Not powerless

Chapter 25: Break in

The press were still camped outside the front gates like an enemy force during a siege. Curious, Izuku decided to swing by and see what it was like. The shouted questions were audible well before he saw the assembled hordes before the gates. Anyone in a UA uniform, regardless of what course they were in, was getting hounded. All of them were asking about All Might. In his Sight, they were like a writhing mass of desperation and greed. Strangely enough, there was also a hint of malevolence among them, which Izuku was concerned by but then he saw Bakugo being accosted by a journalist.

Just this once, Izuku wouldn’t hold the anger against him, especially when they recognised him from Bakugo’s years as a child model. Mentioning that was even more of a trigger than Izuku had been in middle school.

The press seemed even more vehement today than they had been before, and the students were barely able to get through. Iida’s loud scolding did nothing to them. Izuku stepped to the side, letting Aizawa storm past him. On the outside he still looked incredibly bored and tired, but inside he was seething. His bad mood didn’t die down when he returned to the classroom.

“I don’t have any announcements to make so home room today will be a free period. Do homework, talk amongst yourselves, I don’t care so long as you don’t wake me up. The class reps are in charge.”

Aizawa then proceeded to tuck himself into his sleeping bag, and unlike the previous times he did this, he actually went to sleep. There was a moment where the class waited to see if anything else was going to happen, but quiet conversations started up as people relaxed.

“He is our teacher so I will follow his instructions, but I don’t know how appropriate it is for him to be sleeping on the job,” Iida said.

“Lighten up Iida,” Uraraka said, “it’s only home room. He always looks really tired so if this is how he catches up on sleep, then that’s good.”

“Eraserhead is most active at night so he probably doesn’t have the best regular sleep schedule,” Izuku pointed out.

“Eraserhead?” Uraraka asked.

“I was a big hero nerd when I was younger,” Izuku said, “Eraserhead doesn’t like the press that much, so I’m sure all the paparazzi outside the gates isn’t doing anything for him.”

“They are quite annoying. We were very nearly late for class because of them.”

“But you’re super fast! You’d have made it no problem!” Uraraka said.

“That would be running in the halls!”

“Speaking of super fast,” Kirishima interjected, leaning over to them, “those engines in your legs seem really familiar dude.”

“Yeah, and the way you talk is so proper too,” Uraraka said.

Iida sighed.

“I had hoped to act normally so nobody would treat me differently,” he said, “but I suppose you saw through me. Do you know the hero Ingenium?”

They all nodded.

“He’s my older brother.”

And suddenly Izuku felt like an idiot because how did he not realise this sooner? Ingenium was a really good hero. He had high approval ratings from the public, and all of the sidekicks who worked under him talked about how good of a commander he was. It made so much sense that Iida would want to follow in his brothers footsteps and become a hero like him, which the boy just finished explaining.