Chapter Text
Midoriya Izuku was an odd kid. The teachers had all been aware since the entrance exam that something was going on there. Yagi knew something about it, if the way he’d teared up when the kid started levitating was anything to go by, but he wasn’t talking so the rest of the incredibly busy heroes employed by UA who somehow still had too much time on their hands did what they did best and started a betting pool.
Some thought the kid might be a de-aged Pro because of his answers on the written exam. Some thought he was the son of an assassin or diplomat or something since Midoriya was apparently fluent in six languages and there was no information on his father in his file. Hizashi thought he was just a weird kid with a weird quirk. Yagi thought they should stop speculating, so most of the staff was convinced that he knew exactly what was going on. Or that he was the kid’s father.
Aizawa had decided that it was illogical to speculate, and instead began collecting evidence.
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
Midoriya had been the only one in his new homeroom class to seem more exasperated with his ridiculous classmates than nervous or excited to be there. He had arrived first out to the quirk testing area, muttering something about “kids these days” like he wasn’t one and had been content to stand silently while the rest of 1-A trickled out of the locker rooms.
Midoriya then proceeded to kick the entire classes’ collective ass in the quirk assessment exam. By a large margin. Bakugou specifically was seething with rage while the others hovered somewhere between impressed and terrified.
“This is like, unfair.” Kaminari said, watching Iida collapse after bowing out of the endurance test while Midoriya continued for another ten minutes.
Honestly, Aizawa would agree if he hadn’t seen the date of the kid’s quirk manifestation as less than six months ago and seen Bakugou interact with him. He figured Midoriya’s quirk must be one of the ones with set physical requirements to activate in order not to kill the host (a theory later proven correct by Yagi) because the thing was incredibly overpowered. But that also meant that the kid had gone through life quirkless up until last year. As a late-bloomer himself with a so-called "villainous" quirk, Aizawa had been bullied a fair amount before his quirk came in for being quirkless, then made a social pariah once it finally did come in when he was seven. Even now, he fought mainly quirkless, and actually knew several quirkless people who worked the Underground--a few informants, sure, but a few heroes as well.
And every single one of them had had to fight their whole lives just to get a scrap of respect. If they weren't seen by much of the world as unevolved or subhuman, they were seen as fragile, easily hurt or unprepared to live in the world as it was.
(It was an incredibly illogical and harmful attitude that Aizawa had firmly beaten out of every class he'd taught so far except for one, a couple years back, that had been so bad he'd just expelled the lot of them. The last straw had been when they went to Nedzu (little idiots) and asked if there was a more heroic teacher whose class they could transfer into, heavily implying that they believed that there was no way someone with a quirk like his could be a real hero.
Nedzu had shut that shit down fast. That was the one year that no one he expelled had been given the chance to transfer back into the heroics course from Gen Ed and had instead been booted out and barred from the campus entirely. The only reason they weren't blacklisted from other hero schools was because they weren't interested in turning an entire class to villainy.
He had outright cackled when he found out that several of them ended up at Ketsubutsu under Ms. Joke. Served them right.)
All that is to say, Aizawa was of the opinion that a kid who had been bullied for over a decade for being quirkless by kids with powerful quirks was exactly the type of person who deserved an overpowered one. Especially a kid like Midoriya who hadn't been anything but quiet and polite, if not a bit exasperated.
Which again, fair. So was Aizawa.
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
Lunchtime in the staffroom that day brought a new level of what the hell to the situation. Not only were the teachers all confused about how the kid had found it so fast, but he had brought a bento for Yagi (or "Toshi" as he apparently called him) and gently browbeat the Number One Hero into actually eating his food, threatening to either call someone named Sora or track him down himself if he didn't before patting Yagi on the head leaving the room, not bothering to acknowledge the room full of baffled Pro Heroes he left behind.
"What the fuck," Mic said, in English because the situation called for it. The sentiment echoed rather loudly around the rest of the room.
Yagi, already having taken a bite of something that smelled heavenly, glanced up at them quizzically, as if he was confused about why they were acting this way.
"Was he..."Nemuri started, "Mothering you?"
Yeah, that was what it was, wasn't it.
Yagi smiled a bit sheepishly. "He does that. I have no doubt you'll begin noticing him doing it to his classmates any day now."
"And you let him?" Vlad asked.
Yagi shrugged. "You try stopping him. Izuku-kun was a force to be reckoned with even before his quirk came in."
"How long have you known him?" Inui asked.
"Oh, a bit over a year now. Do you remember the slime villain attack mentioned in Young Bakugou's file?'
"Yes..."
"Izuku-kun was the boy who ran in and gave Bakugou time to breathe while the heroes on-site stood around and waited for someone with a better quirk match up to come along to help. They were rather upset about being shown up by a quirkless child." Yagi's face darkened a bit. He took a bite of his rice and the expression was gone. "That was the day I met him. Later, I ran into him while he was cleaning up Dagobah Beach and offered up the services of my pickup truck to help haul larger items to the dump. After a few months, he could carry a refrigerator on his own, and that was still before his quirk manifested."
Everyone was staring at him again.
"Midoriya's the one who cleaned up Dagobah?" Aizawa asked, feeling a bit faint. "On his own?"
Yagi nodded. "I helped a bit with hauling some larger items, but he was mainly doing it as strength training before the entrance exam since his mother didn't really have the money to sign him up for classes or a gym. His mother is also why I believe he acts so motherly himself. His father left when he was diagnosed quirkless and Inko raised him herself. She treats me very similarly to Izuku-kun."
Aizawa curled up in his sleeping bag for the rest of the lunch period. He needed time to process all of that.
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
Yagi's prediction about Midoriya mothering his classmates proved correct almost immediately, or so he told Aizawa later.
The moment his classmates came out in their uniforms, Midoriya hijacked the class period to go over what qualified as acceptable for uniforms after telling Yaoyorozu, Hagakure, and several of their other classmates to go change. The spent what would have been battle trials (Aizawa nearly ripped Yagi a new one when he learned that little tidbit, the fucking idiot) brainstorming ways to make their uniforms more practical before storming the Support Department with a list of demands.
(Maijima, after seeing some of the...choices that the support company contracted to manufacture the first years’ uniforms had made, had promptly confiscated the lot. He sicced a few of his older students on the problem as an extra credit assignment, then went to Nedzu after school let out (because leaving support students alone in the labs for any amount of time could be dangerous) to request that the company be investigated.
"They didn't even give the invisible girl a uniform, just gloves!" He said once he'd returned to the staff room, shaking the gloves in question in outrage. "If her family doesn't sue for this, I will!")
The next day, Midoriya was elected as class representative almost unanimously for having "big mom energy".
Later that day, he had come by the staffroom again after school to request that Yaoyorozu and Kaminari be referred to the quirk counselor on staff as soon as possible.
"Yaoyorozu doesn't eat nearly enough to support her quirk the way she uses it, and Kaminari needs someone with actual authority to explain to him that the least harmful way for him to use his quirk would be for him to use his limbs like tasers and learn some martial arts rather than trying to throw lightning. On that note, he should also see Recovery Girl to get some brain scans done and make sure he isn't giving himself permanent brain damage by using it the way he does." The kid explained to them all. "I also have concerns about Todoroki in general, both his quirk and his home life, though no concrete information yet.
"Also, Mineta has already sexually harassed nearly every girl in class and it's the second day, could someone with actual authority get on that, because if you don't I'm not sure if his cause of death will be Asui kicking him in the face hard enough to break his neck, Hagakure doing something nobody can prove, Uraraka literally punting him into the sun, Yaoyorozu making something to blast him into bits and getting Ashido to dissolve the evidence, or me." Midoriya said, the look on his face and bared teeth implying that he was practically waiting for the opportunity and would be only so glad to oblige if they didn't step the fuck up quick-like.
Before anyone could get a word in edgewise, Nedzu appeared and gave them all a look that said something along the lines of "I’ve got this one" before ushering the boy into his office for some tea and probably a round of plotting the downfall of something given Midoriya's current state of mind and the principal’s tendency to direct destructing tendencies rather than curb them.
(Aizawa would know.)
Currently, he was making a mental to-do list because the kid was absolutely right about Yaoyorozu and Kaminari and getting rid of Mineta and investigating the Todoroki's had already kind of been on his agenda, but if it was bad enough that a student had confronted them in the first week of classes about them they should definitely be moved up on his list of priorities.
He also mentally reassessed Midoriya's threat level, because everything about his body language by the end of that little rant had been giving off "can, will, and has cut a bitch" vibes and he could respect that.
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
The USJ had been a shit show.
Yagi didn’t even show up, so Eraserhead and Thirteen walked into an ambush for the Number One Hero with a bunch of untrained fifteen year olds and no way to contact anyone for backup.
If not for Midoriya, Eraserhead had no doubt that someone would have died. Probably himself.
The kid had apparently been dropped in the lake with Asui and Mineta. The footage collected later was a bit insane to watch, showing the kid catching his classmates before they could hit the water and getting Mineta to throw a bunch of his sticky ball things into the lake to capture the villains in the water. Once they were all in a big clump, he dragged them to land, then collected most of his classmates in a mad dash that lasted less than ten minutes. Soon after, he managed to find a weakness in the outer wall of the USJ that allowed him to pry open a gap large enough for his classmates to evacuate through. Bakugou, Kirishima, and Todoroki, who refused to leave, were then recruited to carefully slide Thirteen out on Todoroki’s ice and pick off stragglers while Midoriya went to help Eraserhead.
Watching back the footage of his part of the fight, Aizawa noticed a lot of things that he hadn’t at the time. The kid had managed to knock the warp gate user Kurogiri out with a blow to the neck from behind, which bought him time to begin his mad chase with the Nomu, keeping it off Eraserhead’s back long enough that he had been able to get Shigaraki in quirk cuffs.
After All Might arrived and took out the Nomu, the four of them had managed to knock out or otherwise capture the rest of the villains. Unfortunately, they only had a few sets of quirk cuffs between them and hadn’t thought to put some on Kurogiri since he had been knocked out, but he woke up sooner than anticipated and managed to get away with Shigaraki in tow. Even then he would call it a win, given that the worst injuries among them were to himself and Thirteen, and he only really had a broken hand, arm, and ribs, and a slight concussion to go with his quirk overuse induced migraine.
As far as first life or death situations went for most of the kids in 1-A, Aizawa was pretty impressed. A lot of them managed to keep their heads and move back toward the plaza after escaping the villains in their terrains, which is why it hadn’t taken long for Midoriya to collect them all. Bakugou and Todoroki had shown impressive quirk control and once they had gotten Thirteen to safety and were away from the others and able to be a bit more destructive. They had been pretty effective at putting down villains with mostly non-threatening injuries.
Once most of the fighting was done, Hagakure and Ojiro reentered the USJ with some antiseptic and bandages that Yaoyorozu made after Sato gave her some of his sugar packets and Tokoyami and Sero in order to help contain the villains in case some of them started to wake up and do some very basic first aid on any that looked like they needed it, Ojiro and Tokoyami acting mostly as a bodyguard while Hagakure did first aid and Sero taped people up. Midoriya joined their group soon after, apparently having a first aid kit as part of his uniform and turned out to be especially good at treating burns caused by Bakugou (which not for the first time set off alarm bells in Aizawa’s head regarding their shared history).
A little while after they began, the other teachers and EMS finally arrived and all the students were herded into the bus after they were seen by paramedics, then taken back to school so they could debrief and give their statements to Tsukauchi who was already en route.
Iida had impressed him by giving a fairly accurate estimate of exactly how many police cars and ambulances would be needed, especially with how quickly he had had to leave. Neither needed to call backup and there were only one or two extra vehicles, but all personnel had been needed for the cleanup of epic proportions.
It had been one of the largest numbers of arrests made from one daylight attack in Japan in nearly ten years, with one of the lowest casualty rates on both sides and only two villains escaping, which proportionally in this case was insane.
Aizawa sat back in his chair at the conference table after classes the next day, where he had just finished watching the footage of what was supposed to have been the USJ field trip with Nedzu and the rest of the teachers barring Thirteen.
Not all of the cameras at the USJ were on a closed circuit, but the backups that were had continued to function, since the quirk used to stop outgoing signals from the USJ didn’t disrupt electricity (meaning the lights and general functions required to run the massive building hadn’t been disrupted) so luckily the footage of the attack survived. That would help a lot when it came to evidence for convictions for the villains who attacked. The debrief had been done the day before, so now they were mostly watching with fresh eyes to see if they had missed anything.
It also helped give Aizawa an idea of how the students of 1-A did in a crisis, which would be incredibly useful going forward. Most students didn’t get real world experience until work studies second and third year, so they would have a bit of a leg up in that regard. He mentally moved up the timeline on first aid training for the class. Aizawa had a feeling they would be needing it sooner or later.
“Yagi,” Hizashi asked suddenly, breaking the silence. “What exactly did you say Midoriya’s quirk was again?”
Yagi blinked at the sudden question. “I didn’t, but I believe it’s a type of stockpiling quirk somewhat similar to mine, which is why I was able to help him spar a bit over the summer and give him some tips, but he is more able to manipulate the energy accumulated while I use mine mostly for physical augmentation.”
Hizashi leaned back and shook his head. “Damn. And he was able to keep that Nomu thing busy for a long time. That kid’s a powerhouse now, I wonder what he’ll be like by the time he graduates.”
Nemuri let out a low whistle. “Powerhouse might be an understatement.”
“And he has quite the mind to back it up!” The Rat added, causing a reflexive shiver to run down the teacher’s spines. “Though Bakugou and Todoroki were impressive as well. The first aid group also saved a few lives yesterday, keeping a few of the villains from bleeding out before they got medical treatment.”
“While we’re on the topic, Recovery Girl, would you mind if I moved up the first aid unit to right after the Sports Festival? I have a bad feeling about letting this group out in the wild without basic medical skills, so I’d like to get it done before internships if that will work for you.”
Chiyo nodded. “I think I can do that. Let me check my schedule and I’ll get back to you by the end of the day.”
Aizawa nodded.
“I can also incorporate first aid kits into costume designs for anyone who wants it,” Maijima added. “Midoriya gave my gremlins ideas and now they’re trying to make a backpack that will go invisible with Hagakure’s costume, which should be ready soon by the way.”
Aizawa's eyebrows shot up. "That was fast."
Maijima shrugged. "A group of my third years and a couple of second years want to start a support company with a few of the business, design, and management students once they graduate. Some want to go to university beforehand, so it will probably start out pretty small, but they were so offended that they all got together after classes that first day and started brainstorming. Once they had solid ideas to go off of, there are enough old designs on file that they were able to cannibalize a bit to suit. It's mostly just the challenges that are left, but they shouldn't be long."
Nedzu hummed. "Very interesting. If you'd like, tell them I'll consider this project a trial run for a commission for next year's first years. Or don't, it might be more fun that way."
Aizawa smirked at Maijima's face.
It was always nice when students other than his own caught the Rat's attention.
"Sekijiro-kun, Aizawa-kun," Nedzu turned to him as if he had heard his thoughts. "I believe that the Hero Classifications lecture may need to happen before the Sports Festival this year. We have an unusual number of candidates for non-Limelight Heroics this year. If you could get any names of those who would prefer Underground or Twilight Heroics to Yamada-kun at least a day or two before so that he knows not to use their civilian names while announcing, that would be ideal."
Aizawa nodded along with Vlad. He always did that anyway, but didn't feel like mentioning that, since he was sure the Rat already knew. He could just annoy Vlad by already having given the list to Mic earlier than him, since he was already planning on doing that lecture tomorrow.
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
"Bakugou?" Aizawa asked, marking down names and classifications on his clipboard as he walked between desks, occasionally having to answer questions about the classifications as he went.
"Limelight, obviously!" Bakugou barked.
"Hagakure?" Aizawa asked, not giving the loudmouth any more attention than he had to.
"I think either Twilight or Underground," The girl said, uncharacteristically seriously. "Which do you think I should do?"
Aizawa sighed. "Well, that generally depends on why you wanted to become a hero."
"I thought my quirk could be useful for stealth missions and rescue during hostage situations."
He thought for a moment. "Your quirk would be most useful against people who don't know about it, so honestly, I would recommend Underground. Even if you went Twilight, you would probably end up veering towards Underground fully eventually with your particular ability, just because most of the missions requiring your type of ability fall into that category, so that's who will be requesting you. At least if you start out knowing that, you can be better prepared for when it starts happening. That being said, starting next semester, I'll be teaching an elective course on Underground Heroics since the demand will be high enough to need one this year, so if you take it and decided to lean towards Twilight, it won't be that big of an issue and you'll still have the training."
"That sounds good," Hagakure decided.
"Alright." He marked it down. "Iida?"
"Limelight, Sensei!"
"Jirou?'
"Could I still sign up for that underground elective if I say Twilight?"
"Yes."
"Then Twilight please."
"Kaminari?"
"...Twilight?"
Aizawa blinked in surprise, which Kaminari seemed to take as a question.
"It's just that, Midoriya's been coming up with some cool quirk applications for me that won't short out my brain, and also encouraging me to do what I want to do rather than what I think I should do because I'm expected to and the thing is, I'm like, actually pretty good with computers, and I think I could be pretty decent at investigating if someone taught me how to do it right and also I want to take the Underground class just to make sure I don't want to do that instead."
"I'll put you down as Twilight then."
He moved on, already feeling more...almost excited than he generally did when it came to this part of the class. Usually this list was Limelight all the way down until at least second year work studies. At this rate, he might even get a full Underground class next semester, which he normally didn't have reason to spend much time on. Did he finally get a class with a few more brain cells than usual?
"Kirishima?"
"Can I do Limelight and Rescue, or do I have to pick one?"
Another surprise; a pleasant one, even. "You can do both, Rescue has its own elective courses with some overlap with Limelight. Rescue is its own category that can pair with Limelight, Twilight, or Underground."
"Can I do Twilight Rescue for now then, and decide if I want to go Limelight later?"
"Why the switch?" Aizawa asked.
"Reporters are scary and you said Twilight Heroes have more protection than Limelight Heroes."
"...Valid. Sure."
"Can I change my answer to Twilight Rescue too, kero?" Asui asked, raising her hand.
"Me too?" Ashido asked, waving her hand in the air.
"...I think I would like to as well, Sensei." Iida said, looking a bit haunted, probably remembering the second day of terms’ security breach. "Just twilight, please."
Was this a dream? Was this real? Half a class finally making the smart choice and choosing literally anything other than Limelight?
"Aoyama? Bakugou?" He asked, hoping...
“Oui, si'l vous plait Sensei."
"...Yeah, alright. My parents already have to deal with those shitty vultures enough."
He nodded in satisfaction. At this rate, he’d finally have something over on Ms. Joke. She’s been bragging for years about how she turns out more Twilights and Unders than any of the other top ten schools in Japan. Aizawa hid the smile that Mic called his “creeper grin” in his capture scarf. He couldn’t wait.
“Koda?”
“Underground.” The kid signed.
“Midoriya?”
“I think I’ll start out as Underground, then maybe eventually switch to Twilight.”
Aizawa blinked at him. He didn’t know how feasible Underground would be with a quirk as flashy as his was but certainly wasn’t going to stop him from trying.
“Alright,” he said, then moved on.
By the end of class, he had five Unders (including the one he wa splanning to poach from Zashi’s homeroom and Todoroki of all people, who decided on Underground Rescue. Aizawa was convinced it was half to spite his father and half because he genuinely was interested in that track after using his quirk to move Thirteen away from the fighting at the USJ, which was par for the course with this kid), fifteen Twilights, several of whom decided to take rescue courses, and one singular Limelight.
Mineta.
(Of fucking course. Of course he would be the one ruining his streak. Only until the Sports Festival, he reminded himself. He would be gathering evidence until then. Would have expelled him outright instead of just having him in sexual harassment seminars during three study halls a week by day three if his father wasn’t on the school board. Fucking politics.)
Mineta would also be the only one not taking his Underground elective next semester, which was frankly insane, given that the most students he had ever had taking that course at once before this year was five. He might have to split the class over two semesters honestly, just to give the kids enough time to develop the skills they would need in order to pass that class.
Oh well. Aizawa knew of at least two Unders that would be coming out of Vlad’s classes, so he could have a full class. Oh hell, he’d have more than a full class wouldn’t he. Maybe he should split it up by people classifying as Unders and Twilights? Then he’d be able to give more individual time to the people committing to being Unders while still teaching the Twilights the same skills.
Damn it, he’d have to talk to The Rat about this, wouldn’t he?
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
The Sports Festival went both exactly as expected and not at all as expected.
Aizawa got dragged into commentating with Hizashi, which was decidedly not his thing, but the secretly feral Cockatoo had enough blackmail on him that he ended up going along with it out of self-preservation. At least he got the best seat in the stadium to watch his class kick ass.
Most years, the top twenty of the first event ended up a pretty even split between 1A and 1B.
That was not the case this go round.
Bakugou had come in first, with Todoroki following by fractions of a second. Third place was taken by Maijima’s favorite problem with a jet pack. Then came the rest of 1-A in groups of two or three that helped each other pass obstacles their partners weren’t well-suited. Shinsou Hitoshi (who wasn’t officially Mineta’s replacement yet but would be soon if Aizawa had any say in it) was righg in the middle of it all paired up with Koda and Tokoyami, their training for the last month going to good use.
Midoriya was the only one of them running alone because he was a goddamn lunatic. Despite running the course quirkless to avoid having easily accessible evidence of how his overpowered quirk worked, he came in fourth after piling up a bunch of mines and using a large piece of scrap metal to jump on it and launch himself across the rest of the minefield.
“You’re going to be the death of me, Problem Child,” he muttered, barely picked up by the mic. It was loud enough though, because Midoriya just waved cheerfully up at him from where he was casually evading Bakugou’s murder attempts.
Aizawa just shook his head and smiled into his capture scarf. Little smartass.
Of course, the kid had to outdo himself in the cavalry battle by somehow acquiring a team that could fly. By the end of the day, Aizawa was convinced that the only reason Midoriya hadn’t swept the whole thing was because he didn’t want to draw attention to his quirk. He still made fourth though, standing right next to Shinsou and looking very satisfied with himself.
By the end of the week, Mineta was out of 1A, Shinsou was in, and Aizawa wasn’t convinced that wasn’t Midoriya’s plan all along.
He would also officially need two Underground classes next semester because everyone in 1A was officially on his roster for the next semester.
Take that, Fukukado.
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
Aizawa was grading his most recent pop quiz in the Teacher’s Lounge when Yagi audibly groaned and laid his head on his desk.
“What is it? Are you okay?” Mic asked from beside him, concerned for his coworker.
Yagi grumbled something into the hero students’ internship forms.
“What was that?” Inui asked, cocking his head to one side.
“Izuku-kun is interning with Gran Torino,” Yagi said, turning his head to the side.
“What’s wrong with that?” Hizashi asked. “Didn’t you say he was your teacher as well?”
“Exactly,” Yagi replied. “I’ve known him for nearly forty years. He and Izuku-kun already have weekly phone call gossip sessions where they exchange blackmail material on me, now they’re going to have an entire week together entirely unsupervised. I’m doomed.”
As his coworkers laughed at Yagi, Aizawa smirked. He always loved hearing about his problem children wreaking havoc on his coworkers, but it seemed like Midoriya had a special talent for finding new and interesting ways to cause chaos.
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
“Aizawa-sensei!” Midoriya greeted him brightly as he entered the hospital room, seemingly unfazed by the Hosu Chief of Police staring him down.
“Midoriya,” he greeted, reluctantly amused now that his panic over three of his students fighting the Hero Killer had eased at seeing them conscious and still in possession of all of their limbs. “What happened?”
“We fought Stain,” he said in the same upbeat tone, but with hard eyes. “He had Iida cornered when I found them. I texted my coordinates to all my contacts before defending Iida and Native, who were paralyzed by his quirk at the time. Luckily, my suit covers everything but my hair and eyes and it’s all slash proof because I actually think ahead when designing uniforms, so I just fought him to stall until help came.
“A few minutes later Todoroki showed up and I got him to glacier Stain like he did Sero in the Sports Festival. Then we called the police to come pick him up and an ambulance for Iida and Native.
“Now Chief Tsuragamae is trying to convince us that we were acting as vigilantes even though Iida was fighting in self-defense and defense of a downed hero, I didn’t use my quirk, and Todoroki had permission to fight. He wants Endeavor to take the credit for Stain’s capture despite the glaring holes in that story.”
Chief Tsuragamae started to protest that version of events, but Midoriya gave him a sharp toothed grin.
“Go on, Chief, call in Tsukauchi and we can find out who’s full of shit.”
The Chief and Midoriya made eye contact for another long moment, Midoriya baring his teeth knowing damn well what kind of challenge that was to people with more animalistic quirks. Eventually the Chief turned and left without a word.
Before he could fully leave, Midoriya called out a friendly reminder that all three students were registered as Twilights or Unders and legally, anything regarding them in the press had to go through UA’s Principal in order to avoid giving any identity revealing information to the public, earning a huff and reluctant nod.
Then like nothing had happened, Midoriya was back to being his usual self.
“…Any injuries?” Aizawa asked, deciding that Chief Tsuragamae was not his problem right now.
All three boys shook their heads.
All three boys were very obviously lying.
Aizawa sighed.
This was going to be a long night.
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
Midoriya managed to talk the boys both out of trouble and out of being named or described in any meaningful way in the media beyond “local hero interns”. When asked, he explained that he hadn’t pulled what he had because the boys wanted credit, but because they hadn’t wanted Endeavor to have it.
(Once again, Aizawa reminded himself to look into the Number Two Hero just as soon as he had the time.)
After internships were over, the school year thankfully progressed mostly as normal for the rest of the term. This meant that Aizawa got the chance to know his students better, especially since he ended up supervising most of Yagi’s lessons.
He learned a lot about the kids over the next few months.
Kaminari had apparently been understating his ability with computers. Within a week of him mentioning it in class, Nedzu began abducting the kid twice a week from his study hall periods for private "programing" (hacking) lessons. Kaminari was also pretty smart when his brain wasn't being fried by overusing his quirk, which made his entrance exam scores make a bit more sense, but once he started sessions with the quirk counselor and began working more on quirkless sparring, his grades began to skyrocket, both in heroics, but also in the rest of his classes.
Yaoyorozu had begun quirk counseling as well and gotten a more suitable diet plan from her internship with Fatgum, which along with regular counseling sessions with Hound Dog began to boost her confidence. After a few months, she was much more likely to speak up with ideas and quickly gained the respect of her classmates as a strategist. Midoriya had also taken her under his wing in terms of quirk analysis.
Aizawa wasn't actually certain he had met a better analyst than Midoriya (barring maybe Nedzu). The kid was fast, accurate, and very good at finding and exploiting weaknesses in his opponents. After his costume intervention the first day of classes, the rest of 1-A had begun to encourage him to speak up when he noticed weaknesses that could be exploited so that they could work to fix them. After asking if they were certain a few dozen times, Midoriya finally lost his filter and gods had that day been glorious. Aizawa had watched from his sleeping bag as the kid ripped his peers to shreds, writing pages of notes as he went and handing them out afterwards.
The advice ranged from diet to fighting style to topics of study they should look into in order to better understand their quirks to heroes they should look into with similar quirks that they could learn from trying to emulate. For Todoroki specifically, the kid had a file of less destructive heroes with fire quirks than Endeavor and a recommendation that he get some therapy and talk to Nedzu about legal representation that wouldn't be afraid to provoke the HPSC.
(That was a can of worms he was going to tuck away and mention to The Rat later on himself, because what the fuck had the HPSC done to cause the hero worshipping teen to speak with that much venom?)
Midoriya was an enigma of a kid, tending to act more like a fond but exasperated babysitter or older brother to his peers. Beyond his advocating for them in the Teacher’s Lounge, he also had a talk with Bakugou that seemed to take the edges off his attitude, get Todoroki to use his quirk, help Hagakure figure out how to be visible, give Kirishima a confidence boost, and a dozen other things that made Aizawa’s class a lot more tolerable.
Aizawa was becoming increasingly convinced of the "de-aged pro" theory for that and a multitude of other reasons including his seeming encyclopedic knowledge of law relating to heroics, procedure, and wealth of practical advice when it came to things like gear for his classmates. And Aizawa, the one time he'd asked.
("You need better goggles that help with your dry eye." The kid said frankly. "Aside from gear, your hair is a dead giveaway for when you're using your quirk. Also, I'm pretty sure you have some mild telekinesis, because capture scarves are not supposed to move like yours." He stared at Aizawa for a few more seconds. "Have you ever tried winking while your quirk is active?"
This fucking kid.
Nedzu had emailed him a new training schedule and cc’d him on a project proposal for new goggles to Maijima within the hour.
All Hail the Rat God and all that.)
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
Aizawa had noticed something during quirkless sparring practice. Not only was Midoriya fantastic, but the times that he joined teams himself to make things more equal, he trusted the kid with his back. He didn’t know if it was leftover from the USJ or what, but he trusted Midoriya with his blindspots and he didn’t know what to do with that.
He also apparently trusted him enough to follow his directions during spars.
“Duck!” Midoriya called, and without even thinking, he was rolling under a kick from Tsuyu.
“Take left!” He muttered another time, and Aizawa took on Bakugou while Midoriya launched himself at Uraraka.
“Spring up!” And Midoriya’s form was so perfect for the move that he didn’t even think before using his cupped together hands to launch himself over Shouji to tackle Koda. Watching back footage sent by a silent but amused Nedzu later on, he realized for the first time that Midoriya was strong enough quirkless to launch a grown, six-foot tall man packed with muscle nearly eight feet into the air with seemingly very little effort.
Aizawa was not often impressed, but Midoriya seemed to have a talent for it.
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
Midoriya, sitting covered in a shock blanket with his feet dangling out of the back of an open ambulance, barely glanced up at Aizawa’s approach, simply greeting him with a nod before going back to his pouting.
“What happened? Are you hurt?” He asked the kid.
There was a bit of angry muttering in what sounded like Russian before the kid began to explain.
“Shigaraki found us in the mall. I saw him before he saw me and sent Ochako-chan to go call the police. Shigaraki cornered me and whined about Stain getting all the attention in Hosu. I broke his hands because he tried to touch my neck. The police are trying to call self-defense vigilantism again despite my not even using my quirk when there’s literally video evidence in my favor.”
The kid finally looked up at him, looking totally done. “Are all police officers total fucking idiots, or do I just attract the shitty ones?”
Aizawa snorted. “Depends on the day. You okay, kid?”
Midoriya nodded. “I broke his hands before he could hurt me.”
“Good.” Aizawa probably shouldn’t be encouraging this, but Midoriya seemed to have a better head on his shoulders than anyone else he’d ever taught and despite his trouble-attracting tendencies, he was beginning to trust his judgement. “Was anyone else hurt?”
“No, I had Hitoshi and Ochako keeping the crowd away and they got a few others to help.”
“Good. Quick thinking, kid.”
Midoriya gave him a wry smile before they were abruptly swarmed by loud, worried hero students.
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
Midoriya getting his provisional license was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, he could legally defend himself and others without getting arrested all the time for vigilantism so long as he filed his paperwork correctly. On the other hand, the kid ran into villains and criminals so often that Nedzu actually had him tested for a secondary luck-based quirk three times in the first six months of Midoriya having his license.
It started with the League of Villains.
Yes, the entire League.
“How?” Tsukauchi asked for the third time, sitting across an interrogation room from Midoriya.
Midoriya sighed. “I told you. Three times. You have a truth quirk.”
“One more time,” Aizawa told him. “For the record.”
Midoriya grumbled something exasperatedly in Spanish, then started at the beginning.
“I was just walking home from the store, minding my business, when I fell into a portal, which took me to the warehouse I called you from. Before I hit the floor, I used my quirk to knock out Dabi and Mr. Compress, who I believe were meant to grab me as I fell. Then I knocked out Kurogiri, Magne, and Toga. Twice and Shigaraki were a bit more difficult, but I managed to get Twice in quirk cuffs before knocking him out before doing the same to Shigaraki. Luckily I had my utility belt on, so I was able to get Toga and Dabi in quirk cuffs and Kurogiri in a collar before I called the police.”
“And why,” Tsukauchi asked, “Did you have so many pairs of quirk cuffs on you while going to the grocery store?”
Midoriya stared at him. “Myself and members of my class have been targeted by villains at least three times for information or leverage against All Might. People in my neighborhood who don’t believe I actually got a quirk still attack me regularly. Why do you think I carry them?”
“Where did you get the cuffs?”
Midoriya shrugged. “They keep getting slipped into my locker. On that note, I should warn you that they apparently self-destruct twenty-four hours after activation, so you should probably find a different way to restrain them.”
“How would you know that if they ‘just appeared’ in your locker?” Aizawa asked skeptically.
“I tested them. I wish they lasted longer honestly.” Midoriya trailed off, mumbling something about peace and quiet.
“What was that?” Tsukauchi asked, visibly exhausted.
“Nothing. Are we done now? I’m getting hungry?”
Tsukauchi and Aizawa stared at Midoriya, who was beginning to look annoyed. They glanced at each other, before sighing. Legally, Midoriya was in the clear and they both knew Tsukauchi didn’t have a good reason to keep him in custody any longer.
Midoriya was definitely getting detention for this. Probably.
Who was he kidding?
There was definitely going to be an interrogation regarding his neighbors attacking though. And a thorough lesson on what constituted legal and illegal manufacturing of support items for Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, and Hatsume.
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
The next metaphorical half-dead rat the kid dropped off at a police station was fucking Overhaul.
It was at this point that Aizawa fully gave up on enforcing any sort of limitations on Midoriya’s hero work. It was obviously a lost cause.
The Yakuza boss’ “daughter” Eri, freshly bandaged from a round of human experimentation had run straight up to Midoriya in an attempt to get away from him. Midorya had led the man on a merry chase to the nearest police station, handed Eri over to Sansa (who happened to be there for an investigation that had crossed jurisdictions) and proceeded to kick the living shit out of him. Whether this happened before or after the quirk cuffs were on Overhaul was up for debate, but nobody was particularly upset about an asshole who experimented on six year olds getting a bit roughed up.
When it came time to find Eri a foster home, she and Midoriya categorically refused to be separated, and with her particular quirk, no one wanted to stress Eri out too much. Aizawa (who had been called in because Midoriya was involved and Nedzu gave him a 10 yen raise for every Situation he dealt with) was eventually chosen as her guardian until Midoriya was old enough and licensed to become a foster parent.
At first, he was hesitant, as he had never been accused of being good with children, but something about the relief in Midoriya’s eyes and the wary hope in Eri’s when she found out he could negate her quirk if he needed to had Aizawa agreeing.
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
Nedzu had offered his babysitting and tutoring duties during school hours, which had only been surprising until Aizawa remembered that the Rat God had been a victim of experimentation himself. He proved surprisingly good with Eri, and even if he didn’t help much with her social skills, the kids from his hell class took to her quickly when he took her to visit Midoriya at the dorms.
Class 2A was, maybe not too surprisingly, very considerate of Eri’s limits. Ashido bonded with her over their horns, Yaoyorozu and Asui taught her (and Aizawa and Midoriya) how to do her hair, Bakugou was surprisingly good at explaining things to her in a way she understood when she was having trouble with her homework, Kirishima, Hagakure, Uraraka, Sero, and Kaminari effectively taught her to play pretend and make up stories, and Todoroki sat with her during lessons on social skills with Nemuri and Hizashi and frequently asked questions. The rest of the class also found things to do with her, even if it was a board game or finding cartoons to watch.
Aizawa was never short on babysitters, and Midoriya became surprisingly present in Eri’s–and his by extension–life. He coordinated babysitting nights with Eraserheads patrols and made sure Aizawa got breaks when he needed them. He became a common visitor at their on-campus apartment and spent many of his lunches in Nedzu’s office with them. Midoriya figured out that she had issues with certain types of fabric against her skin and found alternatives, cooked foods for her to try, found books to read to her as bedtime stories, taught her to talk about her day and feelings and interests by example.
The first time Eri smiled, it was small but bright and up at Midoriya and Aizawa could never resent that, especially when the next was right at him.
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
By the end of their second year, his hell class was the strongest any of his graduates had ever been. They were traumatized to hell and back, a bit feral, and codependent, but they were all up and kicking, and Aizawa couldn’t be prouder, not that he showed it often. He hadn’t told them that they were technically on an accelerated track and he wouldn’t be, keeping them for the full three years and cramming as much of his knowledge into their heads as he possibly could.
They had gotten the bug in their heads that they wanted to start an agency together–all twenty of them–and had already begun making friends with some of the other hero, gen ed, analysis, business, management, and support students who were disillusioned with the HPSC after what they’d gone through and were brainstorming what they wanted it to look like, especially with all Twilight and Underground heroes. For a bunch of teenagers, they were putting together a surprisingly realistic and viable plan, and Nedzu was practically rubbing his furry little paws together in glee.
Many of them had decided they would be doing heroics part time so they didn’t get burnt out and had the potential backup plan if they ever got injured and/or had to cut down, like Tensei or himself.
Bakugou had started taking some design electives in preparation to follow his parent’s footsteps, though with more of a focus on merch for the Twilights of their Agency. Thinking along the same lines, Uraraka had tentatively decided to go to school to become an architect, claiming that it would be helpful for both her parents’ business and for being a rescue hero. Kirishima and Todoroki were going to become firemen, Iida would be going to law school, Kaminari had started taking support classes to see if he wanted to try computer science, Koda would go to veterinary school.
Midoriya, who according to Nedzu would be a licensed analyst and have a fair amount of college credits racked up by the time he left UA, planned on going to school to become a quirk counselor while he got his teaching credential. Nedzu planned on Midoriya replacing Calculate as head of the analysis program within the next five to seven years depending on how long it took the hell class to get their agency established.
Aizawa could acknowledge, if only to himself, that he was pleased that the head of the Problem Child Brigade would be part of his life indefinitely for reasons aside from Eri. On that front, he was seriously considering asking Midoriya to move in with them while he was in college to make coparenting her easier on all three of them.
Nedzu had been showing his not so subtle support of this course of action by sending him increasingly suspiciously well-priced and easily defensible three-bedroom houses in locations central to UA, Musutafu University, and the primary school Eri would be attending next year. His most recent offering had been an entire small refurbished apartment building with a small courtyard in the center, a gym in the basement that Aizawa was seriously considering, given its location and enjoying the idea of having some spaces to rent out to struggling students, as well as being able to begin his patrol from his own rooftop.
He wasn’t exactly short on money, given his two jobs for the past ten years, consistent raises and bonuses and his pretty extreme habit of spending very little of it, so he had put in an offer. Things were going well.
Then it happened.
They were weeks away from the end of the semester. He was grading some of his Ethics essays while his hell class took tests they didn’t yet realize were all different from each other, some going towards various certifications they were working toward, others Nedzu specials. He had finally given in to Chiyo’s bullying and started wearing his reading glasses and would begrudgingly admit that it was helping.
Midoriya’s pencil snaps.
“That is it!” Midoriya’s hands slam down onto his desk, the noise ringing like a shot in the previously silent classroom.
“Midor–” Aizawa blinks, taken aback and concerned, but he’s cut off.
“I have had it up to here with all of you!” The class is staring at him, but it quickly becomes clear that Midoriya’s attention is focused on something in his own head.
“Dek-” someone tries to get his attention, but Aizawa is too stunned by what Midorya says next to process who.
“Yes, I know Aizawa is hot like burning,” he seethes the words out, eye twitching. “Yes, I also think his arms are delicious and he would treat us right, or wrong, in all the right ways.” Aizawa lets out an involuntary strangled noise. “But this body isn’t eighteen yet! So for the love of all that is holy, let me rest in peace until we’re physically old enough for him to actually look at us!”
What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck.
The class is silent. Aizawa can’t stop staring.
Midoriya seems to realize what exactly just happened and promptly decides not to care. He picks up his unfinished test and brings it up to the front of the classroom, taking a moment once he arrives in front of Aizawa’s desk to just stare at him with that same expression he gets when Eri is being unbearably adorable.
“Tell Nedzu I’ll finish this up later since we both know it’s one of his,” Midoriya says as he sets his test on the desk.
Then he leans forward and pushes Aizawa’s glasses back into place.
“The ghosts in my head think you have delicious DILF energy, and I have to agree with them,” Midoriya says while maintaining what can only be described as aggressive eye contact with a still-stunned Aizawa. “Please be aware that I will be coming after a date the moment I graduate.”
As Midoriya leaves, the class erupts into chaos, Aizawa still frozen in place.
What the fuck.
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
Chat: shonemzashi
sho: help im experiencing emotions
zashi: ???
nem: What kind of emotion? Tequila emotion or therapy emotion?
ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ: planaidekuisago.mp4
nem: I’ll take that as both
zashi: Nedzu, could you please take Eri for the night so that we can properly support Shouta?
ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ: Izuku-kun sent me a message on his way to the dorms, Eri is choosing movies for our sleepover as I type. Good luck!
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
Shouta had been lying on the floor of his apartment having a crisis for the last thirty minutes. Zashi and Nem would be arriving soon after classes ended, so he just had to wait a bit longer.
Someone knocked on his door early.
Shouta stared at it blankly.
“Aizawa?” Yagi called from the other side of the door. “Izuku-kun sent me to explain his ghosts. Our ghosts? The ghosts in his head.”
Shouta stared at the ceiling for a long moment, wondering exactly when his life got so goddamned surreal, then rolled to his feet and opened the door to let Yagi in because getting some answers would be better than spiraling for the next half-hour.
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
Zashi and Nem missed the bulk of the One for All explanation and arrived just in time to hear Yagi explain that Midoriya was born quirkless and that giving him Yagi’s quirk had had some side effects.
“One of those side effects being…ghosts?” Zashi asked, sitting on the floor beside Shouta, who was feeling very done with life at the moment.
“Well, yes.” Yagi said awkwardly. “Personally, I did not experience the ghosts, but the power of One for All has grown stronger with every generation, and Izuku-kun has explained that the–” Yagi cut himself off again, “--he calls them the vestiges or the “chat”--”
Nemuri snorted and took a swig from one of the several bottles she had brought.
“--have been around since the beginning and have memories of the entire time myself and each of my predecessors held the quirk.”
“And eventually he’ll have seven quirks?” Zashi asked, placing a pillow under Shouta’s head so he wouldn’t hurt it by banging it on the floor.
“Yes. I believe he has access to four at the moment.”
“That explains. So much.” Shouta mumbled, pressing the palms of his hands against his eyes as if to ward off an encroaching headache.
“And this is also why he does the mothering thing?” Nemuri asked, sitting down by Hizashi to play with his hair.
Yagi shook his head. “He did that a bit before, though not as much. Having them in his head definitely increased the…severity of the situation.”
They all stared at each other for a long moment before Yagi slapped his thighs and stood from Shouta’s couch. “Well,” he said, making his way to the door, “That’s what Izuku sent me to tell you. Should you choose to move forward with a relationship once he graduates, I certainly won’t stand in your way. I think you’d make a good pair really, equally…feral and competent with a healthy dislike for society at large beyond the people you care about. Territorial. Chaotic in your own way…” He trailed off awkwardly and coughed. “Anyway, good night!”
And he was gone.
Shouta, Nemuri, and Hizashi stared at each other, overwhelmed for a moment.
Nemuri passed them each a bottle.
“We’re too sober for this.”
| ◯ ‸ ◯ |
Two hours of drinking and avoiding it later, Hizashi finally broached the topic at hand.
“So, like, ignore his age and his, his student-ness,” he said, “What do you think of him? Like as a person?”
“I put in an offer on a bigger off-campus apartment thinking about coparenting Eri with him.” Shouta said, then took a swig from the water bottle Hizashi and handed him after he polished off a few shots of the whiskey. “I like talking to him and sitting next to him and sometimes he makes me food. Eri loves him.”
There was more to it than even that, he was realizing. He hadn't ever really thought of Midoriya as a kid, not in the way he thought of all the others, not since the USJ. He trusted Midoriya, trusted him with his back, with Eri, with fucking SS ranked villains. He had made space for Midoriya Izuku in his life and was just now beginning to understand the significance of that.
But Midoriya Izuku was seventeen. And his student.
“Are you opposed to him asking you on a date after he graduates?” Nemuri asked him seriously.
Shouta leaned back, laying his head on Hizashi’s lap as he considered it.
“...No.”
Hizashi’s phone buzzed with a message. He arched his back and leaned into the couch to grab it without moving Shouta, then read it.
“Nedzu suggests that Midoriya becomes his personal student for his last year so that Midoriya isn’t your responsibility to create some distance for you both to think on it until graduation.”
Shouta snorted. Like Nedzu wasn’t itching to get his grabby little paws on Midoriya’s brain since his first year. But the idea had merit.
Hopefully not having Midoriya as his responsibility would make both of their personal lives easier. He still wasn’t entirely convinced that a romantic relationship between them would work out, but he was willing to continue as they were for the next year and wait and see. All that had really changed was that he knew that Midoriya was attracted to him. He’d worked with Ms. Joke for years knowing she was attracted to him and been fine with it, he could coparent with Midoriya for a year and be fine with it.
Definitely.
“Hey!” Zashi exclaimed suddenly, audibly cutting off his quirk right before he spoke. “Does this mean I win the bet?”