Work Text:
Izuku looked up at the door leading to the School’s design studio. He had been at Caliburn Academy for only a few days and was getting along well with his new classmates.
While he was able to participate in Hero exercises, he had to wear the school’s gym uniform instead of a uniform (The school insisted on that terminology, saying that calling them ‘costumes’ sounded childish) like his classmates.
He DID have a uniform designed for when he was at U.A.. However, his mother informed him that it was trashed following his expulsion.
When Ninetails heard, she practically sneered at how quick U.A. was to waste perfectly good resources like that.
And now, during his break period, he had been informed that the uniform and support gear that Ninetails’ head analyst had helped him design were finally ready.
For some reason though, staring at the door to the design studio filled him with dread, as if some part of him was expecting the door to suddenly explode and fall on him.
He reminded himself that these doors were highly reinforced, and that no school in their right mind would take on some insane mad scientist that could blow up a reinforced door.
MEANWHILE, IN JAPAN:
“AAAHH-CHOO!”
BOOOOOM!!
“HATSUME!!”
BACK IN LONDON:
With a breath of composure, Izuku walked into the studio.
He looked around, seeing, of all things, a turtle sitting in front of a computer.
“Uh… Hello?”
“You Midoriya?” The turtle asked, squinting at the screen and hitting a few keys.
“Y-yes! I’m Izuku Midoriya. I was told to come here for my equipment. So uh… What’s your name?”
“Everyone just calls me Vedal.” The turtle sighed. “Your stuff’s in those briefcases there.” He motioned to a pair of briefcases on the table. “They have papers explaining everything. Sorry, not trying to be rude, but I can’t exactly turn away from this at the moment.”
“What are you working on?”
“Personal project. Still in the early stages. Maybe I’ll tell you about it sometime.”
Izuku had caught a glimpse of Vedal’s monitor, seeing what looked like a rudimentary Ai… Playing Osu?
…
Okay.
X
Izuku took a look in the mirror as he wore his new Hero Uniform for the first time. It was partially inspired by a design he had come up with in his notebooks, though Ninetails insisted he remove the “bunny ears”. (He had told her they were actually inspired by All Might’s hair tufts, to which she replied that they just looked ridiculous regardless. Izuku actually didn’t argue against it that much. His current feelings on All Might were… Complicated right now).
He wore a black bodysuit with green accents and armor padding, with a mouth mask and a black hood. The hood had special lenses that could switch between normal view, infrared, and night vision, while the mask could act as a respirator and also had a feature to muffle his voice (Which Ninetails insisted on, saying that his habit of muttering could screw him over in a stealth operation). According to the papers, the uniform had been supplied by Watson Industries.
He also had some support gear supplied. The first was a pair of gauntlets. The gauntlets had built in tasers to allow him to subdue enemies. His gauntlets, as well as his boots, also had retractable microscopic barbs that could cling to the imperfections in surfaces, allowing him to essentially climb up walls like a spider.
He was also given a collapsible shock baton, much stronger than his taser gloves, which was also durable enough that it could be straight up used to hit people.
Ninetails had told him that this setup was to simply get him started and she had promised more support gear in the future as he gained more experience.
Pleased with the results, Izuku stepped out of the locker room and made his way to the field where the rest of the class was.
“Ah, Midoriya. Wonderful. How does your uniform fit?” Mr. Budi asked.
“It fits pretty well sir.”
“Excellent. Then will take this opportunity to help you get used to your suit and see if there are any issues needing addressed. Better to find out if it inhibits your capabilities here in a controlled environment than out it the field.”
“Yes sir. Of course.”
And so, it was with that the teacher had split the class up into pairs to spar. Izuku was paired up with Sophia Wavo, who could control water by dancing. He had seen her in action a few times during class. She seemed to have issues interacting with other people.
Case in point, she had completely avoided eye contact with Izuku, and seemed to have a habit of nervously tapping her fingers against her arm.
She also winced a few times when Izuku had grabbed her during the spar. Apparently she hated being touched.
Other than that, she put up a pretty good fight.
Soon, the end of the day had come.
X
“Midoriya.” Mr. Budi approached Izuku before he could leave. “You have permission to take your Hero uniform when you go train with your mentor. However, this is just for training purposes so you can get used to fighting and moving in uniform. I catch wind of you going around outside in uniform without your mentor’s permission, there’ll be consequences.”
“I understand sir. I promise I won’t abuse your trust like that.” Izuku replied.
Izuku was to report to Ninetails’ Agency after school every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. When he had asked why not every day, she had bluntly responded that his body needed to rest in between intense training sessions, otherwise he would do more harm than good.
As for the weekends, she had simply told him to enjoy his youth and free time while he still had it, because he would suddenly find himself lacking in it when he became a licensed Pro.
He had found himself walking down the street to get to the agency.
“I still have some time. Maybe I can grab a quick bite before-“
A nearby bank exploded.
Izuku stumbled, then looked around in surprise as the vast majority of civilians began to flee the scene instead of standing by to watch.
He was also surprised how the Heroes that had responded didn’t seem focused on making the whole thing into a show. From what he could see, they were prioritizing taking down the bank robbers above all else.
“Kid! Hey kid! Get out of here before you get hurt!” One Hero had shouted, snapping Izuku out of his trance.
“O-oh! Right! Sorry!” Izuku stumbled away, before another explosion knocked him off his feet as he stumbled into a nearby alley.
As he stood to catch his breath, he heard a noise.
Looking up, he saw Sophia Wavo of all people on the ground clutching her ears and looking like she was on the verge of a panic attack.
“H-hello? Wavo-San?”
“Too loud! Too many people!” She whined. Indeed, there was a large influx of screaming civilians surrounding the alley.
“Hey, it’s all right. Just breathe okay.” Izuku tried.
“Eep!” She jolted away from Izuku.
“I-it’s okay! It’s just me!” Izuku assured.
There was a shuffling of movement as Izuku’s head snapped toward the entrance to the alley.
A man with a heteromorphic bloodhound Quirk was panting near the entrance.
He looked at them.
“Scream and you’re both dead.” He growled, sharp claws glinting in the sun as he trudged forward.
“You don’t want to do this.” Izuku tried as he carefully slipped his hand into his support gear briefcase.
“Oh yeah? Too bad runt. I’m not going back to prison.” He growled. “It’s all that fucking explosion idiot’s fault. Told him to only use his Quirk as a last resort and the fucker decided to be spiteful. Now we’ve gone and drawn too much attention. You know what I mean?”
“Surprisingly, yes.” Izuku admitted. “So can he launch explosions or-“
“He generates an explosive field around his body.”
“Really? He could be a good Hero if he got his Quirk under control…”
“He actually got booted out of Hero school for being too violent during training.” The dog man rolled his eyes…
Then squinted.
“Wait, you’re stalling me, aren’t you?”
“…No?”
“Just shut up brat. You’re both hostages now.” His claws glinted. “If you behave, then I promise you’ll only get flesh wounds-“
A hand slapped the back of Izuku’s head, pushing him down as a gout of water struck the dog man in the face.
He sputtered, now looking even more pissed off.
“You’re dead you little cu-“
Izuku slammed his taser glove into the man’s side, and the man let out a howl of pain as electricity surged through his body, amplified by the water on him.
The man fell to the ground, twitching. Izuku sighed in relief as he fell to the ground.
X
“Are we in trouble?” Izuku asked the Hero that had checked them over.
“Unlikely.” The Hero responded. “From what you’ve told me, he displayed clear threatening behavior, so it can be chalked up to self defense.”
“Yes… Well, I was told I couldn’t use my costume or Support Gear without approval, so…”
The Hero waved him off.
“While your school will be notified of this incident, your usage of equipment was justified and will be explained. You defended yourself with what you had available at the time. You won’t get in trouble for that. Trust me.”
“Oh… Okay then…” Izuku was surprised, having expected to at least be reprimanded. He turned to Sophia, who was standing around awkwardly.
“Uh… Wavo-San? I-“
“Eep!” She jumped. “I-is this a confession!? I’m Aro-Ace! I-I don’t see you that way Izuku! I’m so sorry-“
“W-what!?” Izuku’s face turned red. “N-nonononono! I just wanted to ask if you were okay! We just got attacked so I know it had to be a bit traumatizing!”
“…Oh… Yeah I’m okay… I’m embarrassed now. Goodbye.” She turned and speed walked away, leaving Izuku confused.
“She’s a character.” The Hero snorted.
X
“And that’s why I’m late.” Izuku sighed, cupping the tea Ninetails had given him.
“I see. Well that makes sense.” She mused, setting down a tray of cookies (apparently they called cookies ‘biscuits’ here. Which begged the question of what they called biscuits). “Well, yes, what the Hero told you is true. You’re unlikely to be punished for using your support gear since it was in self defense. So don’t worry.”
“Um… Ma’am? There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask about. U.A. will be having its Sports Festival soon, so…”
“Ah yes. This was supposed to be your first year, wasn’t it? If you’re asking about whether something similar is done here, the answer is no. England does have a Sports Day at the beginning of summer, but it’s more of an event for family to come watch and isn’t televised.”
“Oh, so how do students here get internships?”
“What you’re going to do is record a video of yourself as well as make a list of what you’re capable of. You’ll also be making a list of what kind of training you’re looking for. These things will be submitted to the school, who will in turn upload them to a classified website only accessible to registered Heroes. From there, it’s up to the Heroes who take an interest to reach out, at which point the school will vet which ones best match your criteria and then turn the list over to you to decide. In the event no Hero reaches out, the school has partnered with multiple agencies with a wide variety of talents for you to choose from. You’ll find this a much more convenient system than U.A. allowing nearly any Hero to reach out. I didn’t attend the school myself but from what I understand U.A. doesn’t vet their internship mentors very well, which has led to a lot of students getting bad internships because they either chose a Hero based solely on their ranking or ended up with a Hero who just wanted them for free labor.”
“I see…”
“If you intend to watch the Sports Festival there are plenty of channels here that will cover it. Keep in mind though that Japan is nine hours ahead of England, so you may want to record it.”
“Yes! Thank you ma’am.”
“Good boy. Now, finish up and we can get started.”
…
…
…
Izuku was pleasantly surprised when Sophia Wavo started sitting with him and Corbin at lunch from that point on.