Back To Business...

Chapter 23 - Back To Business...

The fight with the robber at the bank, that was a loss on my part. The fight with Shinsou during class, that was another fight that I should've been able to win, but I lost. The fight against the villains, the one to save my friends, the one where Mirio was severely injured, the one where I was caught out by Nomu. That fight should've been won before All Might got there. It could have prevented him from getting so injured. I've run out of excuses at this point, I need to figure out what's wrong with me, what keeps limiting me?

Izuku Midoriya looked at himself in the reflection of his goggles. They were the first pair that he had gotten by chance on the first night that he discovered his powers. His encounter with Eraserhead had been the main reason that these had fallen on his face that time. They were still in his possession because he didn't….he didn't really know why he hadn't returned them yet. He had planned to return them so long ago the day after the incident, but he had gotten a bit carried away with other matters….

The boy simply tossed the green tinted glasses on top of his desk and went over to pick through a handful of files that he had been sent by Star Labs. After Eraserheads injuries occured the boy had felt slightly guilty and had gotten the test that he had been instructed to get by his mentor. It was something which he was very unsure of, something which was just a bit out of his comfort zone.

Of course it was out of your comfort zone, your dad died in that building. Why would anyone in their right minds go to a place where their parents died? It could be worse though, you could've stopped by his old lab, heavens know that would have been a smart idea. Though it would give you some sort of closure wouldn't it? To be able to see what has become of the place since he worked there, maybe even find something others haven't already?

That was a silly thought, thinking that he was better than trained professionals who had scanned every centimeter of the place in order to find anything leading to a suspect. Right now he wasn't getting taught to be a forensic scientist….he was getting trained to be a hero, just like he wanted all those years ago….back when his dad was alive….boy had he strayed from his original goal by quite a bit.

You forgot what you wanted to accomplish Izuku...you forgot about dad for a while...didn't you? Forgot about what you were going to do to help find his killer to justice, forgot about what he meant to you, forgot that he was….that he was dead for a while. You vowed to find his killer, and yet you so easily forgot about him, so easily lured by the promise of being a hero. Just go and become a hero already, your dad can wait…

Although the thoughts that emerged from his head were so unlike the boy, they were certainly in his mind somewhere. Perhaps they took hold deeply in his unconscious mind, but that would be a bit of an overreach. Right now Izuku just needed to head back to school after his three days of break. It was needed that he learn something again before he went insane.

As he straightened out his uniform and grabbed his lunch on the way out, his glasses would remain on his desk for another day. He planned to return them today, but that's what he had said yesterday and the day before. When they would be returned was not really so easily decided. That would remain up to chance, just like the chance that had dropped those glasses onto his face. Just like the chance that had gifted him with powers….

It was a day that was like any other for the most part, except Izuku decided to take the train for the first time in a while. After getting his legs broken it seemed a little rash to try to push himself again. Instead of trying to run to his limit as he had done for the majority school days, he decided that his legs needed a bit of a break to "properly heal" as he wanted to believe.

The truth was that the breaking of his legs had been so sudden and painful, it was something that was unexpected. Before then he had simply been worn out or exhausted to the point of collapse. Even the time that he was shot was expected, he saw the bullets fly, he saw them at him and he knew that they were going to hit him. The breaking of his legs was something else altogether.

The teenage boy rubbed his left leg a bit numbly, trying to erase the pain from his mind as best as he could. It was something that he hoped he would never have to go through again, that would certainly be for the best.

"Hello again kiddo! I see that you are doing well after the attack." Looking directly in front of him Izuku saw the man that he had talked to the morning of the attack, Hartley Rathaway. "Your suit took a beating though, had us all up in the lab trying to figure out a way for it to be better."

The young man in front of Izuku smiled and pulled out a lists of files from his bag, apparently the train was the best place for Izuku to get information about his suit as evidence from the last two encounters. Looking over the files the boy had to say that he was pretty impressed with the results. From just a glance he was able to tell that this new suit was something else.

"Wow! Gee thanks, this is pretty amazing! The design of this seems to be lighter and...more resistant? How did you manage that?" The speedster was genuinely surprised since pretty much everything that he had been told was that his suit was the best it could be. The change was certainly for the better, but it still seemed just a little bit odd to him.

"Well you see, last time the people in charge of the project only allowed me to work on a few bits of the project that were more like additions instead of the main suit. Since I got to know of your quirk I have been trying my best to improve your suit as best as I can. For one, the white dwarf star alloy was pretty good when it came to intertwining it with the the rest of the suit, but it made it more resistant and not at all protective of natural attacks." The designer pulled out another file and gave it to Izuku, it was a list of all the pros/cons that his suit held previously and now.

"Wow, the old suit sure had quite a few issues...did it really offer this little bit of protection?" Izuku was just a tiny bit concerned about how little his old suit really had in terms of actual help for his safety and wellbeing.

"Yeah, the previous heads of your suit thought that you would burn through whatever we gave you, but it wasn't until a contact from Star Labs gave me a clarification of what your quirk was that I was able to completely redesign your suit to meet your needs. First, the small field you give off when you run prevents you from sustaining any injuries, it also kept your clothes and footwear relatively unharmed as you ran. This clearly gave us the indication that your suit wasn't needed to be durable, but instead it should be mostly composed of plates of armor as well as make your shoes have a better grip on the ground instead of less. Also upon the realization that you can't really hear noise while running at insane speeds we decided to add speakers to your ear pieces, you know so that your suit actually has something fun about it…" He smiled at this bit while handing Izuku a pair of earphones that he had made the previous day.

Looking at them the UA student couldn't help but feel amazed that one person was going so far for him despite not knowing him that well. This guy seemed to be a more equipped and more organized Cisco, it was just that Izuku didn't see this guy nearly as often to have much of a work relationship.

"These work under the same principles that your suit does, except they will actually play music at what should be deemed the normal speed for you. All that was needed was to figure out how fast you ran compared to a regular being and then do a few calculations….anyway enjoy these, I have to go now…" Just like last time, the man got off the train and headed to work where he would surely create something new and exciting.

This left Izuku alone once again with the files for his new suit. As it was most likely that his suit was in the process of being fixed, he would most likely have to use his PE uniform as a replacement till he got the new one that these diagrams promised.

Heading into the main building once more, Izuku was able to catch a glimpse of of the short kid with round, purple hair who had been kicked out on the first day of classes. He seemed to be a bit down in the dumps, but there really wasn't anything that could be done about it now. Aizawa had told the class exactly what was expected of them, he simply carried through with just that. Then again, his teacher tended to be a really harsh person in general.

As he got to his class, a good amount before school started, Izuku went over to his seat in order to get a better understanding of how his suit was going to work. That was the plan until he saw how miserable Shinsou looked, more than usual that is. His skin was paler than it normally was with his eyes taking a slight red tone, a bit unsettling if Izuku was being true.

He also had some sort of nervous tick going with his left hand, just a slight tap that would happen every few seconds. This was completely new to Shinsou who had always been completely in control of his body at all times no matter what the occasion, but after the attack anything was possible. He hadn't even talked to the majority of the people in his class after what had happened.

Izuku it's fine, stop analyzing your friend and just go up and talk to him. What's the point of staying out of the way if you can't help your friend, just go there and say something to him. He probably hasn't talked to anyone in a handful of days because of the break given. The hospital visit also wasn't really helpful in finding out what happened to him….he just kinda was talked to by the doctor….

"Hey Shinsou! How are you doing today?" He spoke in a cheery tone and with a smile on his face, that's one thing heroes normally had on their faces for times like these. To bring up the people around them to a state of joy and calmness even when a situation proved to be dire.

Shinsou looked at him for a second with a slight tug of the corners of his mouth. Though it was still early in the morning he was usually capable of getting more out of the brainwash-quirk user. This was pretty odd indeed, but he wouldn't push him if he wasn't ready to explain what was wrong.

"I-I'm doing fine Midoriya thanks for asking, just a little bit tired from studying over the break they gave us." There were another handful of red flags there that Izuku desperately wanted to address such as him reverting back to using Midoriya over his given name. That slight stutter was also momentary, but to him moments were extremely noticeable. Something serious had happened between their last interaction and now, Izuku was sure of that. " I also put in another request for my costume to be altered for the future since it's going to be fixed once again…"

"Oh well that's great!" He had to remain optimistic and cheerful for this situation. "Mine is also getting a major remodeling since it took massive damage from the attack at the USJ, I even met the man who was doing many of the large fixes since the support course isn't allowed to severe of changes…"

This could've gone on for much longer, Izuku wanted it to continue for a while longer, but then another person walked in who caught Shinsou's eye for a second, a very unsettling second which indicated a major problem. The frog-form quirked girl walked into the room with a very plain looking expression on her face, but the eye contact between the two students was something that told Izuku something else.

What the hell was that? Shinsou and Tsuyu haven't talked at all since the start of the year, that means that something happened in the USJ. Something to bring Shinsou to this state and build up a tension between two of my classmates. The problem is that it could be just about anything.

The girl took her seat at the opposite end of the room and began working on some work after saying "good morning" to the green-haired boy. There was clearly some anger from Tsuyu directed towards Shinsou, but he didn't know why that was….

"Alright kids! Let's talk about what happened and what will happen…" Standing in front of the class was Shouta Aizawa who honestly didn't look to bad for a guy who had previously been smashed face first into concrete. It was probably just the bandages covering his face and wrapped around his arms that made him seem much worse than he did, like a mummy.

He sure doesn't sound as in pain as he did last time, but it's still pretty bad for any human to go through what he did. Something with the strength of All Might slamming a person's face into the ground is a thing that very few people would be able to survive, but here he is trying to teach once again not even a week after the incident. I wonder what's going to happen to our one-on-one sessions because of this?

"As many of you are aware, we were attacked at the USJ last week and if you are not then go see a professional because I don't know what could have caused such massive memory loss." He still had some of his odd sense of humor which Izuku had grown used to. "Obviously the school gave you a few days off to recover physically and emotionally. However, that calm time is over and all of you are expected to return with more effort than before. The attack showed just how capable you all were, but these villains were mostly nothing compared to what will have to be faced in the future if you do choose to continue with this career…"

Eraserhead stopped as a hand angrily shot up, a hand that belonged to the inhabitant of the desk just in front of Izuku. Someone who didn't particularly share his calmness and mostly clean vocabulary.

"Are you telling us that we only fought a bunch of fucking useless weaklings!?" Katsuki Bakugou wasn't very subtle about what he wanted to know and just threw it out there. The hero simply took a deep breath and continued with his explanation, taking into account what the explosion quirk wielding boy had asked.

"Yes and no...the heroes that many of you fought were nothing but petty criminals often found in the street. Among them were a handful of villains that were of any actual danger to you all which you handled with relative ease. The main villains perpetrated the attack are most likely to be the ones which we should be careful for as they very easily managed to take out several members of the school, myself included." There was a slight pause for the class to capture what he had said before he continued with the next part. "If no one else has a question on what happened please raise your hands." None were lifted as they all got the general idea of what he was saying.

He feels guilty for not being able to do more….that's why he included himself in the list of those taken out, he should've relayed the information without doing what he did Stop trying to analyze people Izuku! It's annoying to be in your head when you do that, and a bit frightening.

"Continuing with what I was saying, the attack has made the school up their game in terms of security and resources. Of course there will be more security around the general school as we try to maintain all of you safe while you receive training. Then in a few weeks will be the annual sports festival as many of you know already…." He tossed a handful of booklets onto the desk of Aoyama with the instructions to hand them out.

"This year the tradition will continue once more since the staff at UA see no reason to put a stop to it. All of you will be competing in the festival with zero exceptions to anyone. In previous years this is a time to show of your abilities to the heroics community in order to get request for internships and other such experiences, but there is also a negative to this. The festival is a chance for students across the heroics and general studies to rise or fall between the two depending on their performance. Do not make the mistake of putting little effort into this, it will not be tolerated…"

The entire class of 1A stared at the teacher as he said this with a slight amount of fear. They had already seen him get rid of one person from the course without any sign of remorse. Him sending another student to the general course was nothing out of the ordinary which brought even more fear into them.

"You all have about three weeks to prepare for the festival, make the most of them or you will heavily regret your decisions. Now back to class for the day, I'm supposed to entertain you for the rest of the hour, but I'll instead take a nap. I leave you to your own devices and Shinsou you're in charge…." With nothing else the teacher retreated to his sleeping bag and soon found himself in the land of dreams which he adored very much.

Three weeks, three weeks to train, to get better at using my speed in more practical ways, to get faster. I have a clear objective in mind now, I have no choice but to do well in this festival. I've failed several times already this year, others may see them as small victories across the board, but they are anything but that.

The rest of my classmates will also be going for the top in this sports festival, many people tend to do so every year that they are held. I cannot allow them to win over me, not anymore, I have to win this to finally prove that I am worthy of being here….I'm going to prove it to everyone in Japan that I will be a great hero someday!

"Midoriya...sit down, today will not be about fighting…" Despite his current condition, Aizawa had still made Izuku come to their daily one-on-one sessions, he was simply a man of habit. "...today will be more a day of information processing and telling you how badly you did at the USJ."

"What do you mean Aizawa, I saved you and made sure that no one else was there I…" The speedster here was trying to see why Aizawa had changed his view from when they were both at the hospital. "When we were in the hospital you said that I did a good job and…"

"When I was at the hospital I had only been told the part of the story and was under the influence of several painkillers that were given to me against my will, also I talked to the 'Golden Boy' and he told me the entirety of what went down."

Well this could either go very well or it could end up being really bad for me. He's a reasonable person but it's also a bit pointless in trying to argue with him on this specific subject. I know that I messed up pretty badly, probably shouldn't have done half the things that I did, but I did them anyways.

"I believed that you had actually though it all out before going in and had just happened to get caught in a combat situation in which you could not escape from. I didn't think that you would actually go back in to fight a foe much stronger and better equipped than you. That was something that believed to have taught you better than All Might did to all of you…" Well he had taken it to the point of bringing All Might to the conversation so Izuku knew that he was in the clear when it came to blame taking.

The two of them looked at each other for a minute without saying a single word, probably the longest that had happened without one of them trying to throw a punch at the other. It was an interesting experience to say the least, but not one that he wanted to have with Eraserhead of all people.

"Also I know that you plan to aim for the top at the sports competition. I would advise heavily against this type of behavior as it will lead to more attention from villains towards you. We have already seen what happens when one group tries to go after an entire class, there really is no telling what would've happened if that had been a singular student. I cannot stop you from putting in your best effort as it would be contradictory to what I've taught you, but I do advise to be careful, don't present every skill you have out to the public, it can and will be used against you." Not even missing a beat Izuku chose that moment to ask his question…

"If I give you money could you bet on me for first place?" The teacher sighed heavily as he recognized what his student was after. It wasn't for the glory, or the fame, not even the recognition from the heroes of this world. He was trying to prove something to someone, and that someone most likely was himself.

"If I happen to find money in this room the day before the sports festival then I could bet on you for first place, then I would keep half the earnings and put the other half where I found it...but that would be if I found it here and only here…." The teacher and student pair had grown closer together since their time knowing each other. "Now let's get to work...let's see if you didn't forget what I taught you…."