a him of agreement. “How’s Shirakumo doing? Mera said he wasn’t too chatty earlier, but is he getting better?”
“I- I’d like to think so. We still only have a limited understanding of what was done to him. Midoriya and Shinso are trying to piece it together, but it’s slow going.”
Fatgum gave the shorter man a smile. “Hey, don’t worry so much; these kids are pretty amazing, so if anyone can figure out how to help him out, it’s them.”
Aizawa gave the man a faint smile. “Thanks, Fat.”
“Anytime! Hey, I’ve got some takoyaki on me if you want any.”
The underground hero demurred, and Fatgum took his leave, taking an exasperated Shinso with him.
Aizawa raised a brow at the look his student gave him, but put the matter out of his mind. He looked at the report he’d received at the meeting’s start, frowning at the list of Nomu, the name Kurogiri at the very top of the list.