Fear Time, First Period

"'Gran Torino was a mystery among the hero society. He had appeared spontaneously in the late XXs and taught Heroics in the infamous UA. He was not a well-known hero, but many among the conspiracists society speculated he—'" Toshinori stopped his reading and blinked a few minutes at the Heroics History book before grimacing. "They- this is part of your curriculum? They seriously want me to teach you this stuff? This is all a load of bullcrap, actually."

Confusion spread throughout the classroom, and Isogai raised his hand before questioning, "What do you mean, Yagi-senpai?"

Toshinori tapped his hand on the book. "I mean this information is untrue and it would be unethical of me to teach you this as fact."

"Wait, you don't actually know him, do you?" Yoshida squinted with skepticism as he leaned over his desk.

The teacher turned his gaze to the boy, locking eyes with him and keeping a straight face. He leaned his hand on the desk in front of the class, his other hand on his hip. "Kid, I've been alive for a very long time, and I've seen more crap than a single human should even see let alone experience first-hand in a lifetime, but let me tell you, you don't know fear until you watch a grown elderly retired pro stare you down while he crushes a walnut with his bare teeth. So yes, I know him, and he terrifies me."

The class fell silent.

"WHAT?!"

Toshinori hummed with amusement before he turned around toward the blackboard and cleared it with the eraser after setting the book down. He went on, ignoring the students behind him squawking in shock. "Let's start this over with a few actually true facts," he took a piece of chalk and made a crude doodle of his old mentor's face the way he remembered him. 'Gran Torino' was written next to him. "Firstly, the exact year he debuted was XY, and before that he was actually a rather sly vigilante."

"No way ," Maehara drawled. "There's no way they'd give a vigilante an actual hero's license and then throw him into UA!"

Hara nodded. "Yeah, that seems… odd."

"Wait, are we just going to ignore the fact that Yagi-senpai knows this hero?" Kimura squawked.

Okajima raised both his hands to his head, nearly screaming in distress, "Or the fact said hero can apparently destroy a walnut with his bare teeth?!" 

Toshinori held up one finger, then continued writing. "He was actually best friends with a pro hero, who had enough influence to get Gran Torino a hero license. He was going to surprise him with it before he died during a villain fight. He had entrusted Gran Torino with his things—his hero agency, his interns, and his protégée. His Protégée was actually attending UA at the time, which is why Gran Torino then pursued a teaching license."

"It couldn't be that easy to get a hero license—he was a criminal!" Okajima exclaimed.

Toshinori then turned around, quirking a smile and setting the chalk down. "It was the XYs, kid. Things were different back then. Hero tests weren't that strict as it is now—sometimes a hero with high enough power had the authority to excuse a vigilante or even an assassin or villain. If an assassin or villain wanted to turn their lives around, all they had to do was run a moral check test and sign under another hero agency and bam! Side-kick."

Megu raised her hand then. "Weren't they afraid of hiring rats?"

Toshinori nodded. "Yes, they were. That's why recently turned villains or assassins had to live with another hero for at least half a year to a year before they were even allowed to go solo. They had to be sure the villain didn't relapse into their old ways. But anyway, back then villains were more so lost or misguided souls and misunderstood smaller criminals with the wrong quirks than the types that run amok today."

The class fell silent—the blond teacher could see the gears in their heads turning, thinking to themselves perhaps, in another world, would we all be considered villains? Toshinori knew it—they were all misguided or lost souls, but nowadays there were protocols to dealing with misguided kids. 

They weren't considered villains these days—they were just people in need of help. True villains were of a different breed entirely, and Toshinori knew these kids didn't possess a single bone of evil in them. Bloodlust, yes, but even Toshinori had almost succumbed to his own bloodlust once upon a time. He shivered. What a dark path that would have brought to the world. But anyway.

The teacher cleared his throat and picked up the chalk piece again. "Anyway, he taught at UA for almost ten years before he retired after All Might's first debut."

Midoriya stood up, eyes wide and "Y— All Might knew Gran Torino?!" Toshinori smiled endearingly at the enthusiasm his student possessed. It was quite humorous to know only a few things could make the curly-haired boy completely disregard his chronic stutter, until he realized he had made an outburst and sat back down, crimson face looking down to let his bangs cover his eyes as he sputtered and tripped over his own tongue in embarrassment.

Toshinori chuckled then nodded. "I assume so!"

Young Kayano then raised her hand. "What sort of villains did Gran Torino face?"

Fuwa snapped her finger with a bounce. "Oh yeah, isn't that one of the review questions? Is that going to change?"

A hand raised to the teacher's chin as he thought of this. That's right; the test would have to be altered if they're asking for the wrong answers. He'll have to deal with that himself, huh…? They would probably need a new test entirely, then… 

nodding, Toshinori straightened up. "Yes, I'll get to fixing that. For now, copy what's written on the board while I compile a bunch of new questions for you all to study with."

---

Izuku thought he knew what fear was. Fear, to him, was waking up in the hospital with no inkling to how he got there while unfamiliar faces floated around him. No, even worse, fear was pissing off his mom by keeping a secret double life from her and then having her find out about it and going off on your teacher, and now they're dating, and this is the worst timeline, he thinks. 

But this? No, this was even worse. Because whatever All Might was scared of, then the All Might-fearing piece of logic in his brain obviously tells him that yes, idiot, be scared of that too! While the practical piece of logic in his brain tells him How on earth could an old man be that terrifying?  

And yet here he is. 

Shakin' in his boots along with the rest of the class as Gran Torino tore a new one into all of them during quirk training—er, "gym" class, that is.

It was early fall, so it wasn't indoor weather yet. All Might, bless his stupid heart, had apparently promised the class that he'd bring in a special guest! Yeah, guess who that was! You guessed right! Gran Torino!

Now, you may be wondering: why did All Might promise to bring in a guest that struck terror into the heart of the Number One Hero? Well, that's quite simple. You see, All Might and Korosensei run on the same wavelength of wanting to please their students. All Might got caught up in the moment of inspiring and impressing his students and didn't realize what he had done until it was too late. 

Japan's hero, right?

So yes. Izuku can attest that the old little man was terrifying. Especially when he was kicking everyone's butts in quirk training. Both literally and figuratively. His rump was definitely going to bruise up in the morning… God. 

It was by the end of the class that everyone was under the unanimous decision to ban old people from the property just because old people were absolutely terrifying, what the hell. Then, as if he hadn't been terrifying enough, Okajima had to open his GODFORBIDDENLY STUPID MOUTH to ask him if he really can crush a walnut with his bare teeth. 

And he did it, while keeping eye contact. 

Izuku didn't feel an ounce bit lucky knowing Gran Torino had asked All Might to sit in during one of their private training sessions after school. Ah. Well then. That's… that'll be lovely, huh? He still didn't have it under control yet, and his limbs just kept breaking, and thank goodness Korosensei has been here to help but Korosensei wasn't here today, so life was great!

This will be… ffffuuun.