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Even though it was embarrassing how attached he’d gotten to his classmates in a week just because they didn’t actively bully him, Midoriya felt like the world was lifted off his shoulders when he walked into class on that Monday. Most everyone was there, calming the irrational fear that he’d hallucinated all of the calls and texts from his classmates and that they had actually died the week prior.
It must have shown on his face as Tsu almost immediately asked, “Are you okay Midoriya? You’re usually here much earlier”
It threw him off for a moment, having been conditioned to not expect others to care about his health and safety. Whatever he had expected Tsu to say was completely off the mark in comparison.
He had been doing that a lot over the weekend, flitting between a dissociative state and anxious hypervigilance. It had made him miss his stop that morning and he had to take another ride just to get back to the closest stop to UA. Not that he wanted to admit that.
When he finally got his brain to restart and refocused his eyes, he realized he had almost all of his classmates staring at him.
“Oh, uh, sorry. I’m as fine as I could be I guess. My mom caught me in a long goodbye and I can understand why she was so anxious but she made me miss my usual train.”
Iida bolted out of his chair, startling most everyone around him as he started chopping the air. “I commend you for taking an earlier train even though you could come into class every day at a later time but the bell will ring soon. We are all glad to see you looking much better than we last saw you but we will have to save those conversations for lunchtime.”
“ I doubt everyone is glad,” Midoriya thought to himself as he passed Bakugou’s desk. A few months ago, he probably would have been sent to the ground as he passed. Another reason to laugh at useless Izuku.
But things were different at UA. He had friends who cared enough about him and weren’t too scared of Bakugou to openly compliment and ask about his wellbeing.
He didn’t get much time to contemplate this because just as he sat down, Kaminari skidded into the room, quickly followed by Sero. They were both panting and looked like they had just seen a ghost.
Ignoring Iida’s reprimands, Kaminari blurted out, “Principal Nezdu is coming this way. He made a comment about how we need to hurry to get to class because he didn’t want to have to give us late slips and I think he meant he’s going to be our substitute teacher.”
Despite his fascination with all heroes, ones without physical quirks especially, even Midoriya cringed at that idea. Nedzu was objectively an excellent hero and principal but he was not someone you wanted to have directly in charge of you.
After a moment of startled chatter, the bell rang and both Kaminari and Sero practically lept into their seats, almost knocking into Ojiro and Shoji on their way.
Near instantly after that, the door calmly slid open, revealing the principal calmly smiling at all of them as if he weren’t the most terrifying manipulator on UA’s payroll.
“Good morning students,” he said in a cheery tone. “I’m glad to see you all made it here today and on time at that.”
Kaminari and Sero visibly shrunk into their seats at this.
“I’m sure you’re anxious to hear about your teacher’s condition and I won’t delay that too long. Mr. Aizawa will have to spend at least today home recovering before he can return to teaching.”
“So soon?”
Midoriya jumped when everyone turned their attention to him after he had blurted that out.
“Sorry,” he mumbled meekly.
“That’s quite alright Midoriya. Mr. Aizawa’s turn around time for injuries is actually a bit of a problem considering how often he comes in to teach despite needing a hospital more than a desk. It took several of the staff members to convince him to even stay home just today. Any other teacher I would be insisting on a longer break but if I know Aizawa, he’ll just do more damage to himself trying to sneak out if I put him on leave.”
As the students digested this, Uraraka carefully asked, “Is he that worried we’ll cause more problems? I didn’t think we were that bad last week.”
“Oh, that isn’t the issue at all Miss Uraraka. Mr. Aizawa has always been one to ignore his own injuries. Even dating back to when he was a student here. I can’t count the number of times Recovery Girl has complained about his disregard for his own health.”
“Does that mean you’re going to be our teacher for today?”
Nedzu looked over to Iida, who seemed ready to vibrate out of his chair. Whether from general stress or the discordance that was this particular conversation.
“Actually no. I have a lot of things to go through for the new security measures and general school administration things. However, I did come down to introduce you all to your substitute.” He paused and turned to the door. “Mr. Yagi?”
Midoriya felt his heart go into his throat when he saw who walked in. All Might, at least in his powered down form, was walking into the classroom with the body language of a nervous transfer student.
Despite that uncertainty, All Might Mr. Yagi smiled genuinely at the students as the principal continued on.
“Because of the short notice and the current search for the League, there were no qualified active heroes available. So, when asked, All Might suggested Mr. Yagi as even though he isn’t a pro hero, being the secretary and a close friend to the Symbol of Peace should give him enough credibility to lead one day’s worth of classes before either we find someone else or Mr. Aizawa comes back.”
Even with how fast his mind was running at this point, Midoriya still had the cognitive ability to happily file away All Might’s name into his mental notebook. Of course, that’s not something to write down but it was still nice to have.
“If there are no questions for me specifically, I think I can trust Mr. Yagi to handle introducing himself on his own.” Nezu added a cheeky(?) smile up at Mr. Yagi to this but didn’t react otherwise.
“I will do my best,” Mr. Yagi said, softer and almost impossibly lower than his tone as All Might. “And if I manage to forget any basic information about myself, I think we’ll have a lot more problems than just who is going to teach the class for today.”
“I guess we will just have to hope for the best and pray for your health.” Nezu started out the door but stopped right before leaving to say a simple, “Goodbye everyone.”
The lackluster response could be chalked up to the events of last week or the early hour but honestly, it seemed that everyone couldn’t quite figure out what to think of Mr. Yagi.
It didn’t help that Midoriya, the only kid who knew him well enough to naturally trust him, was busy trying to figure out why he was here, and if he was going to teach then why not teach as All Might?
“Alright class.”
Everyone managed to switch their focus, or what was left of it, back to Mr. Yagi. Midoriya couldn’t shake the idea that he seemed out of place in a classroom, not on a trash-covered beach or in an adjoining hospital bed in Recovery Girl’s office. He was even wearing a button-up and slacks that fit him at least better than his usual All Might-sized clothing.
“As Principal Nedzu said, I’m Yagi Toshinori. I’m All Might’s personal secretary and have been in the pro hero business as a consultant, manager, and in other heroics-centric positions for most of my career.”
“ Would those other positions happen to include being the number one hero? ”
Midoriya had to freeze his mouth in place so he wouldn’t look stupid smiling at his own thoughts.
“I understand you’d like to ask a few questions about All Might but we are still in class. Mr. Aizawa assigned you a paper last week, right?”
That particular collective groan loosened the grip on Midoriya’s heart a bit. A normal school thing from someone close enough to a more normal teacher. It was almost like they hadn’t nearly died at the hands of blood-thirsty villains the Friday prior.
“Young Midoriya.”
Midoriya startled at hearing his name and even more so internally when he realized Mr. Yagi was staring right at him.
“Uh, yes?”
“Did you bring any of your materials for the paper from last week? If you need some help, I might not be a teacher but I used to be a student too. I might be a little rusty considering the fact that I’m pretty sure the glowing baby was a classmate of mine-”
This startled a few chuckles out of the other students as they processed the weak joke about his age. Even as Midoriya wanted to argue against his self-deprecation involving his age, he managed a weak smile instead.
“I’m fine, thank you.”
Midoriya leaned over to grab his bag when he heard Bakugou mutter, “Surprised the damn nerd didn’t pop a blood vessel talking to him ‘cause this guy’s close to All Might.”
There was a distinct popping feeling coming from Midoriya’s chest as he heard that. No matter the kind teachers, new friends, and new quirk, there was nothing he was going to be able to do about Kacchan. It was almost like they were still in middle-
“Did you have something to say?”
For a horrifying second, Midoriya thought he had started mumbling out loud at a volume that even Mr. Yagi could pick up from the front of the classroom. But rather than glaring at him like his middle school teachers did any time he was heard mumbling, Mr. Yagi had Bakugou in his sights.
“Hah?”
Even Bakugou seemed stunned that he was being called out.
“I asked if you needed anything. I thought you were trying to say something to me.”
“It’s nothing,” Bakugou snapped, pulling papers out of his bag in order to avoid eye contact. There’s a first time for anything apparently.
It sent Midoriya’s mood up so high that he barely frowned when he heard Bakugou call Mr. Yagi a, “Fuckin’ scarecrow-lookin’ nobody.”
So maybe today wouldn’t suck.
Scratch that.
Bakugou was practically vibrating with anger as they made their way out to Ground Delta, obviously, he had been hoping for some explosive way to let off some steam. Instead, the class had been told by Present Mic to go change into their gym uniforms and head out after his class.
Apparently the normal schedule for hero Studies had to be scrapped for the day and instead they were going to do...something.
Midoriya ended up being one of the last out to the training grounds as his shoelace broke and he had to track down Yaoyorozu and ask her to make him a new one. It felt a little bad to ask her to use her quirk for him right before class but she didn’t seem to mind and hopefully, one shoelace wouldn’t ruin her training for the day.
Just as it seemed like the day wasn’t going to get more awkward, Midoriya stumbled out into the field with a badly laced shoe and almost ran right into-
“Mr. Yagi!” Midoriya squeaked, almost losing his balance as he tried to simultaneously slow down and dodge his teacher while still dealing with his shoe.
Mr. Yagi quickly reached out to steady the kid, his track jacket, patterned like All Might’s suit, rusted loudly enough to catch Midoriya’s eye before his attention was dragged back to what Yagi was saying.
“Are you alright my boy?”
Midoriya’s breath caught in his throat as he pushed down the frustrated tears that threatened fall. Between the aftermath of the USJ, his fear for his teachers’ and classmates’ safety, and being able to be openly friendly with All Might outside of training was all weighing on his chest.
“Yeah,” Midoriya said, ignoring his voice cracking. “It’s just been one thing after another today. I don’t suppose today’s training is on recuperating after a large-scale villain attack. Is it?”
Yagi’s face fell slightly, sadness marred by discomfort clouded his face for a moment before he mentally shook it off.
“I’ll have to talk more in-depth with Hound Dog about that but I can’t see why we couldn’t work that into the curriculum plus a few other self-care things us old folk seem to have forgotten.”
He took the moment to clasp his hand on Midoriya’s shoulder, squeezing in what he hoped was a reassuring way before nudging him towards the rest of the class.
“Don’t worry, my boy. No quirks today so there’s at least a lesser chance you’ll break something.”
Midoriya managed a dry laugh as he hurried to make it over to the group of students before even more of them noticed he and Mr. Yagi had been talking.
“All right everyone.” Yagi called, clapping his hands to get their attention as if the return of the mysterious “secretary” didn’t already have their undivided attention.
“As you can see, All Might isn’t here. I meant to tell you this morning but he is also out with the police looking into last week’s attack. Today w-”
Bakugou, honest-to-god, growled like a feral pomeranian, causing Mr. Yagi to falter only for a second before continuing.
“Since I can’t exactly fly or blow things up with my mind, we had to change up the lesson plans for today. We’re going to be working on quirkless combat strategies for defense and if we breeze through those, we might be able to work on some of the offense techniques too.”
This stirred up some mumbling between the students, some complaining to themselves and others whispering questions to the person next to them.
...and of course, Bakugou looked like he was about to blow a gasket.
Yagi clapped again, this time a much louder and sharper noise to silence his students. “I know it doesn’t sound very heroic but quirkless combat is a necessary tool for any hero, even if y-”
Bakugou’s last string of patience snapped.
“What the fuck does that even matter? There’s no reason we shouldn’t just be able to use our quirks to blast away the villain extras and get on with our fucking day! You tryin’ to make us all look like quirkless losers?”
The air was deadly silent around them as the class held their breath, looking back and forth between Bakugou’s beet-red face and Mr. Yagi, whose expression had gone stone cold and almost dangerous looking.
“Young Bakugou, do you really believe there is no merit to being able to act as if quirkless? Or to being able to fight without relying on your quirk?”
If Midoriya had been any further away, he would have missed the sadness behind Mr. Yagi’s eyes.
“What does it matter,” Bakugou hissed. “We aren’t suddenly going to lose our-”
“Your teacher can erase your quirk with a look,” Yagi said, cutting off Bakugou’s rant, still unnervingly calm. “And while erasure is an extremely rare quirk, Blackstrike, as you might know, is a villain who can erase your quirk temporarily with her blood which she sells to other villains. You never know when you’re going to have to fight quirkless so why not learn?”
“Eyebags can erase my quirk for a minute, big whoop. As if I can’t dodge a scarf for that long.”
Rather than the mild annoyance Aizawa would show when listening to Bakugou’s rants, Mr. Yagi almost looked...disappointed. It was a sad expression as he just watched the student go off about his skill.
“Young Bakugou,” Yagi took a moment here to take a breath. “I see that this might have to be a longer conversation for later but how about for now, I will prove that quirkess fighting isn’t worthless.”
He took a moment to shed his garish All Might track jacket, leaving him in a white tank top and his track pants.
“Step into the ring with me and your goal is to push me out or pin me down. You can use your quirk but no maiming. If you win, I won’t bother you on this topic anymore. If I win, you will be staying after class to have a chat about your misguided ideals and a lesson on quirk discrimination.”
You could hear Bakugou’s teeth creak as he grit them as hard as he could before it morphed into a crude smile.
“You’re on, old man.”
Even though he was practically chewing through his lip with worry, Midoriya silently offered to take Yagi’s jacket rather than dropping it on the ground. Yagi’s expression softened slightly and he spared a small smile before handing him the jacket and ordering the rest of the students to a relatively safe area (just in case).
As they were walking away, Kirishima gently nudged Midoriya with his elbow.
“I wonder if that’s rare merch? Even if it isn’t, because it was worn by All Might’s secretary…”
Midoriya stared at him blankly before cracking a smile and pulling the jacket even closer to his body.
“Don’t even think about it. I was trusted with protecting it and it is my hero’s duty to Detroit Smash you into the sun if you even think about snatching it.”
This at least started to ease the tension among them as a few of their classmates laughed and Kaminari decided it would be appropriate to playfully shove Kirishima. It must have been some kind of bro language because by the time they were settled, Kirishima was hanging all over Sero and Kaminari.
All of the tension wasn’t gone, though. Bakugou and Mr. Yagi still stood in the ring, prepared for a skirmish at best and a bloodbath at worst.
Even more disturbing was that Midoriya didn’t know who’d win. He’d seen the power Bakugou had behind his blasts and Yagi, without One for All, looked like he’d break under a strong breeze.
Mr. Yagi must have set something up because the speakers crackled to life and a simple recording of Present Mic’s announcer voice began.
“READY?”
The two opponents shifted into fighting stances.
“BEGIN!”
Bakugou wasted no time charging at his opponent, huge blasts from his hand propelled him forward at speeds that no quirkless person could ever hope to accomplish on their own.
Even as he tried not to, Midoriya winced away, still looking at the fight but ready to duck his head. A hand clamped down on his shoulder and he glanced back, he saw Iida switching between watching the fight and giving him a reassuring smile.
That was pretty much all they had time for before the fight was over.
In the time Midoriya had been looking away, apparently, Mr. Yagi had caught Bakugou as he maybe overshot his first attack. And with the grace and power of a veteran pro hero, he shoved Bakugou to the ground and pinned one hand behind his back, palm twisted awkwardly to be pressed against his own skin and the other hand was pinned on the ground, inches away from his face. If either hand went off, it’d be a lot more painful than if Mr. Yagi had simply punched him.
There was a beat of dead silence as the class held their collective breath, waiting for Bakugou to scream, swear, explode, or something. Instead, he didn’t move.
Midoriya almost gave in to the urge to run over and check if they were okay but stopped when he heard Yagi’s voice echo over the grounds.
“Do you yield?”
The responding muffled and echoey swears likely said something along the lines of ‘no’.
“Fine then. We’ll wait until you’re ready.”
The wait lasted long enough for Midoriya to realize he’d been unconsciously digging his nails into his arms. On one side of him, Kirishima was mumbling something along the lines of ‘Come on Bakubro. Just tap out. It isn’t manly to deny it when you’re beaten’ even as Bakugou still continued to squirm and kick.
Eventually, Even Bakugou ran out of steam.
None of the students saw or heard it but he must have tapped out because Mr. Yagi let go of him and stood up, allowing the kid room to reorient himself enough to sit up. He offered his hand to help him get on his feet but Bakugou must have scoffed at him because both Yagi’s hand and his smile dropped.
Mr. Yagi’s attention turned to the rest of the class, motioning them back toward him so they could meet in the middle. But by the time they got close enough, Bakugou was on his feet and screaming again.
“-ullshit!” What in the hell-”
“Young Bakugou, that is enough!”
“I know you used your quirk! What the fuck is it?”
Mr. Yagi shifted his stance, straightened up, eyes narrowing as he stared Bakugou down. With an ego as big as his, Bakugou would not back down, even as a wave of fear rushed down his throat.
“I’m quirkless, young Bakugou.”
Whatever retort Bakugou had slipped from his fingers as he stared at their substitute in confusion. The revelation was apparently dramatic enough that everyone missed Midoriya looking like he was about to lose his goddamn mind.
“And yet somehow All Might decided that old, injured, quirkless Yagi Toshinori was worth not just saving but hiring and becoming one of his closest confidants.”
When Bakugou didn’t respond, Yagi sighed.
“I think you need to rethink how you perceive others’ value, my boy. You seem to have been misled somewhere along the way.”
If Midoriya hadn’t been looking directly at his face, he might have missed how Yagi glanced over at him when he said this part. It made Midoriya’s chest hurt a bit, consciously pushing down the whisper of an alternate childhood where Bakugou wasn't a horrible friend once Midoriya was dubbed quirkless.
“There’s no use in pouting. You lost a fight. So now you know a skill to work on so you can improve. I expect you to be able to kick my ass by the end of this year.”
Bakugou’s face shifted quickly between emotions as Mr. Yagi talked, finally settling on his usual bored/annoyed face but this time he had a rather bright spark in his eye when he heard the last bit.
“Count on it,” Bakugou snarled.
“I will. But you aren’t getting out of your punishment.”
Bakugou actually managed to look more annoyed but he apparently recognized his match as arguing with Mr. Yagi would have been like arguing with a particularly intelligent brick wall.
Finally, Yagi turned his full attention back to the class, taking in for a moment the mix of surprised, horrified, and mildly awed expressions his students displayed.
“Since Bakugou seems to work better with hard facts, let’s try this. Can anyone suggest a situation in which it would be unwise to use his quirk?”
It took a moment for someone to speak up but once Kaminari spoke up with, “He’s in a really small fighting area.” And more students joined in.
“He’s trying to protect a little kid.”
“The building he’s in is unstable.”
“Someone doused him in an accelerant.”
Everyone stops to look at Tsu who seems unbothered with her own mildly terrifying suggestion. Even Mr. Yagi looked a little concerned before continuing.
“Well, that would be correct as well, miss Asui. And if we edit that to being that somehow the villains got ahold of his gauntlets and poured his built-up nitroglycerin on him or around him, with the slightest spark, he could kill not only himself but the villains, other heroes on the scene, and any civilians caught in the crossfire.”
He took the chance now that he had their engagement
“Does anyone else want to suggest a reason why their own quirk would be detrimental to a situation?”
“I’m running out of sugar and need to conserve the rest.”
“If I was standing in water, I’d fry everything it touches.”
“I’ve already overused my quirk and puked once.”
“If I was carrying a kid, trying to get them away from a villain, my quirk makes my skin jagged and it might cut them.”
A couple students made faces at that. It was a little understandable considering most students wouldn’t consider a fight while carrying a civilian. But it was easy enough for Yagi to bring them all into that mindset.
“It might sound like a strange situation to use quirkless combat in if you’re trying to get away but remember that I said today was on quirkless defense. So that’s a very good example, Kirishima.”
Kirishima beams as if All Might had been the one praising him, as ironic as that is.
“So.” Yagi turned his attention back to look at everyone as a collective. “Are you going to give it all during this lesson?”
He couldn’t quite pick out a specific response but considering the positive tone and smiles on most of their faces, he took it as a yes.
“Alright. Pair up and space out a little bit. We’re a bit behind so we’ve got to get going. Plus Ultra!”
“Wait, Mr. Yagi!”
Yagi glanced up from where he was wiping the sweat off of his face as most of the students headed to the locker rooms.
After Bakugou’s outburst had been dealt with, the rest of the class period had gone well enough. Some students needed more help than others but luckily, Ojiro was willing to step up to talk to some of the stragglers one-on-one rather than Yagi’s lecture format.
“Yes, my boy?” He tried to keep his voice as soft as possible, considering how worried young Midoriya looked compared to a few moments ago when he was saying goodbye to his friends.
“I wanted to ask you about…ah”
Midoriya looked back at the exit, scanning it up down and sideways as if someone were hiding in the rafters. (Nevermind that Hagakure could be standing two inches away from his face.)
“There’s no one around. Go ahead.”
Again Midoriya startled, putting another chip in Yagi’s heart as he saw how skittish the poor kid was. Whether it was the effects of the USJ or his long term trauma regarding his...classmates.
“Oh, I just wanted to ask, are you really quirkless without…”
He hesitated and despite Yagi’s silent support, he didn’t finish.
“Yes, my boy. I was born quirkless. It wasn’t as big of a deal back then as it is now but I still had my own struggles.”
Instead of the surprise and awe he expected, Midoriya’s eyes teared up, streaming down his face fast enough to make Yagi worry about him getting dehydrated. He must have noticed Yagi’s concern because he smiled through the tears as he asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Yagi’s heart broke. A distinct memory clawing at his mind. His own father silently crying in the middle of the night because the movie production industry no longer wanted workers whose quirks couldn’t be exploited under the table and being quirkless was an automatic no.
He managed to shake the memory off fast enough for Midoriya not to notice his hesitation before he dropped to his knees to get closer to Midoriya’s height before he gently put his hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry my boy. Me teaching today wasn’t planned until this morning and then I got too busy trying to read Aizawa’s lesson plans. I didn’t have the chance to come find you but...even if I did, it’s a secret that I’ve been guarding for almost as long as I can remember. There is only one person alive, besides you, who knows not only was I quirkless but I’m also-”
He jokingly did a bicep curl but didn’t get much more than a strained smirk out of the kid. It was understandable. Back when he was Midoriya’s age, he would have given anything to have someone show him proof that being born quirkless doesn’t mean you aren’t worth anything.
“I’m sorry that I hurt you with this. I will do my best to be a little more open with you from now on. Okay?”
With a loud sniffle and a quick swipe of his arm over his eyes, Mdioriya nodded and genuinely smiled at Yagi.
“Okay.”
Yagi felt like his chest was going to implode from the tension release. Even if the situation was his fault, seeing the kid so saddened by his actions was genuinely the most heartbreaking thing he’d witnessed in weeks.
“Now go on,” Yagi said as he pushed himself to his feet. “Don’t miss your train. I’m guessing you’ll need the extra time to work on your essay.”
Midoriya nodded vigorously, regaining some of that sunshiney energy he had lost while talking about such a hard subject. He turned away to jog back to the changing rooms but only partway as he was still waving to his mentor.
“Bye Mr. Yagi!”
“Have a good night, my boy.”
The air around them practically froze as Todoroki locked eyes with Midoriya. The roar of the crowds above them practically shook the stadium seats. Even without a match going on, the tension was high, pushing Midoriya’s heart into his throat.
“What I’m saying is the power from you felt the same as All Might’s.”
Midoriya’s heart dropped right back down to his feet. This guy, his classmate that he hasn’t even spoken to outside of that weird declaration of war in the locker room, had gotten way too close to the truth.
“Midoriya, tell me-”
He felt like he was going to throw up. Todoroki couldn’t possibly have all of the pieces but considering the intensity of his stare, Midoriya was sure he had found something .
“-are you really All Might’s secret love-child or something?”
“...the fuck?”
Todoroki seemed surprised at Midoriya’s exclamation. It made sense considering the years he spent around Bakugou’s vulgar attitude but even Midoriya seemed surprised at the curse that came out of his own mouth.
Todoroki recovered quickly.
“I guess that does seem a bit extreme but it was the only theory that I could come up within the first week of school that made sense. The insane strength, the similarities between your first costume and his, the fact that he’s asked to have lunch with you in private on more than one occasion. It seemed so familial, like he’s your father-”
Todoroki paused to look Midoriya in the eye, pinning him in place with an icy blue stare.
“-or your uncle.”
Okay, now Midoriya was just lost.
“I’m not following your train of thought. That doesn’t even make any sense, All Might doesn’t have any siblings.”
“And yet his secretary and closest confidant is a man with a similar height to him, the same color hair, eyes, and skin tone, who acts in a very similar way to you. It would make sense that Mr. Yagi has a chronic injury or sickness that causes him to be severely underweight and also prevents him from protecting himself if he was in the public eye and thus a target for villains. He obviously is a master of self-defense and one would need to be if they were close family to the Symbol of Peace.”
“You’ve really thought this through haven’t you,” Midoriya asked in a soft but shaky voice, trying to act like it was a laughable theory.
“I have,” Todoroki confirmed in a serious tone that left no room for discussion. “It all clicked while watching Bakugou badmouth quirkless people to Mr. Yagi. they both looked at you more than once while talking. The reason Bakugou thought you were quirkless before UA is you couldn’t tell him about your quirk because of its similarities to your uncle’s quirk and he knew your father is quirkless. Mr. Yagi didn’t inherit the same quirk as his brother but his son did .”
Despite the queasiness in his stomach as he struggled to find something to say, Midoriya couldn’t help but admire the amount of time, energy, and analysis that Todoroki obviously put into this.
“That’s a clever theory but honestly the truth is much more boring.”
Todorki raised his white eyebrow, an indication to continue.
“Mr. Yagi trained me for the entrance exam,” Midoriya said honestly. “I couldn’t use my quirk without possibly killing myself and he offered to help me bulk up enough that I could make it into UA. He knows All Might’s quirk better than most people and when he saw mine, he recognized the similarities and I guess he was hoping if I became a hero, I’d be a new All Might.”
Despite the minimal emotion on Todoroki’s face, it was obvious to any observer that he was really listening to Midoriya’s explanation and was taking it hook, line, and sinker. But when Midoriya mentioned being a new All Might, his expression dropped into something dark and honestly kind of scary.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that All Might too has an interest in passing on his legacy. Endeavor will stop at nothing to ensure a child of his becomes the number one hero, a title he has never been able to possess.”
Midoriya’s blood ran cold.
“You don’t mean-”
“Midoriya, do you know what quirk marriages are?”
“So...did anyone else see All Might turn into Mr. Yagi?”
Midoriya and the rest of the rescue squad, who had found a quiet alley to rest after the broadcast of the battle, looked over at Kirishima in varying states of confusion.
“What the fuck hair-for-brains?” Bakugou groaned despite not having let go of Kirishima’s hand since reaching out for him.
“I'm just checking,” Kirishima said defensively. “Like, was that actually All Might and Mr. Yagi is just the same person or did Mr. Yagi use his quirk to turn into All Might-”
“That’s-”
Midoriya visibly flinched when everyone turned to him. Even casually leaning against the wall, the darkness clouding his expression made him look like he’d aged ten years in the past hour.
“That’s just what he looks like when he isn’t All Might. He was hurt really badly a few years ago but refused to leave us without All Might and worked through his injuries. So now he looks like,” Midoriya gestured vaguely, “that.”
This managed to bring down the mood even more than what it had been. The deep regret of hearing that one of your heroes had been working himself half to death settled into their chests. Bakugou didn’t even bother with more than a grumble and everyone else ignored it.
“How do you know that?” Iida asked, softly as if not to scare any of them.
Midoriya froze, his exhausted eyes now wide open with fear. The only thing that kept him from freaking out was Todoroki’s subtle presence on one side of him and Iida on the other.
“I-Well…”
“So are you All Might’s secret lovechild?”
Before anyone else could react to Todoroki’s bizarre statement, Midoriya coughed out a startled laugh, smiling weakly at his friend.
“I thought we went over this.”
“And I thought you had told me the truth the first time.”
Midoriya’s smile faded a bit, the light in his eyes dulling.
“I promise I’m not All Might’s son, illegitimate or not. My dad and I aren’t close but I definitely know he’s a different person. Kacchan has met my dad. Right Kacchan?”
Not bothering with an insult, Bakugou rolled his eyes but nodded. “He’s still in America, right?”
“Yeah, so-”
“So how do you know about All Might’s...small form?” Yaoyorozu asked. She hadn’t said much since the end of the battle, a little more lost in her thoughts than the rest of them.
“Oh, I accidentally ran him out of time after a villain attacked me. Later, after the slime villain attacked Kacchan, he talked to me about running into a fight as a quirkless middle schooler and I told him about my difficult quirk. And so he offered to help as long as I didn’t mind that it was from Mr. Yagi and not All Might.”
“That’s so manly of him,” Kirishima said, the first one to raise their voice above a loud whisper. “Helping a kid out with their quirk even though he already spends so much time being a hero. I’ve got to admit, if he wasn’t our teacher now, I’d be pretty jealous.”
He reached around Iida to playfully punch Midoriya in the shoulder only to get playfully swatted away by Midoriya’s half-assed slap.
“I’m glad you’re okay with it. I was so worried you all would hate me for having a little more attention than everyone else.”
“You were breaking your fucking bones on day-one, dumbass,” Bakugou grumbled. “Of course you need more help than the rest of us. A firefighter doesn’t give equal attention to every building on the block when he can obviously see one is on fucking fire .”
A few of them chuckled at the crude remark, Midoriya even feeling playful enough to stick his tongue out at Bakugou who just rolled his eyes.
“Alright fuckers. As much as I enjoy standing here and listening to Deku talk about himself, the police and heroes are probably freaking the fuck out about me disappearing on them after being rescued.”
With the last of their energy, the rescue squad and their ward shuffled toward Iida’s estimation of the nearest police setup. Unconsciously, they circled up around Bakugou who didn’t even bother to protest. It was quiet for all of two minutes before Todoroki perked up.
“I have another question.”
Midoriya groaned, knowing that it was going to be aimed at him. “Todoroki, I don’t think this is the time-”
“Could All Might have been a sperm donor?”
In that moment Kirishima choked on his own spit, Yaoyorozu stumbled on an uneven bit of sidewalk, Iida completely ignored them, Midoriya just looked defeated, and Bakugou voiced what everyone was thinking.
“IcyHot, what the fuck?”