Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi leaned against the wall as he massaged the bridge of his nose and fought the itch to reach for his old vices by the names of Mr. Cig and Mrs. Whiskey.

The reason for his current unease?

The green haired young man sitting on the bed, his prosthetic arms visible due to the sleeveless shirt he had on as he pulled on a red sneaker over one of his prosthetic feet that was connected to a prosthetic leg.

Izuku Midoriya, 17 years of age, former student, and current champion of the DEATHWATCH tournament which is what helped him get the bleeding edge suite of technology under his skin, in his skull, and the prosthetics that have replaced his arms and legs.

They arrived a week after Izuku alongside the doctors that installed them, and they weren’t from the 100,000,000 USD prize he won. They were from a “Fan” if the envelope they came with was any indication.

The fact there was someone that watched a show like that with enough power and influence to know about tech like that, much less being able to acquire it…

It made the detective’s skin crawl.

Almost as much as the DEATHWATCH itself.

A game of death, made to slake humanity’s thirst for blood.

A game of death, twisted into a sick form of entertainment where the most vicious killers are set free to massacre the unluckiest bastards in the world so that they may kill in the most gruesome and horrible ways possible for the sake of being awarded “points” for their brutality that was broadcasted across the world on Shock TV.

Izuku Midoriya was meant to be one of those unlucky bastards.

Instead, he climbed to the top of the heap, learning to turn murder and pain into a gruesome artform with nearly every implement of death known to man.

Though… the state he was in when he stumbled out of an alley in the middle of Mustafu revealed that his apprenticeship and eventual mastery was a rather painful affair.

Half the bones in his body were dust, the other half were broken or, in the case of his right arm, no longer there. Not to mention the internal damage, the infections, the blood loss, the burns, and everything else.

After the doctors had finished working on him, they said he would be out for several months.

He was awake after a day and, once he regained enough strength for his wounds to be cleared up with quirks, the technology and prosthetics were put in or attached, and he was up and moving soon after.

After that a detective had been sent to question the young man, and who better to send than the human lie detector?

Naomasa had asked pretty much every question in the book, the margins, and on the cover, and he had gotten the perfect answer for each of them, many of which had been half-truths that the detective had no way of putting pressure on to see if he would crack.

Even if he had the leverage to do so, Naomasa doubted if Midoriya would crack or if he even could.

After all, the kid had gone through what could only be described as hell and put through every type of pressure and stress someone could go through and came out of it scarred, but alive and lively with a quiet strength that, if the detective’s gut was to be believed, told everyone and everything he was more than capable of and willing to turn anyone who tried to step to him into a bloody mess.

In simple terms, Naomasa came in here with nothing and will leave with nothing.

In most other contexts, the detective would’ve been infuriated by this.

This time though? He was willing to take it on the chin. The kid did what he needed to survive and far be it from him to try and find any fault in that.

The electrical whirring of Midoriya standing up snapped Naomasa out of his thoughts.

“So then… am I good to go? Or do you still have some questions for me, Detective Tsukauchi.” Midoriya asked as he went to scratch his right arm with his left, only to stop halfway there when he recalled his arms had nothing to itch anymore.

Naomasa made a small show of looking over his notes before shaking his head and declaring “No. I’ve got everything needed for the report and uh… sorry about-“ the detective held up the notepad “-this. I know it can’t have been pleasant to go over it.”

Izuku waved his hand before responding “Don’t worry about it. In fact, this has been… therapeutic in a way. Talking about it I mean.” The young man let out a tired sigh as he looked at his hand before speaking again “Still I gotta admit… I keep expecting all the walls to fall while Howard and Kreese start yelling over the speaker’s playing music and the screams of the contestants as they try to kill me and each other.”

Naomasa wanted to say something to comfort him.

Naomasa also had no idea what he could say that could comfort him.

“You know… I can still smell the blood. I can still feel it on my hands too. Ain’t that a funny thing?” Midoriya muttered with a chuckle that Naomasa had heard too many times from people who had yet to fully grasp what had happened to them.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Inko had no idea what to say as she pushed the wheelchair Izuku sat in, the raincoat he asked for fluttering lightly as he pulled on gloves over his new hands.

The doctors told her not to push him to talk, that she should let him adjust and come to grips with things. They told her that she should keep things as normal as possible but not to force him to try and be the same because after…

Inko couldn’t bring herself to even think about what he went through. Not yet at least.

“I… mom?” Izuku asked as they entered the empty elevator.

“O-oh! Sorry. I was… thinking. Is something wrong?” Inko responded, worry clear in her voice.

“Oh there’s… a lot wrong. Most of it being stuff that feels like it happened to another person. Right now, though? Would you mind if we had some katsudon tonight? The hospital’s food is… a bit bland.” Izuku asked quietly as he fidgeted in place, seeming to struggle with not having anything to do with his hands and trying to figure out where he should put them, ultimately deciding to cross his arms.

Inko, for the first time since Izuku went missing a month ago, smiled and said “Of course. I’ll make it just how you like it.”

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

As Izuku was wheeled through the lobby of the Hospital, he tried to think about normal things like food, the weather, and the number of tiles on the floor.

The fact he was currently contemplating what objects in his immediate vicinity could be used to turn every person into a brutalized corpse capable of keeping him in the crowd’s good graces for a few minutes more showed that he was failing.

He could hear the announcers’ reactions already.

“WOW! I didn’t know you could do THAT with a stethoscope! Poor bastard looks like my ex when she said she wanted to try anal…”

“Damn! Looks like some of ya thinkin types ain’t pussies afterall! This kid here sure ain’t!”

“Oooh! It looks like that doctor needs a trip to the Emer- Oh, never mind. Change that chart to a toe tag and open the freezer!”

“Hah! Looks like that nurse is gonna be a Yo-Yo in her next life!”

Before Izuku’s mind could concoct more vulgar responses to things that he had no intention of doing but was still considering, the sound of the doors sliding open shook him back to reality.

Before him, was a garishly yellow foreign taxi straight out of a pre-quirk movie set in New-York, complete with checkered patterns on the side and a ghoulish looking man that had long since had all life drained from his red eyes that he lacked the energy to try and hide under his cap that sat upon a head of ink black hair. It paired well with his wrinkled jacket, baggy dress pants, and the T-shirt with a tie printed onto it. His name tag read “Aizawa”.

Aizawa was currently slurping down the last few drops from a juice pouch in one hand and holding a sign in his free hand.

Upon the sign, in massive block letters no less, was the words “FOR INKO & IZUKU MIDORIYA! COURTESY OF PRINCIPLE NEZU!”

Izuku looked up at his mother, a deeply confused expression on his face that was mirrored by Inko.

This confusion only doubled when the door was flung open, revealing a white furred creature with beady black eyes and a scar over its right eye. The creature was also extremely small as even with Izuku sitting down, it seemed as if it would barely reach his chin.

“Greetings and salutations! It's me, Nezu, the one who could be a dog or a mouse or a bear, but more importantly... I'm the principal of UA University!” the white furred creature declared as it raised its left hand in a greeting gesture.

Upon seeing and hearing this, Izuku looked back to his mother and asked “Mom, do you happen to know what the doctor’s gave me? I could’ve sworn I just the principal of UA.”

“Scar over the left eye, white fur, and looks highly puntable?” Inko asked her son, despite being equally surprised as him.

“Rude! I mean it’s true but still! Rude!” Nezu declared in mock offense as he placed a paw on his chest before stepping back and hopping onto the seat, leaving mother and son to wonder what in the world was going on.

This confusion came to an end when Izuku stood up from the wheelchair, grabbed onto the open door, and allowed his mother to take her seat first by taking a small bow and gesturing to the empty seats with his free arm.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“Well! This is exciting isn’t it? It’s not often I get to meet a fellow like you Mr. Midoriya!” Nezu declared with a chuckle as his seatbelt clicked into place alongside Izuku and Inko’s.

In response, Nezu received nothing more than a cautious glare that felt like the edge of a scalpel placed at his neck and ready to rip his throat out at a moment’s notice.

“Don’t worry, even if I did intend to try anything I am quite sure you could turn me into a substance most closely resembling chunky salsa in the time it would take for my whisker to twitch. Especially with all of that cutting edge tech that was stuffed inside you.” Nezu declared matter-of-factly to Izuku while holding up his paws to show that he meant no harm.

The feeling of imminent death hanging over Nezu’s head lessened slightly after doing this.

“E-excuse me! M-might I ask why you are… here and giving us a ride?” Inko asked, stumbling over her words as she tried to catch up to the silent exchange that just happened between her son and the principal of UA.

“Of course you may! And my reason for showing up is because I would like to make your son an offer.” Nezu began with a smile towards Inko before turning to Izuku, his smile being replaced with an analytical eye.

“My offer is as follows: I have seen your… “Greatest Hits” during the DEATHWATCH and you, Izuku Midoriya, are a young man with unique knowledge and intimate experience in turning the bodies of living things into corpses. Not to mention the fact that you have a unique ability for taking disparate items to turn them into things that can even the playing field. You also bear a strength of will most commonly found in people who decide to bore a hole through mountains rather than go around. Due to this, I would like to offer you a place on UA’s Support Course where you can use that knowledge and experience to assist heroes in training. I would also like for you to take part in some of the Hero Course’s training as a sort of… reality check for some of the more idealistic types. If you accept this offer, I will guarantee you a full ride, unlimited resources to work with, and minimal oversight. Needless to say, you are well within your rights to add your own stipulations to this offer or reject it.” Nezu explained to the two before placing his paws in his lap and allowing them to converse amongst themselves or ask any questions they wanted answered.

The first to speak was Izuku who asked, “When does this offer expire?”

Nezu answered concisely with “Two weeks before the beginning of the school year.”

Inko jumped in with “Why now? Why at all?”

Nezu answered honestly with “Due to Midoriya’s release from the hospital and because it would be a waste of his skills for him to not make use of them, no matter how brutal and dark they may be.”

Izuku promptly asked “And if must use my… “skills” to their full extent?”

“Then I would offer my condolences to the one your skills are directed at.” Nezu answered with brutal honesty and a smile on his face.

“Can you guarantee that my son won’t be in any danger?” Inko nervously asked as she fidgeted with her hands.

“I… no. No, I cannot. What I can guarantee you is that your son will be able to create things to keep others from harm and save more from further pain.” The principal answered morosely as his shoulders slumped slightly, and eyes grew sadder.

After that, silence hung over the trio as Nezu stared at the floor, Inko chewed on her nails anxiously, and Izuku closed his hands into fists.

The silence was promptly broken by Izuku letting out a deep sigh and asking one, final question.

“Why are you really trying to get me to come to UA?”

Nezu remained quiet for a moment before answering the question.

“You, quite simply, are a killer-“

Nezu was cut off by Inko slapping him across the face.

“Don’t you DARE-“ Inko began to hiss at the rodent before her before Izuku placed a hand on her shoulder, forcing her to look at him in confusion as he shook his head to the side.

Nezu lightly massaged the side of his face before continuing.

“You, quite simply, are a killer. I understand you did not choose to be one, but the fact remains that you have killed a great many people in countless different ways. This is the only true reason I have for approaching you as I fear that in the coming times, killers like you will be required to keep the world from sliding into chaos. I know that I am asking you to trade away pieces of yourself, I know that I am asking you to step back into the same storms of chaos and carnage you just escaped from, and I know that by asking you to do this, I am barely any better than the people who turned you into a master of your craft. If there is some form of higher power, I will burn for even asking you this and I can live with that.”

In response, Izuku simply stared at the principal of UA for an excruciatingly long moment, saying nothing and barely even breathing.

Inko was about to step in, to force this ride to stop, and to force this rat bastard before her to regret ever showing his face.

Before she could do this, however, Izuku spoke.

“I have three conditions.”

Inko immediately wheeled around to look at her son, countless objections rising in her throat until she looked at his eyes.

His mind was already made… no, it was deeper than that…

He already knew that Nezu was right, and he already knew that this was the only path left for him to follow.

Deep down, no matter how much she denied and hated it, Inko agreed with the principal of UA. Things were about to change. She could feel it in the air, see it in the news as villains started outnumbering heroes, and see it in the lines on ALL MIGHT’s face.

The world was about to change, and it was a given that things were going to get worse before they got better.

“Go ahead. I will see what I can do.” Nezu declared grimly, acting as if he was selling not just his own soul, but someone else’s as well.

And make no mistake, he was.

“My first condition is that I must receive a list of everything they put in me alongside schematics and, if applicable, user manuals. I can tell that these things have more to them than being replacements for the pieces of me that ended up being broken beyond repair and I intend to make full use of them.” Izuku declared clearly while gesturing vaguely to his arms and legs.

“Done.” was Nezu’s response.

“My second is that I have full access to my winnings. I know that all the money was frozen the second the bank learned where it came from. I also know that too much blood was spilled for that cash for it to end up in limbo.” Izuku explained quietly, a deep regret in his eyes.

“That will take some doing but… I can pull some strings.” Was all the principal said in response.

“Finally… I need to know that you are aware that if worse comes to worse and I must spill blood… your students will learn things that they should never have to. Can you live with that?”

“I… no. But I will have to learn how to.” Nezu answered with grim honesty.

Izuku muttered something to himself before holding out his gloved hand to Nezu and saying “Then, I am sorry to say, we have a deal.”

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

After Izuku and Nezu made their deal, a grim silence fell over the cab for the remainder of the drive.

Thankfully traffic was far from busy due to the time of day and, if Izuku was hearing the muffled radio correctly, the storm approaching.

By the time the cab pulled into the parking lot of the apartment complex that was the only home Izuku ever knew, the storm clouds were rolling over the city skyline.

As Inko and her son were climbing the stairs, they could see sheets of rain battering the buildings across the street.

Once they reached the door that separated their home from the outside world, they could barely hear their own thoughts from the rain.

 Izuku was glad for that, it kept him from dwelling on… things.

“Hopefully the principal works fast as I doubt I’ll be able to stay sane if don’t have something to occupy myself with…” Izuku muttered to himself as he stepped through the door, pulling off his raincoat and reminding himself once again that nothing will ever be the same when he saw his arms.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Izuku let the scorching hot water fall upon his head, soaking his hair and letting the water stream down his back as they traveled through the trenches of still tender scar tissue while he touched each one, recalling the agony he suffered on the path that led him back home.

A series of shrapnel scars running from the left side of Izuku’s hip to just under his ribcage that were courtesy of Little Eddie’s skull exploding after he was tricked into crushing his head with his own weapon.

Jude The Dude left Izuku with a few bullet holes in his chest to remember him by before Izuku replaced most of Jude’s organs with lead.

The patch of skin on Izuku’s back that was torn off by Von Twirlenkiller’s tornadoes before Izuku returned the favor tenfold.

Rin Rin left Izuku with a long, thin scar that ranged from his right shoulder, to just above his hip.

The scar that started at Izuku’s right side and ran over the one Rin Rin gave him on its path to his left shoulder was a gift from Shogun.

Yokozuna, due to the fact a helicopter exploding after being thrown at you is hard to get out of the way of, left Izuku with burns up the left side of his body from the middle of his thigh to his neck.

The infection that guaranteed his left arm being removed at the middle of the bicep was thanks to The Shamans and them never brushing their teeth.

Frank and his electricity fried Izuku more than once, leaving a starburst of branching electrical burns stretching across his body.

Several of his scars went through his entire body, most of them were given to him by Elise alongside quite few jagged bite marks courtesy of her bats.

Kojack gave Izuku quite a few hard knocks, including the wound on his right leg that would end up infected and lead to it being removed just above the knee alongside a deep scar across Izuku’s chest.

The memento Izuku received from The Masters came in the form of a stab wound through his stomach and out his back from the oldest of the two and the eventual removal of his left leg at the thigh due to the wound Izuku received from the younger of the two.

Martin left Izuku with a nice cut across his face and took out his left eye after Izuku nearly had his head removed by a buzzsaw.

Finally, The Baron was responsible for Izuku no longer having a right arm as during the final exchange of blows, Izuku’s arm reached its limit and upon landing the final blow, Izuku hit The Baron with such force his arm practically exploded, leaving it connected to the shoulder by bits of flesh that soon gave way.

There were more, there was always more that Izuku was finding. Some were from unranked contestants, some were from the surgeries that kept him alive, others were from the surgeries that put all the stuff that connected his arms and legs to his nervous system and as the green haired young man traced the final scar, he wondered what in the world he should be feeling right now.

He got out, he was free of the DEATHWATCH, free of the carnage, free of fighting and killing to survive.

Yet, he didn’t feel like it. He could still feel the sickly warmth of the blood on his hands, he could still hear the roar of the crowds when the most brutal murders known to man were carried out, and every time he closed his eyes, he could see the bodies of the people he killed.

Did he even have the right to feel free of it?

Afterall, no matter how horrible it was, it was something he was good at, it was something he understood, and it was something he held onto as a constant in The DEATHWATCH.

Izuku turned the water off, his metal fingers clinking against the knob.

He wished he could turn off the thoughts and memories as easily.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Izuku sat at the table, the full contents of the kitchen laid out in front of him as he read the label on the can of soda in his hands.

Inko loved her son, and she was going to support him however she could to help him heal, but she was also about to strangle him for messing with her kitchen at-

Inko squinted at her watch

-3:00 in the morning.

She was contemplating grabbing him by the ear and forcing him to clean up the mess he made.

However, before she could act on that thought, three sharp knocks at the door startled her and, if the sound of a can of soda exploding was any indication, it startled Izuku as well.

“Who in the world is knocking at this time of night!?” Inko whispered at her son who, despite being covered in orange soda, had already closed one of his metal hands into a fist and was more than ready to knock someone’s block off if needed.

Briefly, Izuku was tempted to simply rip whoever was knocking through the door.

Fighting against that impulse, he decided on simply opening the door instead.

With a quiet squeal, the door opened, revealing the man who drove them from the hospital, now dressed in all black save for his scarf, the yellow goggles around his neck, the concerningly bloodshot eyes, and the dried blood from the gash on his forehead. The man had a cup of coffee in one hand that had a note on It that read “Please, for the love of god, just mainline adrenaline. It’s healthier for your heart than the espresso concentrates you drink.”

“Uh… hello? Are you okay?” Izuku greeted the man cautiously, still ready to put up a fight if he needed to.

In response, the man reached into his scarf and pulled out a thumb drive before holding it out to Izuku,

Izuku hesitantly held out his hand for the bag which was promptly placed in it.

The man with the scarf proceeded to say, “Good night.”

Inko responded with “Its 3:00 in the morning…”

The man with the scarf simply hummed in response before stumbling off, leaving Izuku and Inko to look at each other, silently asking each other if that just happened or had they just shared a hallucination.

 -=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Izuku plugged the thumb drive with and soon after, Izuku was looking at the “Introduction” of the 1,500-page document that was written by Nezu.

“How in the world did he write all of that in just a week?” Izuku muttered to himself in shock and a little bit of awe.

Still, this would keep him occupied for a long while. Especially when he gets to page 550 which, according to the table of contents, would be when Izuku gets to learn about the weaponry in his arms and legs.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

They put in a full suite of sub-dermal armor rated for armor piercing rounds, reinforced bones, artificial muscle replacements, and artificial eyes capable seeing thermal signatures, night vision, seeing through walls, seeing electrical fields, seeing through people’s skin to their musculature, organs, and bones, being able to zoom into things, tracking things, an artificial nictitating membrane to clear debris in his eyes and protect it from bright flashes.

That’s not even mentioning the  ear implants for more sensitive and accurate hearing, receiving and sending communications, or the implants in his skull for recording terabytes of information, connecting to the web, examining people’s responses to questions and body language, examining the environments ambient light and noise levels, showing approximations of where people are looking, showing how much noise he’s making, showing how much noise other people are making, and keeping track of numerous other people through any material.

There were also implants on and in his spine to connect it to his arms and legs with as little as 5 microseconds of delay, alongside implants for getting into and controlling systems, boosting his reflexes to the point he could theoretically respond to a gun being fired before the bullet had left the barrel, there were even implants in his lungs to recycle oxygen if he encounters airborne agents, an artificial liver capable of filtering out any toxins known to man, and implants capable of starting his heart back up if it stops.

That’s all before he got to his arms and legs.

His hands had emitters for positron claws in his fingertips, his wrists had a smaller scale version of Von Twirlenkiller’s cyclone generators, the outer side of his forearms had emitters for positron arm blades in them, the inner side could open to utilize something called “Tesla Blitz” to generate powerful electrical currents. Not to mention the fact the arms, when working in tandem with artificial muscle replacements, let him pick up or tear something off pretty much anything and punch with enough force to turn most if not all forms of stone into dust.

His feet were padded enough for him to go into a full sprint and barely make any noise, and his thighs had the same positron blade emitters as his forearms, this time capable of a full 180 degrees of movement in any direction around his leg. Meanwhile the front of his knees was practically solid metal that, with the help of the artificial muscle, could launch his knees at something with forces that rivaled some small explosives.

If Izuku wasn’t so horrified by the fact they did all of this without his or his mother’s knowledge, he would be impressed.

He knew that his arms and legs were more than just arms and legs, he knew that when he asked his mom to sign off on them but… this?

Half of these things were, as far as Izuku knew, just pre-quirk ideas from some doctors that specialized in prosthetics before Quirk’s turned that field on its head and forced people to start over from scratch. The other half were outlawed or restricted to the point of non-existence.

The fact he hadn’t gone insane from the stress put on his mind by them just being attached to him was staggering.

Izuku was terrified of what could happen if something pushed the delicate balance his brain was in too far to one side. Hell, just a little bit of adrenaline could turn him into a stark raving mad lunatic that kills anything that moves.

A more cynical part of him mused that might have been the goal. Afterall, the DEATHWATCH always needed more killers and what better killer could there be than someone so packed full of tech and augments made for killing he didn’t have anything going on between his ears besides killing.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Inko looked at the list of “Augments” they put in her son, and she was torn on what to feel. More specifically, she was torn between nausea, blind fury, breaking down into a sobbing mess, and dragging Izuku back to get as many of them out as possible.

Unfortunately, Izuku had already told her it would not be that simple.

“You said that all of these… augments were connected directly to your nervous system in one way or another?” Inko asked once again, her voice ringing hollow in her own ears as she tried to keep the storm of emotions in her from taking over.

“Yeah. That… that means if someone tries to remove them without the right tools, know how, or understanding it could cause permanent nerve damage at best and… brain death at worse.” Izuku muttered in response as he sat against the wall across from Inko, his arms hanging over his knees as he looked at his hands.

“Why do these things keep happening to you?” Inko whispered, tears beginning to stream down her face and onto the paper in her hands.

Izuku had nothing to say in response. Nothing of any comfort or substance at least.

The only path he had now belonged to Nezu.

It was also the path most likely to end with him covered in blood as his sanity slipped through his fingers, and he lost himself in a never-ending whirlwind of carnage and death.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

It had been a month since Izuku learned about everything they put into him.

Now, he stood at the door to his home, his slightly modified wardrobe of a white sleeveless shirt over a red raincoat paired with black pants and red sneakers rustling slightly with every breath, bag hanging off his back from its single strap, and gloved hand on the doorknob.

Once he stepped out this door, everything would change again.

Once he stepped out this door, any chance of going back to just being Izuku Midoriya would end.

Izuku thought he had made peace with that.

Then again, it didn’t matter if he made his peace. He had very few options, and this was the only one that let him try to help others in what small ways he could.

Izuku Midoriya then took a deep breath, opened the door, and put an end to the hope of returning to the person he was for the sake of living as what he must.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

As Izuku was escorted through the halls of UA by a Present Mic, a man with a shade of neon yellow hair that could only ever be called violent, he took note of how… quiet it was. More than likely because most of the people on the campus had just finished the written portion of the entrance exam.

That quiet soon came to an end when he heard the buzzing of machinery, the sound of people screaming in fear, and maniacal laughter that made the villains in the morning cartoons he watched seem tame.

In preparation of whatever came after he rounded the corner, he pulled off the glove on his right hand and rolled up his sleeve to his elbow.

His intuition was proven right as, a split second after the man practically shouted “HERE YA ARE LITTLE LISTENER! UA’S SUPPORT DEPARTMENT AND YOUR NEW STOMPING GROUNDS!!!” the door rocketed off its hinges and right towards Izuku.

At that exact same moment, the side of his right forearm opened, and a curved piece of metal came flying out. A nanosecond later, a blade of emerald energy came screaming to life as it sliced through the heavy metal door like a red-hot knife through butter before retracting into the arm that Izuku then used to backhand the remnants of door away, revealing a pink haired woman clad in overalls flying towards him that he had to let crash into his torso as it was pretty much the only place that wouldn’t immediately break bones if she hit it, though she would have quite few bruises after the fact due to the armor under his skin.

The pink haired woman promptly crashed into Izuku with far more force than he was expecting, knocking him off his feet and onto his back which left him and the pinkette in a… compromising position to say the least.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

After the pinkette was extracted from ogling Izuku like she just found a fun new toy to disassemble into its component parts so she could see what makes it tick, they were both shooed into the room by a man clad in all kinds of heavy equipment while the blonde who led Izuku here was doubled over laughing.

“What about the door?” Izuku murmured to himself as he hastily rolled his sleeve back down and put his glove back on.

“Trust me, we’ve got spares for days.” Power Loader declared with a tone of voice that seemed to scream “I can already tell this girl is going to give me a never-ending migraine”.

Soon after, Izuku was sat in a plastic folding chair to the left of the pinkette who had a frazzled looking blonde woman sitting to her right.

Said blonde was clad in a white dress shirt, a red vest, capri pants, long red and pink plaid socks, brown boots and a plaid bow in place of a tie to top it all off.

“Right then, hiccups aside, why don’t you all introduce yourselves to your classmates?” Power Loader grumbled as he nodded to a plastic folding table.

“Oh! I’ll go first!” the pinkette exclaimed energetically, hopping to her feet with a smile that most closely resembled the one Izuku imagined a cat made when it was left in a room filled with fragile things.

“My name is Mei Hatsume! I am here because they said I would be put on trial in Geneva if I didn’t! My quirk is called Zoom, and it allows me to magnify what I see up to 5 Kilometers away! I can’t wait to make some BEAUTIFUL babies with you two!” Mei declared without a care in the world.

The blonde sitting next to Izuku promptly turned an impressive shade of crimson and, after stumbling over her words for a moment, managed to squeak out “Y-you mean inventions? Right? Right!?”

Izuku would also be lying if he said his face didn’t feel a bit hot.

“Obviously? Though now that I look at the two of you-“ Mei began, turning her head to the side slightly before being interrupted by Power Loader.

“I’ll stop you right there. If any of you are thinking about bumping uglies, don’t even think about it within 500 meters of the development studio.” The excavation hero declared with finality before directing Mei to sit down which gave the blonde enough time to stop sputtering and choking like she was just punched in the throat.

Speaking of the blonde, she was the next one up to bat. Mostly because she stumbled up to the fold up plastic table to pour herself a glass of water that she downed in about two and a half seconds.

“O-oh! Right! Introductions!” the blonde muttered before patting herself down like she was looking for something in one of her pockets. This is because she was as, after a bit of fidgeting, she pulled out a handful of index cards that promptly all flew out of her hands, leaving her to decide if she should play it by ear or crawl around on the floor to grab them all.

After a moment of looking at the floor as her face turned red once again, she decided to play it by ear.

“H-hi! My name is Melissa Shield, and I am here because my uncle sent in a letter of recommendation! My quirk is Power Stacker, and it allows me to amplify any kinetic energy I generate! I might not be here often since I’m primarily in the Hero Course, but I look forward to working with both of you!” Melissa declared, before taking a small bow.

This left only Izuku to introduce himself.

He probably should’ve written this down beforehand or practiced.

Its not like he can go “Hey! My name’s Izuku Midoriya! I am here on behalf of the principal! I don’t have a quirk, but I do have a whole suite of augments and weapons that make me a walking grenade that could go off at any moment! I also have a history of committing violent murders for the sake of the sick entertainment of others! I hope we can get along!”

“Oi! Kid! Chill. Or slow down. I caught absolutely nothing you just said.” Power Loader grumbled as he tapped Izuku on the top of his head.

“I… same here. Sorry.” Mellisa said with a wince and an apologetic look on her face.

“Ooh! I can build-“ Mei began to say before being cut off by Melissa and Power Loader with a very loud “NO!”

“I- er- sorry bout that. I… mumble sometimes when I’m thinking. Let’s try that again yeah?” Izuku declared as he stood and walked over to the table and began to introduce himself.

“Hello, my name is Izuku Midoriya. I am here via a personal offer from Principal Nezu. I do not have a quirk, but I do have some… pre-existing knowledge on using what I have on hand to make things that work far better than they should. I also recently came into possession of a compliment of augment’s that were courtesy of an anonymous doner after a… recent incident. It is a pleasure to meet you all, and I hope we can make some truly wonderful inventions together.”

Chapter Text

Melissa Shield was always… fond of her last name.

Shield, something made to protect others.

Her dad was the same way. His best works were always made for the sake of protecting people.

Now though… she seemed to have met someone who was the exact opposite of her.

Izuku Midoriya, one of three people In the Support Course who got in via recommendation and the only one in the entire school here via a direct offer from the principal.

He specialized in offensive support items and hero suit durability. From what Melissa had seen, his craftmanship was primarily defined by functionality over form and being able to work even after being hit with a sledgehammer.

Melissa knew this because of the fact she had only seen four items move beyond his prototype phase in the last five days and because he had just dumped what used to be a prototype face shield, an arm mounted focus for high powered electric signals, several renditions of goggles, and four different types of miniature speakers into the scrap heap after unleashing his fury upon them for not being up to snuff.

“Ugh… back to the chicken scratch schematics! He says for the umpteenth time in the last five hours.” Midoriya quietly grumbled as he placed his left arm his right shoulder and rotated his arm before placing his right arm on his left shoulder and doing the same and then grabbing the crude diagrams given to them by the hero course students after the first week ended.

There were some… polarizing reactions to the requests some of the hero course students sent in.

Some, like Hatsume, were just happy to work.

Others, like Melissa, understood that they had some… unrealistic expectations about what they could make.

Then there was Midoriya who looked at the schematics for a total of five minutes before marching out of the workshop to drag several of 1-A and 1-B’s students back here so he could rake them over the coals for twenty minutes and in the cases of the worst offenders, they received full letters the following day.

During the whole event Melissa was sure Midoriya was going to rip Iida’s head off and use it to bludgeon Aoyama to death.

She was also sure that he scared the daylights out of both classes as, according to the firsthand accounts courtesy Jirou, Uraraka, Kaminari, and Tsu, he looked about ready to murder someone when he threw open the door with a quarter of 1-B behind him looking like they were being marched to their executions.

It was a shock to most of the support course as well because Izuku was, for the most part, a very calm and quiet person. Even when he was frustrated or being asked to put someone’s work through the wringer he only ever spoke loud enough to be heard over the machinery and ambient noise of the studio.

Heck, the most animated she’d seen him before this was the day she met him when he sliced that door in two after Hatsume was left unsupervised for all of five seconds and made a bomb out of a toaster.

Speaking of his arms, she was surprised Hatsume hadn’t already tried to pick his brain about them, or worse, try and pick them apart herself.

Melissa sincerely doubted it was because she had learned any shame or due to the fact that Midoriya had shown the ability and willingness to go through concrete walls like they were little more tissue paper in the Hero Course training exercise the principal asked him to be a part of last Friday.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Last Friday=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

It all began with a simple assignment from Uncle Might and Mr. Aizawa.

Find and apprehend a villain in an urban environment.

1-A was split into four groups of five picked at random.

Team A were Her, Shoji, Sato, Ojiro and Kirishima

Team B had Kaminari, Sero, Koda, Jiro, and Yaoyorozu

Team C was made up of Toru, Mina, Aoyama, Tsu, and Uraraka

Finally, Team D was comprised of Bakugou, Todoroki, Iida, Tokoyami, and Mineta

After some… attitude from Bakugou for not being on Team A, and whining from Mineta, they were given a picture of the target which comprised of a blurry photo of a dark, vaguely humanoid object and their marching orders.

The exercise would take place in Mock City A, and each team would patrol a quarter of it while looking for the villain.

Soon after, they were on the hunt.

At first, everything was going well. Everyone besides Mineta, Bakugou, and Todoroki were keeping in contact over the comms they were given, and the search was steady, but they had yet to see hide or hair of the villain.

Then, on the sixth floor of the fifth building they were searching, comms dropped, and Shoji got shoulder checked by something busting through a wall, the force behind the blow carrying him out of the building, and into the next one over.

Sato rushed forward and tried to hit the attacker with a right straight powered by ten sugar cubes.

The punch was stopped by the attacker’s palm, his fist was grabbed and used to twist his arm, followed by a kick to the ribs that broke three and dislocated his shoulder before receiving a kick to the stomach that sent him through four walls.

This allowed the remaining three to see their attacker.

The villain for this exercise wore a black cloth mask that fully covered their head, a black combat vest over a form fitting black long sleeved shirt paired with black leather gloves, and black cargo pants with the pants cuffs stuffed into a pair of black combat boots.

That was all Melissa could make out before she had to block a boot from turning her rib cage into dust, sending her flying down the hall and into the wall with enough force to crack it and knock the very concept of breath out of her body.

As Melissa was trying to learn how to breathe again, she could only watch as Kirishima and Ojiro tried to go on the offensive.

Ojiro led with a roundhouse kick that the villain dodged under and came face to face with Kirishima who was throwing a right hook with his hardened fist that was stopped half way through its arc by the villain slipping under the blow and countering with a combination that consisted of a punch to the throat with his right, a kick to the back of the right leg with the villains left that dropped Kirishima to his knee, followed by a rising kick from the villains right leg, and finished with an axe kick from that same leg with enough power to send Kirishima’s face into the concrete with enough force to crack the floor.

It was at this time that Ojiro tried to catch the villain off guard with a palm strike to the back.

Instead, the villain side stepped the blow, struck Ojiro in the stomach with his elbow, headbutted him with the back of his head, grabbed his arm, and then executed a near perfect Judo throw with enough force to send Ojiro through the floor, sending Kirishima down with him.

That just left her and the Villain who was already walking around the hole in the floor he just made, placing his left arm his right shoulder as he rotated his arm before placing his right arm on his left shoulder and doing the same.

It looked… familiar.

“M-*cough*-midoriya?” Melissa choked out as she used the wall to get back on her own two feet despite being completely winded.

She received no response from the villain and had very, very few options to get out of his path.

Option number one: One For All which even after having for a year she had yet to get a grasp on without breaking something.

Option number two: Using one of the support items she had to try and put some distance between the two of them. Unfortunately, if the speed and ease with which he turned a five-person team into a 1 v 1 was any indication, he could stop her before she had even gotten a tenth of the way to any of her offensive support items that Midoriya had worked on as a favor to her.

Option number three: Put up a fight that she had no chance of winning even with Uncle Might teaching her how to fight.

In Melissa’s eyes, and pardon her language, but her options freaking sucked.

But the best of the three bad choices was One For All.

It was already moving through her bones when she stumbled away from the wall.

It was spreading to her skin when she raised her fist.

It exploded forward when she threw her punch, sending a tornado of force forward but breaking every bone in her arm in the process.

In response, the right shirt arm of the villain was shredded away as he raised it, some form of turbine forming on his metal arm as he threw his own punch, a tornado of equal force matching Melissa’s and canceling it out.

That should’ve shocked her.

Instead, all she could focus on was the fact that she was right. She was fighting Izuku Midoriya.

That focus came to an end when she felt two heavy impacts to her gut followed by a sharp blow to the side of her head, knocking her unconscious.

By the time she woke up a and regained full use of her faculties ten minutes later, she was with team D and C along with Recovery Girl, watching Midoriya track down team B who had only survived this long due to Jirou’s Jacks, Kota’s friendship with animals, Sero’s quick thinking, Denki being able to sense the dead zone Midoriya created coming, and Yaoyorozu’s traps.

Unfortunately, their run was about to come to a very sad end.

Yaoyorozu was completely out of energy and barely able to move, Jirou was on the ground and covering her ears because of a sound only she could hear, something had scared off all the animals in the area which left Kota without his eyes and ears, Denki had no way to fight Midoriya without frying everyone, and Sero had just had four ribs, left arm, jaw, and mask broken by Midoriya who just threw him with enough force to make him skip across the ground like a stone across water before flying over Yaoyorozu and Jirou before crashing into the dead end they had been forced into.

Five minutes later, the whole class of battered students was back together as Aizawa went over his notes.

“Aside from Team D, you all did far better than I was expecting. Especially Team B.” Their teacher declared as he looked them all over, receiving a scowl from Bakugou and a sour smile from Team B.

Aizawa then proceeded to reach into his scarf and pull out a “Teaching For Jackasses” book that was so heavily annotated with sticky notes it looked as if it could cause death by a thousand paper cuts if you look at it the wrong way.

It was after appraising this tome that Aizawa began to speak.

“Starting from the top, Team A: You all remained calm and rational under pressure but crumpled in the face of a blitz. Shoji, you need to work on your situational awareness, don’t just look and listen, take note of what is there and what isn’t. Sato, don’t just rush in trying to overpower someone, you need brains to go with the brawn. Kirishima, you need to react quicker and learn how to harden different parts of your body in quick succession. Ojiro, your form was good, but you weren’t ready for your attacker to turn the tables on you, work on that and learn to adapt. Finally, Shield, you need to learn how to get a handle on your quirk, I know that you ran over the different options you had in your head, but I also know that your body won’t be able to stand that much damage every time you need to throw a punch so work on it.”

“Team B: You all did exceptionally well. Far beyond my expectations in fact. You survived a total of fifteen minutes against a far more experienced opponent and were able to set up effective traps while being forced into corners. You showed great teamwork and used your quirks in tandem to stay one step ahead of your opponent and my only gripes come down to you all being inexperienced or lacking stamina. Good job.”

“Team C: you were disorderly, but you still tried to stay on target. Ashido, you need to work on your situational awareness and your communication skills in a team setting, for example you should say “Get Down!” instead of “Duck!”. Toru, you can’t rely on your quirk alone to keep you out of the line of fire. Aoyama, you need to practice on fine control of your quirk and build up your tolerance for using it. Tsu, you are a clever fighter and use your quirk well but lack the experience and knowledge needed to go toe-to-toe with smarter and far less restrained fighters. Uraraka, you have an extremely versatile quirk capable of helping others and tripping up your opponent however you lack fundamental knowledge on hand-to-hand combat which severely limits you due to the fact you need to touch someone for your quirk to work.”

“Finally, we have Team D” Aizawa began before snapping his book shut and continuing to speak.

“Team D was a miserable failure. Only Iida tried to communicate effectively, Bakugou immediately struck out on his own as did Todoroki, and Mineta spent the three minutes he was active in the exercise sobbing in an alleyway before the villain found him, kicked his teeth in, and stole his comms which allowed him to keep track of everyone except for Bakugou and Todoroki who I can only assume were trying to find the villain based off of how many city blocks they turned to rubble or converted into multi story freezers!”

“Team B, you will have no homework from my class tonight. Teams A and C, I want you all to write a five-paragraph essay on what you learned today and how you intend to improve. Finally, Bakugou and Todoroki will write a ten-paragraph essay on what they did wrong and will spend their Saturday here to receive a lecture that they will take notes and write a separate ten-paragraph essay on. Iida, you will write a report on your team’s biggest failings in this exercise. Mineta, you will be placed under review for your readiness and capability to be a hero.”

“BULLSHIT!” Bakugou roared in fury.

“FIFTEEN Paragraphs and counting. Next you will spend your Sunday here cleaning the restrooms.” Aizawa hissed back, his eyes flashing red and hair floating in the air.

Bakugou looked as if he was about to pop a blood vessel and was currently grinding his teeth together loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room.

It was at this time that Yaoyorozu raised her hand.

“Yes, Yaoyorozu?” Aizawa asked, turning his attention away from the explosive blonde.

“Can I ask who was the Villain in this exercise? I admit that I am not particularly knowledgeable on UA’s staff, but I do not believe that there are many people among the staff who are capable of such vicious attacks and protracted pressure on a group as an individual and what few there are do not match the Villain’s build.” The raven-haired heiress wondered aloud.

“You are right about the build, but you are looking in the wrong place. The Villain isn’t a part of the staff. Quite the opposite in fact. Can any of you make a guess at who it was?” Aizawa asked, deciding to see if any of the hero-hopefuls paid enough attention to their peers.

In response, only one hand shot up.

Melissa Shield, the only person Aizawa expected to notice the villain’s… peculiar habit.

“Shield, who’s your guess?” Aizawa asked after giving the rest of the class a moment to think and come to their own conclusions.

“The Support Course’s Izuku Midoriya. He has the same build, same tick with his arms, and has the same prostheses as the Villain. He also has the knowledge required to make a dead-zone for the comms and the physical strength needed to shoulder check someone through concrete.” Melissa stated confidently.

This was met with a few murmurs from her classmates.

“Who?”

“Midoriya… I feel like I’ve heard that name before…”

“Isn’t that the guy who adjusted the plug on my speakers when I mentioned they didn’t fit my jacks right after the first exercise?”

“That’s the guy who fixed the insulation in my jacket… I think?”

Melissa filtered out all of her classmate’s voices, mostly because of the one she didn’t hear.

Bakugou Katsuki, no longer looking like he was about to explode. In fact, he looked… uncomfortable.

“Correct. I would like to introduce him to the class, but he was already pressed for time when the Principal asked him to put the metaphorical screws to you in order to see where all of you are with your skills. Don’t worry, you will all be seeing plenty more of him as the year goes on.” Aizawa declared before casting a glance at the clock on the wall.

“Luckily for all of you though, Midoriya’s efficiency means you have fifteen minutes before your next classes. Take a breather and then get moving. Also… good job today. You are dismissed.” Aizawa declared before walking over to Recovery Girl to speak with her.

Instantly, a quarter of the class had descended upon Melissa like locusts and began to badger her with questions that she couldn’t answer satisfactorily due to her only knowing Midoriya for less than a week at that point.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Present Day-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A full week had passed since then she had only learned one more thing about him.

He rarely slept, if at all.

It was subtle, but she could tell by comparing him to Hatsume.

Whenever they were dragged out of the workshop, both of them seemed to deflate. Not to mention the bags under their eyes or how they would stare off into space at erratic intervals, looking as if they were trying to remember what they were doing in the middle of soldering something to a circuit or swinging a hammer. Then there was the fact that both of them spent most of the time after school in the workshop.

Melissa was dragged out of her musings before she realized that she did the exact same.

“Uggggggggggh… I’m about to hit the cafeteria to get some coffee from the machine. Any of you want some?” Midoriya groaned as he stumbled over to the sink on the far wall to wash the grease, grit, and grime off of his hands.

“I’d love some! Be sure to grab me something that will make most people’s heads go POP!” Hatsume shouted from her current project working on a new design for Bakugou’s Grenadier Gauntlets after Izuku destroyed the last pair in the exercise.

“You are a godsend Midoriya. I’ll come with.” Melissa declared as she hopped off her stool, stumbling a little bit when her feet touched the ground due to them having fallen asleep a long while ago.

 “Alrighty then Miss Shield, let’s go grab some stimulants!” Izuku sardonically joked, his lips almost turning up far enough to be called a grin as he rolled down his sleeves and pulled his gloves from out of his back pocket before slipping them on and opening the door for Melissa.

“My, and they say chivalry is dead!” Melissa quipped back, quickly falling into a comfortable back and forth between herself and the closest thing she had to an opposite in the Support Course.

“Bah, only to those that killed it.” Izuku retorted before his eyes darkened for a moment after he said “Killed”.

Melissa noticed this and decided to try and change the subject.

“S-so, I noticed that you put your gloves back on when you left the workshop. Mind if I ask why?” Melissa asked, before mentally slapping her hand over her own mouth because it was obvious that he didn’t want people to stare at his scars or his prostheses.

“I… would prefer if people didn’t stare at me too much. That’s all really. When people see that I’m shy a few arms and legs they… pity me. I know it’s prideful of me, but I loathe when people look at me like that. It’s also part of the reason I was surprised to find out how much I enjoyed working in the support course” Izuku quietly answered, nervously stuffing his hands into his pockets as he did before continue to speak.

“It’s probably a symptom of everyone in there being a gearhead, grease monkey, or wrench jockey but… they see my arms and legs, and they don’t pity me, and they don’t treat me any different. They ask to borrow my tools, they crack jokes that take me a second to get, they ask for help and help me out in turn. I feel… comfortable there. Comfortable enough to roll up my sleeves, take off my gloves, and go to work doing something I enjoy. In simple terms, they don’t let the fact I have some replacement parts define me in their eyes.”

“That is… rather sweet. And don’t worry, I don’t think it’s prideful of you. It’s… pretty hard on you to be defined on what you lack and not what you have.” Melissa responded sadly and sounded as if she was speaking from experience.

“There’s a story there, eh?” Izuku quietly asked as they rounded a corner.

“…Yeah. I’m a… late bloomer Quirk-wise. Up until a year ago I thought I was Quirkless. My dad kept me from most of the bad stuff Quirkless people go through but… I still heard whispers from other people when I was a kid and none of them were particularly… kind. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you since you’re quirkless. Heck, you probably had it a lot worse…” Melissa answered awkwardly, fidgeting with her fingers all the while.

“Maybe, maybe not. Pain isn’t a competition afterall so there’s no reason to try and see who suffered more.” Izuku responded as he nudged the door open with his foot.

“Yeah… yeah! You’re right!” Melissa declared as she stepped into the room that was only populated by a janitor, a couple of night students, and a few night teachers.

“Evening everyone! Just here to grab some Coffee.” Izuku exclaimed in greeting to the population of the cafeteria and receiving a collective “I am so sorry” in response.

“What are they apologizing for?” Melissa wondered aloud.

“That probably means that the coffee machine is broken, or it isn’t and the coffee it makes is just that bad. Let’s go find out!” Izuku declared while walking forward as he placed his left arm his right shoulder and rotated his arm before placing his right arm on his left shoulder and doing the same.

Having nothing better to do, Melissa followed him.

Ten minutes later, Melissa and Izuku were holding cups of normal looking and normal smelling coffee.

“On the count of three?” Melissa asked.

“On the count of three.” Izuku responded.

“One, two, three!” they exclaimed in unison as they raised their cups to their lips and took the first sip.

Instantly they were both coughing and hitting themselves in the chest as if they were trying to punch the coffee out of them.

“J-*cough* *cough*-Jesus wept! What the hell is that!?” Melissa hissed out between hacking coughs as she put her Coffee back on the counter to keep from throwing it down in disgust.

“Fuck-*Cough*-Ugh fuck me! That’ll sure as shit wake me up! Probably the corpse I’ll be after it kills me too!” Izuku gagged out, putting his cup back on the counter for the same reason as Melissa.

Eight minutes of hacking and coughing later, the duo were eying the coffee cups of doom and death before them

“These things should come with a toxic waste sticker.” Melissa grumbled as she cleared her throat, trying to get the taste out of her mouth.

“If I drank this in the morning, I would be ready to commit a violent crime every day for the rest of time.” Izuku muttered as he debated if he should bring his sledgehammer the next time he came to the cafeteria so he could break the horrible machine that birthed the foul liquid that masqueraded as coffee.

“Bring them to Mei?” Melissa asked, directing the question at no one in particular outside of whatever cruel higher power that allowed these cups of coffee to be born.

“She is probably the only living thing that could stand these…” Izuku answered, horrified.

Chapter Text

It was a day like any other at UA.

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, trees were swaying in the wind, and a Mei Hatsume creation was holding the entire support course hostage.

“Hey! Doorman! Can ya give me a hand with this!?” Mei shouted over the screaming of machinery and the screaming of her peers as her latest invention chucked a screwdriver with enough force to pierce through the wall, shoot through the room next to them, and nearly give some poor teacher a lobotomy in the room after that.

This time it was a machine made with a simple premise in mind.

“If someone doesn’t have enough arms, how can I fix that?”

Unfortunately, the prototype decided its talents were better suited to classroom wide demolition.

This left the vast majority of the class hiding behind overturned tables, heavy machinery, or the scrap bins.

This included Izuku Midoriya who was currently hurriedly rolling up his pants legs, while waiting for a break in the chaos.

A break in the chaos that would come a split second later.

A break in the chaos that Izuku fully capitalized on.

He rushed forward, the blades on his arm screaming to life with a high-pitched hum as blades on the legs did the same.

Izuku sliced through the first arm like butter with the blade on his right arm. The second and third soon fell after a pair of kicks followed by the fourth thanks to his left arm. Finally, the sixth, seven, and eighth arms fell along with the harness all the arms were attached to due to a punch from Izuku’s right arm that took out one, followed by a high kick from his left leg that took out the last two arms as it traveled through its arc before being brought to an end by Izuku bringing down his left leg to use as a balance point for the spinning back kick that sliced through the core of the invention.

Melissa took careful note of the combination of strikes Izuku just used.

Mei sourly took note of how easily Izuku dealt with her rouge prototype.

And Power Loader could only take note of how his constant low-grade migraine suddenly got worse. Especially after the management course’s PR teacher, Toshinori something or other, came busting in like he just heard a bomb go off.

The invention didn’t explode until after he opened the door.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

As he watched Midoriya turn the industrial metal press right side up and move it back into place before making sure nothing too vital was broken, Higari Maijima, more commonly known as Power Loader, felt his phone begin to buzz in his pocket.

Fishing it out and looking at the ID on the screen, the hero could only sigh at the words plastered across it.

“The Rat Bastard (Affectionate?)” the phone screen screamed at him with a picture of the principal that always made the hero feel like he was staring down a particularly mean spring under far too much tension.

Maijima debated on just ignoring the call. He could easily pass it off as as getting distracted cleaning up this mess after all.

However, seeing as this was his private phone and he had not put Nezu’s number into it or given Nezu his personal number, Power Loader decided it would be in his best interest to answer it.

“Yellow, Power Loader here and quick warning, I’m in the middle of a mess here so make it quick.”  the hero answered the call tersely as he stepped out of Midoriya’s way and ducked under the lathe the green haired young man was carrying back to its proper resting place.

“Oh, don’t worry, I know!” the principal declared with barely contained, borderline sadistic, joy.

Before Power Loader could wonder how he knew that, Nezu cut the thought off with his voice.

“Now then, lets get down to brass tacks! On Friday Class 1-A is going to be visiting the USJ and I would like to see if I could… borrow one of your students on that day, specifically Izuku Midoriya.”

A chill went up Power Loader’s spine. Not because Nezu was asking for Midoriya, he could handle himself. He was terrified because that meant almost a complete day without him or Shield to deal with Hatsume’s madness.

“I’m guessing I can’t say no?” Maijima asked, holding out hope he wouldn’t be left to face the pink haired menace alone.

“No, you cannot.” The principal of UA answered with finality.

It took everything Power Loader had to not dive under one of the many machines being put back into place upon hearing this answer.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Mei Hatsume was often called “Eccentric” or “Strange” or “A Danger To Herself, Others, And The Country Of Japan”.

Mei disliked these labels. Not because they were inaccurate, no they all hit the nail clean on the head.

The reason that she disliked them was because they never really got to the heart of her reason for making things.

It wasn’t just because she liked making things, not always at least. Her reason for building all that she does is because she wanted to help.

Sure, at times her inventions could get… explosive.

Sure, most of the things she’s made ended up in the scrap heap.

Nonetheless, she had always pressed onwards and today would be no different.

“Figure out what went wrong with it?” a voice asked as the lathe was placed down against the wall next to her.

“Not quite…” Hatsume muttered in response as the person who spoke sat down next to her and held out his cutting-edge prosthetic hand.

Having nothing better to do, she handed the remnant of the machine that survived the explosion she was examining over.

“So then, about that name you called me, it was… Doorman? Right?” the green haired young man asked as he turned the piece of scrap metal over in his hand.

“Yeah, I guess you ain’t a fan?” Mei answered in response as she turned her head to the side, popping her neck.

“Meh, it’s a lot better than the last couple of nicknames people have given me. Still, you might want to go back to the drawing board on that one.” Izuku murmured as he pulled out some of the wires he cut, looking for melted rubber and wires twisted around each other.

“I dunno, ya cut a steel door in half, shoulder checked some poor hero course student out of a building… seems pretty fitting to me!” Mei joked with her green-haired peer.

“Ha. Shield told you about that huh?” Izuku asked, his voice slipped into a cold and dangerous edge as he bit the inside of his cheek and grabbed one of the many tools that had been scattered to poke around inside of the broken machine.

If Mei had to describe the feeling, it felt like the flat of a blade being placed on her shoulder with the edge facing her neck. Not harmful on its own, but the threat was still there.

It seemed that she had stepped into some dangerous territory.

Usually, Mei wouldn’t care or didn’t notice when things like that happened. This time however, she decided to take a step back from this particular line of conversation.

“So… how bout’… I don’t know, Cutter?” Mei asked, a grin spreading across her face.

The green haired young man stopped working and shot her a razor-sharp glare in response.

“Not a fan I see. What about Green?” Mei questioned, placing her hand on her chin.

“Bit on the nose don’t you think? It’d be like me calling you Pink.” Her peer retorted as he examined a specific length of wire.

“Hmm… I’ll keep thinkin on it. Till then though, you’re Doorman!” Mei exclaimed to her peer named Doorman.

“Eh, I can stand it for now. Probably for the best too since I just found the problem with your prototype.” Doorman declared before handing the piece of the machine back to her and pointing at the wires. Specifically, he was pointing at their rubber jackets, most of which were burned.

“A power surge!? Oh, that explains it!” Mei exclaimed, slapping her free hand on her forehead as she did.

“Yup. Too much input fried the boards then, after I cut it down, the rest of it went boom.” Doorman muttered as he pushed himself up and to his feet before offering his hand to Hatsume which she quickly took, allowing The Doorman to pull her to her feet which she quickly thanked him for before rushing over to her still overturned work bench that she pushed back onto its legs with ease despite it weighing more than a few hundred pounds.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“She’s a real live wire, isn’t she?” Power Loader asked as he walked to Izuku while nodding his head towards Hatsume.

“A little. It has its charm though. So then, what do you have for me teach? Neither of us are much for small talk so I know you didn’t decide to strike up a conversation about the weather.” Izuku asked as he walked over to his own, still overturned, work bench at the corner furthest to the back right of the room which was the only one that had a fully unobstructed view of the entire room.

“I… yeah. Sorry.” The hero muttered as he followed his student.

“Don’t worry about it. I knew that my offer had stipulations from the start” Midoriya responded with a shrug as he arrived at his corner of the room and, with one arm and barely any effort, flipped it back into place.

“Fair enough… even though I’ve got no clue in the world how you got Nezu of all people to make you a personal offer.” Maijima responded, bewildered.

“That is probably for the best. Let’s just say… I am exceptionally good at what I did and that piqued the principal’s interest. Nothing more, nothing less.” Was all Izuku said to Power Loader’s comment.

Power Loader took this as a sign to shut up before he got into hot water. Something about Midoriya whenever he was in a mood or heard something that got close to whatever he did to get back home after going missing never failed to set him on edge and whenever that happened, people started feeling like they had a Sword Of Damocles hanging over them.

To try and avoid the sword falling on his head, Power Loader decided to change the course of the conversation ever so slightly.

“That aside, the principal just gave me a call. Looks like you’ll be heading to the USJ with 1-A this Friday.” The digging hero declared.

Izuku simply hummed before saying “Looks like I’ll have to bring my Sunday best then.”

It was just after he said this that the bell rang, signifying it was time for lunch.

A moment later, Melissa Shield arrived at Midoriya’s workbench as she pointed back at Mei Hatsume with her thumb.

“Rock paper scissors? Best two out of three?” Izuku questioned as he grabbed his bag from off the floor and slipping its strap over his head so it would hang from his shoulder, cross his chest, and stay at his side.

“Uh… yeah, that’ll work.” Melissa responded her closed fist out.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Two games of rock paper scissors, a lot of screaming, and ten minutes later, Izuku Midoriya was dragging a still irate Mei Hatsume through the lunch line while Melissa Shield made sure, she didn’t try and make a break for it.

“Evenin! How are ya’ll doin today?” Lunch Rush asked as he placed the food he made on the lunch trays.

“Eh, I’ve been worse. Been better too…” Midoriya admitted with a shrug.

“I am here against my will.” Hatsume grumbled with a sour pout on her face.

“I am doing great! The development studio only partially blew up today!” Melissa exclaimed with a broad smile.

“Well, ain’t that a treat! Ya’ll be sure to enjoy all right?” Lunch rush declared in response as he handed the lunch trays to the trio who all promptly thanked him before walking off to find a table.

“Hmm… I should’ve asked how much salt Lunch Rush used on the fries.” Izuku grumbled to himself.

“Why would that matter?” Melissa questioned.

“The sodium could make my stumps swell which leads to pinching, which leads to rawness, which leads to some extremely unpleasant pain.” Izuku answered truthfully before shrugging and saying, “Oh well, I’m sure I can trade them for something from someone else.”

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“Don’t look, but the guy from the slaughter last week is here.” One of Class 1-A’s students, Mina Ashido, quietly declared to the group of tables 1-A had claimed as theirs.

The class then promptly turned to look exactly at the young man who, as Kaminari put it, “Put them all in a pack and smoked the whole thing in one go”.

It was perhaps one of the most accurate descriptions 1-A had ever heard. Especially considering the fact Kirishima got hit so hard he was speaking in tongues for a solid fifteen minutes after he regained consciousness.

If 1-A wasn’t on the receiving end of it, they would’ve just been impressed.

Instead, they were equal parts spooked by him and impressed. Doubly so due to how… unstoppable he seemed while tearing through them.

To start off he kicked Mineta so hard his teeth turned into splinters.

After that he quite literally curbstomped Bakugou.

Next, he rammed Todoroki through his own glacier which fractured most of his ribs before throwing him at Tokoyami with enough force to incapacitate the bird haired young man as he was caught between a wall and a Todoroki who, according to every metric known to man, was moving at roughly Mach Jesus.

Following that he clotheslined Iida before picking him up by the collar of his costume with one hand and throwing him through a building where he nearly crashed into Tsu.

A few minutes later, he continued his extermination by throwing Tsu into a concrete pillar with enough force to leave her lodged in the side of it.

Next, he dealt with Uraraka by breaking three fingers on her right hand and knocking her out.

After that he dislocated Mina’s arms and left leg before knocking her out.

For his next trick, he kicked Aoyama in the gut which forced him to double over and put himself in the perfect position to have his nose broken by Midoriya kneeling him in the face with enough force to send him flying.

Finally, he grabbed Toru by the neck without even looking at her and choked her until she was unconscious.

After that he dealt with Melissa’s team, then he began his hunt of Momo’s team where Sero claimed that he quote “Had the goofy slapped outta him” by Midoriya.

Then there was the time he yelled at half of the class for their designs…

From an objective point of view, Midoriya was one of countless people who were more skilled and more experienced than them.

From the viewpoint of a class of teenagers, Midoriya was the same as the monster that they used to think was under their bed as kids except this one could and has beat the shit out of them.

Was that fair to him?

No, not in the slightest.

Did the being known as Izuku Midoriya terrify them?

Absolutely.

“So… is anyone gonna try and talk to him?” Kaminari asked as he kept his eyes on Midoriya, thinking that as long as he was looking at the green haired young man, he would be ready for anything he did.

“Not it!” the entire class declared in unison.

Well, the entire class minus two.

Momo Yaoyurozu, and Iida Tenya had drawn the short ends of the sticks by virtue of having no idea what was going on.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“Hmm. It seems we have visitors.” Izuku muttered to Melissa who was sitting across from him, ensuring that Mei could not escape from being trapped between the two of them.

“Wha-“ Melissa began before looking over Midoriya’s shoulder and seeing Iida and Momo approaching their table, lunch trays in hand as they were in the middle of whispering an argument between each other the entire time they were walking.

A few moments later, the quite obviously stressed duo stood before the trio.

“Greetings! My name is-“ Iida began before being cut off.

“Iida Tenya, brother to Ingenium. Your quirk is Engine.”  Izuku declared before taking a sip of his soda before nodding to Momo and saying “You are Momo Yaoyorozu, Heiress to the Yaoyorozu Group. Your quirk is Creation.”

“I… that is correct. How do you know that?” Momo and Ida asked in tandem.

Izuku shrugged before answering with “During the exercise I took note of some pretty interesting or neat quirks. Engine and Creation were on that list and during my research I took time to read up on their users. It’s a… weird hobby of mine. Still, it helps out when I’m making support items.”

“How so?” Iida asked, genuinely intrigued as he placed his plate on the table and borrowed a chair from a nearby empty table.

Momo, having no idea what she should do, followed Iida’s lead.

At the same time, Melissa took note of the fact that, as far as she knew, this was the first time Midoriya was talking to anyone who wasn’t in the support course.

Sure, he was still “talking shop” as her dad would put it, but it was still nice to see either way.

Doubly so since this was the first time she saw him smile.

Sure, it was barely above the sardonic, rueful grin he usually wore when he saw something amusing, but it was still a smile and if Melissa could allow herself to be so bold…

She thought it was a very beautiful smile.

Soon after this, a few more students from 1-A walked over to listen or to sate their curiosity.

Then a few more walked over.

Then a couple more.

Then, before Melissa knew it, all of 1-A was chattering away around them.

It was… nice.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“I’m home!” Izuku exclaimed as he stepped through the door, hanging his raincoat on the hook next to the door as he slipped his shoes off before walking into the living room and placing his bag on the couch while he removed his tie.

“I’m in the kitchen!” Inko shouted over the sizzling pain before her in response.

“It smells good! Can you tell me what’s on the menu!?” Izuku exclaimed as he walked to his room while unbuttoning his dress shirt.

“I got a craving for Yakisoba earlier today so I’m making some for dinner!” Inko responded.

“Oooh! That does sound good!” Izuku declared while putting his shirt in the hamper before entering his room and approaching his bed where, after kneeling down and reaching under it, he pulled out a pitch-black military hard case with a note that read “Your NEW Sunday Best! Courtesy of your many, many fans! - Kreese Kreely & Howard “Buckshot” Holmes” taped to its front.

It wasn’t much to look at in all honesty. It was about as wide as a large briefcase; it was roughly as tall as the average pencil had a carrying handle on its side in between its two iron latches.

Nonetheless, Izuku was looking at it like it was a portal straight to hell.

Yet… who could blame him?

Afterall, depending on if he is forced to do something… dramatic on Friday or not. It may be exactly that.

A portal back to hell.

Chapter Text

“Ugh… I totally bombed on yesterday’s quiz…” Denki groaned as he flopped into his chair while still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“Which one? English? Art History? Modern Lit? Science? Math?” Mina questioned as she turned around in her seat to face the electric blonde.

“Uhh… I know I did pretty solid on science since we’re going over electrical systems. I think I passed Modern Lit and Math… The rest though… lets just say if I don’t show up for school on Monday, assume my parents killed me.” Kaminari responded defeatedly as he put his head on his desk.

“Yikes… that bad huh?” Mina muttered with a sympathetic wince.

However, before the commiserating could continue, the door was thrown open and their teacher entered the room.

Alongside a guest that, while they knew to be far more human than previously thought, still activated their fight or flight responses.

Izuku Midoriya, in full UA uniform, entered the room with a black case held in his gloved hand.

It was here that the majority of the class realized that Midoriya stood equal in height to their teacher. No one was surprised by this, in fact, some expected him to be taller considering how far he pushed their faces in last Friday.

“All right then-“ Aizawa grumbled, his tone of voice seeming to say “I got fifteen minutes of sleep last night and am running on a single cup of coffee, and a half cooked and expired breakfast burrito. Do not fuck with me right now.”

“-Today, we’re taking a field trip to the USJ. We’ll be having a plus one in the form of Izuku Midoriya joining us on the ride at the request of the principal so if you’ve got any problems with that, put them in the complaint bin outside of Nezu’s office.” The teacher of 1-A declared before punctuating his statement with a yawn.

Immediately, Momo Yaoyorozu’s hand shot up like a bullet.

“Shoot.” Aizawa muttered as he popped open one of his desk drawers and pulled out a small bottle labeled “72-Hour Energy” before twisting the lid open and downing the whole thing in one go.

“Where is the complaint bin located? The only “bin” outside the principal’s office is a trashcan with a piece of paper that reads “Complaint Bin” taped on it.” The heiress asked, attempting to put an end to any confusion.

In response Aizawa dragged his hand down his face and said “Yup.”

This brought an end to that line of questioning and to any other questions as their teacher promptly ignored all of them before ordering them all, including Midoriya, to go get changed.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

As Midoriya removed his gloves and revealed his charcoal grey and black prosthetic hands, all but one part of the male portion of class 1-A couldn’t help be watch him as they removed their uniforms, morbid curiosity squashing any sense of decorum.

Afterall, everyone could see the scar on his face and the burn scars that ran up the left side of his neck, and they all could tell there was more to them with only the context of his bleeding edge prosthetics he had to guide them.

So, as Midoriya removed his gloves, his jacket, his sloppily made tie, and began to unbutton his shirt, he had all eyes on him in one form or another.

Well, all eyes except one pair.

Todoroki knew what it was like to have first thing someone noticed about you be something brought about by incredible pain.

Unfortunately, that didn’t make the way everyone’s breath hitched when Midoriya removed his shirt get under his skin any less.

Everyone had different responses to seeing his scars.

Denki had to bite his tongue to stop himself from letting out a “Holy shit, dude…”

Iida felt ashamed when he realized he was seeing the remnants of someone else’s pain and looking at them like they were a part of a carnival’s freakshow.

Sato wondered if he should invite Midoriya to bake something with him since that usually helped him when he was feeling down.

However, it was only Kirishima who said anything.

“Dude… those are SO MANLY!!!”

This statement, for one reason or another, instantly made the green haired young man double over with laughter.

Perhaps it was because Kirishima was naïve to how these marks arrived on his skin.

Perhaps it was because the tension in the room was so thick you’d need dynamite to get through it before Kirishima spoke.

Or perhaps, Midoriya simply found the statement hilarious.

Either way, that was the most laughter anyone had gotten out of him in years, and even as he opened his case he was still chuckling.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“So then: Midoriya. Spill. Now.” Mina demanded from Melissa as she pulled on her suit.

“I- Wha-?” was all Melissa had time to stammer out before Toru swooped in.

“You’ve been in the same class as him for a month now! You have got to know something about him!” the invisible girl exclaimed, waving her hands around all the while.

“I… no, not really. Like I said when you asked me after the exercise, he isn’t someone who talks about much of anything outside of his work.” Melissa responded as she strapped on her steel-toed boots and stuffed her pants legs into them.

“Ugh! No one has anything to say on this guy!” Mina whined as she jumped up and stretched.

“Sorry to say, but aside from him being particular about his salt intake, I know about as much as you do.” Melissa apologized as she adjusted her coat.

“On one hand, I feel like him being such a private guy is for a good reason. On the other, there is definitely a chart-topping song in there…” Jirou muttered as she strapped her speakers onto her boots and wrists.

“Hmm. I think Jirou’s right *kero*. There is a story there, but I doubt it’s a happy one *Kero*.” Tsu declared as she zipped up her wet suit.

However, before the conversation could continue, the sound of hysteric laughter pierced through the walls.

“What the hell was that?” Mina wondered aloud, slightly concerned edge in her voice.

“The tolling of hells bells perhaps?” Jirou sarcastically quipped.

“That is a rather grim statement…” Momo muttered in response as she fastened her costume in place.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The first thing everyone noticed about Midoriya’s outfit was the helmet under his arm.

It was a deep, inky, almost reflective black as a whole. It was also completely featureless above the mouth which was like that of a skull.

The rest of his costume was equally as striking.

A charcoal grey harness with many pouches and points for holding things wrapped around his chest and sat comfortably over his futuristic looking black vest that moved and shifted when Midoriya did, making it look as if it was a second skin at the same time, the design of the vest also allowed for his shoulders to be free of any obstruction. Under the vest he wore a charcoal grey bodysuit of some sort. On his left arm from the middle of the bicep up was covered by a sleek, black piece of armor marked with “DW#1” in large, red letters. Paired with the vest he wore a charcoal grey belt laden with several pouches on the left side and three grenades of the smoke, flash, and emp variety that ran from the front of the right side of his belt to the back. He was also wearing a pair of black that ended just above his knees in a metal ring to allow for his movement to be uninhibited and the blades on his legs to be activated without needing to roll up his pants legs or destroy them to use.

Jirou let out a whistle before saying “Lookin sharp there Midoriya! but I’m glad you didn’t wear that in the exercise cause you would’ve given some of us a heart attack…”

This received a murmur of agreement from the class as a whole sans Melissa as she was currently “Nerding out” over her support course classmate’s costume.

“Is this… titanium-dipped tri-weaved mesh for the plates? Non-Newtonian liquids in between the inner and outer layers too? Hmm… that’s a real strong design and its gonna give you some pretty solid protection against high force impacts and it barely inhibits movement if at all. Unfortunately, though, it struggles against point blank shots and knives that slip between the plates which usually means you only see it on fastest and most acrobatic of heroes. If memory serves, the former hero O’Clock used a similar system in his costume towards the end of his career…” Melissa muttered as she closely examined Izuku’s suit.

“I see you changed your costume a bit since the exercise last week. Looks like you swapped over from alternating layers of Kevlar and ceramic to an outer Kevlar layer over titanium mesh, and segmented ceramic plating with a Kevlar interior. It’s considered the standard for patrolling heroes since ALL MIGHT’s first dozen or so appearances using the same layout in his costumes. No real weaknesses, but also no real strengths which makes it perfect for facing a bunch of different villains in quick succession.” Izuku declared as he looked over Melissa’s costume himself.

She was wearing her typical pair of glasses alongside a white jacket with sleeves rolled up to her elbows and held in place with armored elbow pads over a deep red jumpsuit that came with a plate of armor over her chest which had a small red and gold shield placed in the center. The piece of armor was held in place by several straps that wrapped around her body before connecting on her back, each of which had a pouch that contained a support item of some sort. To help her carry more tools, she had also paired her costume with a white belt similar in design to that of Midoriya’s, however, instead of having grenades on her right side she had more pouches alongside a large tube on the back of the belt marked with a red cross. With the belt, she wore a pair of khaki pants with armored knee pads along with a pair of leather steel toed boots that paired nicely with her fingerless leather gloves that had armoring upon the knuckles.

At the same time Izuku and Melissa were talking shop, one Tenya Iida was musing on something his brother told him once.

“You can tell a lot about a hero by just looking at their suit alone.”

In this moment, he decided to try and put that bit of wisdom to use.

Midoriya’s suit perfectly reflected what little Iida knew about the green haired young man. It was subdued, minimalist, and sturdy while ensuring it would still allow him to move like a bolt of lightning and hit like a ton of bricks. It was more than just a suit or armor; it was a statement that quietly and confidently declared Izuku Midoriya was not one to be trifled with and that any that do will come to regret it.

Shield’s suit, in contrast, was almost a complete inverse to Midoriya’s. It was all bright colors, it reflected not just the type of person Melissa was, but the type of person she wanted to be. It was, at its core, something that manifested the hopes and dreams of the person who wore it. That made the similarities between Midoriya and Shield’s suits all the more fascinating to Iida.

However, before Iida could compare and contrast the design philosophies of Izuku Midoriya and Melissa Shield’s suits, a sharp whistle pierced through his ears and forced everyone to look at its origin in the form of their exceedingly sleep deprived teacher hanging halfway out of the bus window.

“Enough socializing. We leave in exactly one minute.” Their teacher declared from his perch before slipping back inside and slamming the window closed with such force everyone was surprised it didn’t shatter.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

As everyone entered the bus and found their seats, Todoroki already knew who he intended to sit next to.

And, due to fact that Shield was currently being held hostage by Mina and Toru, this was his chance.

“Is this seat available?” the young man with white and red hair asked the young man with green hair who was currently glaring at the helmet in his hands as if it was the very architect of every drop of pain he had ever felt.

“Go ahead. Be warned though, I’m not much for conversation.” Was all Midoriya said in response.

Todoroki simply nodded and took his seat.

To Midoriya, this was something he didn’t think much about.

To Todoroki, this was the closest he had ever been to someone like him.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“Okay, now I KNOW there is something going on with you and green!” Mina declared as she began her interrogation of Melissa Shield.

“Wha-?” was all Melissa had time to stutter out before she was bombarded with words from the woman currently holding her hostage.

Half of them were absolutely gibberish.

A quarter of them were understandable.

The final quarter was about how her and Midoriya would “Totally work together” which made Melissa flush red and debate if she could get away with throwing Mina and Toru into a different seat.

She decided against doing so, if only because she wasn’t quite at the point where she wanted to cause them bodily harm. Yet.

“Ugh… where’s Mei and Midoriya to talk shop with when you need them?” Melissa groaned under her breath.

She was promptly met with “*gasp* Mei? A throuple? Melissa you sly dog!”

In response, Melissa simply declared “I want to get off of this ride now…”

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

One agonizingly slow hour later, Class 1-A and Izuku Midoriya had arrived.

Melissa looked mentally drained from her time spent with Mina and Toru.

Izuku Midoriya and Todoroki Shoto looked incredibly refreshed despite neither of them speaking a single word or moving a single centimeter during the entire ride.

After taking a few minutes to stretch and shake off the stiffness, everyone was ready to go.

A few moments later, they were walking through the doors of the USJ and being greeted by a hero dressed in a spacesuit.

Izuku already knew who this was.

The Space Hero: Thirteen. She was most well known for her skill in Search And Rescue operations.

However, it also looked like someone else knew who she was if the way that the girl in pink with brown hair was gushing about her.

Unfortunately, before Izuku could join in on the nerdery, he felt a change in the air.

In a split second, he slipped his helmet on. The screen inside flared to life and at the same time, the outside of the helmet lit up where the face should be and formed a green crosshair.

This mattered little to Midoriya, as all of his focus was upon the fountain, and the black and purple clouds of mist.

Izuku had seen that cloud only once before.

He saw it right before he was swallowed by it and spit out into hell.

And now that he was seeing it again… he was feeling something he hadn’t felt since before he began to trade pieces of his soul to survive in hell.

Fear.

He was frozen in place.

He was frozen in fear.

When he saw that cloud, everything stopped.

When he saw that cloud, everything started moving faster than he could understand.

Every breath he tried to take felt like it stopped halfway through his throat.

His heart felt like it was in a vice.

He couldn’t move.

The only thought that remained in his head was fear.

Then the black cloud appeared in front of him, and he looked into its eyes for the second time.

After that, everything went black.

He was still conscious, but he just… he just had to shut everything down. He had to shut everything out.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

When Izuku finally opened his eyes again, he was somewhere different.

It looked like the inside of an empty office with its empty concrete walls, dead fluorescent lights, and cheap carpet on the floor.

Sitting upon the cheap carpet, Izuku took note of his surroundings and the people in them.

Outside, rain was pelting the building that Izuku could tell was unstable and he could hear the shouting of villains outside alongside explosions in the distance. The particular sharpness of them told Izuku they were from Bakugou.

Inside, his helmet was at his side with frost in the shape of a handprint covering it. He could see Todoroki sitting a few strides away from him, his entire body covered in ice and breathing heavily. He could also see that the doorway into the room was obstructed by a large block of ice.

Izuku attempted to stand up, but he was still halfway out of it and collapsed to the floor halfway through the process.

However, this did allow Todoroki to notice that his ally was finally responsive.

“M-midoriya, you- *shudder*-you’re awake. G-good. W-we are in what my s-sister would call “q-quite the pickle” at th-the moment.” The three-quarter frozen young man declared through the ice encroaching on his face.

“Ugh. Where the hell are we?” Midoriya muttered, still face down on the floor.

“U-USJ. Ruins zone. Dr-dragged you here from the Landslide z-zone. You n-need to lose s-some weight.” The young man muttered as he tried to ball himself up further to conserve his body heat.

“Trust me, I know. I haven’t been able to take an elevator for the better part of a year now.” Izuku groaned out as he pushed himself onto his knees with his arms before using his momentum to stumble to his feet.

This brought out a stuttered chuckle from Todoroki.

“Right then. I’m guessing villains are outside?” Izuku asked as he nodded to the window.

“Y-yeah. I f-froze the floors below us. Though, I do t-think I over did it. N-need to a-add some s-sort of heating element in on the next d-design.” The now only half frozen young man answered.

“I thought your quirk was “Half-Hot Half-Cold” not all cold.” Izuku muttered as he reached into one of the pouches on his belt and pulled out a small pellet around the size of a pea.

This statement earned Izuku an icy glare.

“I’m not judging you, just… making an observation.” Izuku declared as he kneeled down and started to rip the carpet off of the floor and pile it up Infront of Todoroki.

Silence settled over the two after that.

Then Izuku broke one of the windows, placed the pellet under the pile of carpet he made in the area he cleared and stomped on it. A few moments later, a small fire was thawing the ice covering Todoroki.

Soon after, Shoto began to speak.

“I… will never use my father’s quirk.”

“Let me guess. Endeavour?” Izuku asked as he sat down across from his new ally.

“I… yes, how-“ Todoroki began to ask before being cut off.

“It’s not hard to figure out if you know what to look at. You got in on recommendation, have a powerful cold quirk and heat quirk, not to mention the fact that I’ve looked over, contributed to, or made most of the adjustments to your costume. Individually, it’s not much. All together though, it gave me enough evidence to make an educated guess.” Izuku answered before Todoroki had the time to ask.

“Hmm. So, I guess this is the part where you tell me I’m being foolish?” Todoroki asked.

“Oh, you are absolutely being foolish. However, if you want me to make a speech about heroics and not letting your past define you, look for someone else. I’m no hero, nor am I a saint, and I am most certainly not someone who can take the moral high ground on anything.” Izuku answered honestly before standing and walking over to the broken window, grabbing his helmet and putting it on in the process.

When reaching it though, he paused for a moment.

“Your father’s quirk… I sincerely doubt you have that. Quirks are influenced by the genetic copies of the parents DNA and that means exact copies aren’t passed down from parent to child. You may be the son of your father, but your quirk is more than that. Just… think about that for a while, okay?” Izuku’s filtered voice asked as he climbed into the window frame, broken glass crunching under his feet.

The words landed in Todoroki’s psyche like shrapnel, however, the current actions of Midoriya took precedence.

“What are you doing!?” the young man shouted in shock.

Izuku reached down and pulled a flash grenade off of his belt before responding.

“We have visitors, and I am about to give them a warm welcome. Consider it a palate cleanser after your… frosty reception.”

“If my legs weren’t numb, I would push you out of that window myself.” Todoroki declared honestly.

“Fair enough.” Izuku admitted as he pulled the pin and allowed the flash bang to drop.

After that… it was off to the races.