Chapter 6: PracticalSummary:
Izuku meets with Nedzu for his practical exam.
Chapter Text
Izuku gaped at Nedzu, the Nedzu, principal of UA and tried not to fanboy. He failed, "Oh my goodness, you're Nedzu! One of the few animals with a quirk, although that is becoming more common as animals evolve alongside humans, but High Specs gives you hyper intelligence and…" suddenly, Izuku's brain caught up with his mouth and he realized exactly what Nedzu had just said, "and you caught me trying to hack UA before I even took the entrance exam…"
He really was an idiot, just like Kacchan said, wasn't he? He was going to get kicked out of UA before he even got accepted just because he'd gotten bored and decided to do something stupid! Of course Powerloader wasn't leading him to his practical exam, he was taking him to the principal, who was going to press charges and then he'd get a permanent record and nowhere else would accept him and…
"I'll leave him to you, then. Good Luck." Powerloader said. As he turned his back to leave, Izuku could have sworn he muttered something about the end of the world, but honestly, he was too scared of what was about to happen to pay much attention. He swallowed thickly and looked at the principal, who was still grinning at him. Maybe he was just waiting for Izuku to apologize? Well, apologizing couldn't make things worse, at least.
Izuku lowered himself into a deep bow, "I am so sorry, P-principal Nedzu, sir. What I did was c-completely uncalled for and inappropriate. I, um, wasn't thinking c-clearly and obviously that's no excuse, but…"
"Oh, there's no need for that, Midoriya!" Nedzu chirped. "In fact, what you did was quite impressive."
Izuku straightened up in shock. The principal's expression was hard to read, on account of his face not being human, but he couldn't see any anger or malice, "W-what? You're not m-mad?"
"Oh no!' Nedzu stepped aside and gestured for Izuku to come in, "In fact, I was quite delighted! It's not often that people are brave enough to try, so it's quite fun to test my defenses against new faces. Tea?"
Izuku nodded numbly and sat in the chair Nedzu offered him. He still couldn't believe that he wasn't in trouble, but apparently Mei had been right about him making a good first impression. Or maybe Nedzu was just getting his hopes up to crush them later. It wouldn't be the first time.
Nedzu carefully poured the tea and set a cup down in front of Izuku, "So, how long have you been hacking?"
"Um, I think about eight months?" Izuku took the cup and held it while he waited for it to cool. "I only picked it up after I decided to apply to the Support Course. I, uh, I thought it'd be useful for information gathering."
"Oh, I agree completely!" Nedzu chirped and took a sip of his tea. "But I am surprised that you're still so new to it, considering your creativity this morning. Was applying to support a recent decision?"
"I, uh, well," Izuku chuckled awkwardly, "I thought that hero support was just inventing stuff. I didn't think to look into the analysis track until...um, sorry, I'm rambling, but well, since I really enjoy analyzing heroes and quirks, it just seemed perfect, I guess."
Nedzu smiled knowingly, "It's not often that we get young people applying to be analysts. Most people assume that support is simply invention of support items, like you did, and while analysis is an important part of creating those support items, many people overlook its potential in strategy and intelligence gathering. Speaking of your analysis, may I see your portfolio?"
Izuku nodded and dug the notebook out of his backpack to hand to Nedzu, who eagerly started leafing through it. Izuku wondered if he was just skimming his writing or if his quirk gave him the ability to speed read. If it was the latter, then how fast could he read? Was the speed limited by his quirk or could he train himself to read even faster? If he wasn't limited by his brain, then his speed would probably be limited by how fast he could physically turn the pages, but if he was reading something that scrolled automatically, like on a computer, how would that affect the speed…
"I'm not as fast as all that, Midoriya." Nedzu chuckled. "I still have to wait for my brain to catch up before I can turn the page, and while my quirk definitely helps, most of my speed reading is actually a skill I've cultivated."
Izuku flushed red and slammed his mouth shut, "Sorry, I know my muttering is creepy."
"On the contrary, it was a wonderful demonstration of your real-time analysis skills." Nedzu said simply, turning back to the portfolio, "And while it will most likely be useful to learn to be aware of when you are muttering, there is nothing inherently wrong with the habit."
Izuku's eyes widened and he stared at Nedzu silently while he finished the portfolio. His muttering...wasn't bad? That just seemed so weird to him. Kacchan had always said that it was annoying and creepy, but then again, he'd said the same things about Izuku's notebooks. Maybe it was creepy if a hero did it, but was simply an eccentricity when an analyst did, that would make sense. Yeah, an eccentricity, not an annoying habit that he had to get rid of.
Izuku liked that.
Nedzu finally turned the final page of his portfolio and set it aside, "This is quite impressive! I am assuming that you have been analyzing heroes for much longer than you've been hacking."
"Yes, sir." Izuku said. "I started analyzing heroes as a hobby when I was four, I just didn't realize it was a marketable skill."
"Would it be alright if I held onto this so I can peruse it more thoroughly at a later date?" Nedzu asked.
Izuku nodded, a weird sense of pride growing in his chest the more the principal praised him, "I already assumed that I wasn't going to be getting it back, since it's part of my application."
"Excellent!" Nedzu clapped his paws together. "Now, you have your laptop with you, correct?"
"Yes!" Izuku dug out his laptop and set it on the desk in front of him.
"Perfect!" Nedzu said. "Now onto the practical portion of your exam!'
Izuku swallowed nervously, thinking of all the ominous good luck wishes from Midnight and Powerloader, "Um, what will I be doing exactly?"
"As I said, I was very impressed with your efforts this morning, so I simply want you to continue what you were doing then." Nedzu's eyes twinkled with mischief, "I want you to hack into UA."
Izuku blinked away tears of exhaustion and frustration as he limped away from UA, sore from sitting hunched over his laptop for the past few hours. He'd tried everything he could think of, every back door, every little trick, even a hastily made virus, but by the end of the exam, Izuku had barely made it past the first round of defenses. It didn't matter how much Nedzu had enjoyed his portfolio, or how well he'd done on the written exam, he'd completely failed the practical.
What was his mom going to think? After all these months of her going out of her way to support him, would they grow apart again? Would she be disappointed in him? Where was he going to go to school? What job would even take a stupid, weak, quirkless nobody like him?
Suddenly, Izuku was rammed into by somebody going full speed. Immediately, he froze and curled in on himself to try to become a smaller target. Kacchan shouldn't still be here, should he? Nedzu had left sometime during Izuku's exam to go monitor the hero course practical and Izuku had tried to use that time to hack UA using Nedzu's computer but couldn't even crack the password. But Nedzu had come back pretty quickly, so Kacchan should already be at home by now. What if it was someone else who had learned he was quirkless and was going to beat him up and they'd never find his body and…
"Whoa, Izu-kun, are you ok?! What's wrong?!"
Izuku jolted from his spiraling thoughts and looked around, but the only person near him was Mei, who currently had one hand resting on his shoulder. Oh, Mei running into him was...actually completely in character, probably. It was just Mei, not Kacchan. And Mei wasn't anything like Kacchan so she wasn't going to beat him up. Probably.
Izuku forced a smile onto his face, "Nothing! You just startled me, is all!"
Mei frowned like she didn't believe him, "Then what's with the tears?"
He tried, he really did, but he only lasted about two seconds before those stupid Midoiriya tears were running down his face like some sort of stupid geyser. He hadn't even known this girl a full day and now he'd ruined their friendship or their partnership or whatever it was because here he was, crying in front of her and he just couldn't stop.
Mei had started rubbing his shoulder sometime during his breakdown and was probably trying to be comforting, but her muttering about unleashing her babies on whoever hurt him was actually pretty intimidating.
"No one hurt me, Mei-chan." Izuku finally got out between the tears, "It's my own fault anyway."
Mei looked at him skeptically, "Then what happened?"
That set off the tears again, but thankfully he could speak through them this time, "N-nedzu wanted me to hack UA for my practical, b-but I couldn't do it! I failed."
"Oh..." Mei sat down on the sidewalk and pulled him down next to her, ignoring the weird looks from the people passing by, "Are you sure they didn't just want you to try?"
That made Izuku pause, "What?"
"Well, every failure is just a stepping stone to success, right?" Mei said excitedly, "And you said yourself that UA's cybersecurity is absolutely insane, so what if he was planning on you failing?"
Izuku just stared at her, "If he wanted me to fail, then why did he tell me to succeed?"
Mei flicked him on the forehead, which was apparently her way of getting him out of his head and telling him that he was being an idiot, "A lot of inventions are just about learning the process. Even if they don't work, they still weren't a waste of time because they make the next invention faster! UA's security wouldn't be the best in the business if a first year could ram through it, right? They probably just wanted to see how you approached a problem that you couldn't solve. They wanted to see your process!"
Izuku thought about that for a moment. It made a certain kind of sense, but then again, everything it seemed like everything Mei said toed the line between being reasonable and being absolutely insane, so maybe it was just that she was saying it that made it sound so believable. Still, it might make waiting for his rejection letter a little less painful, just so long as he was careful not to get his hopes up too high.
"If you say so..." he said slowly, "but what about you? How did your practical go?"
Mei grinned and immediately launched into a story that involved blowing up her workspace three times until she finally got a working prototype of hover boots twenty minutes before the end of the exam. Izuku listened and laughed with her until his tears dried and Mom started frantically texting him wondering when he was going to be home. By the time he started walking home, his heart was a little lighter than it had been, and his phone was a little heavier.
It had a new number in it, after all.
Chapter 7: AcceptanceSummary:
Izuku gets a letter from UA
Chapter Text
The letter was heavier than he expected. Well, logically, Izuku knew that the envelope was probably stuffed with all sorts of paperwork for if he was accepted, or maybe resources for if he wasn't, so it made sense for it to weigh something, but for some reason, it felt heavier than just paper. Or maybe that was an emotional reaction to the tension he'd been feeling ever since Mom had run in from getting the mail.
This letter was going to determine the rest of his future. This would determine if he remained a worthless loser or if he went to All Might's alma mater to become a professional analyst, so no wonder the envelope felt so heavy.
Mom hovered nervously, wringing her hands as she waited for him to open it. A few months ago, he probably would have gone to his room to be alone, but she had been just as involved in his preparation for the entrance exam as he had been, and honestly, after bombing the practical, he could really use the support.
"Izuku?" Mom said finally. "It's not going to get any easier if you wait…"
Izuku nodded and took a deep breath, then closed his eyes and ripped the envelope open like he was taking off a band-aid. There was a metallic thud that made Izuku open his eyes as something inside fell out and hit the coffee table.
"Is that...a hologram projector?"
Almost as soon as he said that, the disk came to life and a small screen appeared. Powerloader was staring right at the camera, looking somewhat tired, which made sense if he'd had to make one of these for every student in the support course.
"Izuku Midoriya." Powerloader began. "You passed the written exam with flying colors and turned in an impressive portfolio. However, I have been told that during the practical exam, you did not succeed in hacking UA."
Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes and he could feel Mom looking at him with pity as he stared at the ground. Of course he knew that he'd failed the exam! As much as he wanted to believe that Mei had been right about them not expecting him to succeed, he hadn't been able to push away the dread whenever he thought about the test. He really was a failure. He was a quirkless nobody, just like Kacchan always said.
"I'm glad."
Izuku whipped his head up fast enough to almost give him whip-lash. Was Powerloader...glad he didn't make it into UA? Was he rubbing it in? That didn't seem like appropriate behavior for a pro hero...
"If you had succeeded, I would honestly be concerned about the quality of our school's defenses." Powerloader chucked, "Thankfully, Nedzu didn't actually expect you to succeed, he simply set the task as a way to gauge your skill and drive, even though your portfolio was impressive enough to guarantee your admittance without any need for a practical. Take it from someone who has been working under him for quite a while now, impressing Nedzu like that is no easy feat. He seems to have..." Powerloader shivered almost imperceptibly, "special plans to help you realize your potential."
Izuku held his breath as Powerloader gave a tired smile, "As the head of the support course at UA, welcome, Izuku Midoriya. This is your support academia!"
Izuku's jaw dropped and he kept staring at the screen as Mom cried and hugged him tightly. He made it...He made it! He was going to UA! He did it! Oh, wait, Powerloader was still talking.
"Now that we've gotten that out of the way, there's a few housekeeping items I need to tell you about. There are three first year support classes at UA. Classes 1-F and 1-G cater to the invention track, while class 1-H focuses primarily on design. Because of the rarity of students entering the intelligence and analytics track, you have been assigned to class 1-F with the invention students. Your projects and assignments will, of course, be modified to fit your emphasis, and you'll also have daily lessons with Principal Nedzu, but you will still need to pass the lab safety test on UA's website before school starts, since 1-F meets in a lab rather than a traditional classroom. Please fill out the forms included with your acceptance letter to inform us of any equipment or materials you need so we can have those ready for you on the first day of class. Congratulations, Midoriya. I look forward to seeing you in my class."
"You did it, baby!" Mom hadn't stopped hugging him since Powerloader had said he was accepted. "You worked so hard! I'm so proud of you!"
That was what finally pushed Izuku over the edge into tears of his own. He had had no idea how much he needed to hear that. All those years of her apologizing for him being quirkless and telling him to choose a different dream were over. His mom believed in him now! She was proud of him. That felt almost as good as being told he actually got accepted into UA.
"Um, Izuku?" Mom said, "I think your phone is vibrating."
Izuku listened and, sure enough, there was a faint vibrating noise. He looked around to see that his phone had fallen out of his pocket and was sitting on the couch beside him. Who would even be calling him? Kacchan was the only one at school who had his number, but Izuku was half convinced he had deleted it as soon as Auntie Mitsuki had forced him to put it in his phone. Hesitantly, Izuku answered the call.
"I got in!" He didn't even get a chance to say hello before Mei was shouting in his ear. "I got in, Izu-kun, I'm going to UA!"
Izuku couldn't help the grin that spread across his face, "Congratulations, Mei-chan! I knew you could do it!"
Mom looked very confused and Izuku suddenly realized that in his post-exam depressive haze, not only had he almost forgotten about giving Mei his number, he'd also completely forgotten to tell Mom that he met Mei at all! He'd been so depressed when he came home after failing the practical that he'd gone straight to his room, and then he'd spent the rest of the wait trying not to think about it, especially since he was never going to see her again if he didn't make it into UA. Now he had to explain who this random girl was to his mom. Awkward.
He pulled the phone away from his mouth and spoke quietly, "Mei-chan is…" well, Mei was acting like they were friends, but he still didn't want to assume anything, "We met at the entrance exam."
"Ah…" Mom nodded in understanding, but still seemed a little nervous.
"What about you, Izu-kun?" The question made Izuku tune back into Mei's ramblings, "Did you pass? Because if you didn't I'm gonna march straight into UA and tell them that…"
"No!" Izuku screamed, but then realized that could be taken the wrong way, "I mean, no, please don't do that Mei-chan. I got in. Apparently, my final was just a formality and they didn't actually expect me to succeed."
"I told you so!" Mei cackled, "I knew they wouldn't fail you! That would be like ignoring my perfect babies! So what class are you gonna be in? Are you gonna be with all the other analysis students?"
"Um, actually, I'm the only one, so they put me in an invention class..." Izuku said nervously, "I'm in 1-F."
There was a beat of silence and Izuku was just starting to wonder if he'd somehow said something wrong when Hatsume squealed so loud that he had to hold the phone at arm's length just to avoid going deaf.
Mom kept looking between him and the phone, obviously concerned, "I-is she ok?"
"Um," Izuku shrugged helplessly, "I think she might just be excited."
"I'm in 1-F too!" Mei screamed. "We're in the same class!"
Izuku blinked in shock for a moment. He was going to have a friend in class! That hadn't happened since...well, it depended on if he was counting Kacchan as a friend. They'd been in plenty of classes together, but it definitely wasn't enjoyable, or at least not as enjoyable ashe thought being in a class with Mei would be, so he wasn't sure if that counted. Izuku grinned. He was finally going to be in the same class as a friend! Well, if they were actually friends.
"We should do something to celebrate!" Mei declared.
"O-oh?" Izuku held the phone away from his mouth again and glanced at Mom, "Um, would you mind if I went to hang out with Mei-chan? She wants to celebrate us getting in."
Mom frowned for a moment, "Does she want to come over for dinner? If she's your friend, I want to meet her. I could make your favorites?"
"Um," Izuku hesitated. Was inviting her over weird? He couldn't imagine inviting anyone from his middle school over, and Kacchan would probably laugh at Mom insisting she meet his new friend, but Mei didn't seem like the type to get embarrassed by societal norms like that, so she probably wouldn't care, "I guess I can ask her…"
Twenty minutes later, Izuku was frantically cleaning the kitchen while Mom started dinner. What if Mei thought their house was too dirty? What if she thought it was in a bad part of town? What if she saw the pictures of four-year-old Izuku in an All Might onesie and never wanted to talk to him again? They were in the same class, he'd have to be careful to always sit on the other side of the room, or maybe behind her so she didn't have to see his face. Was it safer to take the pictures down? Yes, definitely safer to take the pictures down. Oh no, that was a knock. Too late! Abort Mission!
They both ran to answer the door, but before Mom could open it, Izuku suddenly grabbed her hand, "Um, before you meet Mei, I kinda need to warn you about something…"
Mom looked worried, "Does...does she have tattoos or something?"
"No, nothing like that." Izuku said frantically. "It's just...she calls her inventions her babies."
"Why would you need to warn me about…"
Izuku opened the door before she could finish and immediately got an armful of excitable Mei-chan, "Izu-kun! This year is gonna be so much fun!"
"Um," Izuku willed his face to go back to a normal color as he pried her away from him, "Mei, um, this is my mom. Mom, this is Mei-chan."
Mei's eyes lit up and she ran up to Mom, practically vibrating with excitement, "It's awesome to meet you, Midoriya-san. Your son and I are gonna make so many beautiful babies together!"
Mom immediately choked and stared at her in shock before she connected the dots. She visually relaxed and sighed in relief, "Oh, that's what you meant, Izuku. I see why you warned me. And yes, Izuku seems to be looking forward to working with you too."
"Good!" Mei grinned. "I'm so excited to see what babies I can make with your son's awesome brains. Did you teach him how to do that?"
"Um," Mom still seemed a little overwhelmed by Mei's energy, "what?"
"I think she means my analysis, Mom." Izuku came to her rescue, "Or did you mean the hacking?"
"Both!"
"Oh, um, analysis has always been Izuku's hobby, really. Even as a kid, he was looking at quirks and writing notes about them. I didn't even know what he was doing until he showed me his first notebook." Mom said. "And besides buying him notebooks and computer classes, it's all him."
"Wow," Mei said, "I knew you were smart, Izu-kun, but that's something else. You really taught yourself how to make your notebooks?"
Izuku nodded, "I, uh, just always loved heroes, so it just kinda...made sense? I've been doing them forever, so the first ones are really stupid and I think they're probably written in crayon."
"Cool, my first blueprints were the same! I knew they were blueprints, so I was very particular that I had to draw them with blue crayon!" Mei grinned and Izuku was pleased to realize that Mom looked more at ease now that she'd had a chance to adjust to Mei's energy, "So what's for dinner?"
Chapter 8: FriendsSummary:
Bakugo finds out that Izuku got into UA.
Notes:
I impulsively made a tiktok. I'm clouds_notcomingdown
Chapter Text
"Bakugo Katsuki and Izuku Midoriya, please report to the principal's office, Bakugo Katsuki and Izuku Midoirya."
Izuku froze in his seat as the classroom exploded in whispers at the announcement. He hesitantly looked over at Kacchan, but whipped his head down to look at the floor the second he saw the death glare that Kacchan was leveling at him. Why were they being called down to the office? And together? Was this about…? No, it couldn't be about the teasing. They'd never done anything about it before, so there wasn't any reason for them to do something now, especially now that Kacchan had gotten into UA's hero course.
So that meant that Izuku was probably in trouble for something, but what? And why would Kacchan have to come too? Izuku gathered his things and walked out into the hall, careful to keep a few steps behind Kacchan so he didn't think Izuku was trying to get ahead of him. Unfortunately, his efforts to not make Kacchan angry were in vain, because as soon as they'd turned the corner, Izuku found himself being slammed against the wall.
"What is this about, Deku?" Kacchan growled. "What did you do?"
"I don't know, I swear!" Izuku held his bag securely against his chest so Kacchan couldn't grab it, his eyes flicking down to the smoke billowing from his hand. "Let's just go, we p-probably shouldn't keep the principal waiting."
Kacchan clicked his tongue dismissively, but released his hold on Izuku and kept walking toward the principal's office. Izuku took a deep breath to steady himself before hurrying after him, leaving a larger gap between them this time so he'd have a bit more warning if Kacchan decided to confront him again. When they got to the office, Kacchan knocked on the door and shot a warning glare back at Izuku before the door swung open.
The principal was a man who really seemed too young to be balding, but that didn't stop him. Izuku had been to his office a few times in the past, none of which had necessarily been pleasant, so the smile on the principal's face didn't do anything to put him at ease. In fact, it made the whole thing more unsettling, because Izuku honestly couldn't think of a single reason why he'd be called down to the office if he wasn't in trouble.
"I just wanted to be the first person from our school to congratulate the both of you." The principal said. "I can't believe we have not one, but two students from our school will be attending UA! And to think you're one of them, Midoriya. It's honestly a miracle."
Izuku gulped as he felt the heat of Kacchan's glare on him. Or maybe it was literal heat...had Kacchan activated his quirk? He wouldn't do that in the principal's office, would he? Would the principal let him get away with it?
He didn't know why he'd assumed he'd be lucky enough to not have anyone at his middle school know he'd made it into UA. It had been so nice these past months with nobody knowing about his new dream, but of course Aldera had to have been sent their exam results. He'd been even more of an idiot for somehow not preparing for the eventuality of Kacchan finding out! They were going to be attending the same high school, they'd run into each other eventually, even if they were in different courses. Well, there was nothing he could do about any of that now.
Izuku forced a shaky smile onto his face, "Thank you, sir. I hope we'll make you proud."
The principal nodded and gestured for them to leave. Izuku stood awkwardly for a second, waiting for Kacchan to leave first, but he just kept glaring at him until Izuku finally gave in and scurried toward the door. He just wanted to go back to class and pretend that the principal hadn't known exactly what he was doing by calling both of them into the office at the same time. He wanted to pretend that his new dream was still safe. He wanted to pretend that Kacchan was like Mei and was excited that they'd be going to the same school, rather than enraged.
Instead, reality grabbed him roughly by the arm and dragged him outside, taking him straight to an alcove behind the locker rooms that didn't have any cameras. At this time of day, even if Kacchan let loose explosions, no one would be on the other side to hear them, which also meant that no one would be around to hear Izuku's screams. Not that they'd help him if they did hear, but it was the principle of the thing.
Izuku couldn't hold back a sharp cry as he was shoved against the wall for the second time in ten minutes. Kacchan glared down at him and this time Izuku knew that the heat wasn't just from his glare as he felt the skin on his chest blistering where Kacchan's hand was holding his shirt, "I thought you'd given up on being a hero, nerd."
Izuku trembled as he realized he'd never actually seen Kacchan this angry before. This...this was bad. Even worse than usual. What would happen if Kacchan killed him? Would they give his place at UA to someone else? Would Mei find someone else to make inventions with? Would anyone even notice he was gone?
"I bet you've had a great time laughing behind my back these past couple of months, haven't you?" Kacchan sneered. "Pretending to have given up, when really you were lying to us the whole time! How'd you even pass the exam, you damn nerd?!"
"I…" Izuku hissed in pain as Kacchan let loose an explosion to his chest.
"I was supposed to be the first and only student from this crappy school to make it into UA, and you had to go and ruin it!" Kacchan yelled. "Well, I hope your fun was worth it, because it's over Deku! I don't care if you somehow cheated and made it into UA, you're not gonna be a hero!"
"I'm in the support course, Kacchan!" Izuku yelled.
He was trembling from the pain, the anxiety, and now the emotional exertion it took to yell at his oldest friend, "I didn't lie to you, Kacch...Katsuki. I gave up on being a hero months ago. I didn't even try the hero course exam like you did, so don't get angry at me for chasing a dream that doesn't even affect you!"
He grabbed the arm that was holding him against the wall and shoved it away, then ran as fast as he could away from the school. He'd undoubtably get in trouble for skipping class, but they wouldn't risk suspending him or punishing him too drastically now that he'd be attending UA. They wanted the positive attention too badly for that. Maybe that was why they'd let Katsuki get away with everything they did, because he was the student with the greatest chance of making it big.
Izuku could hardly see through his tears as he ran home on auto pilot, shooting a text to Mei for her to call him when she had a minute. He didn't know what he'd say if she called, he just...there were too many emotions for him to process alone. Thankfully, Mom was at work, so he didn't have to worry about her seeing him barge through the door with tears running down his face as he went straight to the bathroom to bandage the ugly burn on his chest.
To his surprise, Izuku's phone rang just as he was about to take off his uniform. He looked at the screen to see Mei's name on caller ID, "Shouldn't you be in class right now?"
"I told the teacher that I'd accidentally added an unstable component to my cell phone battery and it was going to explode if I didn't answer a call right away." Mei said. "I've actually done that before, so they didn't question it."
"You've...actually blown up your phone by accident?" Izuku asked numbly.
"It wasn't a very large explosion." Mei dismissed. "But what's going on? Your text sounded really upset and now your voice is doing that weird chokey thing it does when you've been crying!"
Izuku tried to hold back a sob, but it tore itself out of his chest anyway, "Everyone at school found out I'm going to UA."
There was a beat of silence at the other end, "Isn't that a good thing? Shouldn't they be happy for you?"
"No, you don't understand, I'm quirkless!" Izuku yelled, then immediately felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head as he realized what he'd just said. He hadn't meant for her to know that. He hadn't...and he'd been looking forward to having a friend, "I'm sorry. I...I'll just let you go, you didn't need to leave class and you don't have to call me again, I'm sorry…."
"Oh no! Izuku Hacker Midoirya, don't you dare hang up on me!"
Izuku stopped with his thumb halfway to the end call button, "Did...did you just use hacker as my middle name?"
"Well I don't know your real one, and I needed a placeholder to get the full effect." Mei explained. "So, Izuku Hacker Midoriya, don't you dare think that I'm gonna abandon all the amazing babies we're gonna make together, just because you have some extra toe joint or whatever. I know for a fact that you're smarter than that, so I don't want to hear it!"
Izuku's jaw dropped and he gaped at his reflection in the mirror, "I...what? You...you're still talking to me?"
"Obviously." Mei huffed. "So did one of your bullies get mad because you made it in?"
Izuku put his phone on speaker so he could focus on treating his burn, "I don't know if bully's the right word. We used to be best friends, so it sounds so wrong to call him anything other than that, but...well, we haven't really hung out since his quirk came in, so…"
"That was ten years ago, Izu-kun." Mei said bluntly.
"What?"
"That was ten years ago." Mei repeated. "If you haven't hung out in ten years, you're not still friends. Did he hurt you?"
Izuku hissed in pain as his shirt pulled away from the burned skin, "Today?"
Mei made a little exasperated noise, "Ever!"
"Um…" Izuku looked at the angry red burn in the mirror, "define hurt."
Mei groaned, "For someone who is so smart, you really are an idiot. Are you in pain right now?"
"If I say no, are you going to believe me?"
"Not a chance in hell, Izu-kun."
Izuku grimaced, "Then yes."
Mei sighed, "I'm gonna kill him. He did that just because you got into UA and he didn't?"
"Oh no, he got in too." Izuku ran a washcloth under cold water. "He's in the hero course, that's part of why he's so angry."
"They let your bully into the hero course?!" Mei yelled so loudly that the audio on the phone crackled.
"Like I said, bully isn't really the right word."
"Just because you were friends once doesn't mean he's not a bully, Izu-kun." Mei said, then continued more quietly. "It also doesn't mean you deserved it."
Izuku's hands stuttored to a stop from where he'd been gently patting the washcloth to his chest, "What?"
"You don't deserve the way he treats you, Izu-kun." Mei said. "What's his excuse? That you don't have a quirk? Not your fault! Try again!"
"Um…," Izuku thought for a moment, "until about a year ago, I still wanted to be a hero despite that?"
"Not a crime." Mei said. "Tons of kids want to be heroes! Try again!"
Izuku was starting to smile in spite of himself, "I kept complimenting his quirk, which he somehow interpreted as me thinking I was better than him?"
"...I'm not even gonna try, this guy's an idiot. Next!"
Izuku laughed, "Um...I kept following him around like a lost puppy?"
"Anyone would be lucky to have your brilliant mind behind them." Mei said. "Any other complaints?"
Izuku hesitated. He knew that it'd probably make Mei laugh, but it felt almost blasphemous to say, "He's a dick?"
"Ding! Ding! Ding!" Mei cackled. "We have a winner! For real, though, Izu-kun, that guy is a jerk and if he ever comes to me for babies I'll...ugh, I'll..."
Izuku wasn't sure he actually wanted to know, "You'll what?"
"I'll use cheap materials!" Mei blurted. "No, I can't do that, my babies deserve only the best. Ugh, I'll figure it out, but it won't be pretty!"
Izuku laughed, "Thanks, Mei, that means a lot."
"So, are you feeling any better?"
Izuku shrugged as he spread burn cream on his chest. It was definitely going to scar, "I don't know. I just wish he hadn't taken it so personally, you know? I wasn't even trying to get into the hero course!"
Izuku's sadness had slowly been pushed away by Mei's enthusiasm, and it was quickly being replaced by something he wasn't used to letting himself feel. Anger.
"Couldn't he just let me have this one thing without ruining it?" Izuku ranted. "I mean, he already made sure I knew my last dream was a big fat pile of nothing, so couldn't he just be happy with that? Noooo! He has to ruin my new one too!"
"Then don't let him!" Mei said. "It's your dream, not his, so that bully doesn't get any say. You're gonna be an amazing support analyst, Izu-kun, and he can't do a thing about it."
Izuku finished wrapping the bandages around his chest and grabbed the phone as he headed to his room to pick out a t-shirt, "I don't know. It feels like he can."
"I know…" Mei said. "But, hey! Now you have me, and we're friends, and I'm not gonna let you give up! We're gonna take UA by storm and that guy is gonna regret ever hurting you, ok?"
Izuku chucked, "Ok."
"Good." Mei said resolutely. "Now, did you find anything else out about that jet quirk from the exam? My hover-boot babies are having problems staying in the air…"
Chapter 9: KatsukiSummary:
Izuku stands up for himself.
Chapter Text
Izuku did his best to stare straight ahead and not give into the temptation to hunch his shoulders in an attempt to make himself a smaller target. As he predicted, the news that he got into UA had spread like wildfire since yesterday, though Izuku didn't know if that was Katsuki's fault or the principal's. The moment he'd arrived, Izuku had felt dozens of eyes on him and even now after half a day, his classmates just wouldn't stop staring. Some seemed angry, like Katsuki, but most simply thought he was lying for attention.
"Worthless Deku. He's just gonna drag UA down."
"Do you actually think he got in? Someone in my science class said it'd be possible to forge an acceptance letter if you were stupid enough to try."
"Even if he did get in, it's not like he's gonna stay there, right? UA is for the best and the brightest, so I bet they'll expel Deku on the first day."
Izuku actually kind of wished they'd actually say what they wanted to his face instead of whispering it as he walked by. It wasn't like they didn't know he could hear him, so really, it'd just be easier if they were upfront about it, if only so Izuku didn't have to feign ignorance. Maybe part of the reason Mei was so easy to be friends with was because she was so upfront about things. She might have a weird way of saying things, but Izuku was almost certain that she'd never lie to him, even to spare his feelings. If he asked her, she'd most likely say something about incorrect data making for bad inventions, but at least Izuku could trust her. Probably.
Izuku sighed in relief as he walked out the front doors, grateful to finally be away from his classmates. It was only a couple more days until the end of the school year, and then he'd start UA with Mei, so he could handle it until then. He could handle it. He'd already gone through so much worse.
He didn't run into any hero fights on his way home, so maybe he wasn't paying as much attention to his surroundings as he should have been and it came as a surprise to him when he turned a corner only to see Katsuki leaning against the wall, backed by two of his cronies. When Katsuki saw him, his eyes narrowed, but he didn't explode. Izuku froze momentarily before forcing himself to relax. It wasn't his fault that Katsuki was mean, he just had to keep reminding himself of that.
Katsuki pushed himself off the wall and glowered at Izuku, "Where the fuck did you go yesterday, you damn nerd?"
Izuku did his best to channel his inner Mei as he responded, "I went home, Katsuki. That tends to happen after one gets cornered behind the school, but of course, you wouldn't know a thing about that, would you?"
He was prepared to dart away the moment Katsuki's cronies gave him an opening, but they were flanking him on either side and Katsuki himself was blocking his way forward. Izuku had been expecting him to explode at his last comment, but to his surprise, Katuski was quiet. It was terrifying. Izuku knew how to deal with a screaming Katuski, he even knew how to deal with an exploding Katsuki, even if that almost always ended up with him getting hurt, but this? This was new.
It wasn't that Katsuki wasn't angry, but that anger was simmering beneath the surface in a type of cold rage and some other emotion Izuku couldn't place. Maybe confusion? Was Katsuki confused about Izuku talking back to him? Or maybe he didn't understand why he'd gone home yesterday? There wasn't much point in thinking about it right now, because ultimately, it didn't matter. What mattered was that Izuku got away from here before he got hurt again.
"Well," Izuku forced a wobbly smile onto his face, trying his best to imitate Mei's confidence, "um, if that's all you wanted to ask me, then we should all probably be getting home."
Katsuki looked at him intensely for a moment before scoffing, "So, are you some sort of shitty inventor now or something?"
It took Izuku a moment to realize that Katsuki was talking about the support course. Of course, he'd made the same assumption that Izuku had at first, but he didn't really know if it was smart to let Katsuki know anything more than he had to about his new dream, "What's it to you? You're going to be a hero, Katsuki, I'm not. Isn't that good enough for you?"
"I told you not to apply!" Katsuki growled.
Izuku felt a swell of anger and recognized the feeling from his phone call with Mei yesterday. It wasn't his fault that Katsuki was a jerk, so it wasn't his responsibility to avoid setting him off, "I'm not one of your cronies, Katsuki. You don't control me."
A few small explosions popped in Katsuki's hand, but instead of being afraid, all Izuku could think about was the fact that Mei had apparently accidentally blown up her phone at least once. Hope mingled itself with the anger. Maybe if he hung around her enough, explosions would take on a different meaning. Maybe eventually, he'd come to associate them with friendship and acceptance, rather than disappointment and pain.
Izuku squared his shoulders, "Katsuki…"
"What the fuck is up with that, Deku?" Katsuki inturrupted. "Why the hell are you calling me Katsuki all of a sudden? I thought you were still using that stupid nickname."
Izuku took a step back. For some reason, he hadn't realized that Katsuki would even notice the change. He was just a pebble on the side of Katsuki's road to greatness, so what did it even matter what Izuku called him? But apparently, nothing that Katuski did made sense. He was angry when Izuku called him Kacchan, and he was angry when he didn't. There was no way for Izuku to win, and honestly, he was sick of trying.
"People have nicknames for their friends, Katsuki." Izuku said lowly. "And we're not friends anymore."
Katsuki glared at him, but Izuku held his ground. He wasn't going to look away first. He wasn't going to let Katsuki win this one. Eventually, Katsuki scoffed and stepped aside, "Whatever, Deku. Like I care what you do."
Izuku gripped the straps of his backpack and walked past him, tense as he anticipated an attack from behind. Katsuki, however, seemed just as tense. He might be pretending like he didn't care and that was why he was letting this go, but Izuku knew the truth. He had won. It filled him with an unfamiliar sense of victory and accomplishment that he'd only ever experienced when analyzing or hacking. It gave him the confidence to stop walking a few steps past Katsuki and turn around. Maybe it was petty and more than a little stupid, but Izuku wanted the last word.
"Oh, and Katsuki?" Izuku smiled slightly as they made direct eye contact. "I'm not going to be a shitty inventor. I'm going to be a shitty analyst. Turns out, some people actually like my creepy stalker notebooks." He turned and started walking away, promising himself that he'd have a panic attack when he got home, "See you at UA, Katsuki!"
Katsuki didn't follow him.
Chapter 10: ClassroomSummary:
Izuku's first day at UA high school.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Izuku tugged at the knot of his tie again, trying to get it to vaguely resemble a triangle at the very least, and tried to ignore Katsuki, who was glaring at him from the other end of the train. It was just his luck that they'd left at the same time and ended up in the same car, but from the map of UA he'd been sent alongside his acceptance letter, the support classes were in an entirely different part of the building than the hero courses, so they would have to head in separate directions almost as soon as they arrived and then he could meet up with Mei. Easy as pie.
Even though he'd already been there for the entrance exams, walking into UA as a student was an overwhelming experience. He hadn't even realized he'd stopped just outside the door until Katsuki roughly shoulder-checked him, knocking him over the threshold.
"Stay out of my way, Deku."
Izuku instinctively tensed, wondering if Katsuki had finally had enough of his new attitude and he was actually going to die before classes even started, but Katsuki just walked away, not even sparing Izuku a backward glance as he headed toward the hero course. He supposed that even Katsuki wasn't over confident enough to attack him in the halls of the best hero school in Japan, where a pro hero could walk around the corner at any minute. Still, Izuku would have to start leaving earlier if he wanted to avoid being jumped outside the gates.
As soon as Katsuki was finally out of sight, Izuku let out a breath of relief and walked in the opposite direction, relying on the map he'd memorized to find his way to class 1-F. The school was a little like a maze and Izuku wondered how much of that was intentional. It must make it more difficult for villains to find their way around if they ever got inside, or maybe Nedzu had just remodeled the school this way to get some petty revenge on humans and let them know what running a maze felt like. Honestly, it was probably both. Eventually, Izuku found the correct hallway and was met with an armful of Mei as soon as he turned the corner.
"Why are our teacher's so cruel, Izu-kun?!" Mei sobbed into his shoulder.
Izuku's mind started racing. Were the teachers here going to be like the ones at Aldera? He'd just assumed that they'd be kinder because they were pro-heroes and were supposed to save people, but what if they were just as bad? No, they'd be worse because they had more training.
Before his brain could even fully process those thoughts, Mei started speaking again, "They locked the lab and won't let us in until the teacher gets here! Why, Izu-kun! I need to make my babies!"
Izuku practically melted in relief. Their teachers weren't actually cruel. It was just Mei being Mei. Not that her outrage didn't make sense! It just wasn't as objectively bad as what Izuku had been thinking! The lab being locked might be an inconvenience, but it wouldn't feel like the end of the world to anyone else besides her.
"Mei, it's the first day." Izuku reminded her gently, "And don't pretend that you wouldn't just blow something up if you were allowed in right now."
"It's part of my process, Izu-kun!" Mei insisted. "You can't have success without a little failure!"
"Maybe so," Izuku said patiently, "but it still makes sense for them to want to supervise us until they know we can handle ourselves."
She pouted at that, but relented and pulled him by the wrist to sit on the hallway floor next to a few other kids who must be their future classmates. They'd been staring, something Izuku was sure he'd get more used to the longer he hung out with Mei, but they quickly looked away when they noticed him glancing their way.
Mei pulled out a sketchbook and started sketching out diagrams for her latest invention while Izuku immediately took advantage of the time to analyze their classmates' quirks, or at least those that were obvious from a glance, which surprisingly wasn't that many. There were only two students with obvious mutations and the rest looked normal, but Izuku supposed that less obvious mutations, like the crosshairs in Mei's eyes, might not be easy to see unless he actually had a conversation with them and had an opportunity to get up close and personal. Of the two with mutation quirks, one had a mutation similar to Gang Orca but with head of a great white shark rather than a killer whale, and the other had large pointed ears and a bald head, though Izuku didn't know if the baldness was quirk related or a stylistic choice. Wait a second, he didn't have eyebrows either, which meant that it was most likely due to his quirk.
"Izu-kun, you're muttering again." Mei said distractedly.
Izuku jolted and realized that the kid with the pointed ears was blushing and the rest of the class was looking at him nervously.
"Oh…" Izuku smiled awkwardly at the kid, "S-sorry. I'm, um, trying to be more aware of when I'm doing that. But I would be interested, if you want to tell me!"
The kid looked like he really didn't, but also didn't know how to say no, "Um...I just have alopecia. I don't think it's linked to my quirk, but it might be, since a couple other people in my family have it too, and we all have similar quirks..."
He trailed off and as much as Izuku wanted to ask what his quirk was, he didn't want their classmates to think he was creepy. Actually, it was probably too late for that, since the rest of the students in the hallway already seemed to be avoiding him and Mei. Still, the kid probably didn't feel comfortable telling Izuku his quirk, so he shouldn't press the issue. It would most likely come up eventually anyway, since most classes shared their name and quirk on the first day, something that he wasn't looking forward to at all. At least he wouldn't lose any friends when it came out that he was quirkless.
"Izu-kun," Mei asked suddenly, "did you see that Kamui Wood's fight yesterday?"
Izuku nodded eagerly, grateful for the distraction "It was against that tortoise villain, right?"
"Yep!" Mei confirmed. "So, what did you think?"
He thought for a moment, "Well, it wasn't a good matchup, at least not with how the two currently fight. Kamui's strengths are speed and capture, so Shell-Shock's natural slowness put him at a huge disadvantage. It could have gone a lot differently though. His shell is hard enough that physical attacks are useless against it, not that that would have helped against Kamui's lacquered chain prison, but if he had thought to use his shell as a bludgeoning weapon, he probably could have broken out of even that trap fairly easily One of Kamui's major weaknesses is how soft his wood is, since it has to grow so fast."
"Hmm," Mei grinned and wrote something down, "what do you think of turtle-shell armor?"
Izuku grimaced and shook his head, "Too heavy. There's a reason why tortoises are so slow….Turtles, however, can move pretty quickly in water, so the idea might be more practical for a water-combat hero like Selkie."
"And if there are air chambers to help with buoyancy, the armor won't sink even if it's heavy!" Mei brainstormed happily. She scribbled out some of the things she'd already written down and turned to a new page of her sketchbook. .
They spent the rest of their wait discussing various hero fights Izuku had seen that week and discussing how to mimic the strengths or cover their weaknesses of both the heroes and villains. Izuku was vaguely aware of their classmates discretely edging away from them, but he coudln't bring himself to care. Katsuki and their old classmates had already made it wonderfully clear how creepy his notebooks were, but Izuku was at UA to become the best analyst he could be, so he wasn't about to let some judgemental classmates hold him back. He was honestly just lucky that Mei had sat next to him at the exams. He probably still would have met her, since they were in the same class and everything, but he would have been about a thousand times more nervous.
The bell rang right as Powerloader rounded the corner. Mei immediately shoved her sketchbook into Izuku's hands and jumped to her feet, running up to their new homeroom teacher so quickly that she almost ran into him, "Are you gonna open the lab now? Can we get straight to work? When can I start making my babies?"
Powerloader took a step back in shock, but then sighed in resignation, making Izuku giggle softly. He must have gotten a taste of Mei's antics during the invention practical, which must have been a total nightmare because he knew for a fact that Mei had caused at least one explosion during the test. Poor guy.
"Hatsume, please calm down." Powerloader pleaded. "And yes, we'll be going in the room in a few minutes, but I have some things to explain first."
Mei looked like she was about to argue, so Izuku stood up and tugged on her arm, "Come on, just be patient a little longer, ok Mei-chan?"
Mei pouted and plopped down on the floor again, "Ok, but if he takes too long, I'm picking the lock, ok?"
Powerloader already looked done, "It's an electronic lock. You can't get in without a passcode."
"I'll just have Izu-kun hack it then."
"It'll take longer to hack the keypad than to listen to Powerloader." Izuku turned to their teacher. "I'm sorry about her, she's just been really looking forward to this."
"It's fine." Powerloader sighed. "Ok, so for the rest of you, thanks for your patience. You all know me from the entrance exam, but I'll go ahead and introduce myself again anyway. I'm Powerloader, your homeroom teacher, and I am also the head of the support department here at UA. Yes, this includes all three emphases, though design and analysis each have a teacher that has responsibility for those students specifically."
"Who are they?" A girl with brown curly hair asked.
"Midnight's in charge of the design track." Izuku said. He remembered that much from their brief conversation as they were taking him to Nedzu's office. "As for analysis, I'm not quite sure, but I'm pretty sure it's Nedzu himself, right?"
"I feel sorry for whoever's in the analysis track." The kid with the shark head shivered. "I've heard Nedzu's a total monster."
Izuku frowned. He hadn't really talked to Nedzu that much, since he'd been more focused on trying to hack UA, but from their brief interaction, he hadn't seemed like a monster at all. If anything, he was just looking for some entertainment, since being so intelligent meant he got bored more quickly. He had heard that Nedzu could be a little scary, but so far, Izuku didn't see any reason to be afraid of him.
"Can everyone just shut up so we can get this over with and get into the lab?" Mei complained loudly.
Powerloader cleared his throat, "Um, yes, of course. I'm sure you remember that we asked each of you what tools and materials you wanted, correct? Well, we've included those items in your personalized workstations. When you enter the lab, find the table with the tools you ordered. There's also a nameplate on each desk to make it easier and prevent confusion. We have to go to the opening ceremony in twenty minutes, but that time is yours to get familiar with the space and set up your station the way you like it. You've all already passed the lab safety test, but please be aware that if you are caught engaging in unsafe lab procedures, you will receive detention and a ban from the lab until you have demonstrated that you are willing to follow the rules.
Powerloader looked at Mei as he said that last part and Izuku had to hold back a laugh. Mei would never do anything to jeopardize her lab access. She would, however, bend the rules as far as they could go and use every loophole to her advantage and Izuku would probably get dragged into helping her. So maybe the entrance exam hadn't been quite long enough for Powerloader to get to know her particular brand of idiosyncrasies after all. Oh well, he'd figure her out eventually.
Powerloader entered the access code and Mei rushed past him the second the door was open while Izuku followed with the rest of the class at a more sedate pace. The lab was large, with about ten large workbenches that acted as desks. Support classes tended to be a little smaller than the average class because of the space and supervision needed, but Izuku didn't mind having fewer classmates. It just meant that there were fewer people to make fun of him.
Mei was already elbows deep in her new tools, practically drooling as she pulled them from their boxes and started testing them out. Izuku simply chuckled and left her to it, since she probably wouldn't hear him if he started talking to her now anyway, and started looking for his own workspace. He had the feeling that most of his classmates were finding their tables primarily based on the unique tools they'd requested, but Izuku hadn't really known what to ask for. He was an analyst, not an inventor, so all he really needed was a computer with internet access and maybe some notebooks. He'd said as much in the request forms, but made sure to tell them that he already had his laptop and that he was more than used to buying his own notebooks, so they didn't have to go out of their way for him.
Which meant that Izuku was looking for a mostly empty workbench. He walked around the room, watching as some of his classmates started finding their assigned areas, but every single one of the tables he could see was cluttered with tools and boxes. Maybe they'd just had too much stuff and had put some boxes on his table to keep them off the floor? That'd make sense. It wasn't as though Izuku needed a lot of space to do his thing anyway, since he was used to doing it running down the street while chasing hero fights. He was just glad to be useful, even if that usefulness was just lending some much-needed table space.
So that meant that he'd have to rely on the little nameplates. He didn't want to bother anyone, so he went over to Mei's table so he knew what the nameplates looked like, since she wouldn't notice him and if she did, she wouldn't care. They were actually really nice, not that he expected anything less than the best from UA, but they each looked like engraved brass and had been screwed onto the table so they wouldn't fall off even if there were a strong breeze or, in Mei's case, an explosion. That was probably smart.
Izuku walked around the room again, checking the nameplates on each of the tables that didn't have someone there already, only to come up empty. Powerloader had said Izuku was in class 1-F, hadn't he? Had they changed his assignment at the last minute? What if they'd sent him an email and Izuku had missed it? What if they had just decided that he didn't need a desk? What if they'd decided to not let him into UA after all?
Izuku shook his head and forced himself to take a deep breath. If they had decided to rescind his acceptance, the student ID they'd sent him wouldn't have let him pass the gate this morning. So he was still a student of UA and didn't have to worry about that, but he still had to find his desk. Maybe he should ask Powerloader? But he didn't want to bother him and what if he realized how stupid Izuku was when he realized he couldn't even find his own desk and decided to expel him on the spot? It wouldn't hurt to do one more walk around the room and look at all the nametags again, right? Maybe he'd just missed something, maybe….
"Who the fuck is Izuku Midoirya and why does he need a whole-ass room?"
Izuku whirled around to look at the girl with brown curls, which now that he was thinking about it looked a lot like wire, could that be her quirk? No, he couldn't get distracted by quirks right now! Anyway, she was the one who'd called out and gotten his attention. Actually, she'd gotten the attention of the whole class. Even Mei was looking over at her...wait, did she say room?
Izuku practically ran over to where the girl was gesturing to a door that was marked with the same nameplate as each of the desks, and sure enough, that was his name engraved on the metal. Izuku pushed past the girl, realizing too late that that was probably really rude, and rushed into the room, his room. The lights were off, but the room was illuminated by at least five monitors that Izuku could see, one of which was a giant flatscreen that was mounted to the wall above the desk. There was a giant bookshelf against one of the sidewalls that was filled with notebooks and Izuku's fingers twitched as he thought about filling all of them.
He heard a whistle behind him, but couldn't pull his eyes away from the set up as Mei came up to stand beside him, "Wow, Hacker-kun, UA doesn't do anything halfway, do they?"
"Please tell me I'm not dreaming, Mei-chan." Izuku said breathlessly. "I didn't even request any of this!"
"Yeah, sorry about that, Nedzu went a little overboard."
Izuku turned to see Powerloader leaning against the doorframe as the other students either crowded around him or looked in the windows that Izuku hadn't noticed that looked into the rest of the lab. Powerloader was smiling slightly, though it could have been in embarrassment or amusement at Izuku's reaction.
"Everyone, this is Izuku Midoriya, the only first year in the analysis track and Nedzu's personal student." Powerloader introduced. "It's been so long since Nedzu has had an analysis student that he got a little too excited and insisted on designing your workspace himself. This used to be a testing room, there are a few others on either side of you, but this way you won't be distracted by the noise of the lab or worried about lab accidents damaging your computers."
Powerloader shot a pointed look at Mei, who ignored him in favor of grabbing Izuku's arm and jumping up and down, "This is awesome, Izu-kun! Just imagine everything you'll be able to do with all these hacking babies!"
Izuku nodded, then remembered his manners and bowed to Powerloader, "Thank you! I'll do my best to put it to good use!"
Powerloader nodded and smiled as he left. Mei gave his arm a reassuring squeeze before running back out of the room to her own workspace and Izuku noted with relief that he had a clear view of her desk from his windows. He didn't know why that was so reassuring, but it was probably because she was his only friend and he didn't want to feel alone again. The other students each looked at Izuku curiously before they too turned back to their own workspaces and he hoped that they wouldn't find him quite as creepy as they had before, now that they had a wall separating them and knew that he was supposed to be analyzing everything.
Izuku reverently sat down at the desk and started to familiarize himself with the computers. He had a feeling this was going to be a good year.
Notes:
You got a longer chapter this week to make up for the shorter one last time! Actually, it just didn't feel right to try to cut this one into two, so...whatever, just ignore that.
I try to limit the use of OCs in my fanfiction, but sometimes they are necessary, like in this story since canon doesn't tell us anything about the other support students. The three that were introduced here are actually inspired by background characters from the sports festival arc, though, so there's that. I'll probably draw them eventually and give you a visual when I get around to giving you their names.