Yeah, I definitely should've taken a different path to school.
"Midoriya Izuku!"
"Hey, it's the winner of the U.A. sports festival!"
"I saw that kid on TV!"
"Great job!"
And after that it got even worse because someone started clapping and everyone else in the train car followed, leaving Izuku standing awkwardly in the middle.
The ride to school seemed to take an eternity, but finally, Izuku made it to U.A., still stiff from the encounters. When Izuku made it to the 1-A classroom and sat down, Mineta leaned forward in his seat with wide eyes and a curious grin.
"How was your post-festival experience, number one?"
Izuku shook his head, "Petrifying."
"I'd expect that," Kaminari laughed, "Even some of us who got eliminated early got recognized. You're basically a celebrity now."
"Morning, everyone," Aizawa stepped into the classroom and everyone returned to their seats.
"Today, we'll be picking hero names. This is related to the hero drafting program, where you'll be interning with pro heroes for a week. Based on your performance in the sports festival, some of you got offers from agencies," the teacher turned on the screen, "Here are the total offers 1-A received."
Izuku gasped.
He had the highest amount of offers, with well over three thousand.
Bakugo's offers were in the high two thousand range.
Todoroki, despite only making it to the quarterfinals, had the third highest of around one thousand -- much higher than Tokoyami and Iida, who were the actual third-place winners.
"Woah!!! Look at you!" Mineta leaned forward and screeched in Izuku's ear.
Izuku watched as Bakugo tensed, but thankfully, there was no murderous intent.
Then, Midnight came into the classroom and 1-A started choosing their hero names. From Asui's name of "Froppy" to Bakugo's rejected name of "Explosion Murder King," everyone's choices were exactly as Izuku expected, which gave him a warm sense of familiarity.
However, that familiarity soon vanished as he received his offer list. It was multiple pages long, with the names of agencies sprawled across the sheets of paper.
"Geez, that's a lot," Kaminari peeked over Izuku's shoulder, "Do you have an agency in mind?"
"Well, there was one, but..." Izuku muttered as he skipped to the agencies that started with G. His eyebrows scrunched together when he realized that Gran Torino's agency wasn't on the list. "I didn't get an offer from there."
"Hey, that's ok!" Uraraka comforted, "You had thousands of offers! I'm sure you'll find one that you like!"
"But now that I don't know where to go, how should I even start?" Izuku flipped to a random page and sighed.
"Dude, you're overthinking this," Kaminari said, "Just pick an agency with a hero that you like and go for it."
"I guess..." Izuku said as he skimmed over the page. But right when he was about to return to the front, something caught his eye.
"Wait... This can't be..."
"What is it?" Uraraka asked curiously.
Memories resurfaced, and ideas that only briefly crossed his mind since he time traveled -- ideas that seemed so far-fetched that Izuku had dismissed them immediately -- suddenly felt as if they were in reach.
He received an offer from the Nighteye Agency.
•••
"Young Midoriya, I need to talk to you," Muscular All Might came to Izuku in the hallway the next day during lunch.
Next to Izuku, Uraraka waved and went into the cafeteria with Asui, "Well, I'll see you later then, Deku!"
"What do you want to talk to me about, All Might?" Izuku asked as he followed his teacher to the office.
"It's about the Hero Agency Internships."
Izuku's mood dropped. He was expecting this moment to come.
When the two made it to the empty meeting room, All Might sat down and returned to his skinny form.
"Young Midoriya, out of all of the offers that you got, why did you have to choose Sir Nighteye?"
"I don't really see why not. He can improve my prediction and fighting skills."
"He -- " All Might leaned back into his seat, trying to find the right words to say, "I'm sure you know from your last life that Nighteye and I aren't exactly on good terms, especially after I told him that I chose you as my successor, instead of..."
"Instead of Togata? I know."
All Might sighed and looked down, "I don't know why Nighteye wants you to study at his agency. Perhaps he wants to prove me wrong about my choice? I'm just here to warn you, young Midoriya. Simply put, Sir Nighteye hates me right now, so you need to think twice about going there for the internship."
"It's ok, All Might," Izuku shook his head and smiled, "In my last life, he did want to test my worthiness, but it wasn't because he hated you. And for this internship week, he didn't give me an offer. So if he actually wanted to prove you wrong... Trust me, my previous performance at the sports festival would've made me look a lot worse."
"Really? But why did Nighteye offer you an internship this time? To my knowledge, he rarely does student internships."
"That's what I'm going to find out."
The hero nodded, then asked, "Who did you do your internship with last time, then?"
"Gran Torino."
"..."
"..."
"Are you for real? Gran Torino?"
"Yep."
"... Have fun at Sir Nighteye's."
•••
It was the morning of the first day of internship week, and the warm breeze carried around the sounds of cars and pedestrians. Izuku held his hero costume case in front of the office-building-like agency.
He took a deep breath, then stepped through the doors. He wasn't sure why Sir Nighteye offered him to intern here, but the thought of making the eccentric hero laugh -- an unspoken requirement to gain Sir's favor -- absolutely terrified Izuku.
But what terrified him more was the fact that he would be facing someone whose death he could influence.
"Hey there!" The young woman with dark blue hair, light blue skin, and cheerful yellow eyes -- Bubble Girl -- called to Izuku as he walked into the building.
"Good morning," Izuku dipped his head with a smile. He hadn't seen Sir Nighteye's sidekick in a very long time.
"You must be the new intern, Midoriya Izuku. Sir's waiting in his office. Let me take you there."
He followed her to the hero's work office and waited nervously as she knocked on the door.
"Come in," Sir's muffled but stern voice said.
Izuku gulped.
Bubble Girl opened the door, and Sir Nighteye came into view.
There he was, in his plain, light gray suit, with his red dotted tie and golden-rimmed glasses, sitting behind an office desk. His cold glare felt like a sword that seemed to slice Izuku into pieces.
"Sir Nighteye," Izuku's voice was an octave higher than he wanted it to be. He glanced sideways and froze as he saw the tickle-torture machine backed up against the wall.
Bubble Girl must've seen it, too, because she quickly dismissed herself, closed the door, and left a frozen Izuku by himself in the hero's office.
"Midoriya Izuku," Sir Nighteye's stone-hard voice sliced through the air, "We finally meet."
"You wanted to see me?" Izuku asked, pulling his attention away from the tickle-torture machine and his panicked search for a joke. He knew he couldn't be funny on command, so he just gave up.
"Well, you won the sports festival."
"I feel like it's more than that," Izuku said in the most respectful voice he could muster.
"Then why did you, with so many offers, choose the inconspicuous Nighteye Agency?"
"You were the number one hero's sidekick."
The hero raised an eyebrow, "I feel like it's more than that."
Silence fell upon the room for a while and both of them knew that their choice to meet each other went beyond the internship's intended purpose.
Izuku sighed.
"I do have stuff I need to tell you, Sir. But before I do, may I know why you offered me an internship?"
"Fine," Sir Nighteye stood up from his seat and walked towards Izuku, "you see, when All Might told me that you would be his successor, I didn't approve of his choice. After the sports festival... I wanted to meet you and see for myself."
Izuku tried to piece everything together. It seemed like Nighteye did in fact want to test Izuku's worthiness just like last time, but something that Izuku did during the sports festival prompted Nighteye to take the extra step of offering an internship.
"My sports festival performance. Did you see it in a good way or bad way?" Izuku asked.
"That's too many questions with no humor. I'm afraid I will not be answering."
"Wait, what?"
"Right now, let's forget our whatever motives," Sir Nighteye grabbed Izuku by the shoulders and seemed to stare into his soul, "I'm going to see if you're a worthy successor, and you're going to prove to me that you are."
"How am I going to do that?"
Izuku knew exactly how he was going to do that.
"You're going to take this away from me," the hero reached into his pocket and pulled out a stamp.
"If that's what it takes," Izuku set down his hero costume case near the wall and walked towards the center of the office. Sir Nighteye stood a couple of feet away, still holding the stamp.
"I'm ready," Izuku said, and the green blaze of his quirk burst into life.
But before the fight even started, it came to an end.