Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Class 1-A was no stranger to talks about bullying. In fact, no school kid in the world isn’t a stranger to a day or two a year spent in a classroom or the auditorium talking about how bad and wrong bullying is. They hear stories from speakers talking about how people would say names based on things they couldn’t control whether that be age, gender, sexuality, weight, height, etc. Then, there were also the talks on quirk discrimination from mutation based quirks, weak quirks, dangerous quirks, and villainous quirks. As much as they all knew though, was that these talks almost never worked.

UA brought a new element into these talks however. Especially being in the heroics department, these talks weren’t just once or twice a year, now this was their course work. Aizawa Sensei was currently explaining how the next few units of their hero ethics class would be covering discrimination, bullying, the statistics behind them, and the aftereffects of it as well.

Aizawa pulled out a stack of papers he had printed out and set on the shelf beneath his lectern. This was one of the few units that he was heavily awake and alert for as he himself had been a victim of bullying and discrimination. Being an underground hero too, over half of his cases dealt with the worst cases of it too. To say that he was passionate about this particular unit would be an understatement.

He began to pass out the papers to the students in the front row and they would pass it to the students behind them. This was partially why he waited to teach the unit until part way through the school year, as the class had its routines down pat and trusted Aizawa. This wasn’t the first time they’d seen him passionate about a unit, but it was still a rare occurrence. However, the students knew that if he was passionate about it, it meant that the expectations were high and they needed to pay more attention.

The students were now looking over the paper being handed to them. It was a simple overview of the next month of this class, a syllabus. “I know I normally don’t give you guys a syllabus, but due to the intense nature of these next two units I wanted to make sure you all knew what was coming. If you look towards the end of the month, you’ll notice a large presentation you will have to research. This will be done alone, and will be presented in front of not only your classmates, but 1-B and multiple of your teachers, including Principal Nezu. So, needless to say, this is also a large grade and you will all start preparing at the end of this week once we have gone over the basics of all the different topics you can choose to discuss,” he ranted.

Aizawa’s eyes scanned the faces of his students as he continued to speak about the different topics they would be talking about this week. He always looked to see who perked up and what topic it was on. There were always a few on gender or sexuality, mutation quirks, weak quirks, and villainous quirks, this time though, he saw two students freeze at the next parts. “I’m sure you’ve at least heard one lecture on each of those in the past, but there is another type of quirk discrimination that most schools don’t cover that we will cover here. We will be talking about quirkless discrimination as well because there will be a time in your career as a hero when you encounter someone who is quirkless, especially if you choose to work underground.”

Midoriya and Bakugou both seemed to freeze at that part. While it was uncommon to have already had a student who knew about quirkless discrimination, the way those two just stopped and looked at each other sent a shiver down his spine. He’d have to keep an eye on those two, but he honestly wasn’t surprised that it was those two once again.

He then began the first lesson on the unit which was about religion, gender, and sexuality. These still happened regularly enough to talk about but it was usually never to a degree like physical violence. This was also more of an introduction into each type which discussed the who, the why, and some light statistics on the matter.

Like all classes though, the bell soon rang and this year, the next period was for lunch, which meant a break from the students for Aizawa. They all seemed to race out of the classroom as if there was a bomb about to go off, and once they were gone, Aizawa went to the staff room to relax for the little time he had. He was met by his husband and friend waiting for him at their normal spot in the teacher's lounge. There weren’t many teachers off for lunch this period, but all the first-year homeroom teachers and a few other teachers like Nemuri.

He gave his husband a quick kiss on the lips and Hizashi slid Aizawa’s lunch over for him to eat. “So, how was the Ethics class today?” Hizashi asked him.

“Normal. A few raised their heads at the typical points, and a few unexpected ones too,” Aizawa stated.

“Oh, that time of the year already?” Nemuri asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You would know Nem if you ever paid attention to the calendar,” he quipped.

“I know, I know,” she sighed at him. “So what was unexpected?”

“As usual, it was Midoriya and Bakugou,” he said with a huff, and Hizashi started laughing at that point. “It was when I mentioned quirkless discrimination though,” Aizawa trailed off. This caused Zashi’s laughter to die down slowly and look at him curiously. Nem also looked at him strangely. “I don’t know,” he continued and he rubbed the back of his head, “it’s just that, they both seemed to freeze up and it was, even to me, a little unsettling.”

“Huh, yeah that is strange. Even for those two,” Nemuri said. She was trying to think through what she knew about the two but couldn’t seem to come up with anything either.

“I mean, I know they went to middle school together. I think I heard Midoriya say that to Uraraka when she asked him, but I can’t remember which one,” Hizashi added.

This situation was like a riddle that none of them could solve, and it was a bit frustrating to Aizawa, but the conversation soon changed to a different subject and the lunch period passed like it did every day. Soon he was teaching the analysis class to the upper years and then observing All Might teach the Practical Heroics course. By the end of the day, the ethics class was put away, not entirely forgotten about, but since there was nothing he could do to make progress on his questions and since it wasn’t urgent, he decided it could wait until later.

Aizawa went home that day, had dinner with his husband, Eri, and Shinsou before leaving for a three hour patrol that night. When he got home once again, he took a quick shower before going to bed. Overall, the day wasn’t much different from the previous, or the day before that. It was just another Monday for him, and it wasn’t until that he would wish he had been more curious and investigated his observations more.

***

Their words had always hurt. Sometimes they hurt more than the physical injuries he had received. They especially hurt when the person speaking was Kacchan. Izuku didn’t know why he still cared for him after everything, he honestly didn’t, but I guess if there was something he could never control, it was his heart.

When Aizawa had started talking about the bullying and discrimination unit, Izuku tried his best not to let anything slip out. He kept his breath as even as possible, he didn’t change his posture, and he kept his eyes on the syllabus they were given. He scanned it as Aizawa spoke, reading over its contents. When his eyes landed on the quirkless section the same time that Aizawa mentioned it, Izuku’s world froze, and he forgot all the rules he was just following. His breath hitched, his head snapped up, and his eyes went wide. He couldn’t stop himself from looking at Kacchan, and he was a little surprised to find his red eyes staring back at him in the same slightly panicked and frozen way his own eyes were.

They both managed to regain their composer, and focus back in on their teacher and the class. Izuku had even managed to take some notes over the subject they were talking about. They were a bit more absent minded notes he had discovered when he went to review them at the end of the day, but nonetheless, they were still something.

When the lunch bell rang, he had quickly packed up and as he went to the lunchroom to meet his friends, he slipped a note to Kacchan saying to meet in Izuku’s room that night around when Kacchan went to ‘bed’. Izuku was one of the few people who knew the truth as to what Kacchan actually did, but he wouldn’t tell.

The rest of the day went by quickly and thankfully without injury as well. Izuku honestly hadn’t felt this good in years, and besides the almost constant ache in his hands and arms, it still felt better then the constant bruises that accompanied him the past 10 years.

When it was getting close to the time he was going to meet Kacchan, Izuku excused himself from the common room. Ochako jokingly complained about it being too early for him to leave the group and tried to get him to join them for a quick card game, but Izuku just said he was tired from the practical class they still had. Ochacko’s attention soon turned to Tsu and Mina, and Izuku grabbed his things and headed towards his room.

When he entered he stood by the door for about a minute before Kacchan came into view and entered his room quickly before anyone could see. As soon as the door was closed, they both sat in their normal spots, with Izuku on his bed and Kacchan sitting on the chair for his desk. They were used to these secret meetings, and had used these to study or hang out without the expectation of the others around.

Maybe that was why he had still cared for Kacchan, because despite what happened at school and in public ever since Izuku was diagnosed, when it was just their families, and especially just the two of them, it was… different, peaceful.

Both Izuku and Kacchan took out their hearing aids. Kacchan’s hearing loss was caused by his own quirk, and Izuku’s was from being around Kacchan so much when he had first gotten his explosion quirk. It had happened away from their parents and so quickly that neither of them knew what had happened before it was too late. It was also before Izuku’s diagnosis and everything went bad, so they had gone through the change together as friends.

‘So… what do you want to do?’ Kacchan asked him.

‘I don’t know. I know that I don't want anyone to know though.’ Izuku signed firmly.

‘So just pretend like nothing happened?’ Kacchan asked again.

‘What else is there to do?’ Izuku signed back, slightly frustrated at this point. ‘We both know what’ll happen. UA may have that policy, but so did those other high schools. So did Aldera,’ he ranted.

‘I’ll follow you’ll lead. I’ll pretend, but if you want that to change, just tell me and I’ll do that. Got it?’ Kacchan relented.

Izuku let out a quick huff, ‘Yeah. Got it.’ With that, Izuku and Kacchan chatted about the upcoming weekend dinner with their families and what they were going to do for dinner. Soon Kacchan actually had to go to bed, and so, he left.

Chapter Text

Growing up, Hizashi was a… different child to say the least. He was hyperactive, loud, attention seeking, a trouble maker, and so many more things. All these things said to him and about him were always so negative. It only got worse when his quirk came in, and by the time he could control his quirk it was too late. His quirk had caused him to lose all his hearing, and his parents, birth parents at least, had finally deemed him not family.

It had been years now, and a lot of therapy too, so Hizashi had processed and was able to understand what happened to him. Now, he stood in front of his husband's class and talked about discrimination based on physical and mental disabilities, and mental illness as well. This was after all, one of the biggest charities he focused on as a pro hero.

He talked about being deaf and what that was like during school, which wasn’t always easy, but it was easier then the times it was related to his quirk or being a foster kid. Hizashi watched the students, some of them probably being able to relate to him like Kaminari with them both having ADHD. His eyes however, caught onto Midoriya and Bakugou and his mind was brought back to what his husband said at the beginning of the week about something being off with them. He was back to talking about signing, speech therapy, and different types of aids used by those who were hard of hearing or deaf.

Bakugou soon turned his head to look out the window, and Hizashi could swear he could briefly see the outline of something like hearing aids around the students ear. This should be something Hizashi already knew as his teacher, but he couldn’t remember it being in any of Bakugou’s files, and he’d honestly have to look into this later. He couldn’t even remember Shouta mentioning it at all to him either. Yeah, these two being weird about this unit was an understatement.

When the bell rang for lunch and the students were leaving he paid close attention to the two as they left, and he noticed Midoriya slip a paper note onto Bakugou’s desk as he left. As Midoriya walked past him he noticed what looked like hearing aids on this student as well. That made two students with suspected hearing loss that Hizashi didn’t know about, which made him slightly upset, because they probably weren’t getting any accommodations, and did they even know sign language or were they never given the chance to learn it.

Honestly, it wasn’t surprising given what little he knew about the two. With Bakugou’s quirk being literal explosions, if his ears weren’t equipped to deal with the quirk, similar to his own, then it made sense. Midoriya could have just been born, or given the strange closeness and familiarity between the two, who knows.

As soon as he and Shouta were in the teacher’s lounge, he asked him, “Do you know if Midoriya or Bakugou have any accommodations for hearing loss?”

Shouta looked at him strangely, “I don’t believe so. You know I would have told you about that day 1 if they did. Why?”

“Because I think they both are wearing hearing aids,” Hizashi stated.

“That’s… strange. I honestly don’t remember any accommodation paperwork for those two. You know how careful I check that before classes start. I’m pretty sure I even had you look over it too,” Shouta rambled.

“I know! That’s what’s strange about this,” Hizashi shouted slightly.

“I’ll look into it,” his husband sighed. They finally started to eat after that. “Maybe Hitoshi knows,” he added.

Later that evening, at dinner, they asked Hitoshi. Their son looked up at them a little shocked, “You didn’t know? I mean, it’s not like they talk about it, but yeah. Both of them have hearing aids. The only time I remember them talking about it was when we moved to the dorms and Midoriya mentioned it to their friends that they could only text him or Bakugou after they went to their rooms if they needed them because they wouldn’t be able to hear knocks on their doors.”

“No, I guess we never noticed it before, and it’s not on any of their paperwork either. Do you know if they sign at all?” Shouta asked.

“I’m not sure, but I think they can. I’ve wandered into the kitchen a few times when it was just Bakugou and Midoriya and they were signing, but they stopped as soon as I walked in,” Hitoshi admitted. “It’s honestly a little weird.”

“You can say that again Hitoshi,” Hizashi laughed.

***

It was the second night that week where Katsuki found himself heading towards Deku’s room. To be fair, they did meet up in either of their rooms once every week, but it was usually for a time for them to decompress and joke around just like they did when they were little. The last meeting, while ending like a normal one, was because of what they were talking about in class, and this was also because of today’s class discussion as well.

Katsuki normally had a difficult time reading people and understanding their emotions, but when it came to Deku, he could know how he felt by just a shrug of shoulders. Right now, Katsuki knew that Deku was stressed out. While Katsuki was too, he would never let it show though.

He saw that Deku’s door was cracked open, and after checking that no one was near, Katsuki slipped into Deku’s room, closing and locking the door behind him. Deku was pacing the floor and was rambling on and on about some hero mission that happened. Katsuki went and hugged him from behind, causing Deku to stop for a moment.

“Kacchan, will you please let me go?” he asked nicely.

“Yes, but only if you go sit on your bed and take your hearing aids out,” Katsuki sighed.

Only in their rooms, when it was just the two of them, with the world around them silenced, could Katsuki relax, and it was much the same for Deku. Well, Deku was still his chaotic self, but here it was a lot more controlled than anxious.

Deku didn’t even hesitate to follow Katsuki’s as soon as he was given free reign again. With only a little huff, Deku was on his bed, with his hearing aids on charge, and his hands going a mile a minute already.

From what Katsuki could catch, as Deku’s signed rambles were just as intelligible as his spoken ones, it was him panicking and venting his frustration about their hearing loss and what Yamada Sensei was saying.

Katsuki moved and sat next to the idiot on the bed, physically stopping him from signing any more by grabbing and holding Deku’s hand. He took a deep breath in and Deku soon followed with his own. Katsuki took his hands away and started to sign himself. ‘You know that what Aldera said was wrong’. Deku just stared at him with a confused look on his face. ‘Right?’ Katsuki questioned.

‘But UA hasn’t done or mentioned anything about it,’ Deku questioned back.

Katsuki thought for a moment. No teachers had met with his parents or him about anything, and sure, nothing big had happened that Katsuki or Deku had needed to involve a teacher, but there were still moments where life was harder because he was Hard of hearing. He hadn’t met with anyone since before middle school, and Katsuki had learned the hard way that it was his responsibility to make the world equal, not his teachers. That was what his first middle school homeroom teacher had told him.

‘Deku, now that we’re out of there. Aldera is a shit show and a fucking ass of a place to learn. Not even to mention the teachers being bat-shit crazy,’ Katuski signed.

Deku just sighed, and looked away from Katsuki. He knew that part of Deku’s behavior had stemmed from his own treatment of him in public places. When they were little, part of it had been real, but it had only lasted a month before their parents noticed and all three adults yelled at Katsuki. Then, Katsuki started to be nice to him in public again, which then caused the other kids to look at him weirdly and even some adults too. So, when Katsuki and Deku were alone, they decided on a plan, Katsuki became Deku’s main antagonizer and would in turn prevent things from getting out of hand. It worked, at least until the end of middle school that is.

Katsuki was still shaken up by just how horrible their homeroom teacher had been. There were moments the man had even gotten into his own head, and even if he knew what their teacher had said was wrong, it messed him up. As Katsuki looked at Deku, he wondered just how much everything had been embedded into his soul. Katuski just hoped it wasn’t too bad and could be undone if Deku wanted to try.

Today Katsuki really looked back at Aldera and made him think about if what he was told was true or not. While his first teacher there forced him to adapt, his third teacher made sure to convince him to not mention anything about his ‘hearing deficiency’, as the teacher put it. It scared Katsuki enough that it would affect his chances of getting into UA, so he didn’t put it on any paperwork and made sure it wasn’t too noticeable.

When Yamada Sensei came into class today and talked about being deaf, it made him hopeful for the first time in years that maybe it wasn’t a deficiency in his abilities as a hero or as a person. Katsuki just hoped that Deku would get that message into his thick skull sooner or later.

The two boys just sat in the room for a bit before Deku pulled out his nintendo switch and chucked a control towards the blonde. He pulled up the minecraft world they had been working on for years and just started grinding away at the game like usual. This is what Deku did when he was trying to process things, something simple that he could think of, but kept him busy enough not to spiral too hard. Plus, with Katsuki there, he had someone that would be watching him.

Katsuki liked times like this a lot. Just the two of them, the same as it had always been, and how he wished it would continue to be. The two of them played the game for about an hour before Katsuki was starting to get tired. They said goodbye as Katsuki grabbed his things and went to his room.

They had gotten used to knowing Midoriya’s floormates pattern, but it didn’t help that people were a bit unpredictable. Because when Katsuki exited the room and turned he was face to face with Shinsou. Fuck, Katsuki thought, this was not good. It was worse when his mouth started to move and Katuski couldn’t pick up what was said because his hearing aids were in his backpack and he was too startled to realize what was going on.

Shinsou looked at Katsuki for a moment before raising his hand. ‘Sorry. I asked if I wanted to know what was happening in there,’ he signed.

‘None of your business eyebags,’ Katsuki signed back.

Shinsou smiled a bit before responding, ‘You stick to nick-names even while signing?’

‘Names a name,’ Katsuki replied.

They stood there looking at each other for a minute before Shinsou asked one last question. ‘So, how long have you known how to sign?’

Katsuki let out a huff, ‘Around five. It was a bit after I got my quirk. Same with Deku. You?’

‘When I got adopted right before middle school.’ Shinsou answered.

‘Cool. Get some rest eyebags. See ya’ Katsuki signed before moving past the guy and towards his room.

Deku and Katsuki had known that they would get caught eventually, and they had come up with plans depending on who it was. Tokoyami, Shouji, and Shinsou were easy since they were more private people anyways. They did actively avoid Aoyama since he was such a loud mouth, and Kirishima similarly but more because he couldn’t keep a secret if the world depended on it.

He’d mention the meeting to Deku the next day. Right now, all Katsuki wanted to do was crash on his bed and sleep till morning. No matter how ‘emotionally mature’ he had become this past year, emotions still drained the living daylights out of him. Katsuki could tell that this month was going to be emotionally draining for both him and Deku and that he would be meeting him in one of their rooms a lot more often now. The second one wasn’t a bad thing though, it was a pretty damn good thing actually. Katuski then drifted off to sleep with a small smile tugging on his lips.

***

It was late, and Hizashi had spent the past hour grading some English papers after putting Eri to sleep. His phone buzzed with a notification from the family group chat between himself, Shouta, and Hitoshi.

Hitoshi: Just ran into Bakugou outside of Midoriya’s room. They’ve both known sign since they were like 5, after Bakugou’s quirk came in. You didn’t hear it from me though…

Chapter Text

Shouta started to pay a bit more attention to Bakugou and Midoriya after his husband and son’s discovery. He thought back on the school year and how the two had behaved, how they interacted with their classmates, their teachers, and when he had the time, he looked into the year's academics for each class. He confirmed his suspicion that unless he or another teacher had physically seen the hearing aids, like Hizashi had, then they wouldn’t have known, and both boys kept their hair just long enough to keep them covered. Hizashi was just extremely lucky to have spotted it, but it bothered Shouta to no end that they never found out or noticed before now, especially since he had multiple meetings with their parents by now.

He did have to put those thoughts in the back of his mind for now. As much as he loved teaching this unit, today’s lesson was one he had to mentally prepare himself for. Yesterday’s lesson was about quirk discrimination based on physical mutation quirks, which had gone over relatively well. The students that it did affect had added a lot to the conversation through talking about their own experiences and the class had been really empathetic. Today though, was Shouta’s turn to describe his experiences as they would talk about ‘villainous quirks’ for most of the class before introducing the last topic for tomorrow.

Shouta had to ground himself before going into the classroom today. He always felt so vulnerable talking about this portion of his life and the lasting effects that have stuck with him. This would also be a tough day because his son was in the classroom as well, and of course, he had faced this type of discrimination too due to his quirk.

The bell rang and Shouta started off the lesson like the others, going over the basic information of this type of discrimination, origins, dictionary definition, and some brief statistics. Then, like the other days, he moved onto the real life example from a hero they knew who had faced it, himself.

“I’m sure you’re not surprised that I’ll be speaking to you today, but there are plenty of heroes, even at UA, that could be talking to you today. Vlad King, Present Mic, and myself are just a few heroes who have gone through this, and you are free to ask to talk to us more about it if you want. I would ask that you schedule a meeting for that, as it is something we all prefer to talk about in private spaces like an office or classroom,” he began. It was a bit of a long rant, but it helped to procrastinate the actual topic a bit longer.

“Now, my life before my quirk was pretty typical. I had friends, big dreams, and guesses on what my quirk would be. I never really imagined something like Erasure would appear though. When I did get my quirk, the world pretty much flipped on its head. My friends, teachers, and family were all scared that I would take their quirk away, even if it was only for a second. Many people said it was unnatural and that only a villain would be able to do something like that. Keep in mind, this started when I was four years old. Like we discussed yesterday, a four year old is extremely susceptible to what others around them say. Even though I was just a young child, I was now being called a troublemaker, a monster, and a villain, multiple times a day,” he stated.

“As I grew up, it only got worse. Not just with their words, but they started to get physical as well. In elementary school, some teachers prevented it, but by middle school, all of my teachers ignored it. I got in trouble for things I didn’t do.” Shouta looked around the classroom, and his students were focused and some even had tears in their eyes. They were all paying strict attention to him and the story of his life. This next part was where things started to get better.

“Despite all the people telling me I couldn’t get it or succeed, I applied for UA’s hero course. Now, as you know, my quirk isn’t very physical, and so, when I went up against giant robots, I didn’t make it into the hero course,” some students let out a gasp here, “but when the sports festival came around, I managed to beat every single students, both within and outside of the hero course, and that’s how I got into the hero course.”

“There were still plenty of people that disapproved of it, and there were students within the hero course that were just like those I grew up with. However, unlike my earlier years of schooling, I had a new group of friends to back me up. These were the people that finally helped me to truly believe in myself. I hope you all realize just how important your actions are and by choosing to be kind and support everyone, you can make this world a better place,” Shouta ended his speech.

“So, now if you have any questions or experiences of your own that you wish to share, you may do so,” he announced. It took a minute or two before someone raised their hand and asked a question. It was Kaminari.

“So why did you go into underground heroics?” he asked.

“Not only is my quirk better suited for it, but I prefer the types of jobs the underground does, and I definitely do not enjoy the spotlight or interviews the limelight heroes have to deal with,” Shouta answered candidly. “If anyone wants to know more about the different types of heroics please see me at the end of the day or during homeroom tomorrow. We can set up a meeting to talk about it with you specifically in mind.”

Soon more questions rolled in, and then some students even shared their own experiences. Hagakure talked about people accusing her of spying or stealing things. Tokoyami shared tales of how he and Dark Shadow were left out because he was ‘alway going to end up evil with that creature anyways’. It took a while, but eventually Hitoshi shared a few details of his own quirk and what it had cost him, like his birth family and friends, to experiences with teachers and bullies, and a brief mention of a muzzle being used to prevent him from speaking even.

Then someone asked if Bakugou had anything to share, and a strange look appeared on his face as he turned to face Kaminari. Kirishima smacked his hand to his own face and said frustratedly, “You can’t just ask that Denki. That’s for him to share of his own free will.”

Shouta didn’t think Kaminari had meant any harm from it, and from the looks of it, neither did Bakugou or the rest of their friends. Though he did also wonder what Bakugou’s experiences were…

“I have no clue what you’re talking about Sparky, but I never dealt with any of this shit,” Bakugou barked, and that was surprising. Explosions combined with Bakugou’s attitude had led Shota, and many others apparently, to believe that he was also treated like a villain at some point.

“Wait really?” Hitoshi questioned.

“Nah,” Bakugou said.

“Wow, I wish I could have gone to your school then,” Hitoshi laughed.

Bakugou stilled at that remark, and turned slightly to look at Midoriya, who was looking down at his desk, before exploding. “Say that again eyebags, I dare you!” he shouted.

“Just meant that it would have been better than my school. That’s all..” Shinsou replied.

Bakugou just stared at Shouta’s son before quietly saying, “Just because it wasn’t bad for me, doesn't mean it was a good school. That place had plenty of problems…”

That sentence scared Shouta a little bit as he tried to figure out the meaning behind his students' words. But as the class kept silent, and as the bell would be ringing in about 5 minutes, he had to introduce tomorrow’s topic.

“Okay everyone, that was a hard topic, and I understand that. I encourage you to think about your schools and how it was there, but please do not compare experiences as worse or better, because it is not something that you experienced yourself. We will talk more about that specifically later. For now, I would like to talk for a little bit about tomorrow,” Shouta announced, and that seemed to get the attention of the class.

“We will be talking about a type of discrimination that, while not that common, is heavily prevalent in today’s era,” he said.

“What is it?” Yaoyorozu asked him.

“We will be talking about quirkless discrimination tomorrow, and I want you to think about it, maybe do five minutes of research if you want to. Don’t spend too much time on it though as there is a lot of false information out there,” he said.

A few students started talking slightly as he ended class, but before the bell rang, he heard a student shout.

“You can’t just say that!” his son shouted. Shouta turned to see what was happening only to find Hitoshi staring face to face with Midoriya.

“It’s not like what I said wasn’t true,” Midoriya shouted back.

Shouta had never seen his son this angry, especially at Midoriya who had, while being a pain in the neck for his tendencies for self sacrifice, was an overall great and kind student. “That’s what we’re learning about though, and it isn’t true anyways!” Hitoshi argued.

“Have you ever actually met one though Hitoshi?” Midoriya asked. Shouta still didn't really know what they were talking about.

“That doesn’t matter!” Hitoshi said slowly.

“Well I have, and they’re pathetic,” Midoriya laughed. Shouta felt a chill go down his spine, as he had never heard that tone of voice come from the child before.

“Midoriya, my brother is quirkless. He is not pathetic,” Todoroki joined in, and while he didn’t shout, he had more emotion than usual in his voice. It startled Shouta to finally know what it was about. It stunned him so much that he didn’t step in right away.

“Well, he’s Endeavour's son, so I guess that makes him at least somewhat useful,” Midoriya said.

“Deku!” Uraraka then shouted in shock. She also seemed angry at what was said.

Just then Hitoshi started to move his fist towards Midoriya’s face, and thankfully, or unfortunately, Midoriya dodged.

“While I don’t agree with you Midoriya, Shinsou, please refrain from violence in the classroom,” Iida lectured.

“I’m not saying anything that isn’t factual though,” Midoriya said before continuing, “It’s just that quirkless people can’t add much to society. It’s a dangerous place for them to exist. They’re just underdeveloped and honestly, the null’s would be doing us a favour if they just stopped exist…”

“MIDORIYA!” Shota yelled, breaking a personal rule of his to never yell at a student unless they were in danger. All eyes were then on him. Shouta took a deep breath before he spoke. “If it were any other time, we would be dealing with this immediately. However, seeing as we are already talking about it tomorrow, I will be leaving it until after the discussion. You, however, are not to talk about it until then, is that clear?”

“Crystal,” Midoriya responded.

Shouta thought that would be the end of the fight, but then Hitoshi had to say one last thing. “Don’t sit or talk to me until then either.”

Midoriya stared at Hitoshi for a second before he grabbed his backpack and walked past his friend. “Tch, whatever,” Midoriya said in an almost exact copy of Bakugou. It was that strange moment that Shouta remembered that Bakugou and Midoriya went to the same school.

The class then emptied as the bell rang. Surprisingly, when Shouta looked up again, only Bakugou was left in the classroom. The student was even walking up to his desk. “Sensei?” he asked quietly.

“What can I help you with Bakugou?” he asked back.

“Could you… I just… Nevermind,” Bakugou sighed.

“Is this about Midoriya?” Shouta nudged.

“He… he doesn’t really believe that,” Bakugou said confidently.

That shocked Shouta a little bit. The things his usually kind student said, had been some of the worst things he’s heard said about quirkless people. “I hope that’s true, but I’m not so sure Bakugou,” he replied. “Is there a reason he said those things?” he asked.

It took a second before Bakugou said one word. “Yes.” Shouta waited for him to continue. As he raised his eyebrow and was about to push the students further, Bakugou started to speak again. “But it’s not my story to share. Have a good lunch Sensei.” And with that, Bakugou left the room.

Today, when Shouta entered the teacher’s lounge, he was still thinking about the personality switch between Bakugou and Midoriya. There were a lot of pieces to the very confusing puzzle in front of him, but he just couldn’t seem to fit any of them together.

“You okay there chief?” his husband asked.

“I’m not sure. Bakugou was just… strange, quiet even-,” he began.

“Yikes,” Hizashi interrupted. “And that has you on edge?”

“Slightly, but it was Midoriya. He said some very… peculiar things about quirkless people,” he admitted.

Hizashi stared at him for a moment before quietly probing, “What kind of things?”

“Parts of it alone I would have been expellable if I wanted it too, but… it was Midoriya saying them…” Shouta rambled. Hizashi was about to say something again, but Shouta wasn’t done yet. “I was still considering it after class, but that’s when Bakugou came up to me and I managed to get him to tell me that Midoriya doesn’t believe in those things. He didn’t tell me why though, just that it wasn’t his story to share,” he finished.

“Those two just keep getting weirder and weirder,” Hizashi sighed. “How about I join you for it tomorrow. Just in case things get crazy,” he offered.

“Okay… that sounds good,” Shouta said gladly.

Chapter Text

Izuku was pissed off. He wasn’t sure why, but he was uncontrollably angry. The lunch bell had rang and he had gone to the lunchroom to eat, and his friends were sitting with Shinsou. As much as Izuku was angry about the situation, he still respected Shinsou’s boundaries and so he wasn’t going to eat there. As he scanned the room for a place to sit, Kacchan approached him. “Let’s go eat on the roof,” he said. It wasn’t an order, but just said to him like a simple fact. Izuku just nodded and followed the blonde onto the roof. They ate in silence until their food was gone.

Kacchan’s eyes found Izuku’s, whenever Kacchan wanted to talk about something serious, he always would look at Izuku head on. “You said some pretty messed up shit back there,” Kacchan stated.

Izuku didn’t want to think about it, it hurt. “Again, I didn’t lie,” he answered with his tone biting back. He muttered something after Aizawa Sensei announced tomorrow’s topic. He had said something about how there was no point in researching something so useless. That it would just be a waste of time to talk about something that was dying out anyways. Apparently though, Shinsou was listening in, and took great offense to what Izuku had said.

“In a way… I guess not, but…” Kacchan paused, “it was still pretty messed up.” Izuku’s glad Katsuki didn’t call him out on not believing it. Izuku wasn’t sure if he did or not right now. After literal years of hearing it everyday of his life… Welp, while he didn’t want to believe it himself, wasn’t it the truth?

Today’s topic was hard on Izuku. Hearing their teacher’s first hand experience with discrimination and bullying, Izuku could see so many parallels between his own experience and his teacher’s. It scared Izuku a little to know just how bad it had been for his teacher, but how it still seemed better than what Izuku had gone through. When Shinsou started talking about his own experience, Izuku knew what that had been like as well. After all, it was why his Dad had left him and his Mom, even if the man wasn’t all that present to begin with. Shinsou briefly mentioning being muzzled made Izuku want to cry. He could still feel the cold metal clamping his jaw shut, feel the tears going down his face, and the echoes of his mind wishing that Katsuki was there.

School was always so much worse when Katsuki wasn’t there. The teachers enjoyed seeing the future hero beat down the quirkless runt. It was great practice for when Katsuki was taking UA's exam. Still, when Katsuki was sick, the few times a year that happened, it was literal hell on earth in that school. It didn’t help that after the first few times, Izuku knew how bad it was going to be so his anxiety skyrocketed on those days. Which then made everything worse.

Katsuki, noticing that Izuku was beginning to spiral, spoke again. “So, what’s that game plan for tomorrow?”

Izuku was a little surprised at the question. What did he want to do? After today, he knows that there are more than a handful of people that cared for the quirkless now. Atleast, Shinsou, Tenya, Ochako, Todoroki, and Aizawa, but he was still unsure about the rest of the class, and he would continue to not know. Because now that they knew their teacher cared, he couldn’t be sure about their true feelings.

There was a slight feeling of hope in his chest with this news, and Izuku deep down, really wanted to be changed and protected like Aizawa was when he entered the hero course. That was a dream, but hadn’t he already had enough of his dreams come true? Izuku wasn’t that lucky, that was clear. So, Izuku didn’t want to hope.

“What do you mean?” he asked Katsuki.

“I’ll follow your lead, just like I told you at the beginning,” Katsuki told him calmly.

“What’d you do with my Kacchan?” Izuku asked jokingly.

“Clearly you took all the anger today. The rules clearly state that one of us has to be the calm one,” he laughed back. Then he looked Izuku in the eyes again, “Seriously though, what do YOU want to do?”

“Let me think about it. We can have dinner in my room and talk about it,” Izuku told him.

“Sounds good to me. I’ll make some spicy Katsudon for us then,” Katsuki replied. And that, that honestly made this evening a little easier. Spicy Katsudon sounded so good, and would at least be one good thing to happen that day.

The rest of the day passed in isolation. It was eerily familiar to his middle school environment, no one talking to him, but everyone talking about him. Izuku already knew how to shake off the feeling of the stares and whispers. In fact, he thought they started doing it more openingly when they figured out he didn’t care about it. He watched Shinsou get more irritated and angry throughout the day, and Izuku was waiting for the moment Shinsou would act on his feelings. He never did though, at least not until their last class, Foundational Hero Studies.

It was already awkward in the changing room. Izuku went in and changed as quickly as possible before heading to the gym. Surprisingly, both All Might and Aizawa Sensei were there today to teach them. They were only in their standard gym uniforms instead of their hero gear which boded for more of a physical training day then simulations.

“Today, you will be sparring quirkless, we already have matched pairs so find who you're with and don’t whine about it,” Aizawa spoke.

And in some twisted form of fate, or standard Izuku luck, he was paired with Shinsou for sparring today. When he looked at his friend’s face, his stomach sank a little at the look of pure excitement on Shinsou’s face. It was again, all too similar to Aldera for Izuku, but all Izuku could do was put on a cold exterior so that nobody knew how bothered he was. He could feel Kacchan’s eyes on him, watching him, reading his true emotions. He was the only one who could actually tell what Izuku was truly feeling no matter how he acted.

As Aizawa Sensei and All Might explained the rules for the sparring practice, Izuku was already strategizing how to take down Shinsou in as short a time as possible. He also needed to make it efficient as he’ll have to do it multiple times. Shinsou was extremely agile and could dodge extremely well, but so was Izuku. Their backgrounds were similar after all. The true difference was that even though Izuku had gained muscles, he was still somehow faster then Shinsou, and hopefully, overpowering him in both speed and strength will be enough for today.

Soon enough, the class split off and started to warm up before starting to spare. Izuku made sure he was always able to keep an eye on Shinsou during this time. Izuku watched his opponent like a hawk, looking for any tiny detail that would give him more knowledge. However, Shinsou didn’t show any signs of a strained limb or a cramping muscle. But, it didn’t matter, because Izuku still had a plan, he just needed a little more information before he could act on it. He just hoped he wouldn’t get too bruised before he was ready.

***

Aizawa watched the different pairs begin to spar with each other. He and Toshinori had made these plans weeks ago, including the pairings. They had spent about an hour discussing different students and what they wanted them to become better at. Now though, he wished they hadn’t done that, because Hitoshi and Midoriya were sparring with each other, and he couldn’t stop staring at the two.

At first, Hitoshi was pinning Midoriya quickly. This lasted about three short rounds. The next three were longer, but still ended in Hitoshi’s victory. Then he watched Hotishi say something, he was unsure what exactly it was about, but he was sure it was related to their earlier confrontation. Midoriya didn’t say anything this time, he just took a breath and prepared for the next spar, with a smile on his face this time.

Aizawa watched in horror, as Midoriya won spar after spar with Hitoshi. It didn’t matter how Hitoshi changed his technique to try and pin Midoriya, Midoriya would always know what to do and end the match with Hitoshi on the ground. Midoriya and Hitoshi were now approaching their twentieth spar, and Hitoshi had only won the first six, which made Aizawa question if he really won them, or if Midoriya used those spars to figure something out. But shit, he felt bad for Hitoshi, but he was now really impressed with Midoriya.

If only he could figure out what the hell happened earlier and what his issues with quirkless people were.

***

Izuku’s strategy had worked. He used the first three rounds to figure out Shinsou’s goto moves and the next three to see what Shinsou would do with someone who fought back. Now, he could generally pin Shinsou within two minutes of a spar beginning. He didn’t think he’d truly lost a match yet besides the first six, but he could tell Shinsou was starting to get frustrated. His classmate was starting to make more mistakes, and he wasn’t thinking as much as he had been in the beginning. It made sparring easier honestly, although it could be a bit more dangerous if he got too angry

Izuku didn’t care though, because after the first six matches, Shinsou mocked him and said that he would be nothing without his quirk. Now that, pissed Izuku the fuck off, so he was showing no mercy to his friend. It confused Izuku a little. Sure, Shinsou was angry at what Izuku said, but he wasn’t sure if how he was acting now was okay either.

Aizawa called for a water break as they were a little over half way through the class. It was passing by quickly much to Izuku’s enjoyment. He grabbed his water bottle and drank it while keeping an eye on Shinsou. He was over talking to their friends, sometimes glancing back at Izuku. When their eyes would meet, Izuku never looked away, he always stared head on. He called it channeling his inner-Kacchan.

When the water break was over he approached Shinsou again to begin their second half of sparring. “So, was your whole attitude before an act?” Shinsou asked as they began sparring again.

“I’m not sure what you mean Shinsou,” he said back.

“Because you’re acting like a completely different person, and I don’t think any of us like this version of Deku,” Shinsou snapped.

Izuku didn’t like hearing Shinsou use that name in this way. A way filled with venom and hatred. Sure, he didn’t usually enjoy hearing it, but it was his hero name after all. “Then maybe you should stop calling me Deku then,” he replied as he pinned Shinsou down again.

“I guess I won’t then Midoriya,” Shinsou hissed out, with the same hate filled tone as before. The next few spars were done in silence, with Shinsou slowly getting angrier and angrier. Izuku was a bit relieved when Aizawa said the class was over.

With that, Izuku stopped mid spar and just left. He didn’t want to stay there, he just wanted to be back in his dorm, waiting for this cursed day to be over. He could hear Shinsou running towards him, probably to pin him, but when he was close enough, Izuku quickly moved out of the way and to the side so that Shinsou ran past him instead.

Izuku then grabbed his clothes and backpack from the changing room and went to his dorm straight away. With all the tension regarding him, Izuku thought that it would be safer to shower back there rather than in the locker room, and he just stayed in his room after that. He did his homework and waited for Katsuki to show up, but that wouldn’t happen for at least another hour.

So, Izuku decided on coming up with a plan for the ethics class tomorrow, and that meant he needed research.

Izuku already knew where to find the true statistics, or at least the best there were nowadays. It was depressing, but Izuku wrote and wrote about what he found and already knew. He wrote about his experiences and the worst years of his life. If there was one thing Izuku could do well at, it was write. And when Katsuki finally came by with dinner, Izuku was as ready as he could be for tomorrow. He just needed to fill in Katsuki on the plan and find a pair of shoes that he had never worn to UA, but the ones he always wore for middle school.

Chapter Text

Shouta wasn’t sure if he was more nervous about yesterday’s lecture or today’s at this point. He had gone over the information he was giving the students multiple times to make sure he had all the information in his head and would be able to answer as many questions as possible if his students had any.

Hizashi had been a tremendous help when he was working on it, and so was Hitoshi once he was out of his sulking mood. Shouta had to explain to Hizashi what had happened during the sparring session, because during dinner that was all Hitoshi was complaining about.

“That’s the thing! I’m not even sure how he was doing it either,” Hitoshi exclaimed. Shouta was confused at first, but after class, when he and All Might were talking about the progress the students made, he mentioned the pair.

“Oh, young Midoriya was probably just analyzing young Shinsou. Young Midoriya’s mind is absolutely brilliant when it comes to analyzing someone’s fighting style and finding ways to both overcome it and improve it!” the former hero beamed with pride. Shouta knew that the two had a close relationship, maybe because their quirks were similar enough that All Might had been helping the kid.

“So the first six matches were… mere chance?” he asked.

“Not chance, strategic losses I think is a better word for it. At least that’s how young Midoriya has explained it to me before. He uses them to figure out how his opponent will move in a match that has multiple rounds. I’m surprised he didn’t do any more though. Usually the opponent gets too frustrated, and as Midoriya stated, gets too ‘dangerous’ to keep winning. I’m still not sure how it all works if I’m being honest,” All Might rambled on.

Shouta wondered if he could use this closeness between hero and student for his benefit tomorrow. “Would you like to view tomorrow’s lecture in Ethics All Might?” he asked.

“Why of course! What are you talking about tomorrow?” he asked in return.

“Quirkless discrimination,” Shouta said plainly, as he observed the hero’s reaction.

“Oh… of course, though I’m not as knowledgeable about the topic in today’s age. I remember what it was like when I was a child, but I know from a personal friend that it has changed drastically from then,” All Might sighed with what seemed to be a hint of sadness and regret in his eyes.

“What friend?” Shouta probed.

“Someone who had gone through it in the past few years. Who I wish I had known long before our first meeting. I had made some mistakes when speaking to him the first time, and I wish I hadn’t,” the man admitted.

That was surprising, All Might knew someone quirkless in today’s day and age. It was extremely rare, especially for a limelight hero like All Might. “Do you think they would be able to speak on such short notice? There is someone in class who is misguided in their beliefs about quirkless people,” Shouta explained to him.

“I can ask, but while they are free, I’m not sure if they’d be willing to do so. Which student is it?” All Might continued.

Shouta took a moment to take a deep breath, “It’s Midoriya actually. He said some pretty shocking and hateful statements about quirkless people towards the end of the ethics class today.”

All Might looked at him in disbelief for a moment. The silence between them stood there for a minute while All Might thought to himself. “I see… hmmm.” All Might looked away from Shouta before speaking again. “I think I know where it comes from, and while I’m sure he did say that, I hope, no… I know he doesn’t truly believe in it.” The hero stated confidently.

Shouta laughed a little before he started to head back to his classroom, “That’s what Bakugou said to me as well. Anyways, I have to head home. But, I’ll see you tomorrow then for the lecture.”

Right now though, Shouta was standing at the front of the classroom, he was earlier than normal. However when he entered the classroom, he was shocked to see All Might, Bakugou, and Midoriya already there. The three seemed to be having a quiet conversation with each other, and to say that was an ominous sight would be an understatement.

Shouta just set down his things and began to pull up the presentation and get the stacks of paper in his bag out. He organized his material. Shouta had never really been this prepared for a lecture before, but with the stake of one of his students' future on the line, he wanted to be as prepared as possible for the day. He really didn’t want to expel Midoriya, but if his beliefs didn’t change, Shouta wouldn’t want him as a hero out there either.

Soon enough, more students started to enter the classroom, so did Hizashi, and All Might also chose to join Shouta by his desk as well. Shouta watched the class with an eerie feeling, as the only person talking to Midoriya was Bakugou, and so, by association, the rest of the class left him alone as well. When Kirishima came, he tried to pull Bakugou away, but still, he didn’t leave Midoriya’s side. Kirishima looked so sad at that, and just shook his head before leaving him to go to their friend group.

The clock ticked closer and closer to the start of the period, and at that point, Shouta knew it was now or never.

***

Izuku sat in the classroom, trying to regulate his heartbeat down to a normal pace. His heart was racing, and it had been since he woke up this morning. Izuku wasn’t sure how his classmates were going to react once they knew the whole truth, if it even got to that and Izuku was still hoping it wouldn’t reach that point.

Aizawa Sensei walked to the front of the room as the bell rang, signaling the beginning of class. He stood in front of them all and spoke calmly, “As I mentioned yesterday, today we will be talking about quirkless people and the discrimination and abuse they face in modern society.”

Izuku wanted to laugh at that statement. How could his teacher possibly know what it was like today? For every other topic, he had brought in other teachers who could speak on their own experiences, but today, there was no one. Although, in the back of his mind, Izuku knew that there was probably no one who would be able to speak about it.

“Quirkless people, since becoming more and more of a minority in our world, have been treated less and less like people. Today, they are up against many people who believe that they are unnatural and shouldn't be here,” his teacher began. Aizawa then proceeded to click to the next slide of his presentation, which showed different statistics about quirkless people.

Izuku was mad, really mad, sure the statistics on the slide were bad. Clearly, but Izuku knew the stats were wrong. They had clearly not been updated since Japan stopped including quirkless people during the senate. Izuku was pretty sure this was public knowledge, but apparently not to his teachers.

“Three of every four people are bullied in school, and five of every eight are told to commit suicide. This is a hard way to live for anyone who faces a life like this, but there are people fighting to make it better,” Aizawa Sensei emphasized. Izuku still wanted to laugh, as he knew that every quirkless person he had met online had not only been bullied horribly, but that they were told to die at least once a week. Izuku knew that his case was more of an outlier compared to others. He had a mother who loved him, sure sometimes she could be overly cautious, but she was like that before his quirk too. Even with his better living situation compared to others, his school life was pretty much the same.

He listened as Aizawa droned on and on about different quirkless statistics, and how it affected quirkless people, and Izuku had zoned out by that point. He knew which points were wrong, outdated, or not even included. He was pretty sure these statistics were fabricated, as they were still incorrect compared to the last census taken.

Class passed by as Aizawa spoke, and then came the moment Izuku was waiting for. “So, do we have any questions?” his teacher asked.

“This is for Midoriya,” Shinsou said automatically, “Do these facts change your mind about what you said yesterday?” he asked.

“No,” Izuku replied.

“What?” Shinsou shouted, “What do you mean no? Clearly they should make you feel some sort of empathy!”

“I mean yeah, but those statistics are clearly wrong,” Izuku countered.

“I assure you Midoriya, that they are correct,” Aizawa said to him.

“I have to agree with Deku, they are wrong,” Kacchan added in support of him.

“I don’t get it Midoriya, you were one of the kindest people I knew, and now you just can’t accept the facts that are laid before you? Those statistics are HORRIBLE, so why can’t you see the truth?” Shinsou told him angrily.

“Those statistics are bad,” Midoriya started, and this caused Shinsou and Aizawa to be quiet, “but they are wrong!”

“Midoriya, can you please explain what you mean,” Aizawa asked kindly, his face showing how confused he was.

“It’s hard for it to be right when they stopped including quirkless people on the census and researching their treatment,” Kacchan explained for him.

The whole class stopped for a minute. “What do you mean Bakugou?” Yamada Sensei finally said, speaking for everyone in that room.

“They stopped asking for information like five years ago, even from before that, the states you just showed were better compared to the real shit they faced,” Bakugou informed the class.

“And how would you know this?” Shinsou asked in an exasperated voice.

“Because I went to school with someone who was quirkless. I know EXACTLY how they are treated today, because I saw it with my own two eyes, asshole,” Bakugou almost yelled at Shinsou.

“I also have to admit, that even those statistics are more like from when I was attending school,” All Might added. He knew what was going on. He had messaged Izuku when he was talking to Kacchan, and so, Izuku informed him of the plan. All Might, being who he was, understood and offered his support where he could.

“So what, does that give Midoriya the right to say what he said?” Shinsou barked back.

“I don’t agree with what Deku said, and I know he doesn’t actually agree with it either,” Kacchan said.

“That doesn’t give him the right to say that shit though!” Shinsou continued to argue.

“Did you know there is only one shoe company that makes shoes that fit quirkless feet due to the extra toe joint in their little toe,” Izuku stated, in a quiet and sad voice. “Any other shoe hurts like a bitch, and will actually do damage to their feet if they wear them for too long.”

“What?” Shinsou questioned.

“Or that there are multiple medical surgeries that a quirkless person may need in their life, but no normal hospital admits a quirkless person, at least not for an exorbitant amount. So, quirkless people rely on underground clinics to survive.” Izuku added. The class was silent.

“You know, most heroes nowadays know how to spot a quirkless person by their shoes. They are bright red and will have a null sign on the inside of the tongue. So, most heroes prioritize other victims in a rescue, and a quirkless person will be last if they are rescued at all,” he shared, remembering the multiple horror stories he had read of his online friends in a villain attack, begging to be helped, but being refused.

“And how do you know this young Midoriya?” All Might asked since no one else had.

“Because it’s how I grew up…” he said, and the classroom was truly silent.

Chapter Text

It was silent, and it had been for a minute or two. Shouta was still too shocked to speak, but he managed to ask the question that was on everyone’s mind. “What do you mean by that Midoriya?”

“It’s how I grew up. A false negative… or something,” he mumbled. Surprisingly this was the one time Midoriya seemed to not be able to find the words to express himself. The normally exuberant and outspoken kid that Shota had come to know was now drawing in on himself, waiting for shouts or fists to fly at him it seemed.

Shota wasn’t sure what went through his mind first. Why Midoriya had said those horrible things earlier or which of those horrible things had he been told enough times to believe. He wasn’t sure which of those horrified them more, because he could guess the answer to both of those things. He believed what he had said in his heart because he had been told those things about himself enough times.

A lot of things were starting to make sense about one Izuku Midoriya, and even a bit about Katsuki Bakugou. If one thing was clear, Shota was going to have to do a lot more digging into the pasts of his students, all of them. Why hadn’t he known this? Why hadn’t he noticed something was off? It all made so much sense.

***

It was quiet, silent actually, and it seemed to be staying that way. It was in that shocked silence that Izuku picked up his bag and left the room. He didn’t want to say anything else. That was why Kacchan and All Might were there. They were meant to handle the aftermath of the ‘reveal’.

Izuku hated that he had to even call it that. He hated that it mattered, that it still mattered. It shouldn’t matter anymore, he had a quirk. He was normal now. He wasn’t useless anymore.

Those thoughts were what led him to the bathroom. Where he promptly threw up into the first toilet he came across. He hadn’t even had anything to eat that morning being to nervous for class. Still, the bile came up his throat and excited his body as he sunk to kneel on the floor.

After a few minutes, he felt a small, and slightly furry hand on his back.

“I see you aren’t feeling to well. Why don’t you come to my office for a cup a tea?” Izuku heard the voice of the Principal ask.

“Principal Nezu?” he asked in return.

“Yes, it is I!” the mammal said enthusiastically.

Izuku didn’t say anything else, he just nodded and flushed the toilet before washing his hands and proceed to follow Prinicpal Nezu through the school and into his personal office.

Surprising, a teapot and two cups were waiting at a preset table. It didn’t surprise him that Nezu was prepared for this. He was prepared for anything because he knew of everything going on. Even he knew that Nezu often watched that cameras. There were no blind spots in the school, nothing could be hidden. Izuku would even bet that there were audio recorders accompanying the cameras as well.

“I think we need to have a talk Mister Midoriya. And I believe this will be quiet a long one as well. Don’t worry about any of your classes, as you are already excused for the rest of the day. We can take as long as want or need,” he calmly said to Izuku. Nezu then proceed to pour two cups of hot tea for the two to drink, and waited for Izuku to make the first move.

After that Izuku took a deep breath in and…

***

“It was strange,” Katsuki started. “When I first got my quirk everyone was so happy. They’d always say that it was the perfect quirk for a future hero. A strong quirk, a brave quirk, the best quirk. And I would bask in that attention, because it meant that I was strong, that I was brave, that I was… the best.”

“Baku-bro?” Kirishima said hesitantly.

“And Deku, he was with them, even as he was patiently waiting for his own quirk. We would spend time guessing what it was. Would it be like his mom’s telekinisis or his dad’s fire breathe? Or, we would always say how it would be a combination of the two and he’d be able to control fire. We’d be the top two hero’s and work together as partners. We waited, and waited, and waited. His birthday came and went and we were still waiting!” Katsuki took a breathe. “I didn’t notice, but the adults around us were starting to be concerned.” Katsuki continued.

“Then one day, Izuku wasn’t at school. Auntie took him to a doctor, and then the I hadn’t even seen him and my parents were sitting me down and talking to me about how he probably wasn’t going to have a quirk. That was when I first learned the work quirkless, but even bacl then I didn’t know what it truely meant.” He raced against his panicking mind to get that last sentence out.

Katsuki was grateful as All Might then took over speaking, “From what young Midoriya has told me, the next time he went to school, everything was different. The teachers either looked at him with pity in their eyes or a new found indifference to him. They either helped him too much or ignored him completely. This isn’t uncommon from what I’m told. People either treated him like he was completely fragile or they acted like he didn’t exist. Then, over time, it a third option came into view, the utter hatred of quirkless people.”

“Toshinori, you knew?” Yamada Sensei asked.

“I did, I was also a, well, considered quirkless for a lot of my youth. It’s what’s called being a late bloomer, but it doesn’t erase the years of growing up quirkless. From what Midoriya has told me, in my opinion, it was a lot worse for him. I had others I knew who were quirkless, and we had each other, but Midoriya didn’t know anyone else like him,” Toshinori explained.

“Most of the statistics are incredibly out of date right now. As I said earlier, they are similar to when I was younger, but that would be high school me, and by then I had a quirk. I stopped paying attention to it because I was no longer apart of the community. Although, that’s now something I deeply regret seeing what’s become of it now.

Midoriya was bullied relentlessly throughout his school year, starting from when he was about seven years old and with it only getting worse year by year after that. With him often getting in trouble for being bullied too. It’s deplorable.” All Might stated.

“Bakugou you were there, what happened?” Mina asked him.

“It… wasn’t good, but last year was horrible. Almost everyday someone would leave spiderlilies on his desk, he’d get shoved, tripped, kicked, and more multiple times a day. He’d have his lunch or homework stolen. Though it wasn’t like the homework mattered much, he was often told he cheated on it. Deku was smart though, he learned which grades he was supposed to earn and that’s exactly how well he would do on the test. If he did even a few points better, he’d get a zero on it,” Katsuki explained.

“The teachers were in on it?” Tsu added.

“Yeah, of course they were. They didn’t do anything to stop it, some even encouraged it. He often had detentions. Low grades were common for him. I don’t know… it was just horrible,” Katsuki told her.

“What was it like for you?” Ochako asked.

“As much as I regret it… I was apart of it,” Katsuki clenched his fists to keep himself grounded. He hated thinking about this. “There wasn’t much I could do. I tried to stand up for him before, but then it was bad for me too, and Deku hated that. I was the future hero, and Deku was… Izuku was a deku. Damn it! They took that name ruined it too!” he was honestly crying now.

“I became his main bully, it helped to control the worst of it, but when we were talking about high school. Our teacher said he was applying here still. Some of the other kids were going to kill him. Literally. And so, the only time he was told to kill himself. It was me who said it to him,” and Katsuki hated himself so much for it. “And I had to watch him break from that.”

With that, Katsuki had to leave the room and run to the bathroom as well.