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Chapter 23: Back to Class
🕑 Added 2024-04-30 15:52:58 +0000 UTCYou know, with the 1st anniversary of me opening my Patreon account so I wanted to do something exciting for it, that being writing and releasing my very own story. I was and still am going with a comedy/harem deal that will have the smut scenes in it, but while I started writing out the basic plot points that would lead to said smut, I realized that I also had a lot of ideas for jokes and character moments. I'm not angry, quite the opposite, as just writing down the ideas seems to be really fun for me, and it's only for one girl so far; I haven't even touched what would happen with the rest. And while it would be something that's mainly for my 'early readers', that first chapter will be posted both on Ao3 and Fanfiction.net.
This chapter will have more meat on its bones since, unlike before, I got the full notes for it; I didn't use bits in another one. Also, for some reason, I felt lethargic as I was writing this, which slowed me down considerably.
Chapter 23: Back to Class
“We now return to our main story of the recent assault on the U.A. rescue training facility known as the U.S.J by a group of villains calling themselves the League of Villains.” It had been a few days since the unprecedented attack on U.A., and the news recounted what was known at present, though most on the streets didn't stop to listen and merely let it play as they went about their days.
“According to police reports and statements made by U.A. spokesperson, the villains had targeted the facility and the students that were present at the time in a plot to kill All Might, who has of this spring semester, was hired as a teacher for the first-year heroics class.” At the reminder that the symbol of peace was working at U.A., some took a pause, though others did so as they wondered why All Might didn't resolve the situation quickly as he was known for.
“According to police and the U.A, no students were seriously harmed in the attack, but the school has postponed classes for 3 days to allow the grounds to be properly searched and give students time to decompress. As for the villains, police arrested 72, but sources on the ground claim that around 32 villains suffered serious burns, but as of this broadcast, neither the U.A. nor the police have confirmed these statements.”
Strangely, some groups started to talk about that, as it made no sense to deny that since rumor has it that Endeavour, the number 2 hero's youngest son, was attending U.A. If he had been present, it would be pretty easy to just admit that people were burned, even if not him. Villains got hurt all the time during take-downs. It was so common that it only made news if it was severe, crippling, or otherwise lethal-all of which was unthinkable for a student to be able or even willing to do.
“As for the ringleaders of the attack, authorities have yet to track down their whereabouts but have released descriptions and sketches based on what students saw. If you see either of these two, authorities advise that you don’t approach them and contact them.” The news lady's feed was cut in half to show the images in question, though both weren't all that helpful as one looked like he was made from a dark smoke-like fog while the other's face was covered by a hand of all things.
Line Break
Night had fallen over the city, but many were still up and about, such as the case for the first-year staff and principal as the detective had requested a meeting to give them what they had found on the League. Standing before the room of heroes, including their Symbol of Peace, in his weakened state, he felt sad that he was the bearer of bad news. "We've dug as deep as we can go regarding this 'League of Villains' and turned up nothing. It would seem that this attack was their first action under that name."
"The 72 villains we captured didn't provide anything of use, as they were all low-level criminals, F and E ranks that were bought in by the fame in the underworld that could come from being involved with All Might's death; furthermore, we have no criminal, medical, educational, quirk or even birth certificate for anyone under the names of Kurogiri or Shigaraki Tomura." All of them were the kinds of crooks that thrived in back alleys, with the height of their skills being muggings of children and the elderly.
After the 10th interview, when they said the same thing about Shigaraki approaching them to be part of something big, he felt like they were all idiots to have thought their leader was legit or that their plans could succeed. Speaking of Shigaraki, if that was his real name.
"We tried to expand the search for anyone else that could fit their physical characteristics, quirk, and suspected ages, but there wasn't anyone that could come close to Shigaraki's description in anyone that would be in their 20 to late 20s, the same being true for Kurogiri in the 30s range." He told them, leaving them with nothing to work with.
"In other words, their ghosts who, through one shortfall or another, were never properly registered?" Aizawa asked, and when Tsukauchi nodded, the underground hero’s frown grew more prominent. That makes it much harder to handle them as we have little to build a profile on other than what the students and All Might observed."
"We don't have the luxury of time about this. Those morons we captured were grunts, nothing more. The real problem would be those two. What's stopping them from digging up more gutter punks and trying something else? They'll be idiots to attack us again, but that doesn't mean there aren't other targets." Snipe pointed out that this attack seemed like an extreme overestimation of their abilities. Still, it was partly lucky that none of the students were injured to the extent that a simple kiss from their nurse couldn't handle it. But the next attack could be very different.
“What about their quirks? Do we have any documents of those existing?” All Might asked, confusing some of them as they would have assumed that the police looked that while cross-referencing. Only the principal and the detective themselves realized why he made that suggestion, especially when it came to what they suspected about the Nomu they captured.
“We found some that are similar, but nothing close.” That was both a blessing and a curse, as whenever…he was involved, that sort of thing was tricky. Still, it also meant eliminating another suspect, at least for the moment.
"That could be intentional, perhaps a bride to some low-level clerk to erase their existence. I don't find the odds that 2 unknowns just crop up and attack us to be all that high," Aizawa suggested. It wouldn't be the first time some office worker took a little extra on the side to do a 'small thing' without realizing or caring what it could lead to.
“Did you have any better luck with your contacts?” Power Loader, the teacher in charge of their first-year support course, asked.
The dark-haired man shook his head as he went through almost every contact, informant, or rat he had met as an underground hero. "They were either surprised that such a group formed or gave the same information as the detective. One said she knew about Shigaraki gathering people, but for what reason or when was it meant to be a huge mark?" She promised that if she heard 'morons planning delusional attacks' again, she'd let him know.
“Let's hope that your informants hear something. After Shigaraki recovers from his embarrassing retreat, I'll bet that he'll try something.” Snipe stated, getting agreement from the rest of the room.
"I suspect he'll make another pass at U.A., at me." All Might mused.
“Why’s that?” Midnight asked.
"From what I saw of him, Shigaraki's raid might have been bold and taken advantage of the fact we didn't consider such, but it was also extremely reckless and poorly planned. The backup he brought was meant to keep pros like Vlad and Thirteen busy, yet the students easily handled most of them." All Might also recalled what he had heard from young Shiozaki and Shishida. Shigaraki got visibly upset when Kurogiri reported that young Kaibara got out.
Then there was the fight itself. While a dangerous foe, the man was limiting himself because of how he acted. "Not only that, he was gloating about his strength and the power of their secret weapon, revealing secrets that even a novice would know to keep close to their chest, such as Nomu's two quirks. If not that, he was throwing a tantrum whenever his poorly thought-out plans didn’t work like he wanted them to.”
Nezu thought about that for a moment before asking something. "Immature statements, revealing secrets to boast and bragging about his processions. I believe that aligns with the mindset of human children, no?" He could admit he wasn't an expert on the topic as U.A. students were all teens, having long since left behind such attitudes.
To his question, All Might nodded as he came to a similar conclusion as Midnight leaned into her seat. “If he’s not in the system, then perhaps he never went through the quirk counseling required for children." By their youthful, inexperienced nature, kids tended to have a warped view of themselves and the world around them. Quirks made them all the more prominent, as even a mildly impressive power could feed into their sense of superiority, the foundations for a God complex.
What was meant to happen was at age 5, if the child developed their quirks at 4, they'd be put through at least 6 months of mandatory counseling with a child psychologist to help them understand that their power didn't make them unstoppable or invincible, etc. They all went through it, and she hoped all their students did.
"So we have a dangerous and immature villain on the loose. It makes me wonder if he's truly the leader of the League, as I doubt someone with that mindset." Snipe noted, which seemed to be the agreed-upon consensus.
"Whoever they are, they need to be someone with serious wealth and great resources. That limits the pool of suspects somewhat." Aizawa replied, but Present Mic frowned.
“Yet it grows again if we consider regular wealthy people as we have no idea who or why they’ll be helping this. For all we know, the Japanese head of Wacdonalds could be the bankroller.” He hated that, but as dumb as that sounded, it wasn't impossible as they had too many questions and few answers.
Cementoss coughed into his hand to draw attention. "They'll need to be extremely intelligent to have someone like that on their side. It's the only way we can account for the Nomu creature, as it's clear that whatever it is, it's no longer human."
That was not a pleasant discussion, as they all already heard the details about it, from how it nearly killed one of their students to how said students nearly boiled the thing to death in an apparent primal fight response. They didn't so much blame the boy as they were concerned as such an action could have easily proven deadly; they already had to run damage control about the villains he hurt.
“All Might, you said that Shigaraki called that thing a bioengineered weapon?” Midnight asked the top hero, and when he nodded, she shuddered a little at the idea that someone could be so twisted to do that to another living being.
Tsukauchi had more grim news. "We've been having tests done since it was taken in, and among other things, we can confirm that it was, at one point, human. It also shows signs of severe brain damage while other parts are working overtime." The reports weren't pleasant to read, as the beast didn't respond to anything, even threats, yet they knew that if…ordered, it could cause some serious harm.
"I suspect it was the stress of the procedures that turned it into that," Nezu stated, the room going silent when he smiled at them. The light reflected off the smooth skin of his scar, so different from the prim and rigorously cared-for white. Such horrors always leave a mark on the mind."
"Onto other matters, the fact that Shigaraki, despite his shortcomings, was able to convince so many people to agree to his plans. That in itself requires an exceptional charismatic person." Nezu stated, with the detective seeing where he was going with this and why he was worried.
"It also requires an audience willing to listen, and in our hero-saturated society, it seems that the underbelly, the darkness, is receptive to that message. They'll be dismantled, chased, and arrested for years, but that doesn't mean it's not there." Tsukauchi stated that as much as they wished to act, they needed to wait until they knew more. But that left one other thing to discuss: a specific student of class 1-B.
"Midoriya Izuku's actions have also been looked over by the police, and we haven't found anything about them, at least nothing that warrants anything more than what can be handled internally." He asked them, with Nezu taking on that as while he appreciated what the detective was doing, they couldn't waste this chance.
"He's already been slanted for additional training and lectures with Aizawa on quirk use and safety, as well as counseling with Hound-dog. While I understand he already has a psychologist, perhaps it would suit the boy more to have one who understands what it means to be a hero." The underground hero nodded as he took Vlad's spot, seeing that he was still recovering.
Tsukauchi nodded, though he didn’t smile. “I can put that in the report. That being said, it might not be this easy to handle should this happen again as self-defense or not; his actions could easily be seen as extreme and far beyond the scope of self-defense.” He reminded them that the boy wasn't a saint, at least on paper, and it was taking a considerable effort to keep his name out of the public eye, lest people recall his 2 encounters with law enforcement the previous year.
“How is the media handling that?” Ectoplasm, who had remained largely silent, asked.
“None of the officers on site have given details, but leaks are always an issue. Thankfully, nothing important is out, so this should die down in a few more days.” Tsukauchi, as he had ordered his men to keep quiet, but there was always that one that let something slip, maybe to a friend, perhaps they were close to a reporter, perhaps they just disobeyed his order entirely.
Midnight frowned at that. "With the information blackout, people are assuming that class A was attacked since it's known that Todoroki is a member, but that won't last long if people ask them and they deny it."
"We'll need to debunk that soon and release a statement about it before someone else does and accuses us of deceit," Nezu replied, thinking up how they'll spin things.
Line Break
As this meeting was happening inside the Midoriya residence, the green-haired boy was scrolling through his messages, trying to make sense of them. The reason being that while he had been cleared to return home the day of the attack, where he and Koharu ate a meal twice the regular size, true to Ruykyu's prediction, the following morning, he was a mess, his mother was unable to coax him, out of bed. Lucky for both of them, Hado arrived as she had said she would, bringing games and some books.
She managed to get him out of his room, though he refused to leave the security of his blanket. After that, she spent the entire day with him, helping him out of this hole he found himself in with stories of Ryukyu and her time on the beat, the board games she brought, and other stories. By the afternoon, his mother watched the three bonding with a smile as her angel turned to mush, thanks to that girl being able to be open with her in just about anything.
Through her, his rough day was a little gentler. He managed to get some food in his belly and had someone around who understood the gravity of their dreams. In a way, she suspected her Izuku was also helping Hado deal with this. Being the giver of advice rather than the receiver tends to help one internalize it. By the time she left, he had left his blanket behind and gave her a big hug in thanks before he went to bed early.
When he awoke the following morning, he went about his day as usual, with a little early morning jog, helping with chores, prayers, etc. Only around late afternoon, as he walked into his room to get dressed after a shower, he noted that his phone was at his bedside, having been left untouched since he returned home. "I wonder if I got any new messengers." He thought aloud as he unlocked it and was immediately bombarded with messages from the new group chat he was a part of. With wide eyes, he saw that he had over 100 messengers to get through.
All of them were from his classmates, asking how he was doing with increasing worry as he didn't respond; others were well-wishers and promised that they could hang out once school started up again. While he saw that even Kamakiri, known in the chat as Rad Mantis, had sent him a few positive ones, revealing that he was willing to forgive his earlier slip, the bulk of the text came from Tsunotori, Tokage, Asui, and Monoma, all under their group chat names of Florida gal, Dino-girl, Tsu and Chariot.
Once he managed to find the end of this and make sense of it, he finally wrote something.
Hebimi: Sorry for worrying you all, I wasn’t my best yesterday. 07/04/XX: 6:23 pm
Florida gal: He speaks! 07/04/XX: 6:24 pm
Dino-girl: You gave her a real scare, you know. 07/04/XX: 6:25 pm
Hebimi: I’ll be sure to keep in contact. 07/04/XX: 6:26 pm
Dino-girl: Not if you need time to decompress, we went through some shit and you got the worst of it. 07/04/XX: 6:28 pm
Choir Girl: I wish you wouldn't use such crass words, but you're not wrong. 07/04/XX: 6:29 pm
Tsu: Yeah, we all got time off after that, it was a little weird but it was nice spending more time with my siblings. 07/04/XX: 6:29 pm
Tsu: They said hello, Midoriya. 07/04/XX: 6:29 pm
Hebimi: Tell that I appreciate it. 07/04/XX: 6:30 pm
Florida gal: With that settled, did anyone else notice how weird the press was like? I went to the store to get stuff, and they just…ignored me. 07/04/XX: 6:32 pm
Hebimi: Can’t say I have, been at home the entire time and avoiding the news. 07/04/XX: 6:33 pm
Chariot: Now that you mention it, I was expecting to need to beat them off with a stick once the story broke, but they've been quiet. 07/04/XX: 6:34 pm
Dino-girl: Would you say…too quiet? 07/04/XX: 6:35 pm
Chariot: Please don’t. 07/04/XX: 6:36 pm
Choir girl: I, too, noticed a lack of attention, though I didn't spend too much time around the garden. 07/04/XX: 6:37 pm
Tsu: Oh, I think I know the reason, but you won't like it. 07/04/XX: 6:39 pm
Florida gal: What? Did the school threaten to cut their fingers off or something? Set fire to their homes? 07/04/XX: 6:40 pm
Hebimi: Why would that last thing be bad? I burn my stuff all the time to clean and repair it. 07/04/XX: 6:41 pm
Chariot:…Sometimes, we forget that as lovable as you are, you love fire even more. 07/04/XX: 6:42 pm
Hebimi: Hey, I resent that! 07/04/XX: 6:42 pm
Tsu: Back to the topic, I talked with some of my friends earlier, and they said they were approached by the press. 07/04/XX: 6:44 pm
Choir Girl: Your friends in class A, right? 07/04/XX: 6:43 pm
Tsu: Yeah. 07/04/XX: 6:43 pm
Florida gal: Wait, why them? We were the ones attacked. 07/04/XX: 6:44 pm
Tsu: Uraraka mentioned that people assumed that Todoroki did the burning stuff, and since he’s in our class, that was their conclusion. 07/04/XX: 6:45 pm
Hebimi: Did that forget I’m in class B as well? 07/04/XX: 6:46 pm
Chariot: Oh, that’s some bullshit right there! 07/04/XX: 6:47 pm
Chariot: Bad enough, everyone focuses on class A because they're the first, but to even take this? 07/04/XX: 6:47 pm
Dino-girl: I mean, it means that we don't need to worry when we go out. Is it that bad? 07/04/XX: 6:48 pm
Chariot: It's dishonest and undervalued that we had to face off against real villains. Sure, they were pathetic and easily handled, but a villain is a villain. 07/04/XX: 6:48 pm
Choir Girl: I agree. I only pray that the U.A. handles that rumor soon before it has time to fester. 07/04/XX: 6:49 pm
Line Break
The following week, they were informed that school would start that Wednesday. Unlike what they had expected, the press wasn't out in force to meet them as they walked up the hill. Midoriya noted as he snacked on some dried meat that there were only a couple, and they didn't approach them. Tokage guessed that the staff had flexed their muscles to keep them off their backs, no doubt leveraging the earlier break-in against them since they argued the attack drew attention away from other areas.
Once they got to their class, they greeted one another and talked about their long weekend. "You guys watch the news? They finally showed our faces." Komori asked.
"Kinda sucks that they needed to do that to prove it wasn't class A," Awase replied, shrugging all the same.
"Well, I heard that they also have their own Tetsutetsu, someone with a hardening quirk to something," Tsubaraba added, getting Tetsutetsu’s attention.
"What? Are you saying he's better than me?” The steel quirk user asked, Kendo grabbing him before he got into a fight.
"No one says that." She told him that Tetsutetsu was a good person, but often, he let instincts and his emotions guide him. He was great for a fight but not so much outside of a fight.
"It did make Sunday shopping difficult as our regular grocer was nothing but questions." Shiozaki shared with them that she and the family had a tradition of hitting the organic market after Sunday service; they even knew most of the grocers, which made it all the more awkward when they were all concerned for her despite the girl not having a scratch on her.
“Did they offer you free food as well?” Shishida asked as he had been able to get some vegetables for a great bargain over the weekend.
"She did. I respectfully declined, as that could go to the needy." Shiozaki shook her head, and Kamakiri scoffed.
“I wouldn’t have turned down shit-OW!” Shiozaki smacked him over the head with a rolled-up newspaper; where she got it and why she had it was a mystery.
“That is not the proper mindset for a hero, never mind a righteous individual." As she scolded him and Kamakiri defended his actions, Midoriya was with his friend group: Tokage, Kendo, Tetsutetsu, Tsunotori, and Monoma. The fact that he could call them friends made him warm and fuzzy as he continued to snack on some dried meat.
“Midoriya, did you get any negative press?” Kendo asked as she had been a little worried about her friend due to his checkered past.
In response, he merely shook his head. "I wouldn't know. I stayed inside most of the time off and only went out in the mornings for my jogs." His mom watched the news and didn't see anything too bad, just that a student had used their flame quirk in self-defense and that some villains needed medical treatment because of it.
"Didn't All Might vouch for him when he became a student? Odds are they're forgotten all about Hebimi's little accidents." Tokage waved them off as Midoriya turned his sights to Monoma, who, while smiling, he could tell it was simmering under the surface.
So he took a page out of the Hado-sempai handbook and poked his cheek, getting a surprised yelp from the boy and the group to some extent. “Don’t let the media’s mistake get to you. It was a valuable learning experience for all of us; that's something that class A doesn't have." He smiled, meeting Monoma’s irritation with optimism.
"That's our class rep. He figured out Monoma would blow and stopped it dead in its tracks.” Tetsutetsu cheered for him, wrapping an arm around the shorter boy's shoulders.
“I resent that statement.” Monoma backed back, but his mood wasn't as angry as it had been. This was a real chance for them to appear in their rival class.
"The Pros deal with media all the time. It's good practice for us, yes?" Tsunotori pointed this out, which got the group to stop and consider it.
"That's true. People like All Might and Hawks make it look easy." Kendo shrugged, wondering if U.A. had a class for that later on.
"If Hawks wasn't a hero, he would have probably become a supermodel or actor because of how handsome he is." Tokage smiled at the idea, as Hawks already did some shoots for clothing, but nothing that one couldn't wear around polite company. If he was an action star, he could do a lot more shirtless scenes.
"Most pros are attractive; I mean, I've never seen an ugly pro." Midoriya corrected when his friends looked his way.
“Gang Orca.” Tetsutetsu asked.
Izuku responded with a quirk, honest smile: "He's beautiful on the inside….and looks really cool." He was softer towards the end, as the last thing he needed was for Tokage to have more ammo to tease him, but her smile told him he had no such chance.
"Speaking of cool, dude, what was that transformation?" He was saved from whatever his friend could say when Fukidashi turned his attention to them.
"We're not sure yet, but it could be the best and most risky move since it eats through a ton of my reserves," Midoriya answered honestly. He had come to school Monday for a rigid quirk assessment. And because of that, he knew that, at least in theory, he could get even larger than he did, but that would require additional energy, which, at the time, he didn't have.
"Is that why you've been eating this entire time?" Yanagi pointed out as Midoriya reached for another piece of dried meat. The flavor wasn't great, but it would do.
"Last time, I didn't eat as much as I should have and paid for it. I'm not making that mistake again." Recovery Girl thought that he could store far more fat for energy than others, but they couldn't test that in a day, not unless they found someone that could transfer fat cells. So their solution was that the school would pay for him to have a diet that triced the calories to his normal one for around a week, after which they'd test the results.
“Real or not, I doubt we have seen such a monstrous form before. Makes your regular stuff seem tame.” Kaibara stated that he never got the chance to see that transformed or most of the fighting. In response to that statement, Koharu hissed something into Midoriya's ear before he translated for her.
“She says snakes are great by default, and she’s exceptional even among other snakes.” At that statement, Shiozaki has to refuse the urge to correct him on snakes as if nothing else; this one had proven to be far greater than the symbol of deceit and evil she was taught to see them as.
“Will Vlad be returning to teach us?” Kuroiro asked. As the seconds ticked down to the start of homeroom, they wondered who would walk through that door.
“You kidding me, you saw that man’s state. He should be resting.” Honenuki shook his head, and the door opened that next moment.
"He's right! For the next week, your homeroom teacher is on paid sick leave." The person walked with confidence and pep in his every step. When they got to the podium, they pulled out the smell stool that every podium had for this kind of situation as the principal addressed the class with a smile. "To replace him, you'll have me, isn't that grand?"
Instead of joy or confusion, when the students registered it was him, most fell into a terrified state as they had all heard the rumors from their seniors. What kind of person that principal was, and how he rarely stepped down from his office to serve as a teacher. When he did, it often didn't end well for the class. "What did we do to deserve it?" Kamakiri bemoaned into his hands.
“We are so screwed," Tsunotori muttered in English, wondering if there was time to book it, even if that only delayed this.
“The monster of U.A….” Midoriya uttered as if there was a person, one staff member, that Hado and the rest had advised him to avoid; it was their principal. He didn't even know the details; all of them just shivered at the memories. Unfortunately, while all the humans were close to doom and gloom, Koharu's eyes narrowed in on Nezu, having this chance to see them up close.
"Oh, I see my reputation proceeds me and Koharu." Nezu's eyes locked onto her, making Midoriya's heart skip a beat as he couldn't make sense of what their principal was, and he prayed that he didn't just hear what Koharu said. “I’ll take it as a compliment that you think I’ll be the tastiest rat you ever had.” Only for those prayers to go unanswered as the rest looked his way in horror and resignation that his snake had said that to Nezu's face!
“S-sorry, principal! I would never let her do something like that!” He tried to apologize and lessen the punishment that could befall them, but Nezu laughed it off. Somehow, that laugh didn't make him feel any less afraid.
"I can't imagine you would, but I'm open to the challenge if she tries. She'll just find out who the predator is and whose prey will surprise her." Nezu smiled, as this wouldn’t be the first time he evaded predators, big or small, and it wouldn’t be the last.
