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“Sensei, I…” Midoriya stares at Aizawa with a combination of pain, fear and triumph on his face. “... I can still move.”
His finger swelled badly, probably broken. He channeled his quirk through his finger for the shortest possible time in order to avoid breaking his limb again. Smart, quite smart, even Aizawa has to admit it. However…
“You can still move?” Aizawa asks dryly. “Then let’s repeat the 50-meter dash and see if you can measure up even remotely close to your earlier result. How about it?” He can see the ‘triumph’ part of Midoriya’s expression dying down on him. Correctly so.
“If using your quirk in the simplest possible way still puts you out of commission to this degree…” Aizawa adds. “... then you’re not suitable for heroics. You’re expelled.” Midoriya looks at him in horror, the words strangled out of him. “Go to Recovery Girl to patch you up before leaving. As for the rest, here are your test results.”
He noticed Bakugou staring at Midoriya with a combination of shock and… what, vindication? Did they know each other earlier? He doesn’t care.
“Your curriculum sheets are back in your classroom, go give them a once over.” Aizawa adds, before turning his back on the class and leaving.
***
The first thing that All Might had to do after witnessing the Quirk Apprehension Test was to use every available shred of willpower to restrain himself in order to NOT immediately murder Aizawa Shouta.
He might be a Number One Hero, but surprisingly enough this doesn’t give him the right to murder people in broad daylight.
All for One doesn’t count, that was at night and HPSC was ready to give him a box of chocolates, the best wine in the world and probably a small tropical island if he asked them for doing that.
The second thing he does is try to quickly conjure some words of support for his successor, who is clearly horrified almost to the point of heart attack by what just transpired. Would Shiketsu High take him in if All Might asked them for it?
The UA expulsion mark was almost a death sentence to a hero career, like in the case of most large and prestigious schools, but he was the Number One Hero and…
Okay, screw that. He promised to make Midoriya a great hero and he will do that, even if he has to make him attend a hero school in the US. Cathleen Bates would find him one, no question asked, simply because it was All Might that wanted it.
And if Izuku doesn’t want to learn English and live in foreign environment, All Might is going to use all that wealth he obtained through the merch and set up his own hero school. He’s going…
He was about to jump onto the field in his smaller form when something began to happen.
Some students have already left, namely Endeavor’s son and Bakugou Katsuki. The latter clearly decided that he isn’t going to waste time standing around, the former looking like he didn’t care about what happened at all.
The rest appear… shocked and unsure? It was understandable, an expulsion on the first day was a lot, and they needed a moment to digest it. But that’s when the girl that Izuku saved during the entrance exam suddenly approaches him.
All Might decides to postpone intervention for a moment. Instead, he listens in.
***
“Midoriya-kun.” Midoriya can barely hear her. He was expelled. He failed All Might. He was given the best quirk in the whole world and he failed . What if it’s taken away from him? He was so happy when he left his home this morning, he finally was realizing his dream and… what will his mom say?! What will All Might sa… “Midoriya-kun!”
“E…ehh?” He wakes up to see the face of the pretty girl from the entrance exam. She is… well, still pretty. But something in her face feels vaguely scary.
“Midoriya-kun, this is bullshit.” She announces loudly enough to gather the attention of the other students. “The test was bullshit, this teacher is bullshit, and your expulsion is a load of fucking bullcrap.”
(He’s going to discover that her family had a construction company quite soon, she spent a lot of time around construction workers, the fact that she did her best to not use those words didn’t mean that she didn’t know them.)
“I saw you almost die to save me during the entrance exam, and if this school doesn’t think that you’re a hero material, it can go die in a ditch.” Uraraka continues, her level of anger clearly rising. She grabs his shoulders in order to make sure he’s listening to her, probably. “My family owns a construction company. Dad befriended a director of a local hero school when he made repairs to their facility. If I ask him for that I’m sure he’ll get that school to enroll us.”
“W…wait, us?!” Midoriya stares at her in shock.
“I wanted to go to the best hero school in the country…” She announces, the look of heated determination on her face.. “... but it seems that I accidentally ended up enrolling in UA. If that’s how my supposed homeroom teacher treats the person that saved my life while blowing Zero-Pointer to shreds with a punch, then to hell with this school!”
“Wait, he did what?! ” The red-haired kid asks, staring at them in shock. “You destroyed that thing?” Midoriya nods nervously. “Holy shit, man, that’s manly as hell! And Aizawa-sensei still just…” It seems like that very concept strains his ability to comprehend things.
“Uraraka-san.” Iida cuts in, speaking as officially as ever. “I’d like to inquire you about the possibility of getting one more person enrolled in that school.”
Midoriya lets out a brief choking sound. He didn’t expect that, especially not after years of hearing his classmates laughing about his dreams of heroics, and… not just one person, but two? What was…
“A-are you serious?” Uraraka actually speaks for him. Izuku probably wouldn’t manage to say anything constructive. “I didn’t expect…”
“I came from a family of heroes.” Iida replies calmly while correcting his glasses. “I knew that I was going to become a pro-hero the whole time. I dreamed of that my whole life. But when I saw you trapped and the Zero-Pointer there, I froze. It was Midoriya-kun that saved you. The fact that I wasn’t there to help him in that, a fact that probably resulted in him suffering all those injuries, left me ashamed of myself. I need to become a better pro-hero, and not only do I believe that I should learn from his example, something that I can’t do when he’ll be studying in another hero school than I am, I’m also absolutely appalled at the treatment he just received. That’s simply unbecoming of a school as prestigious as UA, and if it actually happened, it means that the school’s teachings are no longer as good as they used to be. That’s all I have to say on the subject.”
It was a longer lecture. But it clearly got the point across. In fact, Uraraka didn’t have the time to respond to that when one of the remaining students raised their hand.
“Can I, uhm, can I go with you?” It’s the blond kid. Kaminari Denki, if they remembered his name correctly. When the eyes go onto him, he shrinks a little. “Look, it’s my quirk, alright? It doesn’t break my limbs, but when I overuse it, I get braindead for some time. This time I managed to avoid showing it, but if he threw you out over breaking a finger, I’m going to be expelled the second he sees me go wheeeeey. I can still get to another school if I leave the school, but if I’m expelled from UA, it’s game over. I don’t want that!”
“I believe it might be beneficial for a being of darkness like myself to do the same.” The raven-headed boy announces. “When I’m fighting in a lightless abyss, there is a risk of my quirk going on a rampage and hurting my allies. This is objectively worse than being turned merely useless.”
The landslide began. The atmosphere was set. Once two people stated openly the desire to act against what they perceived as injustice, not doing the same would make others feel bad. That squashed out doubts, inflamed virtues and made achieving radical decisions easier.
“I t-think I’ll do the same, but… for a different reason.” The short boy with balls for hair admits, while fidgeting and looking away.. “I mean, my quirk is weak as hell, with my body the way it is it’s no wonder I was the second last, and… if he threw out someone that punched out the Zero-Pointer, it’s just a matter of time when I’m out as well, right?”
“And he’s a goddamn ass as well!” The invisible girl shouts. “I mean, look at me! I have a powerful quirk with so many usages in heroics, but I barely passed the entrance exam because the school wanted me to fight giant murder-robots! Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to scrounge up enough points by using the environment? What the hell was that supposed to be?! If I had a healing quirk would they send me against the robots and tell me to destroy them as well? And now this?! I was third to last, because my quirk does jack shit for me when physical training is involved. Screw this school and screw that asshole, I’m going with you.”
“I’m leaving as well.” The pink skinned girl announces right after. “Look, Midoriya-kun, I’m super sorry that I started it, I shouldn’t have said the thing about it being fun, if I didn’t…”
“... he would find another reason to do that.” Momo comments from the side. “It was probably all staged right from the start.”
“Oh, that’s even better.” Mina Ashido groans. “I hate bullies, I did my best to make sure that there were no bullies in my old school, and I’d rather leave UA than be taught by a bully whose teaching policy is to screw up someone’s dream of heroics on the first day for… what? Kicks? Encouragement for the rest? I thought that the heroes were supposed to work together, not try to trample each other to not be the last one in the ranking and get expelled. UA sucks, Shiketsu has that stupid no relationship policy, what the hell is wrong with top hero schools in this country?!”
“That’s… manly.” Kirishima judges, with awe in his voice. “And manliness is the way to go. My heroic idol believed in living with no regrets, and I’m sure that I’m going to regret staying more than leaving, even if it will make me study in a worse school. I’m leaving as well.”
“Leaving as well, ribbit.” The frog girl decides to speak her mind. “If I graduate from this school, there is a chance that my siblings will try to follow me and I’m not letting them be taught by that man.”
Koda manages to sign something. Yaoyorozu knew it enough to translate. The animal-speaker announced that he is leaving as well, because if this school is such a rat race, then it’s only a matter of time because his communication troubles will get him kicked out of it as well.
“Errr… isn’t that most of the class by now?” Satou asks. “I don’t really have any strong opinion on the subject, but I do have a notable side-effect in which overusing my quirk makes me dumber, a bit like… Kaminari, was it?” The electric guy nods .”So… well, I would prefer to stay in this school, it’s prestigious and getting into it was hard enough, but, uhm… can’t we, like, petition the Principal to re-enroll Midoriya and change our homeroom teacher before leaving the school as a class?”
“I don’t want to be an ass about it…” Jirou comments. “... but it’s the same Principal that hired that man and keeps him around.”
No words on leaving the school (is it because of the gossip that All Might was going to be teaching them and her being his fangirl?), but it was clear that Aizawa had zero support from her too.
“Isn’t it because of his quirk?” Mezo Shoji decides to finally speak. “His quirk must be useful in avoiding injuries during training, he actually proved it right now.”
“What’s the point of making him a homeroom teacher then?” Momo comments. “It’s the heroics lessons where the risk of injury is the highest, and as a homeroom teacher he probably won’t even be there. This is getting nowhere, I believe that we should cut it short. Whoever wants to leave the school, raise your hands.”
The only person who didn’t do that was Aoyama Yuuga, although it was clear that he wasn’t enjoying that at all.
“It’s, err… because of my parents.” He looks to the side, clearly ashamed of it.
“How many of you are ready to wait with leaving the school until we make a petition and confront the Principal about it?” Momo then asks. Some hands raise, but that’s when Iida speaks.
“For as much I agree with that on a principle, are you sure that this is going to get us anywhere, Yaoyorozu-san?” He asks, while making a few awkward hand chops.
“My parents…” Yaoyorozu replies. “...are the biggest sponsors of this school. However the last time a Yaoyorozu attended it was almost a decade ago. I have a lot of things to say about the gross misuse of our money, starting from what Hagakure said about the entrance exam to Midoriya’s expulsion. I believe that a review of Yaoyorozu’s monetary spending might be required.”
It is at this point that All Might realizes that he has to intervene, because the 1-A class was about to run UA into the ground over Midoriya’s expulsion and for as much as he thinks it would be beneficial to his successor’ ability to believe in himself (not to mention getting him a few life-long comrades, that’s always a plus), he realizes that things might have escalated slightly too far.
So, he buffs up and jumps into the field, while giving them all his signature smile.
“NO NEED TO RIOT OR FINANCIALLY BLACKMAIL UA!” He shouts while raising his fist. “FOR I AM HERE!”
Midoriya looks like he saw god. He really has to do something about the degree of hype his successor has when he sees his mentor, they were training together for months dammit, stop looking that way whenever you see All Might!
There is the standard ‘omg All Might’ reaction, that he decides to quickly skim over.
“PLEASE, DO NOT WORRY YOURSELF WITH THE EXPULSION!” All Might shouts only to immediately curse himself in his head because Midoriya switches from ‘I just saw god’ to ‘I just saw ghosts’ face. “I PROMISE YOU THAT I’LL SORT IT OUT RIGHT NOW, AND IN WAY THAT LEAVES ALL OF YOU SATISFIED! YES, THIS INCLUDES LETTING YOUNG MIDORIYA CONTINUE HIS STUDIES ON UA! FOR NOW, HOWEVER, PLEASE RETURN TO YOUR CLASSROOM. YOUNG URARAKA, IF YOU COULD ACCOMPANY YOUNG MIDORIYA TO THE NURSE’S OFFICE WHILE I’M DEALING WITH AIZAWA-SENSEI, I’D BE EXTREMELY GRATEFUL FOR THIS!”
Judging from the looks he got, he has managed to temporarily avoid the entire class (minus Young Todoroki and Bakugou) walking out of the school on the first day. Which, let’s be real, would be a massive slap in the PR face of the school even if they signed NDAs about the reason for that (good luck persuading Yaoyorozu to do that), and that’s without the threat of the school’s biggest sponsor walking out on UA with them.
It’s time to murder someone.
***
All Might walks into the teacher’s lounge in his skinny form. Everyone here knows about his injuries (although only the Principal knows who did that to him).
Aizawa is here, doing something on a computer, probably doing the paperwork for Midoriya’s expulsion. Nedzu is observing the situation from his chair at the back of the room, he probably foresaw All Might coming here over that and decided to do nothing before seeing how it plays out.
Some other teachers are present as well. Present Mic and Midnight are there, so is Cementoss.
“Aizawa.” Yagi says officially. “We need to talk.”
“I’m busy.” Aizawa replies, without even looking in his direction.
Yes, Aizawa, I know that you don’t like me. The feeling is mutual after today.
Yagi promptly buffs up, approaches Aizawa’s desk, pulls the plug on his computer (he doesn’t want to tear any cables from the floor, after all), ignores Aizawa’s ‘what the hell’ before pushing his chair back, grabbing his desk and throwing it out of the window.
Nedzu chokes on his tea in the background.
“You…” Yagi says to Aizawa, looking down on him. His size has its positives when being intimidating is involved. “... are no longer busy.”
“What the hell are you…” Aizawa tries to shout back, but All Might strangles the words out of him with a single glare.
“Are you an idiot?” All Might asks. “Or are you are just this fucking incompetent as a teacher?”
“Is it about Midoriya?” Aizawa is fairly fearless, All Might has to give him that. “I saw your reaction to him during the entrance exam, if you think that favouritism…”
“Favouritism?” All Might cuts in. “FAVOURITISM?! You absolute, godsdamned idiot. I was witnessing your ‘Quirk Apprehension Test’ and its aftermath. Do you have the tiniest idea what you missed by fucking off to do the expulsion paperwork?”
“How about…” Aizawa’s eyes narrow. He knows that he can deactivate All Might’s quirk if he wanted to go physical. He has no idea on how much combat training All Might had in case his quirk was suppressed by someone. Did he think that he was the only quirk-suppressor out there? “... you tell me?”
“All Might, I believe…” Nedzu tries to cut in. All Might ignores him.
“Seventeen.” All Might replies. “Do you know what that number is? It’s the number of students that just decided to leave this school with him.” Aizawa’s eyes shot wide. “And before you say something more, Nedzu, let me inform you that the number includes Momo Yaoyorozu, the daughter of the main sponsor of this school, who just said something about gross misuse of her family money that will warrant some serious review of Yaoyorozu’s monetary spending. You know, the one that makes up for more than 60% of this school’s budget.”
Nedzu opens his mouth. But no words leave it. Even Aizawa seems to have finally realized that he fucked up, he just has no idea on the true scale of it.
“I barely obtained my teaching license.” All Might then refocuses his attention on the pathetic excuse of the teacher in front of him. “But I know what the homeroom teacher is supposed to do. He is supposed to be a student's third parent, someone that they are ready to confide in when things trouble them. Even when it's about their actual parents. That’s basically teaching 101 that someone with a working brain can glean from their own school days even if they were never interested in becoming a teacher themself.”
It was absolutely fucking obvious to All Might, at least.
“So how the fuck did you manage to unite 90% of your class against you during your first class with them, to the point where I heard you being referred as ‘bullshit’, ‘asshole’ and a ‘bully’?” All Might continues while Aizawa is busy shrinking in his chair in front of him. “And that’s without mentioning the fact you somehow made seventeen students that just managed to get to the most prestigious school in the country decide to leave it in favor of some provincial hero school in Mie Prefecture whose sole advantage over the UA is the fact that you aren’t there.”
All Might isn’t done with that. Sure, the fact that it was his successor (that he totally doesn’t see as the closest thing he’ll ever have to a son) that was expelled makes him doubly mad, but there is plenty of anger over the general situation.
“Please, tell me, how the flying fuck do you expect any of those students to ever trust you with what ails them, when you just showed them you’re going to expel them if you deem them as not perfect enough?” All Might continues, while glaring down at Aizawa. “A solid half of them decided to leave because they have side-effects to their quirks and they realized that you’re going to throw them out the second you see those! Hell, even I, the NUMBER ONE HERO has a side-effect to my quirk! All I need is to go over my limit and I’m just as much of a liability as Midoriya with his limbs broken, because I can’t defend myself and you can be fucking sure that every two-bit villain will then try to swarm me to become the person who killed All Might. Would you have fucking expelled me as well for not having a heroic potential?!”
Aizawa decides to strike back.
“Midoriya has problems using his quirk in absolutely basic things, he has zero control and…”
“Did you read his file?” All Might cuts in. He knows the answer from context, but he wants to hear it from Aizawa.
“I didn’t.” Aizawa replies, confirming his suspicions. “I prefer to read it afterwards, it's just…”
“Two.” All Might raises two fingers, interrupting him.. “Do you know what that number is?”
“No?” Aizawa replies, staring up at him.
“It’s the number of times Midoriya Izuku used his quirk in his fucking life.” All Might announces. Aizawa stares at him, this time clearly shocked speechless rather than confrontational. All Might can also hear some shocked gasps from the remaining teachers.
“That’s…” Turns out that Aizawa wasn’t entirely speechless. Well, fuck him, All Might isn’t interested in listening to him right now.
“You’d know that if you spent a moment reading his file and saw the fact that quirk status was updated from quirkless on the day after the Entrance Exam.” All Might continues. “He has an immensely powerful power stockpiling quirk that his body kept offline to avoid self-destruction and only let him use it after he trained ten hours a day for almost a year in order to prepare for the UA Entrance Exam. And just so we’re clear, Aizawa - do you know why I know that? Because my quirk is a power-stockpiling one, and it awakened at a similar age.”
Aizawa stares at him slackjawed. He either realized the implications or not. All Might plans to make sure that he does realize them.
“He spent years being a quirkless kid that wanted to be a hero.” He says angrily. “Why do you think he is so fidgety, why do you think he has clear problems interacting with others? And then, right after he suddenly got his quirk, a quirk that might be as powerful as my own, you expelled him. While knowing full well that expulsion from UA means that no hero school in the country would let him in. You know what that means? You almost became the main star in an S-Rank villain origin story, you stupid fuck, because you didn’t bother to read a file that Nedzu is fucking paying you to read.”
Aizawa is clearly out of it, but All Might decides to drive the nail home. Especially as he feels rather guilty over the fact that… well, quirkless Midoriya probably wouldn’t become an S-Rank villain, but that rooftop was still a fuck-up on All Might side.
Sure, only later did he begin to realize that Izuku’s lack of friends might have a root in quirklessness. Bullying quirkless was mostly an exception, not a rule, even today. But now, Aizawa - who supposedly had years of teaching experience at the best school in the country - somehow managed to repeat the same mistake.
Except, it was at least a dozen times worse.
That made All Might doubly mad.
“And that’s without mentioning ‘minor’ things.” All Might says - still angrily. Honestly, he doesn’t think that he can continue this talk without being angry. “Point one, who the fuck are you to criticize the government’s education policy in front of your students on the first day? Who the fuck cares what your opinion is? The schools are told to measure their student’s growth without counting quirks in, because it’s physical education. They are supposed to train their body, not quirks, because that’s healthy for them in the long-term. Your drivel made you sound like some Destro-paid demagogue that was yeeted into our times with someone’s quirk. Keep your political opinions to yourself, or stop teaching at all if you can’t help but try to turn anyone near you into a political radical.”
Aizawa says nothing, instead he just keeps shrinking in his seat.
“Point two, if I ever see you referring to meeting with a guidance counselor as ‘frilly niceties’ again, I’m going to kick you in the ass strongly enough that you’re going to die of dehydration mid flight.” All Might continues. “You’re supposed to teach a bunch of kids with quirks powerful enough to make them high ranking villains if something goes wrong and you consider this pathetic excuse of psychological help that Japan offers them as ‘frilly niceties’? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Aizawa lets out a faint choking sound. Honestly, he is down for the count, but All Might trained his Reasons You Suck speech skill with All for One in mind of all people. He can do even better.
“Point three.” All Might continues once again. “For as much as I respect Hagakure Tooru and consider Minoru Mineta’s quirk skills to be much better than he gives himself the credit for, I saw how Midoriya Izuku trains himself. If you think that I’m going to believe for a second that the kid that you clearly planned to throw out somehow ended up as the last in the ranking, then think the fuck again. You fudged the results of your own tests. You lied to your students. You’re a fucking disgrace to the teaching profession.” He adds while poking him with a finger strongly enough for Aizawa’s chair to trip backwards.
He has enough of that man, either way. So he looks at Nedzu.
“Fix this mess up.” He announces. “I told them that it’ll all be sorted out in a way that will make them satisfied to avoid almost the entire class walking out on you. This includes calling off Midoriya’s expulsion, and dealing with that worm over there.” He doesn’t even bother to glance at Aizawa. “Deduct the damages I made to the teacher’s lounge from my paycheck, if you need.”
Then he walks out of the room, leaving everyone inside stunned silent.
He has a successor to cheer up.