Chpt 16: Peer Pressure
-0-
-000-
"We're coming to you live from the third attack since yesterday... Despite the efforts of heroes, strange villains have led rampages through downtown Musutafu, reaching into neighboring Hosu and Chiba prefectures. From what we can tell…! Keep it steady, watch your foo… FROM WHAT we can TELL, these villains are hardly human at all! ONLINE SPECULATION has brought SEV… several connections to the attacks by the villain known as the Subterranean King and the rumored invasion of fish hybrids months ago, during a raid on the League… Keep it STEADY, no…! GO, go! Shut it…"
(The camera cuts off as the camera tumbles. In the last moments of the broadcast, the news anchor stares off screen with an expression that twists more violently by the second. Just before the feed is cut by the station, the anchor disappears entirely in some kind of blur. Shortly after the broadcast, intermediate frames from the live broadcast will reveal black and red stains on the lens and a large black shape-)
-0-
-000-
-0-
Momo has never known what to make of her sensei.
All Might is rather confusing to know as a person rather than seeing his 'idol' hero image. He's adorable in the most awkwardly genuine way. Momo can forgive him for being completely out of his depth as a teacher considering his raw physical abilities and his insight. She's met his type before and has two or three similar personalities in her own age group (Kaminari, Sero, Mina… though Bakugō is, regrettably, the best parallel...).
Vlad King and the rest of the staff are all remarkably similar to what Momo expects from them. There are a few deviations: mostly unexpected hobbies and unforeseen talents. But once All Might and principal Nezu-san are removed from the statistics, the faculty of U.A. are relatively easy to understand.
Eraserhead is… not. He's not a contradiction, but a mystery by design. One that Momo wants to avoid as much as possible, if only because of his fondness for 'logical ruses'.
Being the class representative of 1-A makes avoiding Aizawa-sensei…
Difficult.
Not that Momo would avoid her teachers. Or avoid heroes in general. She's painfully aware of her teacher's skills, of the expectations…
{Breathe.}
Where was I…?
{Aizawa-sensei, I believe.}
"Right, Aizawa-sensei…" Momo sighs. Then blinks, and glances to either side. "Did I just…?"
{You're getting off track again, Yaoyorozu-san.}
She takes another deep breath and knocks on the door to the faculty office. A vague sensation settles on her shoulder as she answers the call from within. It's calming enough to settle her nerves and fleeting enough to be forgotten as she closes the door behind her.
"You called for me, sensei?" Momo asks. Aizawa-sensei and All Might-sensei share a portion of the desk nearest to this door, leaving her facing the windows and the other heroes on staff with a wall of cabinets at her back. The office is surprisingly mundane despite the occupants.
(She absolutely does not hear curses floating over All Might's shoulder as he tries to work the keyboard, and her grades in English have given her no understanding of the language at all, she simply has something that isn't laughterin her throat, thank you very much…)
"Yaoyorozu," Aizawa-sensei spins in his chair and stares. Suddenly the other teachers in the room fade out and Momo finds herself sweating beneath the man's gaze. He steeples his fingers and leans towards her intently. There's a hint of yellow peeking out from the coils of his capture weapon as if to casually remind her who she's dealing with. "I have a problem."
Momo swallows. Aizawa-sensei leans left, cocks an eye to chamber one of his GlaresTM and shifts his lean into a roll. The way he reclines, from the beginning to the end, reminds her of a lion flopping down to rest.
"Do you know why we made the freshman classes spar with Midoriya?" Aizawa-sensei drones. Momo frowns (pauses to think of things she's heard from Midoriya-san and Midoriya-kun's friends) then frowns. She begins sweating in earnest as Aizawa-sensei teases the chambered GlareTM. "Why do you think we had you all spar with him?"
"To prove that fighting Anomalies is beyond our ability?" She asks. The silence draws out until Momo thinks steam must be coming out of her ears and that might be a cramp in her hip…
{Breathe, Yaomomo}
Momo swallows.
"Midoriya-kun's combat abilities might comparable to some heroes, at this point," She says quietly. "But I don't know him well enough to see any other reason for our combat lessons."
"I thought a month of tutoring might have given you a better handle on him," Aizawa-sensei says. Momo lowers her eyes. "Apparently his ability to make friends rivals his ability to stay out of trouble."
If she bristles at the man's statement, it's lost in the heat of her insecurities.
On the surface she's surprised. She's wondered more than once how long it would have taken her class to earn Aizawa-sensei's ire if USJ hadn't been invaded. Midoriya managed it in a week and he isn't even Aizawa-sensei's responsibility.
"Midoriya's estimation of the Anomalies may be accurate, but that's not a fair assessment of your abilities or your growth. There aren't many pros who would be capable of handling an Anomaly, but we've put Midoriya against the hero classes to fix that." Aizawa-sensei sighs. The fingers of his right hands dig into the bridge of his nose, then slide into his hair and drag across his eye. "At the request of his mother and Kurobayashi, we tested his analysis abilities by comparing our assessments of the students to his profiles."
"Profiles?" Momo frowns. "He asked for access to the class files, but he didn't tell either of us what it was for, or what files he meant."
"You've seen that creature Hatsume put together, the AI, Monitor?" Aizawa-sensei asks. Momo nods. "Nezu spent several months working with it. After a little while he gave it control of the campus's security systems. The files Midoriya wanted access to were the files we have on you all, including the files that were built using that guy's cyberstalking."
Momo pales. Aizawa huffs.
"Nobody likes it. Get used to it."
Do you trust Izuku, Yaoyorozu-san?
Momo swallows and nods.
"Midoriya's speed gives him a unique insight into your abilities on the battlefield. His understanding of quirk theory, combined with some time in Hatsume's lab and some review with the heroes on staff, surpassed the estimates of everyone involved." Aizawa-sensei says. "Which brings me to my problem."
Questions spring to mind. Momo nearly asks a few and bites her lip to keep silent. Her sensei doesn't comment, choosing to stare at her instead.
"Some of you need tutoring."
"Phwa…" Momo can't help letting out a sigh of relief. She straightens as the barrel of Aizawa-sensei's GlareTM rises again. "I-I mean… T-tutoring! I can make time to hold classes…"
"You need tutoring as well."
Momo freezes. A cold feeling seeps through her skin and rolls through her like a belly full of ice water. She can't tell if the beads of sweat rolling down her back are freezing cold or too warm.
"I have drilled Midoriya on hand to hand combat. I'm working on getting him a certification. Kurobayashi offered to give pointers on working new exercises into any current…" Aizawa-sensei pauses as Momo takes a breath. He can't see her teeth rattling, but the sudden softness in his expression makes her wonder if maybe he knows. "I'd like you to oversee their lessons. While your grades and your performance exceed that of your classmates, neglecting hand to hand combat is irrational."
"Yes sensei." Momo swallows. Tries to assure herself that she isn't being scolded, that one of her old nightmares isn't teasing the hull of her mind.
"Midoriya had some ideas for Jirō that I'm interested in. She's more levelheaded than the others. Once you've determined that there's merit to the lessons, bring one or two of the others along. I'd rather not overwhelm any of you, but Midoriya is a resource of U.A. now." Aizawa straightens and twists towards his computer.
"…should I come to you for names?" She mutters. Aizawa-sensei stands up and pauses in front of her, holding a sticky note just high enough that she has to raise her eyes to see it clearly.
"I trust that you'll handle this as you've handled your other duties, Yaoyorozu." Aizawa-sensei grumbles. She clasps the sticky note a little tighter than necessary as his hand rests on her shoulder. It isn't a moment; that would imply that Aizawa-sensei hadn't dropped yet another responsibility onto her shoulders for the sake of sleeping. Worse, it might imply that he saw through her (admittedly) flimsy act.
Momo isn't sure which implication scares her more.
It most certainly is not a moment. Her relief has nothing to do with the gesture and entirely to do with the fact that she survived the meeting. She does not sigh with relief or let her shoulders droop once she's out the door.
{You did great!}
This time, she does stop and glance through the empty hallway. She's SURE she heard someone and positive she doesn't recognize them. After a few moments she turns and makes her way towards the dorm, though she can't help shaking the feeling of eyes on her back. No matter how cute Tooru-chan is, Momo isn't fond of ghosts (not even the supportive ones!).
-0-
-000-
-0-
Izuku is used to early mornings and late nights. He's used to lying awake staring at the back of his eyelids, playing with the sparks and echoes of light instead of sleeping. Sometimes it's a game, others a test: how long can he last without thinking, waiting for sleep to pounce on him like some unseen predator? Unfortunately sleep hunts like a cat: Once or twice a night, impossible to predict and with all the perseverance of a runaway scooter.
And that was before time became relative.
Eventually, nights become mornings; People wake up, and Izuku crawls out of bed.
Mornings B.A.M (Before All Might) were simple. Quiet. Normal. Routine. Back then it was just Izuku and his mother. They only lived under the shadow of "quirkless boy", and it was supplemented by his mother's life with her "weak utility quirk". Somehow, they understood one another, omissions included.
(Note: Normally, following some drastic change of circumstances, things would probably be divided up into two time periods. Despite Life-Threatening Situation One(Attack of the Mud-man) and Life-Threatening Situation Two taking place on the same day, it's the meeting with All Might that stands out most. Izuku likes to think of himself as a scientist, so he's got three: Before All Might, Before Limit Break, and Post Limit Break. He's tried four, but that was just crazy talk.)
Obviously, mornings B.L.B. were… tense. Izuku had been normal and driven towards a goal, though it wasn't the same as his dream. His mom had been…
Well, it was tense. Let's go with that (Assuming you don't need a recap of chapter 1-4).
Looking at everything P.L.B., mornings were different. Eri came around, Izuku started looking forward to being at school, he'd made peace with his mom and she'd made peace with his diagnosis…
Mornings at U.A. are NOTHING like quiet mornings back at their apartment.
Izuku still goes to bed later than anyone and heads off to training earlier than anyone else, but now he bumps into Togata-senpai or Kacchan on his return. Kurobayashi-sensei is almost always awake when Togata-senpai is on his way out, so Izuku makes a habit of stopping at the breakfast table for a chat over his teacher's coffee. When he's finally on his way to shower and change for class, his mother and Kurobayashi-san are shuffling into the kitchen to prepare breakfast. He finds himself eating breakfast with a sleepy Eri on his lap and too many people to fit into a single conversation before class, walking with people to school…
He's still not quite used to having this many people around.
They're all sitting at breakfast Saturday morning when the elevator chimes.
Needless to say, the room goes silent. Everyone at the table, save for a very confused little girl, looks at their companions. Melissa and Izuku share a particularly worried look, if only because the elevator is the only link between…
"Good morning, all," Monitor's voice sounds from the walls of the sitting room, sending a chill down Izuku's spine. "Midoriya-kun, would you mind helping Mother out of the elevator?"
"Uh-"
"I see no reason for your hesitation, Midoriya-kun. The doors are closing."
Izuku frowns. Knowing that Monitor will just be difficult until he gets what he wants, Izuku wanders over to the elevator and stares at the doors as the chime rings out again, and again, and…
"Monitor?"
"Midoriya-kun, leaving Mother in that position is cruel. Considering your current actions, I must register this as an attack. Beginning offensive protocols…"
"We both know you're not going to do that," Izuku grumbles, dragging Mei off the floor and out of the elevator doors. Everyone in the room stares at him as he lowers the girl onto a couch. "Monitor why is Mei out of the lab?"
"She said she wanted to sleep."
"Does she sleep?" Izuku looks at Melissa, who shrugs. "I mean… Has she left the lab since she joined U.A.?"
"This is her first departure from the lab since my birth."
"Calling it a birth is so… ugh. Anyways," Izuku shudders and scratches the back of his head. "What do you want me to do with her?"
"She's not an object, Midoriya-kun."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"I have no protocols for this situation."
"Seriously?" He looks up as Melissa frowns at a data pad.
"Izuku…? I think I figured out why she left. She's done."
"Done with what? I thought the robot army wasn't actually in the works yet." Izuku really hopes it isn't the robot army thing. He doesn't want to spend the spare moments before class dismantling Mei's lab. Ever since she installed that catwalk, the depths of her territory are something out of a nightmare.
"No, not that. We suspended that…" Melissa stands up and moves to stand beside him, showing him the data pad as if he can understand anything on the screen. What he sees is a lot of numbers moving very quickly through four windows, and a sidebar with a list of file names. "See this?"
"The files?"
"Mmhmm. The yellow ones are completed or being finished by automated processes." Melissa says quietly. Izuku frowns and taps the screen, scrolling for several minutes until he reaches the end of the list.
"…They're all yellow?" Izuku blinks. Melissa nods. He turns back to the list and scrolls to the top, then scrolls down again more slowly. "Uh… Melissa?"
"Yes."
"And this one?"
"Yes."
"Even 'Compound Cyborg'?"
"Well, mostly…"
"Extremely prolific viral growth serum?"
"I've made sure it's in the deep freeze."
"Nuclear Recombination reactor? Melissa, you've got to be kidding me."
"She wouldn't leave the lab otherwise!" Melissa huffs.
"Geothermic period interruption device…?" Izuku drags a hand across his face. "What the hell is 'project Locust'?"
Melissa smiles nervously.
"'Gustave Jr.', 'Amaterasu Lens', 'Hurricane Concentrate'… Melissa, why is there a file called 'Baby Ultima'?" He shakes his head and shoves the data pad back into her hands before she can say anything, holding up his hands and backing away. "You know, actually, I don't want to know. You're the one in charge of locking these down, okay? I need to get to class."
He barely makes it a few steps before a slight thump comes from behind him. Only when something begins scraping against the floor does he risk turning around.
"She does this sometimes…" Melissa sighs as she helps Mei off the floor and drags the unconscious woman towards Izuku, assisted by Mei's shuffling feet. "I've found her typing while asleep in her chair. Not that I've ever seen her seek someone out like this."
"What am I supposed to do with her?" Izuku groans as the sleeping woman slumps against his chest.
"Take her to class?" Melissa smiles apologetically. "Like you said, I need to check the inventory and make sure everything is locked down properly. If she finished the list in her sleep we might have a containment breach, or worse. She's safer with you than anyone else."
Izuku almost tries to fight it. One look at the woman sleeping against his chest, gradually sinking towards the floor as her bare feet lose the fight against gravity and friction, reminds him that fighting would be pointless. Not even sleep can deter this woman from making his life difficult, apparently. He was starting to think she didn't sleep at all… but he's still not entirely sure she's human.
-0-
-000-
-0-
"Kyōka-chan?" The punk girl slows as Momo hops down the steps and takes the space beside her. Walking together isn't odd (Momo had been the one lagging behind this morning) but calling out to her so formally certainly must sound odd. Ochako and Mina and Tooru are already a few steps ahead by the time they start moving again. She grins, trying to throw off any ominous thoughts, but finds herself looking over her shoulder to see if Tsuyu and Ojiro actuallymade it out of the dorm with a few minutes to spare.
"What's up, girl?"
"I… Well, Aizawa-sensei called me in to talk about the class yesterday…" Momo sighs. "Apparently some of us need hand to hand combat tutoring. He wants you and I to ask Midoriya-kun for supplementary lessons."
"Shit."
"I'm not… terribly excited either, but I don't imagine it will be that bad." Momo frowns. Kyōka lifts an eyebrow instead of offering her opinion, and even though Momo understands, she feels awful. No one in class 1-A save for Ochako, Kirishima and Tsuyu seem prepared to approach Midoriya-kun for anything, let alone ask for extra combat lessons. There's a particularly sore spot on her shoulder left over from a bad flip to remind her why.
Before the S-class were involved, a bad flip would have involved a trip to Recovery Girl and a hot bath, but when you're flipped across the room and implanted into a wall, modern medicine can't quite get it all. For what it's worth, he seemed really upset about it. And SHE was the one who told him not to take it easy on her.
"It will be fine." She says. Kyōka rolls her eyes and laughs, sounding less amused by the second. "I'm sure it will be fine."
"Whatever you say Yaomomo."
The class is lively today, despite the cold weather. Once they've been in the room for a few minutes, things start to warm up considerably. Momo can't help but notice that Todoroki says a few things to Ochako out of the blue. She's glad that he's willing to talk to anyone, and Ochako breaking the ice seems fitting, somehow. Kaminari and Mineta are up to something, but they've been remarkably quiet ever since Midoriya started paying attention to Mineta.
As if summoned by Momo's silent 'thank you', the door opens and Midoriya's voice floats into the room.
"Look, Monitor, I don't CARE how easy it would be to change the legal documentation, you can't just put Mei in my family tree!" Midoriya snaps, turning awkwardly to shut the door behind him. He shuffles across the front of the room looking less than pleased with his situation, carrying some sort of metal contraption across his back that Hatsume is using as a bed. Judging from the massive bubble rising and falling from the woman's nose, she's still asleep.
The entire class falls silent to watch him walk across the room and drop his backpack onto his desk.
"And since she isn't my sister, she doesn't get to just hitch a ride now that she's finally coming to school! Especially without explaining WHY SHE'S COMING TO SCHOOL IN THE FIRST PLACE!" Midoriya glares at the corner of the ceiling where the doorway meets the blackboard, which is odd until Momo realizes that he most likely knows where all the cameras are positioned and… Oh. THAT's concerning. "What am I supposed do with her, Monitor? She doesn't have a desk!"
Midoriya waits for a response (Momo thinks) before sighing and hauling the metal contraption off his shoulders. When he sets it down, it shifts and warps around Hatsume until the metal has formed a black mockup of a school desk. Somehow it does so without waking her. He slips into his desk and flops across the top gracelessly, letting his arms hang over the front.
When Bakugō reaches the room a few minutes later he finds everyone sitting in silence. The blonde reaches Hatsume's makeshift desk and glares, switching between Midoriya and Hatsume as if to demand an explanation. Midoriya offers none; he doesn't even bother looking up until Bakugō kicks the leg of his desk.
"Oi."
"I don't know."
"The fuck?"
"I really don't know."
"How?"
"What do you mean 'how'? You tell me, you spend more time down there than I do."
"It's called maintenance, Deku. Fuck off." Bakugō kicks Midoriya's desk again and earns a weak swat of Midoriya's arm for his trouble.
"Sure, Kacchan."
"FUCK does THAT mean, HAH?"
"Do you want her to wake up?" Midoriya-kun hisses. Bakugō freezes with one hand halfway to Midoriya-kun's throat and glances at the pink haired woman sitting between them, then closes his eyes and lets two clouds of steam hiss out of his nostrils.
Momo never realized that would look so… cartoony.
It suits him though.
Bakugō takes a breath, lets out a couple more puffs of steam from his hands and nose, then takes a wide berth around Hatsume's desk to take his seat. Momo's eyebrow twitches as Hatsume's bubble grows nearly as large as her desk, then shrinks back down to normal. She's sure that, save for Aoyama's sparkles, these kinds of things aren't supposed to happen in real life.
Momo laments her failing reality as Aizawa-sensei and Kurobayashi-sensei arrive for homeroom. The shift from ridiculousness to reality isn't as subtle as it should be: Heroes perform almost exactly like normal teachers, though they're a little more relatable and forgiving than most of Momo's past teachers. Lessons keep a grueling pace, but only to make up for the additional material (history of the world and Japanese culture is supplemented by history of heroics, for instance) piled onto their workloads.
Eventually they break for lunch, and the students heave a collective sigh of relief. Momo finds Kyōka quickly, giving away her intent without ever having to speak a word. Her friend simply smiles, launching the two of them into a chat about some trending pop song.
It is criminal, Momo thinks, how easily Kyōka and Mina drag these little things out of her. Admitting her guilty pleasures lends a little bit of excitement to these little talks, as if her parents might learn she doesn't listen to Bach, Nakao, and Miyagi exclusively. On the tail of that excitement, though, is a far more personal guilt. Hopefully Momo won't ever have to admit that Kyōka's smile, her personal, genuine smile, is such a beautiful sight that it sets off butterflies in Momo's stomach and leaves her a little flush.
The pair are a few meters from Midoriya's table when Bakugō slams himself down across from Midoriya. A grey blur replaces Midoriya's arm before the boy takes a sip of his soup. Momo and Kyōka both hesitate as they become aware of the crowd converging on Midoriya's table.
-0-
-000-
-0-
"Oh ho! Welcome back, young Midoriya-kun!" Lunch Rush settles his hands on the counter as Izuku approaches the front of the line. Izuku isn't sure if the hero is grinning or simply putting on an act, but he enjoys the little game enough to smile as he reaches for his lunch.
"Good afternoon, sensei!" He takes a moment before a wide grin splits his expression. "Oranges or apples?"
"Well that depends!" Lunch Rush laughs loud enough to be clearly heard through their mask. "Citrus can be used for more when it comes to cooking, of course… but apples make much better ammunition when you need to pack a punch!"
Izuku chuckles as he heads toward the table that has become his 'headquarters' in the cafeteria. Mei is right where he left her, eating some kind of bento despite the snores and snuffles coming through. Before he can start eating, a shudder runs through his spine.
Kacchan's meal barely makes a sound as it hits the table, much like the boy's backpack. The blonde, on the other hand, slams himself down into the seat across from Izuku hard enough to shake Izuku's bowl of soup. Izuku sighs and scoops his meal out of the air in a burst of motion, eyeing the students hesitating in the face of Kacchan's mood.
"What is it Kacchan?" Izuku slides a little closer to Mei, despite the space he'd left her, to make room for the incoming students. Across the table, Kacchan does the same. Kirishima is the first to slide in and take the seat beside the blonde.
"Fuck were you talking about this morning? You tryin ta die?" Kacchan grumbles.
"I didn't say anything, Kacchan." Izuku can't help his tone. Honestly, he's not sure what's going on with Kacchan, but it's obvious that he treats Melissa differently from the rest of them. Bringing it up to Kacchan's face is, well, not meant to poke fun… But it feels that way.
It reminds him of when they were kids.
He's brought to reality as Mirio takes the seat on Kacchan's other side, with Konomi on the outside and Kābā taking the empty seat on Mei's other side.
Mirio opens his mouth and trails off almost immediately, staring at Mei as the bubble attached to her nose shrinks down to a less intrusive size. Izuku has to fight to keep himself from asking the question on everyone's mind. Rather than probe the insanity that is Hatsume Mei, he glances across the table and locks eyes with Yaoyorozu.
Suddenly he's firmly aware of his tongue, and he can't remember how it fits his mouth.
"Yo Midoriya." Jirō's voice knocks him out of his stupor, thankfully. He's never talked with her directly before, so he's not entirely sure how much space to leave between them but knows that scooting away would be rude.
"H-hey, Jirō-san…" Izuku coughs. He risks a glance to his right and finds Kābā poking Mei's nose with a pencil while Tachibana tries not to laugh. Kirishima seems to have Kacchan's attention for the moment, which leaves Izuku no way out. "Y-Yaoyorozu-san."
"Sorry if we interrupted anything, Midoriya-kun." Yaoyorozu-san frowns.
"Not at all!" Izuku ignores the growl coming from across the table. "I'm glad we finally get to eat lunch together…"
"About that," Jirō mutters. "Eraser says you're supposed to tutor me an' Yaomomo in hand to hand combat. Had you heard?"
"He mentioned it." Izuku's gut twists.
"If it's too much trouble, especially with academics…" Yaoyorozu-san offers.
"Not at all," Izuku's chest warms up and flutters as he locks eyes with her. "I just… figured you'd prefer a different instructor, I guess."
"Compared to the teachers around here, you're pretty normal…" Jirō groans. "But tutoring isn't the same as a combat exercise, so go easy on us?"
"R-right…" Izuku blushes some as he glances across the table. Yaoyorozu seems conflicted. Maybe a little bit disappointed. "Well, hey, I'm sure I can figure something out. Funny that I'm the one tutoring you though…"
Yaoyorozu-san smiles weakly at the quip, then pales as Jirō speaks up.
"Oh yeaaaah… I forgot you were Midoriya's tutor, Yaomomo," The girl smiles easily. Somehow Izuku feels like the expression is familiar but he can't quite place it, and the question is lost as Yaoyorozu-san speaks up from across the table.
"I already told you it wasn't like that!" The lady squawks. Somehow Jirō holds her end of their conversation while she's eating, earning various reactions from Yaoyorozu-san. Izuku turns to Mirio as quickly as he dares, swallowing the knot in his throat as if that doesn't just put another knot in his stomach.
Unfortunately, his senpai fixes him with a smile that's both pitying and sympathetic. Suddenly Izuku doesn't feel like talking at all, so he attacks his lunch with as much energy as he can. Kirishima maintains Kacchan's ire over the course of the meal period, much the same way Jirō maintains Yaoyorozu-san's, and the odd group manages to last the period without someone getting blown up.
-0-
Aizawa announces that they'll be working on super moves and individual training for the next two weeks. He says nothing of Izuku giving people individual training, or the profiles that Izuku has stored in Monitor's database, but Izuku takes the hint anyways. Instead he waits by a bus with Kurobayashi-sensei and Kacchan while the girls change into their hero outfits.
"Hey, Kacchan, you know we aren't going to have time for a spar after this right?"
"Fuck off," Kacchan snarls. Izuku shrugs, hoping that maybe the blonde is just heading out for training in the same testing ground.
"Well, as long as you don't get…" Izuku trails off as the girls come out of the gate.
Oh. He COMPLETELY forgot about that.
Izuku's brain goes haywire as soon as he sees Yaoyorozu's outfit. There's nothing obscene running through his mind but he finds himself turning red and venting steam from his ears. Kacchan swats him on the shoulder and shoves him towards the bus before he can make a fool of himself, so he can't say the blonde never did anything for him. He's spent enough time online to know what's going to be said about the girl when she debuts; Mount Lady's entrance sticks out in particular for reasons (that, ironically, have nothing to do with the heroine's choice of marketing).
The others stare at Ground AO nervously when Izuku opens up the gate. He can't really blame them, so he leads them to the park he enjoys for his morning workouts.
"Okay, so…" He turns towards Yaoyorozu-san and Jirō-san hesitantly. "You two already have some experience with hand to hand combat, obviously. Do you have anything that sticks out to you personally?"
"I'm weak." Jirō shrugs. Her hero outfit is pretty slick, Izuku thinks. The speakers are clever, and he likes her aesthetic. Compared to most heroines she's easy on the eyes.
"That's relative, but we can work with that…" Izuku blushes fiercely as he looks towards Yaoyorozu-san. "Y-Yao, C-Creati-san?"
"I'd like to implement my quirk during combat." She says.
"That may be possible," Izuku mutters. "You mean hand to hand combat, right?"
"Of course," Yaoyorozu-san grins. "How did you get started with hand to hand combat, Midoriya-kun?"
"I got attacked by villains a lot." Izuku scratches the back of his head as he thinks back to the first few months after his work out plan and his "diagnosis". The women simply stare at him in response. He waits a bit before he sighs and starts them off with stretches.
Yaoyorozu is trained with a few weapons, apparently. Her quirk makes disarming her almost impossible, but Izuku knows that she tends towards flashy moves and big creations. Admittedly, creating complex weaponry or multiple parts from the atoms up is insane for just about anyone, so Izuku doesn't fault her for her choices.
Instead, he tells her to focus on the advantages her height and her training offer her. After warming up, he talks about the distance between fighters and asks her if she's ever used her weapons before Creation has finished making them.
Making sharp objects come out point up is apparently a lesson she learned very young: one that makes her blush and avoid his questioning look.
Jirō-san has a much less flashy, overpowered quirk, but a quirk Izuku has been dying to experiment with, nonetheless. She's much shorter and not as inclined towards physical strength compared to her partner, but Izuku couldn't care less about any of that.
She pales when he asks her to spar but agrees hesitantly when he says she just needs to try hitting him while he talks. Her jacks are about as sensitive as the rest of her ears, apparently. The cords are easily injured and delicate. It's a testament to her skill and determination that she can extend and use them as she does, with as much utility as she does. Despite the numerous ideas scrapped by this discovery, Izuku dives in headfirst with other theories.
"So," Izuku grabs her elbow to correct her form as she tries to punch him, then shifts around to dodge as if he'd never moved in the first place. "When you project your heartbeat, does the sound travel down your jacks or just resonate at the ends?"
"Huh?" Jirō falters, then stiffens as Izuku clicks his tongue.
"If I'm prying…" Izuku hesitates before reaching out to correct her form again. "Wait, can I fix your stance?"
She nods, and he takes the time to point out what happened before he moves back to where he was. He keeps a human pace this time, thinking that maybe his flashy tactics might have been the problem, and earns a curious look from the girl in return.
"If I'm asking personal questions I'll stop." He finishes.
"N-no…" Jirō's face twists through various expressions. "Do we have to fight while we talk?"
"Not really, but you should get used to it… You've been in combat, right? Villains like to talk, so you'll have to deal with this eventually."
"Can't argue with that," She grumbles. "What does it matter about my jacks, though?"
"Well, maybe you can't tie people up…" Izuku shuffles away from her attacks as they talk, letting her come after him instead of fixing each mistake as they come. "But if the sound travels through your jacks you can use the cords as a weapon."
"You really want me to tie you up with these things? Sorry, Midoriya, you're not my type."
"No… Well, yeah… b-but not like that…!" Izuku flicks her hand, ignoring her yelp and wincing as she crashes to the ground. "If your heartbeat goes through the whole jack you can probably numb someone's wrist."
The girl frowns at him as she picks herself up.
"What else ya got?"
"How well does the sound project in open air?" He asks.
"I've never tried…"
"Mind giving it a shot?" He gives her his best smile and earns a raised eyebrow in response.
"What about sparring?"
"We can get back to that, I promise. Just give it a shot… oh but tell me when you start." She looks at him funny for that one, but holds up her jacks and does her best to concentrate.
"Okay, here goes."
Izuku has a very rough understanding of where he's at as the world drags to a halt. Hours of physics research and approximation in Mei's lab has taught him the various consequences of shatter speed, but there's no comprehending the exact nature of these things. No amount of training he does can allow Izuku to see air molecules or raw forces of nature, so he has to rely on clues.
First everything begins to slow; he's been doing this long enough that he barely registers the first traces of it. People are the best clue to use for the first few levels of shatter speed, specifically eyes lips and fingers. Eventually he has to peel his eyes from the people around him to keep himself from peering at their irises and their skin, finding live action traces of humanity that any scientist would kill for a first-hand visual of.
Sounds begin to stretch next. Beyond human reaction speeds, his mind starts chunking the data he gets from his environment. Regular things, wind and echoes and various sounds of life, become warped and drawn out. Wind becomes something akin to ocean waves on his skin. At the furthest reaches of this, he can count the seconds it takes for a lightning bolt to strike.
Memories of the Deep-Sea King come to mind. Izuku does his best to let them wash off him, focusing on Jiro's jacks instead of the imaginary blood staining his hands. He has to be careful pushing beyond this speed, so he peels microseconds apart with painstaking control.
Time is something like a metaphorical ocean. As one peels the seconds apart and dives beneath the surface, the pressure begins to increase. First things begin to slow down, then sounds begin to wash out. Water isn't the same as wind. Even small bodies of water carry enough weight to destroy a person.
Oceans are far more terrifying.
At this speed, the world is a photograph in terribly high definition. Noise is almost nonexistent, save for Izuku's natural bubble. What bothers him most is that the world begins to stretch in ways that his mind can't quite comprehend. Something in the depths of his mind still rejects his power and tries to force the world into shape while the reality is burned into his eyes.
If Time is an ocean, Izuku stands on the last expanse of solid land before a trench. The weight bears down not on his shoulders but on his mind: on his eyes and ears and his sanity. Nightmares play out in real time as he nears the event horizon. He can't trust his eyes and his ears are full of cotton, so he can only watch as reality itself flickers in and out along the edges of his vision.
But here, on the edge of something, Izuku can see Jirō's quirk displace the air near the tips of her jacks. There's not quite enough force to leave anything lasting, but it's something. And Izuku will take just about anything if it means he can help this girl become stronger. She deserves it, just as much or more than her classmates do. Izuku knows that much.
Returning to the "present" is chaotic at best, but there are a few benefits of teasing the fabric of reality. He can take his time dealing with the sudden feedback he gets doing his dive in reverse. Unfortunately, he still gets a headache.
Maybe he shouldn't smile when his vision is narrowing and his "headache" is probably a migraine not a headache, but he smiles, nonetheless.
He's still human. At least for a little while longer, he's still human.
"It works! Kinda small, but I'll look into the physics behind pressure displacement and see if we can't make this into a new move." His voice cracks a little bit.
Jirō's eyes narrow immediately.
"How'd you even…"
"Super speed, remember?" Izuku scratches the back of his head as she glares at him. "Anyways, you can definitely produce air pulses from your jacks, you just need to work on how much effort you put into it. Quirks are just muscles, so the more you try to do this the easier it should be. In the meantime, I'll work with the two of you on form and we can spar."
Yaoyorozu looks up as he mentions the group as a whole. From this angle her costume isn't nearly as hard to look at, but Izuku's eyes widen as the staff produced from her palm shoots several centimeters into the air. She jumps a bit as the metal clatters to the ground, and he's reminded that this go- this woman is not quite the Athena that he imagines her to be.
Not yet, anyways.
"Kurobayashi-sensei!" The man looks up as Izuku calls out to him, putting a thumb between the pages of his book without bothering to see what Izuku actually needs. Izuku grins as the teacher lumbers over to the three of them. "I know I'm supposed to be the one teaching, but do you mind giving me some help?"
"Midoriya-kun, it would be my pleasure." Kurobayashi-sensei pockets his book and smiles at the three of them.
Jirō's eyes widen as her lips peel back in violent, instinctual fear.
Yaoyorozu smiles, shivering as she brings up her fists and nods.
Izuku grins.
"Hey, Monitor? We're going to need some training dummies over in Ground AO. Green model twos, please."
-0-
-000-
-0-
Momo thought Midoriya's combat tutoring would be something like All Might's classes, or perhaps something like any of her other teachers' methods.
Once they've finished the first day, she thinks that she was wrong in the best way.
Kurobayashi-sensei steps in frequently at Midoriya's request. The pair move between Momo and Kyōka in such a way that they're never unobserved, only left to work through a motion or two for themselves. Each time they've made a mistake once or twice, one of the tutors is there to correct it.
The only thing that actually hurts, or stresses Momo out, is that Midoriya constantly encourages them to slow down. After being at U.A. for a year and attending some various classes on self-defense, Momo understands that the speeds Midoriya asks for are RIDICULOUS. He doesn't ask for "training slow", he asks for a level of slow so horrible that it hurts.
Doing homework that night proves that Momo has exhausted portions of her arms that she rarely uses, notably her shoulders and the sides of her biceps. Kyōka mutters several things about Midoriya under her breath and Momo is quick to agree internally. Her opinion of Midoriya aside, she thinks maybe he doesn't quite understand how other people work. Surely people like Midoriya, who've had this kind of strength for so long and reached such inhuman levels, don't understand what normal people are like.
She wonders if he has any goals in mind at all, let alone any idea of what he's asking them to do. His questions are odd, his methods are strange, his mannerisms are confusing…
"You're gonna carve through the page, Yaomomo," Tooru mutters quietly, sounding a little scared. "Midoriya is scary, huh?"
"What?" Momo scowls a bit as she looks up from her paper, finding that she is in fact about to press her pencil through the page. She forces herself to relax and clean the page, looking at the other students around the table. Kirishima, Mineta, Kaminari and Ochako are all sitting spaced out nearby, with the rest of her class scattered about the common room. Kyōka, of course, is sitting beside her flopped over the table in an act of defiance.
"I think she was asking how training with Midoriya went." Kaminari smiles carefully. Momo frowns and deflates a little bit when she catches him trembling.
"Oh, it was fine. He simply ran us through some punches and situations," She rereads her homework, wondering what she might have done to scare Kaminari so badly. He's only afraid of Kyōka usually, with good reason. Not even Bakugō scared the boy… before Bakugō's evolution, of course. "Though he asked a lot of questions about our quirks."
"He's better than All Might," Kyōka groans. "Nothing got blown up."
"Is that really the metric we're going for?" Tsu-chan croaks from the couch.
"Would you rather put it at optional expulsion, Tsu?"
"No, I was just curious how low the bar was set."
"Midoriya-kun did fine!" Momo huffs. "I simply expected something more than routine questions and exercises."
Her classmates share looks across the table, seemingly coming to the same conclusion all at once.
"So, he's normal?"
"Normal is good, right? But is he really…?"
"That can't be. He fought Bakugō!"
"He does seem kind of plain."
"Midoriya isn't NORMAL," Kyōka growls, sitting up to get their attention. "Yaomomo is just pissed because he wouldn't look her in the eye during training."
Momo's cheeks heat up immediately, and the air of their conversation changes entirely as wide grins erupt across the room. Yet again they've all come to a single conclusion, and Momo can' help feeling a little left out when a few of them start laughing.
"What? I'm not upset about that at all, I just expected him to have a little more prepared…!" Her voice is lost in the white noise of the dining room table. Kyōka just rolls her eyes as she stands up and gathers her homework.
"Whatever you say, Yaomomo. I'm gonna go shower, my shoulders are killing me."
Momo stares at her homework for a long time after Kyōka leaves. People move about around her, chatting and having dinner and looking at phones, but the white noise is hardly an issue after living with these people for eight months. She assures herself that Kyōka is wrong, but the more she thinks about it the more she realizes Kyōka is right.
Midoriya had barely spoken with her at all during training.
AND during lunch.
He'd always been skittish, but usually during tutoring he'd at least gotten serious enough that he could follow her teaching without issue. What is she supposed to do if he won't take this seriously? Now that they're training, losing time to poor teaching may cost her later!
Look at Bakugō. He'd become an Anomaly and still.
By the time she's finished her homework and gone to shower, she finds herself well and truly steamed over Midoriya's foolishness.
(Momo won't notice that her classmates slowly begin to avoid her as the cloud around her darkens, that people begin whispering as her mechanical pencil creaks under her fastening grip or that several of her classmates are genuinely worried about approaching her now that she's manifested this aura; instead she'll leave the room to shower alone, and several members of 1-A will be left concerned and confused as to what they should expect from Midoriya, as well as what they should expect from the matriarch of their class from now on…)
-0-
-000-
-0-
Izuku isn't entirely sure what to do with Mei. She's been asleep for a full 24 hours now, and he's just been lugging her around like a backpack. Monitor assures Izuku that this is for the best, but he can't help but feel worried. Like she's running from something or preparing for something. Being kept in the dark like this leaves him far too long to think about scenarios for her awakening, and he doesn't like what he's coming up with.
Eri is content to share their after-school time with Mei's sleeping form, though she mostly ignores Mei. Melissa has assured Izuku that every project she's checked is clear, working and on ice. There's a decent number left, but Mei-I is apparently down there running maintenance checks and developing, much like Maya-chan.
None of this makes him feel better, per se. Especially when Melissa says "on ice".
He walks out of the dorm with Mei strapped to his back on Tuesday and stops at the top of the steps, feeling a sense of animalistic fear when he spies the cloud of malice hanging over Yaoyorozu-san's shoulders.
"Midoriya-kun!" She smiles as if she's drawing a knife on him, and her tone of voice makes it painfully clear that he's already trapped before he considers fleeing. "Want to walk to class together?"
"I… s-sure? G-g-good morning, Y-yaoyorozu-san…" He stammers, taking the steps slowly to buy himself time. Before he reaches the bottom of the steps he accelerates, running through everything possible between classes yesterday and this morning, thinking of anything he could have done that would warrant a death sentence.
He ends up looking at his feet for most of those shredded moments. Even angry, despite the veins and red crosses covering her forehead, Yaoyorozu is distracting in all the best ways. Maybe that's why, no matter how long he tries to stretch out that moment, he can't figure out what he's done wrong.
Reality snaps into place with an air of finality, as if Yaoyorozu Momo cracked a whip and commanded it to do so… Or perhaps Izuku is simply thinking too much on his impending doom and the woman who intends to do him in.
"S-so… How are you f-feeling?" He asks. Yaoyorozu falls into step beside him easily, still smiling, still carrying her cloud as they head to class.
"Fine! Stretching helps, of course, but taking an entire hour for punches and standing forms still wears one out, it seems."
"Yeah, I guess so?" Izuku pales as more crosses pop out of the woman's forehead.
"But I managed to complete my homework without issue! So, there's no trouble," Yaoyorozu snaps, turning her eyes to the U.A. towers. "I was wondering, do the S-class have anything going on this evening?"
"Uh… no, not that I know of…"
"Would you like to study together? Perhaps make a party out of it, for anyone who would like to join?"
"O-oh? Um, that would be fine, I know Kurobayashi-sensei…"
"Perfect! Let's meet at the 1-A dorms around seven?"
"That late? But… Well, that's fine, I can't bring Eri but…"
"I'm glad you can make it." Yaoyorozu says. Izuku trails behind her a step, feeling utterly flattened by the way this conversation is going.
"Y-yeah… Please go easy on me…"
"What are you talking about, Midoriya-kun? We're just studying."
"Is that really…"
"Oh, and we can invite your friends! I haven't met any of the Management or Gen-ed students, so perhaps they could introduce me! Forming connections is always good for aspiring students!"
"Hold on, Yaoyorozu-san?"
"That would be perfect." Yaoyorozu nods to herself as they take the steps, joining a few other students from 1-A who seem to skirt around them instead of joining them on their way. "Tonight, at seven, don't forget!"
"No, I wouldn't dare." Izuku mutters. Luckily the cloud hanging over the woman's head seems to dissipate as they reach the third floor and make their way towards 1-A. She floats down the hall ahead of him, completely unaware of the despair pouring off his shoulders.
"Man, I don't know what you did…" Kaminari sighs, throwing a hand over Izuku's shoulders and dragging him the remainder of the way to class. "But I'm glad you managed to make it up to her. She nearly filled the matryoshka bin with broken pencils last night."
"Why me, Kaminari-kun…?"
"Don't ask me, man," The boy sighs and gives Izuku's shoulder a shake, grinning just a bit. "But, hey, nothing wrong with messing up sometimes! We'd all be dead if women couldn't stand a little stupid hanging around."
"I thought I was gonna diiiiiiieeeeee…!"
"I hear you dude. Our girls are seriously scary sometimes. Did ya hear what they did to Mineta during the Christmas party? That was brutal, lemme tell you…"
-0-
-000-
-0-
Kābā is surprised when he finds Izuku with his head on the lunch table. Usually his friend is hungry enough to eat three meals altogether and go for snacks, forget skipping meals. Rather than skipping straight to worried, he takes a seat beside the feral Pomeranian and glances at the blonde curiously.
"I don't fuckin know either, the nerd was like that when I got here." The boy says.
Okay, now Kābā is reaching levels of "concern". He reaches across the table and grabs Izuku's head, lifting it off the table to find fresh tear tracks and glassy eyes staring through him before he gently returns the boy to his sorrows and lets out a deep sigh. Gradually, as if sensing a disturbance in the Force universe, Konomi, Ruby and Daisuke all reach the table and stare. Kiri-kun has already joined them on Bakugō's other side, giving them somewhat of a buffer.
Mei's sleep bubble is a little too large for Kābā's liking, but he's got more important things to worry about. No bubble popping until he's fixed Izuku. Even if it is taunting him a bit by growing larger when he turns back to Izuku.
"So… anything happen this morning?" He asks nobody in particular.
Everyone stops when a small whine pierces the air.
"Was it Eri?" Konomi's eyes are all purple blue and red as she reaches out and pats the back of Izuku's head. He doesn't say anything in response, simply lays there. "Did you get a bad grade or something?"
"It might have something to do with Yaomomo…" Kiri-kun says weakly. Every eye turns towards him, even Bakugō (which is a bit surprising), and the red head laughs nervously as they stare. "I mean, she was pretty upset about something last night, and she left early this morning. I saw them on the way to class and she still looked pretty upset."
"Oh, no," Konomi sighs, offering silent prayer before snapping her chopsticks in two and poking through her meal. "Izuku, what'd you do?"
"Wait, training. Izuku said it went fine." Kābā says. Another whine, slightly less miserable and a little more emphatic at the head, trails off in response, and Kābā is left with nothing to say in response.
"Mm," Ruby swallows and points her chopsticks at the boy. "It's that bad, huh?"
A softer whine, more of a groan.
"You started off with the basics, didn't you?" Ruby nods, leaning into her free hand. Midoriya actually groans in response, and Ruby smiles softly as she snorts. "Don't worry about it, Bunny Rabbit. It can't be that terrible."
Three distinct groans fill the air this time, with too many peaks and whines for Kābā to even try identifying all the emotions involved.
"Don't be so melodramatic," Ruby takes a bite of her rice and lets out a puff of steam before replying. "It's just a study party, she won't kill you in front of everyone. What kind of heroine would kill you in front of your mother?"
Izuku groans in response.
"Well, maybe your mom does like Yaoyorozu-san, but I think that's a little much. Eri is obviously her favorite, and no one would let Yaoyorozu murder you in front of Eri." Ruby pauses when Izuku groans with feeling in response, then nods slowly and folds her hands. "At 1-A? Oh, then perhaps you are in trouble… Without Eri-chan you'll have no distractions."
She smirks Izuku when he remains silent.
"Just don't let her get you alone."
"Uh…" Kābā has known these two for a long time now, but he's entirely certain what he's just seen. As he tends to do in matters of "Sokuchi Ruby", he looks to Konomi for an answer and finds the girl patiently eating her meal instead of paying attention to the exchange. She meets his eyes over a bite of broccoli and raises an eyebrow as if she doesn't understand his question, which she obviously does.
"Yaoyorozu-san has demanded that Izuku meet her at the 1-A dorms for a study party tonight," Ruby says flatly. "He seems to think she's prepared to eat him alive. She also asked us to come as a matter of course."
Izuku groans into the table. Mei's nose bubble swells to absolutely blasphemous levels, and Kābā finds himself at a loss for words.
"I'm looking forward to it, honestly," Ruby smiles quietly to herself. "Yaoyorozu-san and Mina-chan are such nice company, and we haven't had a study party with the other courses yet."
"Wait, you guys are coming over tonight?" Kiri-kun, bless his heart, blinks as he looks back and forth around the table. "Midoriya, why didn't you say anything?"
"Read the fuckin' room shitty hair."
"Bakugō, you're coming too right?!"
"Fuck off, my grades ain't that shit!"
"Aw, c'mon! It'll be like old times!"
"Like hell! I always end up tutoring your dumb asses!"
"Exactly!"
Kābā isn't exactly sure how Bakugō eats that quickly without choking or making a mess. He's eaten just enough lunches with Bakugō to know that the boy usually ends up storming off halfway through after he shovels his way through his tray and that nothing is left behind when that finally happens. But the sight of Bakugō inhaling his food outright is just normal enough to reset the gears in his head and remind him of the bubble waiting for his challenge just across the table, so he puts a pin in the whole "study party" thing and tacks on a special "what the fuck" with Ruby's name on it for good measure.
-0-
-000-
-0-
"Why is Midoriya coming over tonight exactly?" Kyōka groans.
"I invited him for a study party!" Momo chirps.
"Yes, I heard you but why?" Kyōka rolls her eyes as she sets her bookbag on the table. "We already have another training session with him tomorrow, if you didn't want to wait go over to his dorm! Don't drag everyone into it!"
"I'm class representative!" Momo frowns at the accusation. "I wouldn't be doing my job if we did this somewhere else. Why would I do it with just the two of us anyways?"
"Because you've got some kind of issue with Midoriya?" Kyōka raises an eyebrow. Momo doesn't have a response for that because, while she does have something to talk to Midoriya about, she absolutely doesn't want to be alone in the same room as him. And lying is not heroic at all. Eventually her friend sighs and throws herself into the chair across from Momo hard enough to make the furniture groan. "Look, Yaomomo, I get that you're not super happy about Midoriya ignoring you, but the guy up and moved here out of nowhere. And considering the stuff on his plate, you should probably cut him a little slack before you go forcing dates on him."
"Dates?!" Momo's hands slam against the table as she stands up, glaring down at her friend as if the height will remove her from such a targeted assault on her character. "W-why would I invite Midoriya on a date?!"
Kyōka raises a single eyebrow. Momo bites back just about every response that comes to mind as that eyebrow begins to wiggle in ways that are obviously practiced just for this occasion.
"Y-you…!"
"Relax, Yaomomo," Kyōka rolls her eyes again. "it isn't a date, it's a study party. Sheesh. I didn't think you'd get so defensive about it."
"I'm not…!"
"I get it, alright? You're not interested in him." Kyōka shrugs. "Can't blame you, he's kinda meh. But we've got Todoroki in our class, so I can see where you're coming from."
Momo's eyes widen as the assault continues, despite her expectations. She covers her cheeks with her hands as the heat begins to sting her eyes.
"I guess I did kinda forget that whole 'princess in the tower' vibe you've got going on, so that's my bad. Todoroki's a little too oblivious for that sort of play if you ask me. Right now, everyone has money on you asking him out," Kyōka scratches her cheek as she pulls out her homework and some pencils. "But you didn't hear that from me."
Something in Momo's mind slams down so hard that her expression darkens and steels itself all at once. Kyōka eyes her when she takes her seat at the table and pulls out her notes, reading through them silently without really comprehending the information at all. Rather than deal with all the slander she drowns herself in paper and formulae and facts.
Before much longer Midoriya's friends show up, and the 1-A dorm begins stirring. Heroics students drift through the common room and the kitchen at various speeds, joining the group for a few moments or offering their own excuses. Momo makes small talk with the newcomers about their strengths and finds them just as frustrating as her own class: Kābā is almost entirely focused on art, Konomi can't stand math and science, Ruby is perfectly terrible at history and the twins seems to have completely opposite strengths and weaknesses.
Daisuke has the best grades of all of them, though he wears a "Fight!" headband much like Kirishima tends to do when studying.
The S-class shows up in a rather interesting fashion: Bakugō and Melissa seem to have tagged along, and Midoriya is at their front with Hatsume's contraption on his back. He stays quiet and avoids her eyes, save for their initial greeting. Somehow, they all end up stacked around the living room floor, broken into two or three study groups.
What none of them could have predicted is that studying with Hatsume has some unintended consequences.
"Did you know about this?" Midoriya's whisper catches Momo's ear as she watches the groups shift to surround the sleeping inventor. She frowns at the lack of space between Melissa and Midoriya, though she isn't suffering from any of the negative side effects she's been dealing with over the past few weeks.
"Izuku, why on earth would I know about this?"
"Well, you're partners…"
"We don't exactly work at the same speed." Melissa giggles as the two of them stare at Hatsume's unconscious form and the huddle gathered around her.
Momo chews her lip as the students rattle off various physics, math and science questions, receiving correct answers in sleepy mumbles. When someone asks the first English grammar question and Hatsume gets it correct, the room dissolves into absolute chaos, and Momo's eyebrow begins to twitch as a new sport is born. She isn't sure what bothers her more: the fact that these students are getting the answers for free, or that Kābā, Daisuke and Mineta all seem to share the same childish NEED to poke Hatsume's bubble.
It could also be the fact that, for WHATEVER reason, the bubble dodges their attempts and seems to mock them.
Luckily, she isn't alone. Normally she'd be above using her classmates so blatantly, but there's a warm, slimy aftertaste lingering in her guts this particular evening, and she doesn't want to address her emotions.
She locks eyes with Bakugō from across the room and raises a single eyebrow. His only response is to click his tongue and turn back to his notebook. The longer she stares, the firmer his grip becomes, until finally he meets her eyes again and receives the same questioning eyebrow.
Momo can hear his teeth grind from the opposite end of the common room, so she smiles and makes a show of sighing. With feeling. There's no universe where Bakugō Katsuki would actually care that Momo might be disappointed in him, but the mere thought is enough to set the boy off.
An angry Bakugō sets himself upon the assembled group in a fit, physically lifting some from their huddle and placing them back in their pre-ordered study groups. Some of them aren't happy with it (Kaminari and Mina try to scurry over couches, only to be snatched out of the air by the back of their shirts), but overall, they take the hint. Momo hums contentedly, then blinks as Melissa stalks through the group and sits beside the simmering blonde. They don't talk much, but the tension isn't quite the same as it was when they were sitting separately.
Gradually assignments are completed, and different study topics are rehashed. The party continues over an hour, close to an hour and a half with no signs of stopping. Momo sighs as she shuts her own books, then excuses herself to the bathroom. As she leaves, she catches Mina and Kyōka chatting with Midoriya.
Each step weighs a little more on her shoulders on her way to the bathroom.
She's washing her hands when Sokuchi opens the door and leans against the edge of the sinks, eyeing Momo with her usual impassive mask.
"Oh, did I miss something?" Momo hasn't really talked with Sokuchi much, but she can't help feeling as if she recognizes the girl from somewhere. Regardless, she reminds Momo of a taller, less colorful Tsuyu.
"You're upset with Midoriya." The girl says. Momo frowns, then sighs and shakes her head.
"No," She crosses her arms. "I don't know why everyone seems to take so much interest in our relationship… We're classmates. Tutors."
"He's worried he's done something wrong." Sokuchi says.
"Nothing is wrong, Sokuchi-san. I'm sorry if I've worried you all or treated Midoriya badly." She snaps, heating up a little bit when yet another person ignores what she has to say.
"I thought you wanted to be friends with him?" Sokuchi cocks her head to one side, with just enough innocence that Momo pauses before leaving.
"I don't know," Momo mutters. "I mean, I thought we were friends…"
"But now you think you aren't." Sokuchi breathes. Momo isn't sure why it makes her throat catch, so she nods. "You two are similar."
"How's that?" Momo's throat tightens around the words. She doesn't really want to know, so it comes out bitter and a little pained. The fact that she can't talk normally makes it hurt a little worse, driving the burn up the back of her throat and into her eyes.
"Midoriya thinks he doesn't know how to make friends," Sokuchi says quietly, reaching out to lay a hand on Momo's shoulder. "He hesitates instead of letting himself have fun."
"I don't understand why you're telling me this," Momo mutters. "Midoriya-kun already has all the friends he needs. I'm just his tutor."
"Student."
"Right. Student," Momo bites out. "He doesn't need me anymore."
"You haven't talked to him yet?" Sokuchi asks.
"He's busy," Momo chuckles miserably. "We're all busy."
"No," Sokuchi sighs. "He's scared. Kābā should be hitting him harder."
"What?"
"Nothing," Sokuchi pats her shoulder, then reaches up and pats Momo on the head, which only leaves her more confused. "Why do you think he's busy?"
"He…" Momo frowns. It takes her almost a full minute to form the words, because this all feels so trivial. Why bother with how often he looks at her, or how skittish he is around her? Why should she care if he prefers people like Kyōka? Hell, Momo prefers people like Kyōka. She'd thought Midoriya was like Kyōka, but apparently, he just doesn't need more people in his life. "He doesn't seem to want to talk to me. Especially during training."
"Wait," Sokuchi smiles. "Heroics training?"
"Yes? What other kind is there?" Momo mutters. She frowns as the other girl starts to shake, then breaks out in laughter until she has to lean against the wall for support. "I don't see why that's funny…"
"Yaoyorozu-san," Sokuchi doesn't stop laughing; the words simply spill out between the mess, leaving Momo even more frustrated and more lost. "He… He wasn't avoiding you because he doesn't want to talk…!"
"Then what…" Her question leaves Sokuchi in a fresh bout of laughter, and now Momo is blushing full force.
"He couldn't look at your hero costume!" Sokuchi doubles over as the realization hits Momo like a truck. "Midoriya can't think straight looking at your hero costume!"
-0-
-000-
-0-
The room was cold when Miruko first arrived. Wash and Best Jeanist and Edgeshot didn't help the atmosphere much, but Endeavor tends to make waiting more difficult than it already is. Miruko doesn't particularly mind Endeavor, though she could do without his flame cloak. By the time the meeting starts, she's shifting from foot to foot as sweat beads on her forehead.
This, unlike the previous incidents, is the first time Miruko and the other Top Ten have been called in. A call like this doesn't go out terribly often, but these days are hardly ordinary days. 'Deku' seems to be the herald of a series of unfortunate events, whether he's the cause or a symptom or whatever.
"Thank you all for coming," One of the suits speaks up, casually taking control of the room. A few curses are muttered as the various police chiefs take their seats at a table. No one cares enough to acknowledge the ones who mutter them. "We have a request of you all, and the details are best kept close to the chest."
"Get on with it." Endeavor growls. The speaker tilts his head, though he obviously doesn't like deferring to the Flame Hero.
"The villains appearing throughout the region are appearing almost exclusively in the Tokyo area, and despite our best efforts they are getting stronger as we arrest them. As such, we'd like to extend a raise on any and all mutations caught by heroes who are willing to relocate to help combat this new threat."
Miruko frowns. It all sounds so clinical.
The suit continues as if he isn't wasting everyone's time.
"These villains are being called Mutations. We've captured nearly twenty, and each one has contained traces of modified DNA. Lately the amount of human genome is decreasing, and their strength is growing harder to counter. As such, we're giving you the all clear to use lethal force against anything that might be a Mutation and raising the bounty for any Mutations caught, depending on the damage caused."
"Lethal force?" Edgeshot calls out curiously. Miruko rolls her eyes as the man steps up, shedding his "persona" in favor of the prissy little schoolboy he really is. "The public won't take well to that."
"An announcement will be made with our findings." The suit scratches his head, obviously bored by the question. "It took a long time to come to this decision, but we've determined that this is for the good of everyone involved. No method has been found that can reverse the mutations, but we are trying. Given the destruction these creatures are capable of inflicting, we've decided that containment and prevention are our priorities."
"What about Deku." Endeavor asks. Miruko stares at the suit, glaring more harshly for each moment he hesitates.
"This is a meeting for pro heroes, Endeavor. Deku is not…"
"If this threat is truly as dangerous as you claim, then why are you not acknowledging every weapon in your arsenal?" Endeavor growls, stalking towards the table with every word. "Child or not, vigilante or not, the boy gets results. No one here can deny his ability, or his achievements. Why are you leaving him out of this?"
"…There was…" The suit frowns as if he's just bitten into something sour. Miruko glances up and down the table and finds that, for the first time, the other suits aren't as docile as before. "…A decision made. As of yet, Deku has not been made aware of the situation."
"Why." Endeavor's flames crawl across the man's uniform, raising the temperature even further. The suit swallows as if he isn't cold blooded, tugging the collar of his shirt and tie as he begins to wither under Endeavor's glare.
"Deku is still a child. He is being regulated to a teaching position for the moment as part of an experiment," The man says, eventually. "U.A. is isolated until we encounter another Disaster level threat. For now, we are leaving this threat in the hands of our approved heroes and offering every option available to support you."
Endeavor glares a bit more, then lets his flames recede and stalks towards the door. No one stops him when he leaves. Miruko is this close to following him.
"For now, the threat is reasonably contained…" The suit starts up gain, reading off his notecards a little more obviously now. "But we'd like to ask that you all relocate soon to head off any potential ground lost in the interim."