Despite Nezu’s ominous statement, classes for the rest of the week weren’t out of the ordinary. Or at least, they weren’t out of the ordinary for UA. Friday was normal classes and then their heroics lesson was being grilled by Aizawa on everything they knew about improving their quirks. What had they done in the past, what worked, what didn’t work, things like that. For Izuku, it was a matter of remembering the times he’d messed up a spell when casting it for the first time. Thankfully he hadn’t suffered any permanent injuries doing so.
He was surprised when Kirishima invited him to an arcade. Apparently he’d invited a few other people in the class but they all had plans. Having never been to an arcade before, Izuku didn’t know what to expect, and when the other boy found that out, he took it as his own personal mission to show him every possible thing there was to do. It was quite fun, and they both had a good time. Nezu didn’t ask why he came home with a big smile on his face. Was this what having friends was like?
If it was, Izuku was definitely a fan.
The weekend passed by quickly with him juggling messages from both Kirishima and Kaminari. Apparently both boys were big texters and had no qualms with blowing up his phone for hours if he didn’t respond. It was a little overwhelming but neither of them seemed to mind if he took a while to actually reply to them. When he asked, Kirishima said sometimes he needed to put his thoughts somewhere and he knew that Izuku was probably busy when he didn’t respond. Kaminari was simply surprised he hadn’t been muted already.
On Monday, Izuku was confused when the rest of the class seemed to be later than they had been last week. He leaned forward and spoke to Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, both of whom always arrived early like him.
“Where is everyone?” he asked.
“There’s a lot of reporters by the main entrance so they’re probably being delayed by that,” Yaoyorozu said, “I only got past them because my driver was given access to one of the UA parking lots.”
“Same,” Todoroki said.
Not long after, their classmates started arriving. Some looked ruffled and stories filtered through the room about everyone’s experience dealing with the press.
“I totally panicked!” Uraraka said, “they asked me what All Might’s like as a teacher and my mind just went blank. All I could think of was he’s super muscly!”
Suddenly Izuku was very glad he hadn’t been caught by the press himself. He probably would have been able to hold his tongue and not publicly berate the number one hero, but it would have been a close thing.
“Glad I got here early then,” he said.
“You must have been really early! Even Iida got caught by them!” Kaminari said.
“Why did those people seem so bored? I was simply answering their questions,” Iida grumbled to himself.
“Because they weren’t looking for answers. They just wanted sound bites they could use,” Izuku said, somewhat bitterly.
While he didn’t have an issue with the fame side of heroics, the press were something he didn’t like all that much, or rather he didn’t like the paparazzi. It was partially because of them that his father kept his family a secret in the first place.
The door to the classroom slammed open and Aizawa stormed in. One didn’t need Izuku’s Sight to see the storm clouds over his head, and the class fell silent and rushed to their seats by the time he reached the teachers podium. He glanced over each of them and seemed to find whatever he was looking for, because he nodded and straightened up the papers he was carrying.
“Today you’ll decide something that could affect your entire time here at UA.”
When the class seemed sufficiently nervous, he continued.
“You need to pick a class representative,” he said, “I don’t care how you do it, just make your choice by the end of home room.”
Aizawa then tucked himself into his sleeping bag and passed out, though Izuku could See he wasn’t really sleeping. The class burst into noise, quite a few students wanting the position. Most didn’t even register, except for Mineta, who advocated making the girls skirts shorter. If he continued like that, then Izuku had a feeling he would need to put the fear of god into the teen. Or maybe the fear of Koui, that would probably work just as well.
When the noise didn’t seem to be getting quieter, he grew fed up. He slammed his fist against his desk. Despite only hitting it lightly, magic made the sound seem louder and it carried around the room. All eyes fell on him.
“Everyone wants the role, and we’ve only known each other for a week so there’s no point in debating things because we won’t know if everyone’s being honest. The only way we can do this is to have a vote,” he said.
“But like you said, we’ve only known each other for a short time. How will we know who to vote for?” the frog girl, Asui, asked.
“Yeah and won’t people just vote for themselves?” Kirishima asked.
“No, it’s a great idea!” Iida said, “because whoever does get multiple votes will have proven to the class that they are the best person for the job.”
Yaoyorozu quickly made strips of paper and handed them out. Izuku voted for her simply because he thought she’d be a calming influence on what he could already tell would be a chaotic class. After a few minutes of deliberation, Iida collected all the slips and stood at the teachers podium, counting the votes. He wrote down the scores on the blackboard. Izuku might need to borrow Iida’s glasses because he was sure he saw his name with six votes.
“From this, it looks like Mikumo is our class representative and Yaoyorozu is our vice,” Iida announced.
“The two of you, come to the front of the room,” Aizawa suddenly said, surprising them all.
They walked up to the teachers podium. If Izuku remembered middle school student government right, this was where the newly elected reps gave short acceptance speeches and nominated any other class officers. Honestly, he had no idea what other officers there needed to be. Nobody in their right mind wanted the quirkless kid as a class rep. In fact, the class reps in second year had tried passing a resolution to ban him from the classroom. It was only stopped because things like that could be accessed by the public and would look bad on the school.
“Thank you very much for your votes. I appreciate the support but to be completely honest, I have no idea what goes into being a class rep, or anything to do with student government,” he said.
Beside him, he felt Yaoyorozu’s confidence and growing excitement as he spoke.
“I’d still be willing to do my part, but if it’s alright with the class, I think it would be better if Yaoyorozu was the rep and I was the vice.”
There were a few grumbles but they quickly turned into shows of support and by the time the bell rang, Yaoyorozu was declared the class representative and Izuku her vice. It was still a bit nerve racking, but he would be fine since Yaoyorozu seemed to be so calm about it. They even had lunch together so she could fill him in on what his role was exactly, and how he could best support her.
After lunch was their next heroics lesson. Unlike last Thursday’s high stakes scenario, this was decidedly calmer, but maybe that was just because Aizawa was there to temper Toshinori’s lack of experience.
“Who here has any experience with hand to hand combat? Without their quirk?” Aizawa asked as soon as everyone arrived in their gym uniforms.
Izuku raised his hand, as did Yaoyorozu next to him. Unsurprisingly Bakugo and Todoroki did as well, as well as Ojiro and Shoji. Aizawa made a note of it then handed them over to Toshinori.
“Very good! Today’s lesson we will be focussing on an often overlooked skill for every hero to have: being able to fight without using their quirks!” Toshinori said.
“Why the hell do we need to know that if our quirks can just blast the enemy?” Bakugo interrupted.
“Because there are plenty of times when you’ll need to fight without blowing holes in the side of buildings,” Aizawa glared.
Bakugo looked away and Toshinori continued.
“Indeed. There will be times, like we saw in the battle trials, where quirks may make a situation worse for one reason or another. For example, if I used all of my strength all the time, I think there wouldn’t be building in Japan left standing, so I need to know how to fight without using it too much.”
“But sir, that’s still using your quirk,” Izuku couldn’t help commenting.
“I know, but you understand my point. Thus knowing how to fight with only minimal or no quirk usage is very important,” Toshinori said, “and young Mikumo, if you keep rudely interrupting me, I will-”
“Anyway, as All Might was saying, fighting without your quirk is important,” Aizawa said, completely cutting Toshinori off, “so for now we’re starting with quirkless sparring to get a baseline for your abilities. All Might will now lead you through a warm up.”
“R-right. Yes, of course!” Toshinori said, slightly flustered.
If there was one area that Izuku would never fault his fathers expertise in, it was in how to keep fit. The warm up he led class 1A through was vigorous but thorough, more than enough to keep their bodies limber and hopefully prevent them from injuring themselves through exertion. When they were done, Aizawa walked back over to them.
“Those of you who have experience fighting, move over to the left side of the room. All Might will be supervising you in short spars while I do the same with the rest of the class.”
He then handed a pad over to Toshinori and walked over to the other side of the room, a single glance behind him getting the class to move. When they were all in place, Toshinori explained further.
“We’ll be doing short one on one spars. I will rotate you around different opponents so you’ll get a chance to fight many different people.”
Izuku’s first opponent was Shoji. He got into his ready stance and waited for Toshinori to let them start. There was a short whistle blast and Shoji charged forward. Izuku ducked beneath his outstretched arms, dancing around behind him. Striking quickly at the backs of his knees, he jumped backwards as Shoji swung a strong arm around at him. It was like fighting Tataka in a way.
It was clear from the minute they spent fighting that Shoji’s hand to hand training was in grappling techniques. The one time he managed to get a hold of Izuku, he immediately put him into a pin that only a lucky kick to an unfortunate place let him slip out of.
“I’m so sorry!” Izuku quickly said.
Shoji stood and admirably looked no worse for wear, as though he hadn’t just been kicked in the crotch. They continued on for another minute when Toshinori called for them to change to new partners. Izuku thanked Shoji for the fight and apologised once again for kicking him there.
His next partner was Yaoyorozu who, like Shoji, had a similar specialised training. It was clear from the way she moved, the slight hesitation and correction in her stances, that she favoured weapons over pure hand to hand fighting. She wasn’t bad by any means and she was quick to adapt, but it was still easy for Izuku to slip past her defences and take her down with a few well aimed strikes.
“I had hoped you weren’t as hard to hit as it looked when you were sparring with Shoji,” she said after he helped her up from the ground.
“It’s just the way I was taught,” Izuku said, “my teacher is significantly stronger and faster than I am so I’ve had a lot of practise with evasion.”
“It definitely shows.”
After a few minutes with Yaoyorozu, they swapped again and Izuku ended up with the worst possible partner. Bakugo seemed grumpy that he wasn’t able to use his quirk, but glee from getting to fight was still present. He wasted no time lunging for Izuku as soon as the round started. The right hook was familiar to him even before training with Tataka and he didn’t even need to ride any rhythms to grab and swing the blonde over his shoulder, slamming him into the ground.
The next two minutes were him repeatedly slamming Bakugo to the ground. He dodged around all of his attacks, using his own momentum to throw and counter him. It was very satisfying, partly as revenge for the torment he’d been put through at Bakugo’s hands, but also as his own little punishment for the stunt he’d pulled in the battle trial. The best part was to an outside observer, it looked like he was barely putting any effort in, and that only served to rile Bakugo up even more.
“Fight me properly, damn it!”
“Am I not?”
Why was he getting so angry? Was it because he wasn’t winning, or because it didn’t look like Izuku was trying?
“Fight back you coward!” Bakugo screamed after another counter.
“Why should I? You’re doing all the fighting for me.”
Whatever restraint Bakugo had snapped. A small explosion launched him at Izuku, but he was already moving. The pressure of Bakugo’s movement pushed Izuku backwards. In one fluid motion, he grabbed Bakugo’s wrists and rolled onto his back with the momentum, then drove his foot into his stomach. The kick sent Bakugo flying upside down into the nearby wall. Izuku was back on his feet as Bakugo slid down to the ground, snarling and growling. It might have been scary had he not already faced the fire beast. Before Bakugo could do anything, Toshinori appeared between them.
“Young Bakugo, need I remind you that this is an exercise without the use of quirks,” he said sternly.
“He’s not fighting me properly!”
“On the contrary, young Mikumo is making good use of his opponents momentum. Not every fight will be a straightforward brawl and it will be your job as a hero to think around it.”
“But he’s not even trying!”
“On that point I agree with you,” Toshinori then turned to Izuku, “young Mikumo, this is a lesson. You need to put the effort in or you won’t get anything out of it.”
Izuku raised an eyebrow and didn’t say anything. That was a poor attempt at reprimanding Bakugo, and it was completely undermined by agreeing with him. Toshinori left them to continue their spar. Bakugo’s eyes gleamed, whether from continuing to fight or from being validated by a teacher, he couldn’t tell. Izuku was just resigned. If Toshinori wanted him to put in effort, fine. He’d put in effort.
Bakugo’s movements were strong but far too simple. He charged and a couple of seconds later he was flat on his back, Izuku on top of him holding him down. No matter how much he thrashed, he couldn’t break out of the pin.
“Yield?”
“Never!”
Izuku held him like that for the remaining minute of their sparring time. Like always, Bakugo was a mess of anger and frustration, but the longer he was pinned the more his anxiety built. With ten seconds left, that anxiety turned to desperation. When Toshinori called for them to change partners, Izuku jumped back to avoid the swipe he knew was coming. Bakugo stalked off, but that desperation was still there.
They kept going, and Izuku’s final partner was Ojiro. Before Toshinori could call them to start, Ojiro bowed to him, so Izuku did the same. Then the fight started and Izuku couldn’t help grinning.
This was awesome!
Ojiro moved like a trained fighter, which made so much sense given his hero costume was a martial arts gi. His moves were well practised and confident, and fast enough that Izuku actually had to ride the rhythm of his combat to avoid him. He ducked and pivoted, dancing around Ojiro’s flurry of strikes. It was the closest he’d come to sparring with Tataka this lesson.
After enjoying the dance of their combat for a few minutes, Izuku fought back. He’d duck beneath a strike and counter with a punch. He’d swing out a kick as he leapt to one side. The best part of it all though was that as much as Izuku gave out, Ojiro gave back in return. With his Sight, he Saw the other boy was enjoying this as much as he was.
Unlike everyone else, whose sparring remained in roughly the same place from start to finish, Izuku and Ojiro moved all over their designated square. It was such a rush that neither of them noticed the other spars stopping to watch them. Unfortunately, Ojiro did have some holes in his technique. He probably learned how to fight from formal dojos, and so expected his opponent to counter in more predictable ways based on established martial arts forms. Izuku was not like that. There were quite a few times he got a hit in because Ojiro wasn’t expecting him to move in such an unpredictable way. Izuku pushed him backwards and Ojiro tripped. Likely without thinking about it, Ojiro caught himself on his tail, then like a spring, he pushed himself back up, continuing the motion to flip backwards away from Izuku.
“Yes! Use your tail!”
The extra limb would make it even more like fighting Tataka. He had no idea how much time they had left but in the last two minutes, Ojiro started using his tail. In response, Izuku upped his speed. Their fight turned even more into a dance where only they knew the choreography. It was awesome!
“Mikumo, Ojiro, times up!”
Izuku ground to a halt, because that wasn’t Toshinori’s voice. Aizawa was standing at the edge of their area, somehow looking bored and impressed at the same time. It was only then that they registered their audience. The rest of the class in were in awe, and Toshinori kept opening and closing his mouth like a fish.
“I’ll allow the use of Ojiro’s tail since Mikumo encouraged it. That aside, I’m impressed,” Aizawa said.
“Young Mikumo, where was that effort when you were fighting young Bakugo?” Toshinori asked.
“You mean the effort where he didn’t lay a finger on me, or the effort where I had him pinned for a whole minute?” Mikumo asked with a raised eyebrow.
Toshinori sputtered and Aizawa scrubbed a hand down his face.
“All Might, the rest of the lesson,” he said.
“R-right. Ok class!” Toshinori boomed, likely trying to regain his usual bombastic nature, but all it did was make a few people wince with how loud he was. Izuku even caught the tiny flinch from Todoroki.
“You’ve all had a chance to spar hand to hand with a variety of different partners. It is a skill any hero worth their salt should know. We will continue to build on this, working on different ways to incorporate your quirks and allowing you to develop a fighting style that works for you and is adaptable to many situations.”
“Your homework is to research a pro who mainly fights hand to hand. I want two pages on how they incorporate their quirks into their fighting style, due Friday,” Aizawa said.
“But I wasn’t planning on giving them homework,” Toshinori whispered into Aizawa’s ear.
“They need to be given homework. It’s not as if you have limited time to mark it,” Aizawa said.
He then addressed the class.
“Class dismissed. Get changed and go home.”
Aizawa turned and left without another word. It was almost comical how dumbfounded Toshinori looked for a moment, but then he boomed out another laugh, reiterated what Aizawa said and then zoomed off like that was all part of the plan. Izuku immediately turned to his sparring partner.
“That was awesome Ojiro! You’re an incredible fighter!”
“I’m incredible? Mikumo, I was barely able to touch you. Where did you even learn to move like that?” Ojiro said.
“I need to be good at dodging to avoid being smashed into a wall by my teacher, but don’t sell yourself short. I needed to work hard to dodge your attacks, and it made it harder for me to sneak in a counter, and when you added in your tail it was even better. It’s great how you’ve been able to adapt the martial arts you’ve learned to incorporate an extra limb, and that difference is gonna give you an upper hand when you fight villains!”
Ojiro curled in on himself slightly, literally in that his tail curled around his waist. He wouldn’t meet Izuku’s eyes and there was a small blush on his face. Izuku Saw embarrassment and gratitude in him, which was only made worse when Hagakure bounded over to them.
“See Ojiro! I’ve been telling you this for years!”
She then turned on Izuku.
“I’m so glad you think so too. Ojiro needs more people to tell him how great he is!”
“Hagakure, please stop,” Ojiro said.
They took pity on the boy, who was clearly quite embarrassed. Thankfully most of the class had already went back to the changing rooms. Izuku and Ojiro were able to have quite a nice conversation as they walked back as well. The other boy was shocked to learn that Izuku’s fighting style wasn’t a typical martial art. Tataka had taught him a very mixed style, since he felt that only teaching one or two would be limiting. They ended the day with the promise of future sparring, and Izuku was quite happy. He had one more contact in his phone, got to beat Bakugo in a spar, and Aizawa clearly had no patience for Toshinori’s inexperienced teaching, which was quite amusing to witness.
Things were going well.