Chapter Text
“Midoriya!” Tsu launched herself at him and wrapped long arms around his neck. “I was so worried, kero!”
“We all were,” Uraraka told him. It seemed all of his friends had waited for him at the gates of UA, ready to begin supplemental training in preparation for the preliminary hero licensing exam. Tsu, Uraraka, Tokoyami, Iida, Yaoyorozu… everyone was there. “You’re okay, right?”
“I’m perfectly fine,” Izuku told them as the group began to shuffle towards the school proper. “I was barely hurt.” He had no intention of ever revealing the details of what had happened in the League’s hideout at Kamino Ward. It was more Todoroki’s business than the jaguar’s.
“I’m sorry,” Dark Shadow said abruptly, leaping from Tokoyami’s shoulders to Izuku’s. “I’m sorry. It was my fault.”
“No it wasn’t,” Izuku said by reflex, although he wasn’t quite sure what was being discussed here.
“They caught you because of me,” Dark Shadow drooped miserably, “because it was so dark and I was so angry and we were so tired…”
Oh. That was what he meant… Tokoyami probably felt exactly the same way. “It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t my fault. It was the villains’ faults and saying anything else… is not only unfair but almost insulting,” Izuku said that without thinking about its effect on the mood. Okay. Okay. How could he clarify and lighten things up? Ah. Here was an idea. “These villains spent months planning this, practicing their evil speeches and evil laughter and making sure that they didn’t miss a single opportunity to be depraved, exceptionally repulsive people and then you two, some of the nicest guys I know, try to take credit for all their hard work? The villains deserve more credit than that.”
Iida and Yaoyorozu exchanged blank glances. Uraraka dignified Izuku with a snicker. Tsu just sighed and shook her head. Tokoyami only blinked at the jaguar but Dark Shadow burst into laughter. “Still, we are sorry,” Tokoyami said.
Izuku head butted his friend in the leg hard enough to make Tokoyami stumble a bit. Having lightened the mood, the jaguar could not help but darken it again. “Stop, please. I have seen… really horrible things, things I’m never going to tell you about. And it makes me sick thinking that you hold yourself responsible for any of it.”
“I am very sorry, Midoriya,” Iida said quietly.
The jaguar sighed. “Let’s not talk about this anymore, and never around Todoroki, okay? Not unless he brings it up.”
“Of course,” Yaoyorozu said too quickly. The group finally arrived at their classroom and slid into their seats. Most of the class was present already.
Bakugou gave Izuku a nervous glance, ducking his head when the jaguar met his gaze. Something to say, Kacchan?
A few minutes later everyone was there… except Todoroki. Was he not coming? Had he decided to change his mind and leave UA or--Todoroki walked in and took a seat, stoic, as if nothing at all had happened and it were a perfectly normal day. Half the class stared at him and the other half pointedly didn’t. It was a very neat test indicating which of Izuku’s classmates had tact.
Rumors of wildly varying accuracy about All For One’s abilities and what exactly had happened to Todoroki Shouto had exploded into dozens of competing, full-blown conspiracy theories in the few days before Endeavour, All Might, Hawks, and Best Jeanist gave a joint press conference. They revealed Dabi’s identity as well as All For One’s power and a few other things about the League including legal names, quirks and histories of some of its members. The heroes had merely stated that Dabi had an ice and fire quirk. They had not stated that it was stolen from Todoroki Shouto, but many, many people had read that from the subtext. Half the class probably assumed the dual-haired boy was quirkless now. The secret would be out soon enough one way or another.
“It’s really good to see you,” Uraraka said to Todoroki tentatively. “I was worried you might decide not to come back.”
Todoroki nodded then said, “nothing and no one could keep me away.”
Shouto forced himself to breathe evenly as he approached the testing center. The supple, black material that clung to him like a second skin breathed with him. Hatsume, with help from Nedzu and Powerloader as well as consultations from David Shield, had been able to do exactly as Midoriya had said she would. Provided he were careful with the intensity of the blue flames he called forth, Shouto could wield them without injuring himself or even causing himself significant discomfort.
Nedzu had pulled strings, made deals, and threatened to stir up a public outcry in order to allow the student to wear this clothing during all portions of the licensing exam… and any other time as well. “In the same way you would not demand an individual with an insulin pump remove it during a standardized academic test,” the principal had stated sharply to the coordinators during their negotiations, “you will not require Todoroki to remove clothing that allows him to safely use his new skills.”
He still wasn’t sure that he could pass the exam. He had always depended on his ice… it had been so much easier to control, so much more beautiful, so much less dangerous. Touya’s quirk… it was lethal. The slightest wrong move and he could kill someone. He had never learned to wield his own fire well, spiting his father by doing so… foolish. He’d been walking a path not so different from Touya’s in certain respects, although that thought made him sick…
He had managed to learn quite a bit from his father in the past few weeks, once they managed to start speaking sentences longer than one word to each other anyway, but he had learned far more from Fire Wheel, a top fifty pro with a similar flame quirk who UA had brought in to help him train for the test while the rest of the class worked on supermoves. Shouto was a melee combatant now. He couldn’t trap his opponents form afar in a glacier or corral them with ice sheets anymore. Until he had the kind of fine control that allowed his father to incapacitate but not kill an opponent, until he tamed this vicious quirk, flames were to augment close quarters attacks and to defend himself. Or melt and incinerate debris. He had the skills now to do that without risk to the trapped party as long as he was allowed to concentrate.
See? It might seem hopeless but it really wasn’t. He’d made all of this progress; he was going to pass. He was going to prove to everyone that he was not just unbroken but unbreakable, that Dabi was the fool here, that his older brother, consumed by jealous rage, could have had it all if he had worked for it, if he’d been willing to put in the effort Shouto would.
The Todoroki family had come clean to the media about exactly what had happened to their youngest child, what quirk had been taken from him and what quirk had been forcibly given. He would stand up in front of the cameras after the test with his license and wave his victory in his brother’s face. There was so much to prove… failure was expected of him, he knew, but it was not an option. He was… he was… having trouble dealing with things again. Shouto had to stop and take a few deep breaths in an attempt to corral the emotions which had taken to galloping wildly through his brain.
Something brushed against his leg. “Todoroki?” Midoriya asked him, gazing up with concern. The jaguar had an amazing “concerned” face which Shouto was quite familiar with now. The cat’s ears drooped slightly, swinging out backwards and to the sides. His eyes widened and focused unblinking and his whiskers fanned out elegantly. “You alright?”
“Fine.” Midoriya’s ears alignment did not change. Shouto might be fooling someone, but he was not fooling the jaguar. “Everything will be fine.”
“It will. Come on,” Midoriya nudged him forwards. “We’re a class. We’re a team. We’ll stick together and have each other’s backs no matter what.”
“Even Bakugou?” Shouto asked, mostly for the sake of being contrary. There seemed to be no love lost between those two.
The big cat grimaced. “Yes. Even Bakugou.”
A tall Shiketsu student approached, gave Shouto a look that the UA student couldn’t begin to translate, opened his mouth, closed his mouth, turned on his heel and darted away as if he had been caught doing something shameful. “That was weird, right?” Shouto asked Midoriya. “I’m not just…” reading too much into unfamiliar social situations.
“No, I mean yes. That was definitely weird but I think for us weird is going to be the norm from now on… I m-mean it’s been the norm for me for a while, since I became a cat, but now… weird is normal for both of us. That’s kind of nice I think? It’s good to have company in Weird Town or…”
“Weird Town?”
“Don’t listen to me! I’m nervous.”
Him too? Somehow it hadn’t occurred to Shouto that Midoriya would be feeling this kind of anxiety as well. The idea of the jaguar not passing the exam given what an… unbelievable badass he was seemed laughable. He bit All Might. He mauled Touya. He screamed out the League of Villains. He escaped All For One.
“We will all succeed together, Midoriya,” Iida told them, appearing as if by teleportation and chopping the air for emphasis. “There is no need for either of you to worry.”
The gates opened and hundreds of hopefuls filed into the preliminary licensing examination.
Dabi tossed a piece of ice into the air and sublimated it in a glittering flash a moment later, steam and smoke adding to the cloud billowing among the rafters. “Aren’t you getting bored yet? You’ve been at that for… how many days now?” Toga asked him.
The scarred villain grinned. “Practice makes perfect,” he replied. “My idiot brother never even used fire and ice together, as if they were somehow two different quirks and he only liked one of them. I am not that kind of idiot.”
The television droned on in the background, channel seven as usual. The alarmist idiots and conspiracy theorists reported on Channel Seven, treating their hysterical hearsay as news. It was almost as good as a comedy channel and it was always so, so satisfying when the League came up because by god Channel Seven was scared to death of them. Rightly so. They might have lost All For One, but pretty much everyone else made it out perfectly safe from Kamino Ward. Anyone who thought the League was through had another thing coming. Endeavour, mister new number one, had better watch his stab-worthy back. Dabi had an ice knife with his dear old dad’s name on it.
“Another class of heroes have been granted their provisional licenses today, a new era in heroics beginning following All Might’s retirement,” the bleach blonde anchor smiled cheerfully. “Our reporters had the good fortune of running into Todoroki Shouto after the test.” Good fortune. Hah. As if anyone would believe they ran into him by luck. “The youngest child of Endeavour has kept clear of the media following the revelation that All For One had exchanged his quirk with that belonging to his villainous older brother, Todoroki Touya, also known as Dabi of the League of Villains.” The picture they showed of him was not flattering. Dabi scowled. Also...
“Don’t call me Touya you bitch. That child is dead,” Dabi snarled at the television. Someone chuckled. Dabi whirled around, but all the faces he could see were perfectly straight now.
It was amazing (and hilarious) that the heroes hadn’t managed to keep any of those League of Villains details quiet. They’d been forced to come straight out and admit exactly who All For One was and what he could do, explain precisely who Dabi was, and later detail what had been done to poor Shouto. Endeavour’s speech had been infuriating, “oh, I would be over the moon to learn the oldest child I had thought killed himself in a training accident survived if he hadn’t returned as such a twisted shadow of the brilliant young man I remember as my son. I never really stopped looking for him even though I knew it was hopeless. Perhaps he hates me for not finding him or perhaps he is merely bitter about his quirk which was too dangerous for him to pursue the career path he wanted blah blah blah!” The PR people must have worked overtime polishing that load of horse shit… and worse, most of the idiot public bought it. They somehow believed that Endeavour wasn’t the bad guy here. Oh, there were certainly plenty of people giving Enji “Worst Father of the Decade” award, accusing him of breeding living weapons, and calling for him to step down from number one and stuff like that, but it was a minority… Somehow the asshole had actually managed to cry on screen while talking about Dabi’s supposed death and that had, apparently, racked him up a lot of points in sympathy and believability. But, anyway, back to Shouto. Shouto took the provisional exam, and certainly failed and likely maimed himself to boot. This should be fun to watch.
The camera zoomed in on a pack of battle-weary hero students, all in UA uniforms, trudging their way towards a bus. Shouto stood in the center wearing… some sort of skin tight, black fabric beneath his school uniform. It covered his entire body, including his throat and the underside of his chin. There was a hood, too, although he didn’t have it pulled up at the moment. “What is he wearing?” Toga wondered. “He’s more of a fashion disaster than Best Jeanist.”
At Shouto’s side was the cat. Dabi growled despite himself. Much as he might grudgingly respect that kid, he owed him back for a world of pain. Feline body language wasn’t so easy to read, but if Dabi had to guess he’d say that was the expression of a cat who just learned to open the refrigerator and already knew where the cream was kept. God, Dabi wanted to wipe that smirk off the kid's smug face. The frog girl stood at the jaguar’s side, staring straight at the cameras with a calculating gaze. The rest of UA’s 1-A class could be seen in the background but no cameras focused on them.
“Did you pass your exam, Todoroki?” the anchor asked. Of course not. Why even bother asking?
“Of course I did,” Shouto replied and pulled his brand new, shiny provisional license out of a pocket as if it were… he didn’t know what. Dabi roared a furious, choked sound of inarticulate rage. How? How? He must have cheated somehow! It wasn't possible, not with that trash quirk! “I am sure that will come as a stark surprise to my thieving brother.” Shouto turned and stared into the camera, perfectly calm, perfectly composed. “How sad. He never bothered to learn to control his quirk at all and did not seek the help which would have allowed him to succeed in heroics despite the drawbacks of his ability.” Ice crystals formed across Dabi’s arm and shattered immediately as heat flared through his body.
“I am honestly amazed that you have… continued along this path with a quirk that isn’t your own,” the anchor said, voice dripping faux-sympathy.
“I have things to prove. This is not a bad quirk, all be it was used badly before. It’s not mine, and forcing it on me was every bit the unforgivable crime stealing my original was, but it is not an evil power. There is no such thing.” Shouto shook his head like the self-righteous, condescending bastard he was and continued in that infuriatingly calm, practiced drone. “I will use this power as a hero to help people and make sure that those like the League of Villains are stopped and never allowed to hurt anyone again. I will make my brother sorely regret giving this ability to me. And then,” he nodded to himself, as if day dreaming on camera, “I am going to emigrate to Canada and join ski patrol.”
The anchor stood in silence for a moment. Ski patrol. God damned ski patrol. Again. “Why are you--I--rawrgh!” Dabi threw a great shard of ice in a random direction and did not even wince as the television exploded in a cascade of twisted glass and plastic.
“Hey!” Toga yelled. “Shigaraki! Dabi broke the TV again!”
“Well then he has to go out and buy a new one again,” Shigaraki said from the dark corner where he sat brooding. Dabi screamed in rage, shaking his fists, wishing there were someone here for him to kill, something to incinerate or shatter. The rage boiled inside him so hot his skin steamed. The hatred plunged below arctic temperatures and cracked in ice across his clothing.
“I’ll kill you Shouto!” Dabi howled. “I’ll kill you and your class and that cat! All of you!”
Izuku awoke and quickly discovered that he was sleeping on the couch in the common room, or rather that he was sleeping on the laps of Tsu and Iida who were sitting on the couch in the common room. “Oh drat, he’s awake,” said Dark Shadow. Izuku blinked at him… and eventually pieced together from context that the familiar, as well as a number of classmates, had been throwing balloons at him because Izuku was flicking his tail in his sleep and it was, apparently, amusing to watch him smack the projectiles away. Huh. Sure? Why not? Whatever kept them entertained.
“I missed the end of the movie,” the jaguar complained as the credits rolled by.
“It wasn’t very good, kero,” Tsu told him.
“Oh. Why did we watch a bad movie?” This was their official “we’ve all been living in the dorms for a while now, why don’t we celebrate moving in and retroactively commemorate the hero course all getting their licenses?” party. A few members of 1-B, 1-C and 1-H had been invited as friends, but it was mostly 1-A. It seemed 1-B was going to have a similar event in a few days. Several members of 1-A would be attending that one as well.
“I thought it was a very good film,” Iida crossed his arms defensively.
“I suppose it’s a matter of taste,” Tokoyami admitted. “I am quite fond of it…”
“But I’m not,” Dark Shadow broke in. “Not enough magic. Or violence. Or magical violence.” Tokoyami rolled his eyes skyward as if pleading for strength from some deity.
“The cake is ready,” Sato said, leaning out of the kitchen. Bakugou had volunteered to help bake, and it seemed the procedure had gone well. Izuku hadn’t heard any angry shouting from Bakugou tonight or… in a very long time. Not since Hosu, actually. Maybe Bakugou was changing. Maybe it was time Izuku started giving his former friend the benefit of the doubt. The Explosion wielder had passed the licensing exam, after all. Clearly Bakugou was doing something right.
“And for Midoriya we have a crab cake,” Sato announced, apparently quite pleased with that pun, as he set the personal dish down for the jaguar. The others mobbed the table where an exquisite chocolate cake awaited them. Izuku missed chocolate sometimes. Being human had a lot of perks, but he was a jaguar now and, as he’d made clear to the League of Villains, he was going to stay that way. This was who and what he was and how he was supposed to be and how he would remain.
The next movie, mostly put on as background for the variety of games that got underway, was so bad it was good. It was just so… so… there weren’t words. “You can’t fake this kind of terrible,” Uraraka shook her head and grimaced as a particularly idiotic character said something crushingly cringe-worthy.
“I have no idea what’s going on,” Yaoyorozu whispered, although it was unclear whether she meant the movie or the rather… mature card game she had accidentally joined.
A blur of movement caught Izuku’s eye and he whirled in time to see Ashido kiss Monoma on the cheek. The quirk-copier’s face turned red as a ruby. “Wow,” Izuku whispered to himself. And the first time they met she nearly blinded him for life… that was… something. It might be cute.
“Speaking of that,” said Tsu (though what “that” was in this context was ambiguous) “I was wondering if you might like to go out sometime?”
“Go… out…?” Izuku repeated slowly. “Like a…”
“Like a date, kero,” Tsu replied, taking another bite of cake.
Izuku’s head felt as if it had filled up with steam which might begin exploding out of his ears at any moment. “B-but I-I!”
“You don’t have to say yes, kero.”
“But I’ve never--I don’t even know what is--” Izuku had never had a “confirmed crush” and had no idea whether he liked Tsu that way. Maybe? She was certainly pretty and smart and loyal and many other things that Izuku admired but that wasn’t a crush, was it? That was a statement of fact. Still, that wasn’t the most important consideration. “But I’m a cat!” They’d talked about this once before… a long time ago now but they had talked about it.
Tsu shrugged, “all sapient individuals should have the same rights regarding love, dating, and sex regardless of appearance, species, country of origin…” Izuku’s ears and whiskers had jerked upwards with alarm at the mention of the “s” word. “You are a cat and I am mostly a frog. This is not relevant, kero. What is relevant is whether you would like to go out with me.”
“But… what will people say?”
“The same bigoted, ignorant, intolerant things as always, kero,” she replied evenly.
Iida, who had apparently overheard the entire conversation and was trying to pretend he had not heard anything at all while still interjecting with a relevant point, said, “if individuals did not do things which draw controversy, ire, or reproach, society as a whole would never make progress. Equality will not be achieved without demanding it. I have seen plenty of evidence of that in the last year, mostly because you have taken the time to point it out to me, and you have my thanks for this. The movement towards equality starts with the interested parties coming forward and creating a scandal and ends with individuals a few decades in the future reading about these trailblazers in textbooks and feeling completely shocked that such individuals were ever treated so poorly. The pattern is seen again and again; ending racial segregation, women’s suffrage, gender equality, same sex marriage…”
“He knows his stuff, doesn’t he?” He really did. Clearly Iida had read up on these problems recently. “So do you want to go out with me, kero?”
All of his friends had good points. Izuku couldn’t go through his whole life caring what bigoted people were saying about him because they were always going to be saying nasty things about him no matter what he was doing. “I don’t know if I-I like you as more than a friend but I… might like to find out if that’s okay with you?”
“Was that a yes?”
Izuku nodded. “Yes,” then, without thinking much on it, he leaned forward and licked her on the cheek. He telegraphed his movements, giving her time to protest or duck, but she did no such thing. Tsu’s skin had a very peculiar, grainy-smooth texture and a fresh, seaweedy taste. She grinned and licked him back. That fur couldn’t have been too pleasant on the tongue…
“Awww,” Izuku jumped and found--to his abject mortification--that half the class had been watching this drama unfold. They’d only been pretending to continue with their games! Diabolical!
“Don’t you people have cake and a movie to entertain you?” demanded Tsu, arms crossed.
“Well, yeah,” Uraraka admitted.
“But this is just so much more fun!” Ashido broke in.
“Expect to be kicked in the face next time we train together, kero.” Ashido winced.
Izuku rapped on the principal’s door. “Ah! Midoriya, come in!” called the mammal. The jaguar stepped into the room tentatively, still nervous even though he counted Nedzu as an ally, a traveler along a parallel path. “Please, have a seat. Tea?”
“Yes, thank you,” Izuku hopped up on the offered chair.
“I wished to just check in with you,” the principal said, “and make sure you are well after your ordeal. I am aware that unkind things have been said about you in the media. I am sure you are also aware.”
Izuku shrugged. “It’s not a surprise. I think it was one of the first things Best Jeanist and Gang Orca told me would happen…”
“Hm. Forewarned you may have been but it is still an unpleasant situation.”
“I don’t spend that much time on the internet anymore,” Izuku admitted. “I can’t use a phone without voice control and I just hate voice control and it’s… easier to steer clear of things I wouldn’t want to see when using a laptop.”
“This may be a great advantage to you.” Izuku was provided with a saucer of tea and began to lap at it. It was amazingly tasty. Izuku was likely better off not knowing what had gone into it to appeal to his unique palette. “I have yet to come across a single piece of criticism directed towards you which is not fueled by bigoted hysteria, nor do I see any evidence that you ever did anything fundamentally wrong.” Izuku’s ears twitched. He did not know quite how to interpret that. He had certainly done things wrong… things might have turned out better if he had tried-- “It is unreasonable to expect any individual to make “perfect” decisions under pressure, and every single person on the planet will have a fundamentally different definition of “perfect.””
Nedzu put down his cup so that he could steeple his paws. His ears flared outwards and whiskers relaxed, the picture of a very pleased creature. “I am very proud to name you among the students of my school. You have done incredibly well in your time here so far. Many may judge you harshly either because being judgmental on the internet is their main source of entertainment or because they do not like seeing an animal excel in a career where they would fail, but twice as many people are watching you make your way in the world of heroics, blazing a path behind you, and cheering. Many will be inspired by you to pursue their own goals regardless of what prejudices or challenges they must overcome.”
Izuku gulped. “What if…” He might have gained a lot of confidence in the last year, but still… “What if I mess up, though? I don’t… everything seems to be… What happens then?”
Nedzu’s ears twitched, acknowledging an irritating fact. “It is an unpleasant truth that people like you and I will be held up as examples of a class more than individuals. As token representatives who take places in the limelight, our failings, and there will always be some, will often be treated as proof of what is wrong with all “people like us” rather than the kinds of flaws that all creatures have. You did not need me to tell you that; you already knew that.” Yes. “What you need me to tell you is that, regardless of any such failings, I will support you provided you continue to behave in a lawful and ethical manner to the best of your ability. UA will support you. Your classmates will support you. All Might will support you. He is quite fond of you, you know. Gang Orca and Best Jeanist will support you as will your teachers, even the one who was once skeptical of your presence here.” Izuku felt his ears flatten at the painful reminder of his humiliating first day. “Aizawa, too, is a person with flaws who makes mistakes, in your case egregious ones.
“The point here is that you are not without resources or connections. You are intelligent and powerful in more ways than you know and I believe you will continue to do UA proud, Mr. Cheshire Cat.” Nedzu huffed a half-laugh, clearly fond of Izuku’s chosen name.
“Thank you, sir,” Izuku mumbled, embarrassed by the praise. Gang Orca was right about the jaguar not knowing how to take a compliment.
“Now, speaking of All Might, I believe he is waiting outside the door. Come in, Toshinori,” Nedzu called the hero by his first name and Izuku blinked in surprise.
All Might stepped into the room. “Good afternoon, young Midoriya. I’m very glad to see that you seem no worse for the wear following your ordeal.”
“T-thank you s-sir,” Izuku said, at a loss. Why was All Might here? What could he possibly want with Izuku?
The retired number one hero took a seat and Nedzu pushed a button on his desk to summon another cup of tea, although this one looked very different from Izuku’s drink. “Young Midoriya,” All Might began, “I have been very impressed with you this year.” More compliments. Izuku squeaked, paw flying in front of his mouth in embarrassment. Had he actually made that noise? “I would like to make an offer to you, but first… what do you know about my quirk?”
Izuku’s mind flashed through dozens of interviews, collecting all available information. “No one knows exactly. You always change the subject or answer vaguely when it comes up.”
“There is a reason for that. My quirk is called One For All...”