It Takes a Village to Raise a Hero

Chapter Eleven: Moving Forward

On Monday, he expected a similar morning to Friday, with Aizawa just watching over him and calling out areas of improvement from the sidelines. He wished it wasn't like that, he knew that it had frustrated Aizawa endlessly to feel so useless, a feeling that Izuku knew all too well.

When he was halfway through his walk from the train to the school, his phone pinged with a text. It was too early for most of his classmates and Shinsou to be up, so he pulled it out instead of ignoring it as he had over the weekend.

That alone was thrilling for him; so many texts that he could ignore them and read pages of messages later. It always left him a bit giddy to read back the bickering of his newfound friends.

This message was from Aizawa, though, and simply read, Change of plans. Meet at Gym Gamma.

Izuku frowned at his phone. He had been training under Aizawa for nearly a year, and the only time he had changed their schedule was to put Midnight in on Wednesdays so he could learn to use the staff.

He did as his teacher instructed but found himself unable to stray his thoughts from how out of character it was. He wondered if it was about what had happened at USJ. Maybe someone snuck in like on Tuesday, he found himself thinking. He shook his head as he passed through the gates to campus, realizing that it wouldn't make sense for him to be called somewhere during a security breach. If anything, Aizawa would probably have told him not to come to school.

Izuku hadn't been to Gym Gamma before, but he had read about it in the orientation paperwork and his own private research. He knew where to go by virtue of having the map of the grounds memorized and all the staring he did out of various windows in the main building. It was larger than Izuku had expected as he pushed open the door.

Inside was Aizawa, just as bundled up in bandages as before, talking to Snipe, and right away, Izuku knew what today's lesson was going to be. He had to hold himself back from sprinting up to them but wasn't able to stop his excited jitters as he shifted from foot to foot and ran his hands up and down his bag straps as he waited to be acknowledged.

"Midoriya," Aizawa called, triggering him to push his feet forward until he was standing at the man's elbow. Always his bad side, the one that had been destroyed by that villain. He didn't know if that elbow would ever actually become a legitimate weakness, but Izuku would cover that side anyway. Just in case.

"Good morning, sir," he greeted, then nodded to their new addition, "Snipe."

"Mornin', Midoriya. I've heard a lot about you from Aizawa here. He's quite proud." Even with the mask, Izuku could read into that slightly teasing tone and the way Aizawa shuffled to know the two were friends.

"Thank you, it's an honor to be meeting you. I've studied your work in the past, and, despite the unfortunate circumstances, it was fascinating to see you in person last Wednesday," Izuku said.

He awkwardly rubbed at his neck, "Yeah, I'm sorry y'all had to deal with all that. You're too young."

Izuku didn't really know how to reply to that, so he just nodded once in agreement.

"Aizawa said you wanted to meet me. You're interested in shootin'?" Snipe asked.

He pushed down the unease that always came with talking or thinking about USJ and smiled, "Yes, sir. I've grown somewhat proficient in close-range combat with knives, bo staff, and adjacent weaponry, but I'd like to expand into long-range as well. I thought you would make a good teacher."

"Well, I'll admit that at least half of what I can do comes from my quirk, but I do have to be able to shoot farther than it allows on occasion. You lookin' to shoot a handgun or a rifle?"