Midoriya groggily opened his eyes and blinked, trying to figure out where he was. Reiko licked his cheek as Midoriya pushed himself up into a sitting position, and blanched when he saw Nezu sitting at his desk, typing away.
"Ah, hello Midoriya, had a nice nap?"
Midoriya was quick to stagger to his feet, clutching Reiko tightly as he tried to apologise while bowing.
Nezu just chuckled, "Don't worry about it. You looked like you needed a nap."
His expression hardened, "Though you have never fallen asleep like this before. Are you okay, Midoriya? Are you getting enough rest at home?"
Midoriya blearly blinked, and nodded. He was getting enough rest, though it was barely enough to keep him functioning throughout the day. But it would be pretty embarrassing to admit that he had drunk spiked water.
His eyes unconsciously trailed to his water bottle, and Nezu caught the motion.
"Oh dear... Do you know who may have done that?" Nezu asked.
Midoriya just shook his head. He didn't want that kid in his foster home to get into trouble. He was one of the nicer ones, and hadn't really bothered Midoriya before. Nezu hopped off his chair, and plucked the bottle out of Midoriya's bag.
"I'll just hand this to Recovery Girl to check if it's dangerous or just a mild sedative. It's rather late now, so I'll just escort you home so you won't get into trouble for taking a nap."
Midoriya was grateful that Nezu had brought that up. If he went home on his own, no doubt he was probably going to get smacked on the head a couple of times for getting home late, since today was a day where he didn't go to the animal rescue shelter.
"Thank... you..."
"Don't worry about it, Midoriya." Nezu grinned, reaching up to pat Midoriya's arm.
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Based on Reiko's description of Midoriya's living conditions, Nezu expected Midoriya's foster parent to be loud, brash, possibly cursing and swearing a lot.
He wasn't expecting for Midoriya to be smacked harshly on the head the second he entered the house.
"How many times have I told you to be back on time?!" His foster mother roared, as Midoriya just stood there, letting her yell at him.
"Ahem." Nezu cleared his throat, gaining the woman's attention, "About that -"
"Excuse me, who are you?" The woman scoffed, "What kind of quirk made you look like that?"
"I should introduce myself. My name's Nezu. I'm the principal of UA, the school that Midoriya currently goes to."
The woman just rolled her eyes dramatically and sighed, "What did Midoriya do this time?"
Nezu raised his eyebrow, "Midoriya didn't do anything, in fact. Someone messed with his drink and he ended up passing out in his class. That's why he came home late."
The woman scoffed, "Seriously?"
She turned to Midoriya, "That's a new one. What other lies are you making up now? First it was classmates destroying your homework, messing with your locker, taking your worksheets, and now spiking your drinks? Can't you come up with something more believable instead of filling people's heads with lies?"
Nezu blanched at how uncaring she seemed to be towards Midoriya. How could he stand to live with someone like that?
He was about to say something when he saw Midoriya signing something behind his back.
"Don't. Please."
"We already did a quick check. His water really was mixed with a mild sedative." Nezu confirmed, biting back his comment about her attitude, "Well, I just came to tell you that he's not in trouble in any way."
"Midoriya, go to your room." The woman ordered, and Midoriya followed almost immediately.
Nezu was about to protest that she treat Midoriya with respect when the door to Midoriya's room closed, and the woman sat down on her chair.
"Don't associate yourself with him. In case you're not aware, he's quirkless. I have no idea how he even managed to get into UA, but he's honestly not going to end up getting anywhere without even a useless quirk. He's also non-responsive, doesn't show any emotions, and is just weird in general. A useless freak, even. He's just going to end up being a disappointment."
Nezu growled internally. He really hated how she just talked down on Midoriya without even seeing what he was capable of, but he also wished to respect Midoriya's wishes and not pick a fight with her. If she was the cause for Midoriya's conditioning to not respond to anything and his complete lack of self esteem, he really needed to get him out of her clutches once and for all.
"I understand." Nezu gave her a fake smile, "Midoriya has, however, been doing excellently in lessons, so I'm positive he will be able to do great things later on. I will say goodbye to my student, and I'll be heading out."
"Good." She nodded.
Nezu made his way towards Midoriya's door, and knocked on it gently.
"Midoriya? It's Nezu."
"He's not allowed to lock the door." The woman called out, "Just open in."
Nezu grimaced. No privacy at all?
He still waited until Midoriya himself opened the door, and judging by how quickly he did so, Midoriya was probably trying to listen to the conversation, and Nezu just smiled gently at the teenager. "Hey, I'll be heading back to UA soon. Just... don't listen to her, okay? You're clearly good at analysis and all your other subjects, and that's important. Just because you're quirkless, doesn't make you a freak, and you're certainly not useless."
Midoriya just stared at him, stunned.
Nezu reached up to pat his hand, "If you ever want to talk about it, you'll know where to find me."
Midoriya nodded, and Nezu shot him a small smile as the teen gently closed the door. He made his way out of the house, before he let out a small groan and dialed Aizawa's number.
"Yes, Principal?"
"How do you take custody of a human child from someone?"
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"Midoriya."
Shinsou, Uraraka, and Iida turned at the sound of Midoriya's name, only to find that Nezu, of all people, was the one to had called out.
Midoriya just got out of his chair and stood up, as Nezu appeared by their table with a huge pile of papers and folders.
"I'll be busy for the next week, so take a look at these villains and see if you can get anything out of them. There's videos, some images, lots of articles, tons of stuff for you to look at."
Midoriya squatted down and collected the huge stack of files and papers from Nezu's paws, and the principal just grinned up at him.
"It's probably not enough to keep you entertained for the entire week, but just take your time with it." Nezu grinned.
Midoriya quietly nodded, and Nezu made his way out of the cafeteria like nothing had happened, ignoring all the 1-A and 1-B students as they watched the exchange in mild shock and fear.
Aizawa and Kan had already told them about Nezu's quirk, High Spec, and for him to actually take an interest in a student and interact with them means that the particular student had probably done something to catch his attention.
Midoriya had never said a word, and through rumours, they had heard that Midoriya was smart, getting through tests and homework without making any mistakes, which was almost a feat in itself as almost no one has done so well before. The only difference between the heroics course and general education was that of the hero lessons, which meant that Midoriya would also be acing their lessons if he were in the hero course.
Also, he seemed to have something around his neck. Probably a choker. No one wanted to question him.
"Hey, Bakugou, is he the one you talked about the other day?" Kirishima gently elbowed Bakugou and asked. The blonde just nodded.
Yaoyorozu shivered. She had no idea who Midoriya was, and to think that both Nezu and Bakugou had acknowledged him....
He might be a troublesome opponent for the Sports Festival.
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"Just who is he?" Yaoyorozu groaned.
"Midoriya?" Asui asked, "You've been stressing about him for some time, kero."
"There's nothing about him that's interesting. There has to be some reason why Nezu has taken him under his wing." Yaoyorozu sighed, "It just doesn't make any sense."
"Tch. Don't underestimate him." Bakugou growled, as he stalked out of the waiting room into the stadium where cheering could be heard from all over the place.
"Damn, this Sports Festival is going to be a riot." Kaminari gasped as he stared at the sheer number of spectators that filled the stadium.
And then Bakugou had to give a small speech since he had gotten the most points in the entrance exams.
"You guys are just stepping stones for my victory. You better give it your all if you even want to stand a chance."
He did manage to find Midoriya's prominent green hair in the crowd of General Education students and sent him a subtle wary glance.
The first event was an obstacle course.
Except that it was not any normal obstacle course. The first part of the obstacle course was a thick forest. And one couldn't just walk or run between the trees, since the ground was, in actuality, waist-height quicksand. It was simply impossible to get through the quicksand fast enough to gain any distance, and the students were forced to either climb the trees and make their way through the forest, or precariously hop along the elongated tree roots in order to pass.
"Alright, Bakugou and Sero seem to be in the lead! Uraraka is doing good too, in fact, most of 1-A seems to be doing well! Ah, some of the 1-B students are struggling, and uh.... Midoriya? From Class 1-C?"
Midoriya was just leaping from tree branch to tree branch, running along like he was just running normally on land.
"What?" Monoma gaped as Midoriya just leapt past him, grabbing the nearest branch with his hands and swinging himself up to the next branch. Monoma himself was borrowing Kendo's quirk to get a firm grip on the trees, and he had snagged Uraraka's without her knowledge, and yet he was still having trouble getting through the forest. And there was this guy who was just jumping off like he had lived in a forest his entire life.
Midoriya easily surpassed Uraraka and Iida, the former who was getting nauseous from the usage of her quirk, and the later not having much stable footing to work with.
Then, Ashido accidentally melted a branch with her acid and fell.
Or she would have fallen, if Midoriya didn't seem to have sensed it beforehand and had lunged at her, wrapping his legs around her chest as he hung from a nearby tree branch.
"Woah! Damn, thanks a lot, man!" Ashido grinned, as Midoriya seemed to haul them both up without much of a problem.
Bakugou and Todoroki had taken the lead, clearing the first section of the obstacle course without many problems. Sero was close behind them, after Todoroki had used his ice to slice through his tape. He had fallen into the quicksand, but had managed to save himself in time.
In front of them, lay a few long metal poles that stood up from a large chasm. The poles didn't span the entire length of the chasm, instead, being very randomly placed so there was no clear path to the other side.
Bakugou, always the hotheaded one, shot forward, ignoring the obstacle all together with his quirk, until he was hit by a powerful stream of water right in the face. He tumbled down, and managed to blast himself back onto the side.
Todoroki peered down the chasm, and stared at the massive water cannons that littered the bottom of the chasm.
"You fall to the ground, you're automatically out! Oh! Monoma and Iida are catching up, Midoriya's behind them, with Sero, Hatsume and Shinsou! Asui's making good progress too! And Uraraka!"
Iida braked when he saw the chasm, and Shinsou and Sero leaned over the edge to see what lay below. Hatsume tried to cross, but she got a blast of water to the face as she did so, blasting her back to the edge. Asui had caught up and made her way across slowly, hopping to the next bar when she sensed that water was coming her way, and Todoroki made his own protected path of ice and ran across. Bakugou had given it another shot, blasting the water away when it came near as he propelled himself further over the chasm with his quirk.
Then Midoriya came running up. Without even stopping to check his surroundings, he leapt onto a metal pole.
"Hey, watch out!" Shinsou yelped, as he saw a water cannon revving up and taking aim at Midoriya.
Midoriya swiftly leapt to the next bar as a jet of water flew at him, dodging the pressurized blast of water. He kept up the pace, not even missing a beat as he quickly raced along the metal bars towards the other side of the chasm, dodging water blasts left and right.
He weaved through the attacks effortlessly, almost as if he were dancing, smoothly, and just gaped at the green haired boy, blinking like an idiot.
He wasn't the only one. Asui had almost gotten blasted off her pole by water as she stared at the boy who was making good headway, and Kirishima and Tetsutetsu, who had just caught up, were dumbfounded.
Two pressurized blasts of water flew at Midoriya, and much to their surprise, Midoriya jumped, performing a backflip as he twisted midair, dodging both water blasts and landing back on the metal bar in a crouched position.
Even Yamada and Aizawa were gaping from their commentators position, and Aizawa glared at the animal principal who was sitting innocently on his seat and staring at the television, a smile creeping onto his face.
Damn it, Nezu. What are you teaching him?
It didn't take long for Midoriya to overtake Bakugou and Todoroki, crossing the chasm. Asui, Iida and Yaoyorozu, who were hot on their heels, until they came up to the next segment.
A huge field of darkened splotches, coupled with robots that littered the area. Midoriya immediately bounded forward, avoiding the splotches completely as Bakugou roared, blasting forward. Todoroki made an ice path to keep up with Bakugou, as the three of them raced for the finish line, Midoriya somehow able to keep his lead despite having to leap and jump all over the place.
Bakugou easily blasted apart a robot, as Todoroki froze another in place. Midoriya, on the other hand, sped up. He jumped, spinning midair as he kicked the robot's head, easily decapitating it. He took it in stride, leaping off the robot and continuing to make his way past the mines.
Bakugou growled, and attempted to attack Midoriya, but Midoriya merely moved his head, like he had predicted that Bakugou would do that, and latched onto his arm with one hand. He twisted his upper body, and jumped, kicking Bakugou to the ground, right onto a mine.
The mine exploded, erupting into pink, glittery smoke, that blasted Bakugou backwards into Todoroki, causing them to activate more mines. Meanwhile, Midoriya was midair at the right angle that the very same blast that sent Bakugou flying backwards propelled him forwards, allowing him to clear the minefield.
Midoriya raced through the tunnel, back into the stadium, where he was declared the winner by Yamada.
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"Damn."
That was the only thing that Yamada had said as Midoriya took both Bakugou and Todoroki down. Luckily for him, his microphone was muted, so no one heard him.
Aizawa was just sitting there, blinking, trying to process what the quirkless, selectively mute teen had done.
"He could have gotten into the hero course." Aizawa muttered, after Yamada announced Midoriya as the winner, "He should have. He chose to save others over gathering the set villain points. He chose to take down the zero-pointer with an EMP because he thought someone would get hurt instead of using the time to take out more robots."
"Well, if he wins, he has a good chance of transferring, right?" Yamada turned to the other pro hero.
"Once people find out he's quirkless, they're gonna flip their shit. That's the main reason why he got so few rescue points." Aizawa growled.
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"Alright! Our next event! Spin the wheel!" Kayama grinned, as she waited for the next event to be displayed on the wide screen television.
"And next, we have the two man cavalry battle! Now, you may be wondering what this is about! There are forty two students who have passed the first round. There will be twenty one groups of two. The person who ranked last would be worth five points, and each rank above that would be worth 5 more points than the previous position, with the exception of first place, who was worth a thousand points!"
Everyone turned to Midoriya, who had gotten first, but the lone green haired general education student didn't even flinch as forty one pairs of eyes stared at him like predators.
"Each team will have a headband that is the sum of the points of the two teammates. One person will carry the other rides on their backs, and the rider is the one wearing the headband. The horse can use their hands, but once your rider falls off your back, it's game over. You're not eliminated if you lose your headband, and quirk usage is allowed, but should you attack with malicious intent to injure or harm another student, you will be disqualified! Now, you have five minutes to make your teams, alliances, whatever!"
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Shinsou had no idea who to team up with. Kirishima was with Bakugou, and Uraraka had gone with Iida. He was about to go ask Midoriya, but a pink haired support course student had already asked to team up with him.
He had ended up paired with Tokoyami. Dark Shadow was sentient, so they technically had three members instead of two, so Shinsou was certain that the second event wouldn't go too badly. Shinsou was the rider, and he could hear Dark Shadow grumbling that the second event made no sense and there was no practical use in it.
"Actually, it is useful. We may have to do rescue or stealth operations that require us to jump around with people on our backs. If we can't even carry young and healthy teenagers without them falling off, we may accidentally drop any injured or elderly people and result in their deaths." Yaoyorozu pointed out.
Shinsou could hear Hatsume babbling on about her inventions as Midoriya heaved her onto his back, testing his own mobility. Uraraka was sitting on Iida's shoulders instead of being piggybacked, and it seemed to be working well for them as long as Uraraka didn't overuse her abilities.
Kaminari and Sero were trying to figure out who would be the rider and the horse, and Ashido was cheering as Asui clung to her back.
"Todoroki and Bakugou are going to go after Midoriya for sure." Ashido commented, dragging Asui with her, "He has the most points. I pity Kirishima and Yaoyorozu."
"Kero, just be glad that Mineta isn't with any of us, kero." Asui said, seeing as Mineta had somehow ended up with Shoji as a partner and was screeching at Todoroki and Iida for having a female partner, much to the two males confusion and the anger of the two other females.
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Ishiyama placed his hands on the ground, manipulating the ground so that it was blocky and uneven.
"Woah! This is awesome!" Kirishima grinned, as the earth beneath him shifted and moved, cement columns rising and sinking.
"Shut up, Shitty Hair." Bakugou snapped, "Keep an eye on Midoriya!"
Midoriya was grabbing onto Hatsume's legs as she clung to his back like a koala, wrapping her arms around Midoriya's neck.
Kayama yelled, "And go!"
Kirishima leapt up androcketed towards Midoriya, powered forwards by Bakugou's explosions, but the green haired boy merely leapt up onto the nearby elevated platform, dodging Bakugou's attempt to steal Hatsume's headband. Shinsou seriously wondered how strong the teen was if he was able to carry Hatsume and all her equipment, which included a pair or large metal boots and a jetpack, without any problems at all.
He clicked his tongue.
"Gotcha." Hatsume activated her jetpack as Midoriya jumped again, giving him a huge boost in speed as they rocketed away from the two hero course students. He immediately pushed off a wall with his foot and tackled Bakugou, knocked him off balance, but he grabbed on to Kirishima in time as the red-head righted himself.
Tokoyami, Uraraka, Iida, and Shinsou were staying at the sides, trying to avoid conflict. Uraraka's quirk would be useful for offence, while Iida's quirk could allow him much more mobility in midair, while Dark Shadow was just focussing on defending. Both teams had enough points to take fifth or sixth place, so they were just focussing on keeping their points safe.
Todoroki immediately shot towards Midoriya, as Yaoyorozu created a metal pole, and aimed it at Hatsume, but Midoriya just dodged and stepped on the pole as they came close, jumping and swerving aside as he narrowly avoided being frozen in Todoroki's ice.
He clicked his tongue twice.
"This one, right?" Hatsume grinned, activating her hover soles. It wasn't powerful, but it propelled the non-hero course duo away from Todoroki, giving Midoriya some breathing space as he shot backwards. Todoroki hissed under his breath as Midoriya put some distance between them, as Midoriya jumped onto another elevated platform, before dropping down directly onto Kendo and Bondo.
Hatsume swiftly grabbed Kendo's headband, and Midoriya jumped and clicked his tongue once. Hatsume activated her jetpack again and by the time Kendo and Bondo realised what was going on, they were already out of the two 1-B students' reach.
"Jeez, is he a pro at this?" Monoma muttered, watching as Midoriya effortlessly twisted and maneuvered Hatsume and himself around, dodging attempts at Hatsume's headband and any other obstacles that others like Shiozaki, Kamikiri, Yaoyorozu, and Awase were creating.
Heck, he was even using it to his advantage, kicking up a blade that Kamikiri had shot out and using it to slice away Shiozaki's vines with one foot, using his other foot to support both his and Hatsume's weight.
It came to the point where Bakugou and Todoroki got so frustrated that they decided to form an alliance, albeit an uneasy one, to team up on Midoriya. They'd rather let each other win then to be bested by a General Education and a Support Course student. Even though they had already snagged Mineta and Tsunotori's headbands respectively, they didn't have enough to beat Midoriya.
Iida, Uraraka, and Shinsou just stared in horror from their safe zone, after both groups had managed to snag Shoda's and Kodai's headband respectively. Shinsou's quirk was also freezing both teams in place, so neither group could fight back.
Kirishima and Todoroki raced towards Midoriya, and the green haired boy didn't even flinch as he noticed both teams coming towards him. Todoroki's ice shot out, and Kirishima blasted forward.
Being forced to dodge the ice, Midoriya swerved, giving Bakugou the perfect opportunity to snatch Hatsume's headband off, eliciting a yelp of surprise from the pinkette.
What no one expected was for Midoriya to lunge forward as Hatsume clung onto him to prevent herself from falling off, his head snapping forward as his teeth clamped down on the headband in Bakugou's grasp. He jerked his head backwards, and Kirishima braked as Bakugou tried to yank the headband out of Midoriya's bite.
Todoroki growled, as Yaoyorozu lashed forward with another pole to try and get Midoriya away from Bakugou.
Midoriya just clamped his teeth down harder on the headband, and yanked it backwards as he dodged Yaoyorozu's attack, as a loud ripping sound filled the stadium.
"And times up! It looks like Team Hatsume has the majority of their headband, since it tore, so they still retain their 1010 points from the Sports Festival! They also took Team Kendo's headband, leaving them in first place with 1175 points!"
Bakugou stared at the torn headband in his hand, and his gaze shifted to Midoriya as the boy spat out the remainder of the headband onto the ground, with Hatsume still clinging onto his back, almost choking him as she cheered.
Yaoyorozu and Todoroki had ended up in second place with 530 points, while Kirishima and Bakugou earned third with 455 points. Tokoyami and Shinsou received 390 points and fourth place, Uraraka and Iida got 385 points in fifth place, Kaibara, Yanagi, Shiozaki and Kamikiri all tied for sixth place with 270 points per team, and Monoma and Tetsutetsu had made it in eighth place with 255 points.
"Now, we'll take an hour's break for lunch before we start the afternoon festivities! See ya! Hey, Eraser, let's go grab some food!"
"I'm going to sleep."
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"You were awesome, Midoriya!" Uraraka gushed, "I thought you were done for when Bakugou and Todoroki teamed up on you guys! You really showed both them!"
Midoriya just glanced at her and nodded, acknowledging her compliment but still not saying a word, instead sipping his energy drink that Lunch Rush had provided. Shinsou noted that he had something around his neck from the previous events, but he didn't question it. Midoriya could wear whatever he wanted to.
"You think you're too good to eat with us, huh?"
Everyone looked up as a boy growled, glaring at Midoriya. Shinsou, Iida, and Uraraka flinched as he slammed his palms down on the table, right in front of Midoriya, but the green haired boy didn't even flinch.
Midoriya was roughly grabbed by the collar of his UA sports uniform and lifted out of his chair.
"How did a quirkless nobody like you manage to get so far!?"
Yaoyorozu paused, noodles still hanging from her mouth, as she processed his words in shook. Other members of both 1-A and 1-B were also staring at the commotion, gaping at the green haired boy.
Midoriya was quirkless? He placed first in both the first and second events, without a quirk? Sure, pretty much everyone was struggling with the second event, save for him, who seemed right in his element as he zipped around with Hatsume on his back, but the first event?
Midoriya just hung limply from the other boy's grasp, not even struggling or making a move to free himself from potentially being choked. He just gazed lifelessly at the other General Education student, his green eyes dim and empty.
"What's this? A collar?" The boy sneered, using one hand to hold Midoriya's uniform, and his other to tug lightly at the black band around MIdoriya's neck.
Oh. So that's what it was. Shinsou bleakly realised, as he was frozen to his seat.
"What are you, some kind of pet?" The boy growled, pushing Midoriya to the ground.
Shinsou snapped as Midoriya's head made contact with the wall, producing a loud bang.
"Hey, what did he do to you?" Shinsou hissed, standing up and blocking the downed Midoriya from the other boy's view, "He didn't do anything to you! Leave him alone."
Midoriya picked himself up from the ground wordlessly, as the other male just snapped, "He doesn't deserve to be here. He's powerless. Sure, he's smart, but there's absolutely no reason how to had gotten so far without any physical enhancements. And what about you, with your vile, disgusting, villainous quirk? How the hell did you get into the hero course anyways!? Did you brainwash the teachers and the principal?"
Shinsou flinched.
He hated it. Hated that people would assume he would use his quirk to get his way. Hated that other people don't care that some people actually work hard and don't rely on their quirks all the time.
"Hey, that is completely uncalled for! Shinsou didn't - " Iida tried to stand up for Shinsou, but all of a sudden, he felt like he couldn't breathe.
The boy froze as Midoriya stared at him coldly, eyes gleaming like emerald, cold, hard, uncaring. He flinched, and panicked, falling to the ground as Midoriya took a step forward. Midoriya wasn't even doing anything remotely threatening, but the air around him seemed to darken, crackling with pressure that squeezed the air out of everyone's lungs and made it hard to breath.
Midoriya wasn't tall, but he towered over the general education student who was sitting helpless on the floor, completely at the mercy of the silent boy. Midoriya just looked at him, his hair casting a shadow over his eyes, making them appear to glow an eerie shade of green. His expression was empty, like a void, betraying none of his thoughts as he looked down at the student who had insulted him and Shinsou.
As suddenly as the oppressing pressure had appeared, it dissipated.
"You... you monster! Freak! You're not even human!" The boy yelped, scrambling to his feet and running out of the cafeteria.
Midoriya just walked back to his seat and sat down, drinking his energy drink like nothing had happened at all, his eyebags standing out as he sat there emotionlessly.
Everyone in the vicinity heaved a sigh of relief as the activities in the cafeteria returned to normal, though rumours were flying all over the place in hushed whispers.
"I'm so sorry, Midoriya. He shouldn't have said that. You don't deserve that." Shinsou sighed, as he went back to his seat.
Midoriya just glanced at him, uncaring, eyes vacant and empty.
"As the class representative, I shall go report him to the teachers." Iida made a move to stand up, "I believe a description of his appearance will be enough. You may not be in my class, but a class representative should take care of students outside of their class as well."
"Don't worry about it." He signed apathetically, as Shinsou's heart sank at what the boy signed next.
"It's not like it's the first time I've been called that."