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The first time it happened was not long after the USJ incident, while the school was in the midst of preparing for the Sports Festival. Ashido Mina, skipping merrily through the halls of UA on her way to class, saw a boy her age out of uniform.
Her first thought was to wonder why, and also how he hadn't been dress coded yet. Her second thought was that he must be from a different department, since she didn't recognize him at all. Her third thought was to wonder why it was that he was walking along next to All Might if he wasn't even a hero student.
By the time that last bit fully registered, the two of them had already turned the corner and left her line of sight. She was tempted to follow, to see what they were up to—but the bell was going to ring soon. She'd already been late to home room once this week, and she was pretty sure Aizawa would actually kill her with the power of his disappointed stare if she was late a second time. It wasn't much of a choice.
She managed to get to class a few minutes before the bell, and collapsed into her seat with a relieved sigh.
Kaminari, who was sitting on top of his desk with his feet on his chair, turned to greet her as she sat down. “Morning, Ashido.”
“Good morning!” She spun her chair to face him and crossed her legs. “So, while I was on my way to the classroom I saw this guy with All Might.”
“Guy with All Might, huh? I don’t think that’s that unusual.”
Kirishima, sat properly in his seat behind Kaminari, nodded along in agreement. “Yeah, All Might usually has someone or other with him, doesn’t he?”
Mina shrugged. “I mean I guess—but he was our age, and he wasn’t wearing a uniform, and I don’t recognize him from the hero course.”
“Huh.” Kaminari looked thoughtful. “Maybe he’s transferring in?”
“I dunno. That would be pretty exciting. But it’s not like we have room for any new people in our class…”
Kirishima hummed and leaned back in his chair. “Guess we’ll have to wait and see. Still, I think—”
“EVERYONE IN YOUR SEATS!” Iida shouted from the front of the classroom. “CLASS IS ABOUT TO BEGIN.”
The three of them promptly forgot what they’d been talking about, and the day carried on as usual.
That wasn’t the end of it, though. On the day of the Sports Festival, Kaminari Denki caught a glimpse of All Might with an unfamiliar teen while on his way back from the bathroom.
The boy, who had curly green hair and freckles, was waving a notebook around as he explained something complicated-sounding to All Might. It was hard to tell if he was at all interested, since his face was frozen in the same intense smile it always was, but considering that All Might was an all around great guy, Denki assumed he was listening. The two of them passed quickly out of sight, and though Denki wished he could follow… well, that would be rude, and he was in a hurry, and he couldn’t just go up and talk to All Might , even if the guy was his teacher now. So he moved on to the prep room to tell his friends about it instead.
“Hey, Ashido,” he said as he slid into the empty chair across from her. “Y’know that guy you saw with All Might that one time?”
Ashido stared at him blankly for a moment, then, “Oh! Yeah, that guy. What about him?”
“Did he have curly green hair and freckles?”
“Yep.” She gasped in sudden realization. “Did you see him?”
“See who?” Sero leaned around Kirishima to ask.
“Okay, so there’s this kid who keeps hanging out with All Might,” Ashido explained. “He doesn’t wear a uniform, and I’ve never seen him before like a week ago. Just once wasn’t that weird, but now Kaminari’s seen him too. We thought maybe he’s a transfer student, but that doesn’t explain why he’s just been with All Might and none of the other teachers.”
“Huh.” Sero put a hand to his chin. “Interesting. What were they doing when you saw them?”
“Uhh… they were just walking together, I think,” Ashido said.
“Yeah.” Kaminari nodded. “But I saw them actually talking. I’m not sure what about. Greenie had a notebook, but I didn’t see a label. All Might was just listening.”
“I see. Maybe he’s an assistant.”
“He must be crazy strong if he’s All Might’s personal assistant,” Kirishima said. “I wonder what his quirk is…”
“We don’t actually know for sure that’s what he is, though,” Sero cut in. “It’s just one possibility. Maybe he’s actually All Might’s son.”
“All Might’s son ?” Ashido yelped.
Todoroki, who had until now been skulking in a nearby corner, drifted over to their table. “Did you just say All Might has a son?”
“As I said,” Sero said emphatically, “we don’t know for sure. We’re only theorizing at this point.”
“I see. But what is it exactly that makes you think All Might has—”
Todoroki was interrupted by the intercom. “All contestants please take your places. Repeat, all contestants to your places.”
“We’ll finish this conversation later,” Ashido decided.
It took them a while to get to that fabled “later”—the weekend came, and then they were busy with classes, and then everyone had their internships, and Mina kind of forgot until Uraraka and Iida walked into the classroom on Tuesday the week classes resumed.
“He can’t be in class B,” Uraraka was saying. “We would have recognized him. And he didn’t make it into the top forty-two during the Sports Festival. Maybe he’s in General Studies? Or Business?”
Mina jumped to her feet. “Who are you talking about?”
“Oh!” Uraraka looked startled. “Hi, Ashido. We’re talking about this guy who we just saw with All Might. We don’t—”
“All Might’s son?” Todoroki interrupted from the other side of the room.
“All Might has a SON?” Hagakure shouted.
This caught the attention of the entire classroom.
Sero stood up and started waving his arms. “Like I said the other week, it’s just a theory! We have no idea who this guy is or why he’s with All Might whenever we see him.”
“We shouldn’t be spreading rumors about people we don’t know,” Iida added disapprovingly. “We are students of UA High School, we must show courtesy and respect for our peers.”
Todoroki raised an eyebrow. “So he’s not actually All Might’s son?”
“I mean…” Mina shrugged. “He could be.”
Several people started talking and yelling at once, but Jirou’s voice rose above them all. “If he’s All Might’s son, then who’s the mother?”
Hagakure gasped. “What if it was a one night stand?”
“This is highly inappropriate.” Iida’s arm—the one that hadn’t been hurt during internships—began chopping at the air, seemingly of its own accord.
“Iida’s right,” Tsu said.
“Thank you, Tsu-chan-kun—”
“All Might could be married,” she went on. “It would only be natural for him to keep it a secret.”
“Tsu-chan-kun!”
“Would you losers shut up already?” Bakugou growled. “It doesn’t matter who his old man is, if he comes looking for a fight I’ll beat him the same as I’ll beat all of you. He doesn’t stand a chance.”
“Dude,” Sero stage whispered, “not everything has to be a fight.”
“SHUT IT, TAPE FACE.”
Aizawa appeared in the doorway. “Everyone to your seats.”
Sero was not the only one to shut it.
A few days later, Kirishima Eijirou’s friends finished lunch before him, and they returned to the classroom without him so they could get their homework done last minute.
Eijirou was, of course, very diligent and trying his best to be a manly hero, so he had finished this specific homework the same day it was assigned. As such he stayed back in the cafeteria to finish his lunch at a minutely more reasonable pace, and left about five minutes after his friends did. He threw out his trash, returned his tray, and began ambling through the halls back to the classroom.
Around the corner and half a corridor down from the staff room, he stopped to admire the view out the windows—and that was when he heard All Might speak.
“Wait here a moment, my boy, I just need to grab something from my desk.”
“All right.”
Eijirou didn’t recognize the second voice, but he did remember the stranger Ashido and Kaminari had both seen with All Might, the guy who could be All Might’s assistant or son or something else. He took a step forward, keen as anyone to get a glimpse of the mysterious stranger, but hesitated.
This didn’t have to be the guy just because Eijirou didn’t recognize his voice. It could be someone from Class B—he certainly didn’t remember what all of them sounded like. He hadn’t even heard half their voices outside the jumbled yelling of the Sports Festival.
Wasn’t like it could hurt to check, though.
He walked casually around the corner, and there, twiddling his thumbs outside the staff room door, was a boy with freckles and curly green hair. Exactly the description he remembered Kaminari giving Ashido two weeks ago.
Eijirou froze.
The boy looked up. He blinked and stared at Eijirou for a moment, then sent him a little wave.
Eijirou had just mindlessly lifted his hand to wave back when the staff room door opened again, and All Might emerged.
“Found it.” He flapped the yellow folder he had clutched in his grip. “Let’s go now, we don’t have all day!” Then he began marching down the hallway, and the freckled boy scrambled after him without a backward glance.
Bakugou Katsuki was sitting at his desk, surrounded by the extras who had dragged their chairs over to his corner of the room. Somehow they had convinced him to help with their homework, and he was now trying to figure out a way of explaining this math problem that wouldn’t end in Kaminari wailing for the millionth time that it made no sense. Even though it clearly did.
“I hate Algebra,” Ashido whined, throwing her arms across Hagakure’s desk.
“It’s simple,” Katsuki seethed. “All you have to do is reverse the order of—”
The door slid open with a violent BANG, and Katsuki barely resisted the reflexive urge to blow something up.
“I saw him!” Kirishima shouted gleefully from the doorway. “I saw the guy!”
Ashido spun her chair around, far more interested in whatever this was than the exceedingly important matter of good grades. “The All Might guy?”
“The All Might guy.” Kirishima shut the door behind him and began striding across the room to join them. “Curly green hair and freckles, just like you and Kaminari said.”
Ashido cheered and began needling for more information. Kaminari abandoned his homework to join the conversation. Sero leaned in to add his piece.
Katsuki ignored all that, because he only knew one person with curly green hair and freckles, and it was that loser Deku who he used to be friends with back when he was a stupid little kid who didn’t understand the importance of power and winning. He hadn’t seen Deku since middle school graduation, even though they lived in the same neighborhood. What was he doing at UA?
No. There was no way in hell Deku of all people had somehow gotten close to All Might in the last few months. He would be too busy fanboy squealing to engage in a proper conversation even once, let alone multiple times. And it wasn’t like he was the only person with green hair and freckles—maybe this other person’s hair was sea foam green, or forest green, not viridian. Deku was very plain, it was extremely likely that there were other people out there who could fit such a vague description. Of course.
Quirkless Deku was off doing whatever normal things it was he did these days, and that was all there was to it.
“It was a whirlwind romance with a beautiful hero when he was in America!” Hagakure put forth. “Something awful happened, so All Might’s love had to send their son to live here.”
Iida shook his head. “No, that can’t be right. This child would be much older than we are if that happened.”
“I thought you were against all this, Iida.”
“Of course I am,” he insisted. “I am merely deconstructing your theories using logic.”
Uraraka grinned and poked his shoulder. “Admit it, you’re as curious as the rest of us.”
“I have no idea what you mean.” He pushed up his glasses. “In any case, it is far more likely that he was raised here in Japan, as his Japanese is perfectly fluent according to what little has been heard. If, hypothetically speaking, he is indeed All Might’s son—”
“But we don’t know that,” Kaminari cut in. “He could be his assistant, like Sero said that one time.”
“Really?” Jirou raised an eyebrow. “All Might having an assistant who’s our age?”
“Well, I guess when you put it like that…”
Tokoyami raised his head to fix his classmates with his burning bird gaze. “Perhaps he is an agent of a foreign rival, lurking in All Might’s shadow to gather knowledge.”
“So… a student from a different school shadowing All Might as an intern or for a project?” Shouji translated.
Tokoyami nodded in agreement.
“Peut être he is All Might’s apprentice”—Aoyama smoothed his hair and flicked one dainty hand in the air—“meant to carry the burden of this world as the next shining Symbol of Peace—not that he could ever outshine the twinkle of moi, of course—”
“Do you think All Might’s old enough to be a grandfather?” Ashido wondered, ignoring Aoyama entirely.
Hagakure shot to her feet, arm raised in Ashido’s direction. “That supports my theory!”
“But I really don’t think they’re related,” Kaminari protested. “They don’t even look anything alike, like, at all, so—”
“All right, this is getting kinda heated.” Ojiro raised his hands placatingly.
Yaoyorozu was later getting to class than everyone else due to a meeting of the class vice-presidents. At that moment she walked through the door, the binder she used to keep track of presidential duties tucked under her arm. She blinked as she took in the scene: Kaminari and Ashido’s chairs were still by Bakugou’s desk; Hagakure was standing and pointing almost aggressively in Ashido’s direction; Ojiro looked like he was warding off an invisible attack; Bakugou seemed to be trying to plug his ears with his shoulders; and Iida was vibrating with some kind of suppressed emotion, while doing nothing to stop whatever this was.
She decided to take the quickest and most honest route to bringing peace to the classroom. “I saw Aizawa hopping this way in his sleeping bag on my way here.”
The classroom was back in order in three seconds flat.
There was a skeleton man roaming the halls of UA. Thin as a rake with fingers to match, an explosion of yellow hair swept back on his head, always in clothes several sizes too large for his body. He was generally seen alone, if at all, shuffling down the corridor on his way to who-knows-where. None of the students were quite sure of who he was—most assumed he was a teacher for a different department.
Kouda Kouji was one of the many people who thought this. Similarly to most, he also didn’t much care who the man was—it was none of his business. Sure, he had overheard people from other departments saying they didn’t know who the man was either—it was easy to overhear things when he didn’t talk much—but it didn’t matter to him. The guy was just some guy.
It began to matter to him a bit more when, in the morning on the day before final exams, a freckly boy with curly green hair and no uniform walked up to the Skeleton Man holding a neatly wrapped bento box.
“Here, my mom made you lunch as a thank-you!” He beamed. “She made sure to take your dietary restrictions into account, so you should be able to eat it.”
Kouji, who happened to be passing by, stared.
The Skeleton Man looked surprised. “Oh—why, thank you my boy. I’ll be sure to eat heartily.” He took the bento, and it was dwarfed in his large, spindly hands. “Tell your mother I said thank you too.”
The boy left after that, and Kouji decided he’d better get going too if he still wanted to be at least somewhat early for class.
Something Kouji hadn’t mentioned to anyone, because he was quiet and didn’t participate in discussions like this, was that he was a huge fan of Hagakure’s theory about All Might having a whirlwind romance in America. As such, he subscribed to the idea that the mysterious green-haired boy was All Might’s son or grandson. So when he made it to the classroom he steeled himself, walked inside, and told everyone about this new development.
“How does he know the Skeleton Man?” Satou said with a frown.
“Skeleton’s probably a friend of All Might’s,” Sero said, nodding wisely. “Their hair is kinda similar and they have similar clothes too. Maybe they have the same stylist?”
“Or he’s just a big All Might fan.” Kaminari leaned a cheek on his hand. “But I guess that would be awkward, since they both work here.”
“Kouda, you said the lunch was a thank-you gift?” Ashido questioned.
Kouda nodded. “From his mom,” he whispered.
“Interesting, very interesting.” She stroked her chin. “Maybe the Skeleton Man and All Might already knew each other before school started, and the Skeleton Man was the one who introduced Greenie to All Might.”
“But that does detract from the theory that Greenie is related to All Might,” Todoroki broke in. He seemed a bit obsessed with the concept, though Kouda had no idea why. He wasn’t one to talk anyway.
“That’s true,” Sero said, “but we can’t rule out all other possibilities just because that’s the most interesting one. We don’t have much information, so we have to consider all our options.” He pulled a notebook out of his bag and began thoughtfully tapping it with a pencil. “Now, Uraraka has suggested to me that this kid might be an alien—”
“What?”
“No way!”
“Okay, that’s just ridiculous.”
“Oh, come on, guys!” Uraraka protested. “One of his defining features is green coloring. Aliens are green!”
“He looks like a normal human, though,” Kaminari countered.
Asui put a finger to her chin. “Would you say he looks too normal?”
“Well—I guess he’s really plain, but that proves nothing! Why would he even be here if he was an alien, anyway?”
“All Might’s really famous, so he would have heard of him really fast after he got to earth, right?” Uraraka said.
Kaminari pursed his lips, but nodded. “Right…”
“So, if Greenie needed a guide, All Might would be the obvious person to go to. And now All Might is probably one of his only friends, and is helping him settle in here on earth.”
“I agree that the possibility of him being an alien is low,” Mineta said, “but the whole helping Greenie thing could be true.”
Everyone turned to look at him.
“What do you mean?” Ashido asked.
Mineta lowered his voice. “Why would All Might be spending so much time with some random kid? He’s not even a hero student. The only logical conclusion? Blackmail. Greenie has some serious dirt on All Might, and since he’s a big All Might fan—”
Bakugou twitched at that.
“—he’s using it to force his favorite hero to hang out with him.”
Everyone was silent for a moment.
“That’s quite enough,” Yaoyorozu said. “These assumptions are completely baseless, and we shouldn’t go assuming negative things about people we don’t know. Whatever All Might and Greenie are doing together is their business, and we should keep our noses out of it.”
“But—” Mineta started.
“It is kind of rude,” Asui conceded, “saying Greenie is doing horrible things when we don’t even know anything about him.”
Sero nodded. “Yeah, we should stick to more reasonable theories. For example, me and Ashido were talking before class and she said it’s possible All Might adopted Greenie after saving him from the terrible accident that killed his entire family, except for his elderly grandmother, who is in no condition to take care of a teenager. Obviously since Greenie has now given the Skeleton Man a bento from his mom, she has to have survived—but that opens up the possibility that All Might is now Greenie’s stepdad—”
Hagakure slammed her hands on her desk. “Whirlwind romance!”
Soon enough, every member of Class 1-A other than Bakugou had caught a glimpse of All Might’s mysterious companion.
No one got the chance to talk to him—Sero came close, but he was distracted by an upperclassman, and by the time he looked back Greenie was gone. Todoroki had been with Yaoyorozu when they saw him, and was purported to have just stared very intensely until All Might and Greenie left; Yaoyorozu was respectful and ignored them. Hagakure had tried to invisibly follow them to wherever it was they were going, but a security robot noticed her truancy and herded her back to class. Most students were too worried about the ongoing exams to pay the mysterious Greenie any mind, but all still had an inkling of curiosity running through them.
Bakugou had started shouting at the rest of the class to stop talking whenever they brought up the subject. In response, the theories only grew wilder. On the way to the summer training camp, Tokoyami proposed the idea that Greenie was in fact an extra-dimensional traveler from a realm that had fallen into darkness under the influence of a powerful villain organization called Dark Reunion, and Greenie was here to learn from the greatest hero in the known worlds in order to take the organization down.
Ojiro said Greenie was probably a family friend who All Might was watching out of the goodness of his heart while his parents were too busy, but he was immediately shot down.
“Why isn’t he in school, anyway?” Ashido wondered. “It doesn’t make sense for him to come to UA in the middle of the day.”
“Perhaps this is something educational,” said Iida, “like an internship, or a school project to shadow a working adult and discover what they do in a day.”
Tokoyami nodded. “Yes, that’s what I suggested last week.”
Sero crossed his arms, frowning. “I dunno, a school project that lasts over three months?”
“I guess it’s not like we know the details,” Kirishima said with a shrug.
“Yeah,” Uraraka chimed in. “We still haven’t confirmed whether he’s an alien or not—”
“WOULD YOU CONSPIRACY THEORIST FREAKS SHUT YOUR MOUTHS ALREADY?”
The bus exploded in uproar, and Aizawa covered his ears and concentrated on the road outside. Giving them the answers they wanted would only cause more speculation—and besides, All Might wanted to keep Midoriya a secret. Even though he himself was only doing a half-decent job of keeping the boy away from prying eyes.
During the training camp, no one had the energy to discuss Greenie anymore. Afterwards—well, it wasn’t a topic anyone was interested in focusing on.
One thing, at least, began to make sense in the following days. When All Might battled that terrifying villain on TV and was reduced to a smaller, more skeletal form, Mina was as shocked as the rest of her classmates to discover that the Skeleton Man of UA had in fact been All Might all along. Over the course of the rest of summer break, before moving into the dorms, the Greenie Conspiracy Groupchat—which contained the entirety of Class 1-A minus Bakugou—erupted with activity. All Might being the Skeleton Man completely obliterated not only the few theories about who the Skeleton Man was exactly, but also the sub-theories regarding his connection to Greenie. In the words of Tokoyami, who had undoubtedly stolen it from some anime, all was one and one was all.
Ideas were still flying the day they moved into the dorms. The day after that, Aizawa dangled an enticing carrot on a stick in front of them in the form of ultimate moves training. This managed to distract them most of the time, but in the evenings, when they were tired from training and most of them were lying around the common area, they didn’t have much better to do than talk.
“Maybe,” Kaminari said from where he was lying face-down on the couch, “All Might did raise him. But they’re not even related. Greenie got dropped off on his doorstep without so much as a note, and All Might was like, ‘Well, guess I don’t have any choice but to take care of this baby,’ and they’ve been stuck together ever since.”
“Unlikely.” Iida was scribbling something down in a workbook he wasn’t even required to fill. “While they seem close, it doesn’t appear that their relationship is at a level indicating they have known each other for that length of time. However, Hagakure’s latest theory does have some merit.”
Bakugou appeared from the stairwell and slouched into the kitchen. He began rummaging around in the cupboard where he had stashed several packets of dried chili peppers.
“If she is right,” Iida continued, “and Greenie is indeed the child of All Might and the princess of a foreign nation—”
“STOP MAKING UP BULLSHIT AND ACTING LIKE THERE’S A CHANCE IN HELL THAT ANY OF IT IS REAL!” Bakugou screamed. He lobbed the pepper packet he was holding into the living room, where it bounced off the top of the television set and—by sheer chance—hit Hagakure in the face.
“Ow!”
“All Might’s probably just training him or something,” Bakugou growled at a normal volume. He grabbed a new pepper packet and ripped it open. “Or using him as a personal servant.”
“What?”
“No!”
“All Might would never use a teenager as a servant!”
“Yeah, yeah, think what you want.” He stuffed a pepper in his mouth. “Doesn’t change the fact that it’s none of our business. Who cares what some little green small fry’s getting up to?” With that he stalked back up the stairs, peppers clenched tightly in his fist.
“Well, anyway…” Hagakure whispered once she was sure he was gone, “about my theory…”
The ride to the Provisional Licensing Exam was marked by jittery nerves and an abundance of nervous laughter. Some dealt with their anxiety by being loud and chattering it away, while others were quiet and reserved.
It got worse when it was revealed that only one hundred examinees would be passing the test. Still, they decided to go at it with a Plus Ultra attitude. They were prepared to do whatever they had to in order to pass.
Immediately after the first portion of the test began, half the class was saved from being tagged out only by reflexes born from their experiences this year. The other half…
A flash of green lighting darted across the field, blowing incoming balls back at those who had thrown them. The light stopped and solidified for a moment into the shape of a person—a boy with green hair and a matching costume. All the lights on his targets lit up blue—passed already—and he was off again.
Ashido gaped. “Was that—?”
“Duck!” Sero pushed her out of the way of an incoming volley of ammo. “I think it was, but let’s focus on the exam for now.”
“Right!”
They did as Sero had suggested from then on, and after passing the first portion of the test, everyone who had spotted Greenie was too busy celebrating their success to say anything about him. Kouda Kouji remembered shortly before the second portion was to begin, however, and began frantically scanning the room.
There . He was standing off to the side, attempting to make conversation with a student from a school Kouji didn’t recognize. He glanced at his classmates. Should he tell someone? They might want to talk to Greenie, right? And the conversation he was trying to have looked positively tragic. What could it hurt?
He’d just opened his mouth to speak when a buzz sounded over the speakers, and the second round began.
As the examinees were set loose into the arena once again, a green blur shot ahead of everyone, even the enthusiastic Yoarashi Inasa.
“Whoa,” muttered Kaminari. “Who was that?”
“Oh right, you weren’t there earlier,” Ashido said. “Greenie showed up at the beginning of the first round and knocked away a bunch of balls that were heading toward us—and he passed right away. We didn’t even see him hit anyone.”
“What?” Kaminari gasped. “How strong is he? What’s his quirk?”
Ashido shrugged. “I don’t—”
“Get a move on, idiots!” Bakugou barged between them, shoulders knocking against theirs. “We’re not here to gossip.”
Much as they wished to keep talking, they knew he was right. So the class went their separate ways, fulfilling their tasks to the best of their abilities, until one of the arena walls burst to rubble with a cloud of dust.
Most of the class was busy shepherding the fake civilians to safety after that, but Todoroki was part of the action, and Ashido, Tokoyami, and Ojiro arrived as soon as they were able to help with the triage evacuation. As such, they were close enough to witness Greenie himself zip onto the battlefield like an electric bullet and kick Gang Orca in the shoulder.
Ojiro nearly dropped the fake civilian he was carrying. “Holy crap.”
Todoroki was so shocked he paused his feud with Yoarashi.
Greenie looked over his shoulder at the two of them as he flipped away, his usually pleasant expression replaced by a wide-eyed glare. “WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA? STOP FIGHTING IN THE MIDDLE OF A RESCUE OPERATION!” He didn’t wait for them to respond, instead choosing to rocket back into the fight faster than anyone could keep track of.
“...There is fire in his soul,” Tokoyami muttered.
“He’s right, though,” Ashido cut in. “We don’t have time to stand around. Let’s get back to work and pass this!”
They got back to hauling civilians, barely sparing glances to the fight as they ushered people to safety.
“Is that everyone?” Ojiro wiped sweat from his forehead with his arm.
Right on cue, a loud buzz sounded from the intercom and Mera’s voice echoed through the stadium, signaling the end of the exam.
“Oh, great,” Ashido sighed, shoulders slumping. “Let’s go find out if we passed.”
Ashido barely glanced at her result paper, though, before snagging Kirishima and Kaminari’s arms. “Greenie! We need to find Greenie!”
“Shoot, you’re right.” Kaminari began frantically swinging his head back and forth in search of their quarry.
“There!” Kirishima’s arm flew up to point off to the right. “Near the front, talking to the Ketsubutsu students!”
Without further preamble, Ashido began marching in Greenie’s direction. As soon as they noticed what was going on, the rest of Class A began trickling after her like a herd of vaguely confused but enthusiastic ducklings. Kirishima had to drag Bakugou along by force—he was too busy glaring at his test results to really take in his surroundings.
They only paused briefly to hear Mera’s announcement that those who failed got a second chance. When they turned back around again, Greenie was gone.
They weren’t able to find him before they left.
“So, we now know for sure that Greenie is a hero student.” Mina steepled her fingers, elbows propped up on the tabletop in the dorm dining room. “Question is, how did he wind up with All Might?”
“It’s really starting to look like All Might’s been mentoring him,” Kaminari said.
“But he’s All Might’s son, he’s gotta be!” Hagakure protested. She pounded her fists on the table in time with what she said next: “Whirl. Wind. Ro. Mance.”
“There’s no reason it can’t be both,” Todoroki said reasonably. “I’ve had plenty of personal training with my father.”
Kirishima sighed. “Honestly, I really think he’s All Might’s son at this point, if nothing else. They both have quirks that make them crazy strong and fast. Greenie got his looks from his mother, and his quirk from his father.”
Most of the class nodded along in agreement. Bakugou had already gone to bed.
“I’m not certain All Might has been training him, though,” Momo said. “If he really is All Might’s son, All Might could have thought to have a rotating cast of teachers so his son’s training would be more well rounded.”
“Um—” Kouda raised his hand. “When I saw Greenie with All Might, it didn’t really sound like All Might and Greenie’s mom are all that close? Like, Greenie said “my mom” like All Might and his mom didn’t know each other very well.”
Jirou cleared her throat loudly. “One night stand. Greenie didn’t meet his father until a few years ago at the latest. Reconnecting was awkward. Therefore, Greenie’s mom and All Might don’t know each other very well.”
“I think it would be better if they’ve been having a slow romance,” Hagakure said. “Greenie’s mom and All Might weren’t close enough yet for Greenie to be able to just say ‘Mom’ instead of ‘my mom’ when Kouda saw them.”
“These are real people, Hakagure,” Iida reminded her. “We can’t just say the thing we want to be real is the truth. We have to figure out the facts.”
“Anyway, I thought you wanted a whirlwind romance,” Sero interjected.
“Different things work for different situations, Sero. In this case, I like a slowburn.”
Uraraka gasped suddenly. “Hey, what if Greenie’s mom is a hero too?”
And down the rabbit hole they went.
The days passed, and along came the work studies. It was a difficult time for many of those involved—the raid on the Shie Hassaikai wasn’t easy. They lost people, and barely managed to catch Chisaki. It would have been impossible if not for the blur of green lightning that burst onto the scene when the heroes were close to losing.
According to Uraraka and Asui, who had been the only UA students close enough to witness it, Greenie had scooped Eri up into his arms and tried taking her to safety. Chisaki got in his way, but with help from Eri—they were unclear on how she’d helped exactly, just that she had—he’d managed to take Chisaki down.
There were no pictures or footage of him to be found afterwards. They tried asking Aizawa about it, finding out why Greenie showed up so late into the raid, but he was tightlipped on the subject.
“Well, there’s no doubt about it,” Todoroki said after they’d finished their story. “Greenie is definitely All Might’s son.”
No one disagreed. Bakugou was silent, though probably not because he agreed in any way, shape, or form.
And so they came to the School Cultural Festival. Class 1-A had prepared a concert that they hoped would lift everyone’s spirits, though especially their own. And Eri’s. Apparently “someone” had suggested she be allowed the come to the Festival and have a fun day for once in her life, but no one was sure who “someone” was. Their performance was a lively success—Eri was full-on smiling by the end of it, which most of the class managed to catch a glimpse of during cleanup. Kirishima almost cried.
They weren’t the only ones interested in her reaction, however, as a mop of curly green hair soon came bobbing through the dispersing crowd, distantly trailed by All Might’s glorious and unmistakable golden mane.
From the mouth of Aizawa, who was hovering nearby and had personally heard about a quarter of the theories: “Oh god.”
Greenie came bounding up to Eri and Mirio and crouched down to be closer to eye level. “Hi Eri! Did you have fun?”
“Mr. Deku!” Eri beamed.
Bakugou hadn’t been paying attention before. Now his head snapped up.
All Might had stopped a few feet away, smiling as Eri expounded upon every little detail of Class 1-A’s performance. Greenie was nodding along patiently. A few members of the class, including Tsu and Todoroki, noticed a faint smudge of blood under Greenie’s nose and along his cheek. There was also some light bruising, and his clothes looked scuffed. Eri didn’t notice at all.
Bakugou stood motionless, baffled at the sight before him. Then Ashido exclaimed, “Greenie!” and the few class members who hadn’t already been looking stopped and stared.
Greenie looked up. “Um. Me?” He scanned the group for the one who’d called, though it was impossible to tell who it was when everyone there was gawking at him. His gaze stopped before Ashido and landed instead on Bakugou.
There was a short stare off.
Greenie gulped. “...Hi, Kacchan.”
Something in Bakugou’s expression broke. “God FUCKING dammit.”
Ashido and Kaminari had both just about figured out what they wanted to say before Greenie uttered that nickname. Now their minds bluescreened, along with all of their classmates’.
“Wait a minute…” Sero said slowly. “Do you two know each other?”
“Mind your own damn business,” Bakugou said hollowly.
“You knew Greenie this whole time and you didn’t tell us?!” Hagakure shrieked. “You could have told us the truth! Who’s the mother, Bakugou?”
“I didn’t know it was him, so shut the hell up!” Bakugou snapped.
At this point Mirio decided his curiosity wasn’t worth Eri’s poor innocent soul, and he began herding her away.
“Sorry, what’s going on?” Greenie said, successfully shifting everyone’s attention from Bakugou to himself.
“You!” Kaminari pointed at him. “Who are you?”
“Oh, I’m Midoriya Izuku. It’s nice to meet you all officially.” He bowed.
“Yeah, but like… are you…” Kaminari trailed off.
“You’re All Might’s secret love child, are you not?” Todoroki said.
Greenie—or Midoriya, apparently—spluttered. “What? I’m—what? No no no, that’s not it at all!”
“Why the fuck would Deku be All Might’s son?” Bakugou snarled. “God, this is even stupider now that I know who you’re talking about!”
In the background, All Might appeared to be recovering from a heart attack. Aizawa had departed alongside Mirio and Eri.
Todoroki’s eyes narrowed. “So you’re not All Might’s son? What about your quirk?”
“Th-that’s just a coincidence. It’s not like they’re the same or anything.” Midoriya laughed nervously.
“Hm.” Todoroki looked inscrutable, though there was a vague hint of disappointment in the turn of his eyebrows. “Okay then.”
“Why have you been hanging out with All Might if you’re not his son?” Kirishima questioned. “Is he training you?”
“Yep, we train whenever we have time.”
Uraraka gasped. “Bakugou was right!”
Aoyama burst to the front of the herd. “As was I—!”
“I can’t believe Bakugou was right,” Ashido groaned.
Bakugou ignored them. “Since when do you have a quirk?” he growled.
“Well it turns out I had a strength augmentation quirk the whole time,” Midoriya said.
“THEN WHY HAVEN’T YOU USED IT BEFORE?”
“Oh, I wasn’t strong enough yet.”
“HOW THE HELL DOES THAT WORK?”
Midoriya shrank back slightly, looking over his shoulder at All Might. “Uh, well—”
“Please calm yourself, young Bakugou.” All Might stepped forward, resting a hand on Midoriya’s shoulder.
Bakugou glared. “Why are you training him, anyway?”
“That’s between us,” All Might said calmly. “Now, young Midoriya, I believe you wanted to spend some time with Eri. We should be going.”
“Wait!” Hagakure cried. “The whirlwind romance—is any of it true? Are All Might and your mom together at least, Midoriya?”
The members of the class invested in that theory—which it turned out was now almost all of them—leaned closer in anticipation.
“...No?” Midoriya shook his head. “Of course not, why—no. All Might is not dating my mom.”
All Might coughed awkwardly.
Midoriya looked at him. “You’re… you’re not, right?”
“We’ll… talk about that later, young Midoriya. Let’s go.” He turned around and began striding away to the rest of the festivities.
“All Might? What do you mean, ‘We’ll talk about that later’? All Might!” Midoriya chased after him, and they were gone.
“...Welp. That certainly happened,” Sero said.
“I wonder how All Might and Midoriya met,” Ashido mused.
Bakugou let loose a scream of rage and exploded one of the remaining chunks of ice from the performance.
He had a pretty good idea how Deku met All Might, and he was half right.