It Takes a Village to Raise a Hero

Chapter Five: Stepping Stones

Warnings: Very brief thoughts of self-harm (not for the purpose of actually hurting one's self, but rather to use as an excuse to get out of something).

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Present Mic ended up being correct about going right back to normal training the day after the exam. The air was more tense than normal as Izuku went through the motions of sparing with Aizawa Monday morning. The man had a constant frown on his face and Izuku didn't know if he had heard of his rocky presenting abilities or if there was something else on his mind.

He considered about just asking what he was thinking about, but the very idea of Aizawa expressing any modicum of disappointment while Izuku was still clinging to Present Mic's assurance that his teacher was proud of him would shatter the careful facade that he had put in place. At the same time, not knowing was an agony that drove him to lose every single spar in the most embarrassing ways possible. He ended two of their matches by tripping over his own feet and taking himself out.

By the time he left, Aizawa was frowning even more and wouldn't even look Izuku in the eye as he dismissed him to head to school.

His strength training with All Might had ended now that the beach was clean and the exam was complete, so on Tuesday, he found himself finally unboxing the weights he had bought just for the occasion and lifting alone in his bedroom after school. No matter how loud he played his music though, he was stuck in his head. Dangerous thoughts of failure and that he should just give up hope now rather than be disappointed floated around his mind. At one point he considered just dropping the weights on his face and claiming he had been injured the day of the exam and had covered it with makeup so that he could make a plea to retake it. Eventually, he decided against it, but only because he wouldn't want to suffer the looks on Aizawa and Midnight's faces if he was caught.

Wednesday morning he was back at the UA campus, this time with Midnight who had somehow gotten his exam model back from Power Loader. He was prepared for her to tear into him about his poor showing, but she only held the staff out to him, smiled a soft smile that Izuku had never seen on her before, and whispered, "I'm honored, Midoriya."

He didn't quite know how to respond to that other than bursting into tears that were a long time coming. In less than a second, the staff was on the ground and her arms were wrapped around him as he cried his way through the horrible tangle of emotions he had been feeling since Sunday afternoon.

"Normally I love it when a man weeps at my feet, but not when it's you, kiddo. What's wrong?" she asked as she brought his head to rest on her chest, high enough to be decent but low enough that it was still Midnight.

"I failed. There's no way I passed my exam and I'll just disappoint you and Aizawa and All Might and my Mom. I did horrible, I just know it and it's all my fault. I should have chosen something more complicated. I should have followed Hatsume's advice about the additions. I shouldn't have even done all of this in the first place! I'm quirkless, what the hell do I know? I'll never be a hero..." his words stuttered and petered out as she gently stroked his hair back from his face and rocked back and forth on her feet.

"I'm confused. Mic talked to me about your presentation and he said you did well. Presenting is sort of his whole motif, so I think he'd know," she said. "Besides, I actually stole Midnight the Staff and brought her out in the field on Monday since you didn't let me steal the one you made with Hatsume two months ago."

Izuku picked his head up to look at her, "Really? How did it perform?"

She chuckled and let him go so that she could pick it back up off the ground from where she had dropped it. "It went really well. You should have seen the look on this one guy's face when I pulled out the knives! And guess what?"