Forest

“Oh my god,” Izuku gasps as they leave the car, parked in the staff parking lot at UA.

UA is huge. Even the doorways are ginormous, they dwarf Izuku and he is of reasonable height. He imagines that it is largely for appearance, though it is likely useful for certain quirks as well.

“-zuku?” 

Izuku is startled out of his thoughts by Hizashi, who was apparently trying to get his attention for a few moments judging by Shouta and Hitoshi’s amused expressions.

“Whatcha thinking about little listener?”

“It’s huge,” Izuku gapes, still staring at UA.

“That it is,” Shouta snorts. “Come on kid, we have a staff meeting in a little and I would like to get some work done before it starts.”

“Does that mean I will get to meet more pro heroes?” Izuku asks, eyes lighting up with excitement.

“Yes,” Shouta replies dryly before beginning the short walk to the staff entrance.

As Izuku moves to walk forward as well, he feels a sudden weight on his back and struggles to keep his balance.

“You asshole,” Izuku says. “You waited until I was off balance to do that.”

“And so what if I did,” Hitoshi says, Izuku can practically hear his smirk.

“Why can’t you just walk on your own?”

“Eh, don’t feel like it.”

Izuku just rolls his eyes with a light laugh and jogs to catch up to Shouta and Hizashi who are already at the entrance, Hizashi holding the door open.

“Hitoshi,” Shouta sighs. “Why are you on Izuku’s back again?”

“Felt like it.”

Shouta just groans and pinches the bridge of his nose. ‘These kids are such a handful.’ Before motioning to the open door impatiently. Hitoshi points from his place on Izuku’s back to help the green haired boy navigate the way through UA, as he is now at the head of the group for some reason. Izuku takes the time to memorize the area of the building that he is passing through. 

Izuku waits at the door to the staff room, not wanting to be rude and just enter it. Not to mention that would be uncomfortable. Once the adults get to the door, he follows them in and promptly drops Hitoshi onto the floor. Hitoshi, being unprepared to be dropped, lands hard on his ass with an ‘oof.’

Izuku can’t help it, he starts laughing.

“You’re an ass,” Hitoshi says, though he soon joins in with Izuku’s laughter.

Hitoshi’s laughter makes Izuku laugh even harder. Hitoshi uses the moment to get revenge, grabbing Izuku’s leg and yanking it causing Izuku, who is shaking violently from the force of his laughter, to fall to the ground as well. Izuku promptly gasps obnoxiously and begins to wrestle Hitoshi. The purple haired boy tries to fight back but Izuku is much more experienced and strong and has him in a headlock quickly. It’s rather reminiscent of the first time Hizashi and Shouta met Izuku.

A cough from above grabs the boys attention who seem to remember where they are, they promptly stand up both boys shifting awkwardly in embarrassment. Izuku looks around and notes four other people in the staff room, all looking on in a mix of amusement and confusion. Or at least three of them are, the third one is wearing a mask.

“Oh my gosh you are so precious!” gasps a lady in a rather revealing hero costume. “New kid Shouta?”

“No.” Shouta groans. “Izuku meet-”

“Midnight!” Izuku finishes, interrupting the erasure hero. “Oh my goodness! It is so nice to finally meet you! That hero costume is a bit crazy, it’s fine if you want to show off your… physique or whatever but as least make it more protective. I mean come on, they can just stab right through that, use a protective material. At the very least one that isn’t able to get stabbed through. I have a few questions about your quirk actually-” Izuku whips a notebook and pencil seemingly out of thin air- “what is the gas made of? I know it’s sleep inducing but what are it’s actual properties? You can control when it is released right? Can you control the amount of it released as well? I would assume so, otherwise that seems impractical. Is anyone immune to it or simply more resistant? Does it work less on females due to sexuality or simply genetic differences between the female and male sex?”

Izuku glances up from his notebook expectantly after a few moments of silence to find Midnight staring at him in shock. 

“Um, Midnight?” Izuku says after a few more moments of silence.

“Oh, yeah, right! Sorry kid, I was just not expecting that. First off, my name is Nemuri Kayama, feel free to call me Nemuri or Aunt Nemuri outside of when im on duty or at school. If you are in the Aizawa-Yamada household often i’ll probably be seeing you frequently.. In reference to my costume, no it is not stab proof. I didn’t even know you could make stab proof clothing-”

“How did you not know that? Sorry my bad, that was rude. There are multiple stab proof materials, the base for said materials is largely synthetic fiber. The materials started being developed in the pre-quirk era and have since developed greatly. For example an older material that began to be stab proof was kevlar, which is a chemical compound called poly-para-phenylene terephthalamide. Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off, continue.”

“How do you know so much about stab proof materials?” Shouta asks hesitantly.

Looking around the room Izuku notices a few reactions, some impressed, some curious, but Shouta looks worried. 

“I really like to make stuff,” Izuku shrugs. “I’ve been into engineering and chemistry for a long time. I actually made the shirt I’m wearing.”

“You what?” Hitoshi exclaims, baffled.

It’s at this moment that Hitoshi, Hizashi, and Shouta realize that they don’t actually know a ton about the kid in front of them. They don’t know his history, about his family, what he likes to do, ‘they don’t even know his quirk’ Hitoshi realizes with a start. 

“Yeah, the goal was to make it as advanced as possible without looking like anything other than a normal shirt. It looks like a regular black t-shirt but it has cooling technology so I don’t overheat, it has sun protection, it’s bullet proof, stab proof, fire proof, and water resistant.” Izuku explains, shrugging as if it’s no big deal.

“That’s… that’s crazy,” Hitoshi says, voicing everyone else’s thoughts. “Is that even possible?”

“I can show you!” Izuku exclaims, bouncing in excitement at the idea of being able to show off his creation.

“I’m not sure that’s neces-” comes a voice from elsewhere in the room, Izuku doesn’t bother to identify who spoke, before he begins speaking again.

“Obviously I can’t really do anything to prove the cooling technology or sun protection, so you just have to take my word on those. For the other things, please give me a moment,” Izuku says, before promptly starting to walk around the room.

Everyone watches in silence as Izuku begins to rifle through the staff members’ desks and drawers, except anything locked of course. He could, of course, pick those locks easily but there is no reason and that would more than likely get him into trouble. Plus he is drawing enough attention to himself as is, which he knows he shouldn’t be doing but he is so excited to have people to demonstrate his invention to.

“Zuku?” Hitoshi says finally, grabbing the shorter boy’s attention. “Why are you going through people’s desks?”

“Don’t worry Toshi,” Izuku says, waving a hand at his confused and mildly concerned friend. “You’ll see in a minute.”

Izuku is sure that Hitoshi didn’t mean for him to hear him say ‘smartass motherfucker’ under his breath, but he does and so Izuku sends a blinding grin his way before continuing to rifle through pro heroes’ belongings. Hitoshi just rolls his eyes.

Soon enough, Izuku returns to stand by the Aizawa-Yamada family with only three things in his hands: a glass of water he took off of Hizashi’s desk, a knife, and a lighter. 

“It was surprisingly hard to find a knife around here,” Izuku observes, setting the items on the desk in front of him, which just happens to be Nemuri’s. 

“That’s because most heroes don’t tend to leave knives lying around kid,” Shouta says dryly, and Izuku elects to ignore him.

“Okay!” Izuku begins, as if to capture the attention of everyone even though they are already all staring at him. “First off, water proof. This will be easy enough to demonstrate. Though the floor might get wet. Is that okay?”

Shouta scoffs, but in a lighthearted manner. “I’m sure we can handle a wet floor, kid. Just go on, you may as well continue at this point.”

Izuku nods and promptly dumps the cup of water down his front. Everyone just stares at him in disbelief for a moment before Hitoshi starts laughing.

“Zuku, you’re crazy.”

“Eh, only a little. The best scientists are the mad ones after all.”

“Oh my god, Shou,” Hizashi says suddenly, looking terrified. “Hatsume Mei is going to be going here this year.”

There is an echo of ‘oh no’s from the staff, Hitoshi looks amused, and Izuku is just confused. Izuku elects to ignore that for now, moving on.

“Anyways, back on track. As you can see, completely dry shirt. You can come feel it if you would like, I’m aware that it’s not the most obvious whether it’s dry or not given it’s black.”

Nemuri shrugs, “sure why not.” Reaching forward she touches the front of the kids shirt and pulls back in mild surprise. “Yeah, that’s dry all right. That’s pretty cool.”

Izuku grins at the praise before turning to grab the knife off the table, setting the glass down. 

“Hey Toshi?”

“Yes?” Hitoshi replies hesitantly.

“Wanna stab me?”

Hitoshi’s reply is immediate. “Sure why not.”

“Excuse me!” Calls a commanding voice from an older woman standing near the fridge. “You are not going to be stabbed! I do not want to have to heal you already, you haven’t even started as a student yet.”

“Don’t worry Recovery Girl,” Izuku says amused. “No healing will be necessary.”

“Fine, but if you do get stabbed I’m not healing it,” the woman says, after recovering from her startle at him recognizing her. She isn’t exactly the most well known hero.

“Fair enough,” Izuku shrugs, turning and handing the knife to Hitoshi. “Stab me.”

“Bet.”

Before anyone can do anything else, Hitoshi lunges to stab Izuku through the stomach but when he makes contact with Izuku’s body, no stabbing happens. Hitoshi is immediately wrapped in his dad’s capture weapon and Hizashi is yelling their ears off.

“That was so stupid listeners! What if it hadn’t worked? Hitoshi would have just stabbed you, Izuku!” The man exclaims, clearly distressed.

Shouta isn’t even bothering to turn off Hizashi’s quirk, instead he quickly begins scolding them as well.

“Presentation Michael! Dadzawa! Calm yourselves, I knew it would work, and if it didn’t, well, sucks to be me I guess.”

“What did you just call me?” Shouta says, releasing his hold on Hitoshi finally and returning his scarf to his neck.

“Not that name again,” Hizashi sighs at the same time, though he looks amused.

The entire room bursts into laughter, ‘dadzawa’ and ‘Presentation Michael’ being barely audible as the other heroes and Hitoshi gasp the names out between fits of laughter. Once the laughter dies down, everyone turns to look at Izuku again, who looks rather proud of himself.

“I can’t believe you just called them that,” Nemuri laughs. “You’re pretty fantastic kid.”

“Why thank you ma’am,” Izuku says with a large bow to the r-rated hero.

“My goodness Zuku, why you gotta be so dramatic,” Hitoshi rolls his eyes.

“It’s just who I am,” the green haired boy shrugs, before seeming to recall what was happening before. “Oh right! So as you all saw, no stabbing of my organs occured!”

“You better be happy about that,” Recovery Girl mutters from the corner.

“It simply poked me a little, but the material prevented actual cuts or stabs from occurring.” Izuku continues, ignoring Recovery Girl entirely. “Okay so onto being fireproof! Anyone got a spare piece of paper? I forgot to grab one.”

A tall skeletal looking man walks over from the corner to hand him one. The man is in bad shape, his cheeks sunken and blood leaking from his mouth, he looks fragile.

“Thanks All Might!” Izuku grins, taking the piece of paper from the man before him. “So-”

“All Might!?” the skeletal man exclaims, cutting Izuku off.

“Um, yes? Yagi Toshinori, otherwise known as All Might. Injured in a fight against a ruthless villain named All for One five years ago, leaving you with practically no stomach and unable to retain your hero form for more than a few hours currently. Is my information incorrect?”

Izuku scans the room, concerned about the fact that he may be wrong before noting the shock on everyone's faces.

“No one outside of this room should have that information,” Shouta states, recovering from his shock before anyone else does. “How do you know that?”

“Oh, that’s easy. You all know how you can find recordings of past sports festivals easily on the internet?”

There is a resounding yes, and he notices as Hitoshi’s face morphs into understanding. He grins proudly at his friend for understanding what he is going to say.

“Well I went back to watch them when studying for UA and, as you all should know, the winner of the sports festival is announced, and so is their name. So I watched All Might’s festival and bam, Yagi Toshinori, otherwise known as number one pro hero All Might. You might want to fix that before anyone else finds out, especially someone who would use that information for bad. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”

“Shit,” Shouta mumbles, pulling out his phone to text someone, likely Nedzu, Izuku guesses.

“Well thank you for not telling anyone Young-” 

“Midoriya,” Izuku interjects, “Izuku Midoriya.”

“Young Midoriya,” All Might completes, smiling slightly at the boy.

“Okay, but that still doesn’t explain how you know about his injury,” Recovery Girl points out dryly.

“Ah yes, um, about that,” Izuku shifts uncomfortably.

“Kid, what did you do,” Shouta deadpans, looking up finally as he shoves his phone into his pocket.

“Oh.. nothing,” Izuku says, trying to wave off the question.

“I bet he hacked something,” Hitoshi says. “He likes coding, and I’m positive he’s smart enough.”

“Toshi!” Izuku gasps in mock betrayal. “How dare you?”

“Wow little listener!” Hizashi says. “Coding is an impressive skill!”

“Zashi,” Shouta sighs. “It may be impressive but it’s less impressive if he hacked something, then it’s just problematic.”

“Ah, yes,” Hizashi says, slightly abashed.

“So what did you hack?”

“Um,” Izuku says, realizing he isn’t going to be able to get out of this one. “Quite possibly the UA staff files?”

“WHAT?” Hizashi exclaims, along with everyone else, though his is of course the loudest.

“Yeah.”

“How did you do that? Nedzu coded those files himself! They are insanely protected!”

“Wait, Nedzu coded those?” Izuku gasps, and the staff nods in response. “Wow, that’s upsetting. I would have thought something coded by Nedzu himself would take me more than two minutes to hack into.”

The staff can’t even reply to that, they just stare at him again. Izuku is getting uncomfortable with all the staring that is happening today, and Hitoshi seems to notice.

“Dumbass,” Hitoshi says, coming up to ruffle Izuku’s hair affectionately. “How did you expect them to respond to the fact that you hacked UA’s system?”

“I was kinda hoping they wouldn’t find out?”

“Seriously? For someone so smart you really are kinda dumb sometimes.”

“Wow, rude much.”

Hitoshi just snorts, and at that point it seems that everyone has recovered enough to process the information at hand.

“You know you could get arrested for that, right?” Yagi asks, still in his Small Might form.

“Actually, I can’t.”

“Yes you can, kid,” Shouta says.

“Um no,” Izuku says, looking uncomfortable again. “I can’t. I’m, well, quirkless.”

No one in the room knew this and there is a collective look of surprise. Then understanding from the Aizawa-Yamada family, and acceptance from the others. Izuku braces himself for attacks but when none come, he is surprised.

“You aren’t gonna say anything about me being quirkless?”

“Couldn’t care less kid,” Shouta states dryly. “Doesn’t matter to me, or any of us. Believe me, quirkist ideals are not acceptable here.”

“Wow,” Izuku looks shell shocked.

Hitoshi understands that look, it was how he felt when he told Izuku about his quirk and Izuku was simply fascinated and excited. Not disgusted or upset, excited! The only other people who had responded that way to him were the pro heroes he knew well, such as his dads and Aunt Nemuri, and so having someone else accept him was amazing and overwhelming. Hitoshi simply walks up and hugs the other boy, who accepts the hug gratefully and takes a moment to compose himself.

“Thanks you guys,” Izuku grins.

“So, I understand that you are quirkless, but what does that have to do with being arrested?” Yagi asks.

“I pretty much can’t be unless I commit regular person law breaking like murder or kidnapping. Quirk related laws don’t affect me.”

Hitoshi snorts at ‘regular person law breaking like murder’ and Izuku just rolls his eyes, but Yagi looks like he is about to argue. Before he can, Shouta begins speaking.

“Izuku is correct actually, if any of us were to do the same thing we could certainly get arrested but Izuku can’t be. Once quirks came about, laws changed and largely forgot to include quirkless people in them. This is horrible because it includes lack of protection from discrimination, but it also allows for some rather useful legal loopholes. Not that many get to make use of them though.”

“Yup,” Izuku agrees, popping the ‘p.’ “Technically I could become a vigilante right now and they could do nothing about it because the vigilante laws are only talking about illegal quirk use to fight crime.”

“Dang Zuku, you know your stuff,” Hitoshi states.

“Yeah well, I like knowing things,” Izuku says. “Anyways! Back to the task at hand! Thank you for the paper All Might!”

“Young Midoriya, please call me Yagi or Toshinori outside of work.”

“Of course Yagi, so now-”

“Your shirt is very cool kid but do you really need to prove everything to us?” Shouta asks, an eyebrow raised.

“Yes!” Izuku, Nemuri, Hitoshi, and Hizashi all exclaim, and they all grin at one another.

“Okay so now, fire proof test,” Izuku explains, getting them back on topic after the long interjection about Yagi and quirk laws. 

“You better not set yourself on fire,” Shouta says, having given up on actually trying to stop the kid but that doesn’t stop him from worrying.

“I won’t!”

Izuku proceeds to grab the lighter off the desk and light the scrap paper that Yagi handed him on fire, and then hold the fire to his shirt. It seems that the shock factor has worn off, so no one looks surprised by the fact that his shirt simply seems to resist the fire, though they do look impressed. Well, except Shouta who has practice pretending he feels no emotions, they all know that’s a big lie though.

“That’s so cool, little listener!” Hizashi exclaims when Izuku shakes the paper to put out the fire.

“Yeah, that’s pretty epic Izuku,” Nemuri agrees, ruffling the kids hair.

Izuku has noticed that people tend to enjoy ruffling his hair, probably because it’s soft and curly, he doesn’t mind though.

“Thanks!” Izuku grins, not used to getting praise for his inventions. “So lastly, proving that it’s bullet proof! Hey Snipe! Shoot me!”

“Absolutely not,” comes multiple voices, all jumbled so Izuku isn’t sure exactly who spoke and who didn’t.

“Why not,” Izuku practically whines. “I was so close to proving all it’s protections though!”

“I am a pro hero,” Snipe says. “I am not going to shoot at a child, much less one who made their own bullet proof clothing. Everything has been very impressive so far, but how do I know that this will work as well as the other abilities that shirt has?”

“I’ve tested it before though!” Izuku protests, and then points to his shoulder. “Aim here if your so worried. It would hurt like a bitch but you wouldn’t hit anything vital, even if my shirt does fail. Which it won’t.”

“Zuku, you sure about this?”

“Yeah Toshi, don’t worry.”

“Izuku, Hizashi and I are not letting you get shot at.”

“Oh my goodness,” Izuku groans. “Stop being such dads.”

“Child, your sass levels are off the charts and I love you for it,” Nemuri smirks.

“Why thank you.”

“I am not shooting at you,” Snipe states.

“I will!” Comes a voice that startles everyone in the room. Izuku looks around quickly before his eyes land on a small, white furred, animal in a suit. A scar marks the area across his eye.

“Hello Principal Nedzu,” Izuku greets politely.

“Hello Midoriya, I have had my eye on you for some time now. It is great to finally meet you.”

“Likewise sir.”

“Why can’t he be polite like that to everyone else?” Shouta grumbles.

“Not everyone is one of the most intelligent beings, and my future principal.”

Nedzu just grins and then approaches the green haired boy. “So you would like me to shoot you?”

“Yes please!”

“Alright, shoot him Snipe. I would do it myself but sadly my lack of opposable thumbs makes that rather difficult.

Snipe sighs but knows better to argue with Nedzu and simply stands to face the teen.

“Everyone out of the way please!” Nedzu calls.

Everyone moves to the opposite side of the room, with the exception of Izuku who remains standing by the door. Without warning the pro hero shoots at Izuku. Unlike Hitoshi, Izuku doesn’t even flinch at the sound of the gun, not even though it is aimed at him. Shouta takes note of this. The bullet simply ricochets off Izuku’s shirt, landing on the ground near Snipe.

“Impressive,” Nedzu states.

“Izuku that was incredibly stupid!” Shouta exclaims, dragging a hand down his face. This kid is giving him headache. 

Everyone else in the room simply nods in agreement, except Hitoshi who has known Izuku longer. This means he is aware that Izuku would never let himself get shot at if he wasn’t completely sure the shirt was going to work. Even if in reality he doesn’t know much about the other teen, he does know that much at least. He is also incredibly aware of Izuku’s ability to make stupid decisions.

“Okay okay, you have made your point, and everyone is very impressed. Now get out of here before you make my headache worse,” Shouta groans, rubbing his temples. “Hitoshi, show him around the school.”

“Okay Dad,” Hitoshi agrees, grabbing Izuku by the sleeve and tugging him out the door. “Come on Zuku, this place is huge. We gotta get going if we want to see it all. Also I’m pretty sure Dad said something about a staff meeting that was supposed to take place a little while ago, before you distracted everyone.”

“Oh yeah, that’s my bad. Sorry!” Izuku calls an apology back at the present UA staff. “It was nice to meet you all! I’ll see you later!”

Izuku notes Nedzu’s calculating look, and nods at the principal, before letting himself get dragged away. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once Izuku leaves, Nedzu decides to call off the staff meeting saying he has stuff he wants to look into. After informing them that any and all information they will need about the start of the school year has been emailed to them, the chimera slips out of the room and towards his office.

Shouta is still thinking about how little he truly knows about his son’s best, and to be honest only, friend. ‘I don’t even know what class he is in,’ Shouta realizes, deciding to look the boy up on their school files. ‘His knowledge extends far beyond what I would expect of a kid his age, I wonder how he knows so much. Not to mention those reflexes of his. Well, I’m sure once I look him up I can find more information about him.’

Quickly pulling up information on Izuku Midoriya, Shouta finds confirmation that Izuku is in fact quirkless. Not that he is surprised or anything, after all why would someone lie about that. He is suspicious about the lack of information on the kids parents, but figures it’s best not to push the kid on anything right now and files that information away for later. He knows that Izuku doesn’t trust him yet, he doesn’t even seem to trust Hitoshi given his withholding of information such as being quirkless, but he does seem to be warming up to them. That thought makes Shouta smile slightly, though he buries his face in his scarf so none of the other staff can see.

Then something catches his eye, and Shouta falls forward so his head hits his desk with a thunk. 

“You good Shou?” Hizashi asks.

“You know how Hitoshi is in my class this year?”

“Yeah of course, I’m so proud of him for getting into the hero course. Not surprised though! He’s gonna be a handful for you I bet, but that isn’t cause for head hitting!”

“Not him on his own, sure. But guess who else is going to be in my class?” Shouta groans, looking up and squinting at his husband against the bright lights of the staff room.

Hizashi looks thoughtful for a moment before he starts cackling, and very loudly at that.

“Izuku?” The loud blonde guesses.

“Problem child indeed,” Shouta groans, returning his face to his desk as Hizashi’s cackling gets louder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Gosh dang it," Izuku groans.

"What?" 

"I didn't ever actually get answers to my questions about Midnight and her quirk."

"I can't believe you forgot," Hitoshi laughs.

“Whatever, I'll just bug her about it later. Anyways, do you know where we could find a map of the building? I know you could just show me everywhere but if I memorize the map then all you have to do is show me the areas I’m actually interested in seeing,” Izuku asks, changing the topic before Hitoshi can make fun of him.

“I bet we could find one in the library.”

“Let’s go there then!”

“Okay sure,” Hitoshi grins slightly at the other boys enthusiasm before his face becomes more serious. “Also, I’m sorry if I made you feel like you couldn’t tell me that you are quirkless. I promise I don’t think any less of you. In fact, I think higher of you because you have achieved so much without one, even with so many odds against you.”

“Don’t worry Toshi,” Izuku says with an affectionate smile. “You didn’t, I just don’t tend to hand out that information.”

“Understandable,” Hitoshi nods, and then grabs Izuku’s arm to drag him to the library.

“Woah! This place is huge! Look at all the books! I could learn so much here!” Izuku gasps as Hitoshi opens the doors to the library.

“Yeah, yeah, come on smartypants, lets get a map.”

“Where would they be?”

“Probably the desk,” Hitoshi says walking over to it and immediately picking up a piece of paper. “Yup! Here it is Zuku!”

Izuku walks over to the purple haired teen and stands there for a moment staring at the map before handing it back to Hitoshi.

“Okay, got it! Lets go! I wanna check out the support course labs!”

“Izuku, how the fuck did you memorize the entire UA map that quickly?”

“Talent,” the boy grins, his green eyes lighting up in amusement.

“Don’t get cocky now,” Hitoshi drawls, rolling his eyes.

“Okay, to the support course area now!” Izuku urges impatiently, dragging Hitoshi back out of the library before stopping.

“What’s up?” Hitoshi asks before freezing. “Oh no.”

The look on Izuku’s face is terrifying, not because he actually looks scary, but because Hitoshi knows it means he has an idea. Following Izuku’s line of sight, he looks up at the ceiling.

“Zuku, why are you looking at the vents?”

“They are pretty big for vents.”

“Yes, and?”

“Do you think they might be, say, human sized?” Izuku asks, though it’s not really a question as he knows the answer.

“Oh my gosh, Izuku no,” Hitoshi says, his purple eyes going wide. “We are not going in the vent.”

“Aww, come on Toshi,” Izuku whines. “Aren’t you up for an adventure?”

“No.”

“If we don’t adventure we are going to get bored though, please Toshi,” Izuku begs. “Pleaseeeeee?”

“Oh my gosh fine, we can go through the vents.”

“Yessss oh my gosh we can totally creep people out if we start popping out of vents. Not to mention avoid crowded school hallways if we learn the way around well enough.”

“Izuku, you are genius,” Hitoshi says, suddenly very on board with his friends’ vent plan. “We can totally scare everyone shitless. Let’s do it.”

So Izuku reaches up to the vent, pulling it open and the two teens jump up and into the vent system above them. Meanwhile, Nedzu is very pleased with this development. 

After some time climbing through the vents, Izuku drops down into the main support course corridor, Hitoshi following right behind him.

“The support course labs should be right down this way!” Izuku grins and starts walking.

“I can’t believe this has turned into you leading the way,” Hitoshi laughs lightly. “I have been coming here for five years now, and yet you are leading the way.”

“Five?”

“Ah, yeah. Dad and Pops got custody of me around five years ago, got me out of an abusive foster home.”

“Oh wow, Toshi I’m sorry,” Izuku says, turning to look at his friend. “I’m glad they got you out of there!”

“Yeah me too,” Hitoshi smiles at the shorter boy, before turning to look around and gain an idea of his surroundings.

Izuku turns to Hitoshi as if to say something but before he can, Izuku whips his head to a door on the left and then back to his purple haired friend. Before Hitoshi can blink, Izuku is grabbing him and the two teens are on the floor. Hitoshi is about to ask Izuku what is going on when suddenly the door to the nearest room is exploded open.

The last thing Hitoshi sees before his vision goes dark is Izuku rushing to cover him as the explosion rings in his ears.