Chapter 10

Thanks to Recovery Girl, Izuku's legs heal in no time.

It's a blessing, because Izuku is certain that if he had spent any time in casts or on crutches, his mother would have worried herself into a distraction. She fusses over him as it is, and he lets her without complaint. She's always there to offer quiet hugs and his favorite foods after a particularly nasty ghost encounter, and after what he's just been through, Izuku needs nothing less. Even with his legs healed, he can't stand up for long, not without shaking like a leaf until he's ready to fall over.

School is closed the following day, and Izuku takes the opportunity to sleep until his brain damn well wants him to wake up. Rei stands guard in his room through the night, humming softly until the buzz lulls him to sleep. He drifts off with Mika curled up on the pillow behind his head, and at some point during the night, she crawls into his arms and sleeps purring against his chest. After all the fighting, panicking, and quirk-facilitated healing he's done all day, he sleeps like a rock.

In fact, it's the first night in a very long time that Izuku is able to sleep without any dreams at all.

He wakes up feeling soft and content. Slowly, he lets his heavy eyelids drift open on their own, with his arms full of warm cat and his stomach growling comfortably for breakfast and sunlight shining through his window and Rei hissing and snarling in the distance.

…Wait, what was that last one?

Mika trills softly as he heaves himself out of bed. Rei is nowhere to be seen, but he can hear her; he knows what she sounds like by heart. Yawning, he gets dressed and wanders into the bathroom.

The bathroom is already occupied, by the ghost of a young woman fixing her hair in front of the mirror. There's little point when she doesn't cast a reflection, but Izuku's not about to judge.

"Morning, Ms. Morino." Izuku swallows a yawn. "Could I have the bathroom real quick? Won't be two minutes."

"Oh, of course!" Morino Naoko vanishes, and doesn't reappear until Izuku's flushed the toilet and turned on the sink. "You sure slept late."

"Long day. I almost died."

She whistles, and goes back to trying to fix her hair in front of the useless mirror. "That would've been awful. Is that why Rei's in a pet this morning? She's been throwing a tantrum, and it's making the rest of us a bit edgy. Kurosawa won't come out of the hall closet until she's quiet." She pauses. "Could I borrow your hand? I just need you to hold this for a few seconds."

"Sure." Izuku reaches over and holds the braided bun in place while Morino clips it. "Couldn't you just… make yourself look like this?"

"I guess. I like doing my hair, though. It's about the journey, not the destination. Thank you, Midoriya."

"You're welcome. I'll go check on Rei." Izuku splashes water on his face to wake himself up, and walks out into the living room.

"Oh, good, you're up," Mom says, and subjects him to a hug and a good-morning kiss on the cheek. "How're you feeling?"

"I slept… really well," he says. "Better than I thought I would."

"I'm glad." She beams at him. "Are all your friends all right, too?"

"Oh, yeah they're fine. Nobody got hurt." Except me, and Aizawa-sensei, and All-Might.

"And your ghost friends?" she asks. "I was afraid something might be wrong; I woke up early this morning because the TV turned on by itself, and I've been hearing noises every now and then. And not the normal noises, either."

As if on cue, Izuku hears Rei shriek in the distance. The lights flicker, and a nearby window rattles against the pane. "Something might be bothering Rei. I'll go check—I'll be right back."

"Be safe, Izuku."

He slips on his shoes but doesn't bother tying them before he goes outside. This happens from time to time; once in a while Rei gets territorial and throws a fit if some other ghost tries to move in and start haunting the place without her say-so. She tolerates the quieter ones, like Ms. Morino (grad student, hit by a drunk driver) and Kurosawa (shopkeeper, shot in a robbery gone wrong) and Mrs. Matsuda (retired yoga instructor, heart attack) who do little more than blink the hallway lights, whisper in the walls, or mess with doors, but some ghosts just get on her nerves. It doesn't take much to defuse these conflicts, though.

Mika trails at his heels as he steps outside. "Rei?" he calls, cautiously. "Rei, what's the matter?"

A moment later, she blinks into view in front of him, scowling like she's been denied sweets. She signs to him. She won't leave, she says.

"Who won't leave?" he asks.

The words are barely out of his mouth when the source of consternation materializes out of thin air and sends him staggering back in surprise.

"Oh good, you're up," Ms. Shimura says without preamble. "I was going to wake you up earlier, but your friend here pitched a fit and wouldn't let me."

Rei sticks her tongue out, much farther than any human tongue would be able to stretch.

"And I mean, it's been hours," Ms. Shimura continues. "I know I'm dead and time has no meaning anymore, but. Come on."

"W-what are you doing here?" Izuku fights to keep his voice low. He's disturbed the neighbors before by accident, and the last thing he wants is to wake anyone up even this late in the morning.

"I wanted to talk to you about—did you eat breakfast?"

There's enough whiplash in that sentence to give Izuku a sore neck. "I… no? I just woke up. Recovery Girl healed my legs yesterday, so I was really out of it, and…"

"Go eat breakfast," Ms. Shimura says. "And then come down to the park. I'll be waiting."

She vanishes, and Izuku blinks a few times before heading back inside.

"Everything okay?" Mom asks.

"I think so, yeah," he says. "There's just a… Is it okay if I go out after breakfast? Someone needs to talk to me."

"Well… I-I don't see why not." She's still nervous; after what happened yesterday, Izuku doesn't blame her for wanting him to stay inside all day. Had he stayed injured, he's sure she would have insisted on it. But thankfully, at least for now, she seems all right with letting things go as normal.

He barely tastes his breakfast, too busy wondering why Ms. Shimura came to visit. She said she was here for hours, even—where's All-Might? Why isn't she with him? She never strays far from him, and even if she does, it's never for very long.

And, after what happened at the USJ, Izuku would have expected her to be glued to his side, at least for a while. And yet, here she is, paying a visit and enduring hours of Rei's irate scolding just to wait for him to get up.

He takes his dishes to the kitchen when he's done, only for Mom to take them out of his hands. "You go on," she says. "Whatever it is, go ahead and take care of it. I'll wash up."

"I can—it'll only take a moment, you don't have to—"

She won't take no for an answer, and shoos him out the door. Mika slips out with him.

"Make sure she doesn't run off, now," Mom calls after him.

"We'll be fine," he replies. "Thanks, Mom."

The park is only a few blocks away. It's a nice little spot, with picnic tables and a playground for kids. There are trees further in, for shade or a quiet spot away from the road. The whole place is grassy and well-kept, and at the moment it's almost empty. Ms. Shimura waits for him away from the road, where trees and shade deflect the attention of passersby. At the sight of her, Izuku breaks into a jog.

"Ms. Shimura!" He slows as he approaches her. "What's going on? Is All-Might okay? How come you're so far away from him?"

She doesn't answer immediately. Her arms are crossed over her chest as she regards him with her blank white eyesockets and starkly pale face. Izuku can't help but fidget under her scrutiny. Rei is close to his side, silent. Mika rubs against his leg, mewing until he stoops to pet her.

"W-what's this about?" he asks as he straightens up again.

"This is about you," she answers. "This is about what happened yesterday. And… this is about me, changing my stance on… certain things."

He searches her face, his confusion evolving into curiosity. "What kind of things?"

Her form flickers, and she stands before him with her arm outstretched, palm out. "Hit me."

"W-what?"

"You heard me." Her face is unreadable. "Throw a punch. Don't put any One For All behind it—I just want to see your form."

Mystified, he complies, and feels his fist smack against the flat of her hand.

She shakes her head. "Just as I thought."

Izuku's brow furrows. "What was that about my form?"

"You don't have any, that's what," she says. "That's your biggest problem right now, kiddo. You have the strength—even without One For All, you're built like a brick shithouse and you have strength in spades—but you don't know what to do with it."

"Um." He feels like he ought to be insulted, but mostly he just knows that she's right. "I haven't really…"

"You haven't learned any basics," she finishes for him. "It's not your fault. All-Might's new at teaching, and Yuuei's curriculum focuses on strategy, teamwork, and most of all the strengthening of one's quirk. But you? Your quirk doesn't need strengthening; you do."

"I know that," Izuku replies, trying to ignore the sinking feeling of shame at the statement. He blinks, and the feeling ebbs. "Wait… wait, does this mean…? Are you saying you're going to—"

"I didn't want it to come to this," Ms. Shimura tells him, her face falling. "I wanted to just… stay an observer. I wanted to let All-Might train you—it's his right to raise you as a hero, and I don't want to take that away from him." Her brow furrows, and she looks at him with her face set with determination. "But after what happened yesterday, it's clear to me that I can't afford to stay on the sidelines. And if you still can't use One For All without ending up in the hospital, then the very least I can do is teach you to defend yourself, quirk or no quirk."

Izuku stands a little taller. "You're going to teach me how to fight?"

She moves before he has the chance to react, slips past what little defenses he has, and knocks his feet out from under him. The next thing he knows, he's flat on his back in the grass, staring up into her face as she stands over him. "Here's what's gonna happen, half-pint," she says. "You'll continue your studies at Yuuei, and your training with All-Might. And in the meantime, I'll be getting the basics of hand-to-hand combat between your ears by any means necessary." She leans down toward him. "With any luck, I'll be able to knock some lessons into you that stick well enough that you have something to show for it at the Sports Festival." She casts a glance to the side, where Rei is hissing in protest at the rough handling. "So, with that in mind, I'd appreciate it if you told your friend here not to chew on me just because you might be a slow learner."

Izuku's heart quickens, and he scrambles to his feet and stands at his tallest height. "She won't. She'll behave." He gives Rei a meaningful look before turning back to Ms. Shimura. "And I won't be a slow learner." He bobs his head in a short, grateful bow. "You won't regret this, I promise. Thank you for teaching me."

The smile she gives him is a dangerous one. "Don't thank me yet, shorty." Her form blinks, and she reappears at his side, hands on his shoulders to shift his stance. "Lesson number one. Here's the right way to throw a punch."

By the end of the lesson, Izuku is sore, sweaty, grass-stained, and has had the wind knocked out of him no less than four separate times.

Unless one counts the moment All-Might took him on as a successor, he has never been happier.

Izuku's feet drag as he makes his way down the hall to his classroom. It's not just weariness that makes his body feel heavy, though he has plenty of that. The incident at USJ left him exhausted enough to sleep without dreams that night; on the night after, he was not so lucky. After eight hours of bad dreams and cold sweats that not even Mika's purring could keep away, Izuku feels like death warmed over.

And on top of it all, there are people he has to face. Classmates. Tsuyu.

Aizawa.

The last one, at least, he does not need to fear for long. Narita meets him in the hallway and gives him some good news.

"He doesn't remember," is the first thing Narita says to him. "At least, I don't think he does. And he's okay. That's probably more important."

"Okay," Izuku whispers. He feels as if he could sink through the floor. That's one weight off his chest; he didn't get his homeroom teacher killed, and Aizawa doesn't remember what he saw.

Still, he braces himself as he opens the door and walks into the classroom. There are things he's desperately hoped he could leave behind in middle school, but now as he steps in, he can almost hear it already.

What a freak. If he wasn't quirkless I might actually be scared of him.

You never know. He's the kind of guy who might snap.

He's so creepy. I saw him talking to a wall.

He'll stare at you like you're not even there. He's like a walking corpse.

Quirkless creep.

You can't fix crazy.

"Midoriya!"

Kirishima's voice cuts through the rest of the classroom conversations, and Izuku freezes in his tracks as his classmate vaults over a desk to get to him. On instinct he grasps Rei's hand and tries to ground himself when she squeezes back. Everyone else in the room, alerted by Kirishima's call, is now looking at him. Kaminari, Uraraka, Sero, Iida, Tsuyu—Bakugou, too. Izuku's ears roar with panic, and it's all he can do not to turn tail before Kirishima reaches him.

"Dude!" Kirishima's sharp teeth show in a wide grin. "Tsuyu told us you stared down that creepy hands guy at the USJ! Is that true?"

Izuku blinks. The roaring in his ears cuts off abruptly. "U-um. I… guess?"

Kirishima thumps his shoulder, nearly knocking him off balance. "Man, I never knew you had it in you, dude!"

"I-I… what?"

"I heard he had some kind of disintegrating quirk!" Sero pipes up. "Didn't he almost grab you?"

"H-he, um, he did grab me," Izuku stammers. "Both of us, me and Tsuyu. But Aizawa-sensei erased his quirk, and…"

"Damn, dude," Kaminari shakes his head. "That must've been intense."

"I was so scared I couldn't move," Tsuyu says loudly. "I'm pretty sure he was gonna kill us, but then Midoriya just looked him straight in the eye and started talking to him, like it was nothing. And he kept him talking 'til All-Might got there."

"That was really clever of you, Deku!" Uraraka calls.

"Weren't you scared, Midoriya?" Ashido asks.

"Witless." Izuku isn't quite sure what to do with this. This is not what he expected. "I just… I got so scared that I came back around to calm, I guess? I-I didn't really know what I was doing, I just wanted to distract him long enough to keep him from killing us." He's close to panic again, but now it's for a different reason.

"That sounds so cool," Kirishima gushes. "I wish I could've seen that."

"Y-you think so?" Izuku asks.

"Of course we do!" Kirishima stares at him like it's the stupidest question he's ever heard. "Why wouldn't we? You stared down a villain and you didn't even flinch."

"So you..." The words catch in his throat for a moment. "You don't think it's… I dunno… creepy?"

"Oh it was super creepy," Tsuyu calls out again. "Especially the part where you smiled at him."

Izuku winces.

"No no no, dude, don't worry." Kirishima claps him on the shoulder again, jostling him a little. "That's a good thing."

"It is?" Izuku gapes at him, bewildered.

"Totally!" Kirishima spreads his hands wide. "We're all gonna be heroes, right? If you're creepy, then that just means you can scare the villains, you know?"

"Oh." Izuku opens and shuts his mouth a few times, too baffled to manage words immediately. "I… never thought about it that way."

"It's kinda like All-Might, but different," Tsuyu muses. "He scares villains by being super strong, and you can scare them by smiling at them like you're about to eat a baby."

"Um..." Izuku feels like that's meant as a compliment, but he's not quite sure. It's mind-blowing to be compared to All-Might in any way, but baby-eating is definitely not what he was going for.

"Your quirk's pretty similar to his already," Tsuyu adds, and Izuku almost chokes on the air he's breathing.

"Are you okay, though?" Uraraka asks. "It was super brave what you did, but you also got hurt pretty bad."

"I'm fine," Izuku assures her. The weight of everyone's attention is beginning to overwhelm him, so he grasps desperately for an out. "I-I mean, we can't forget Iida. He's the one who went and got help, remember? We would've all been in trouble otherwise."

This deflects attention, at least for the moment, and the conversation shifts to back-slapping Iida while Izuku flees to his seat. He passes by Todoroki's desk, and almost trips over his feet when he sees that his classmate—the strongest student in his class, no less—is still watching him with an expression that Izuku can't quite decipher. But Todoroki doesn't stop him, or say anything, so Izuku moves on and takes his seat.

Beneath the shock, confusion, and burning embarrassment, he can't deny the tiny spark of unexpected pleasure that this conversation has brought. His classmates have seen him, really seen him. Maybe not enough to know about the ghosts, but they've seen what his middle school classmates used to see every day, and they aren't whispering behind their hands, or scooting away from him, or calling him crazy.

Maybe… maybe they haven't mistaken him for someone cool. Maybe they just think he's cool.

He jumps when Aizawa finally appears, face wrapped in bandages like a mummy, but he makes it through the period without any more incidents.

In spite of the attack on the school, business is going on as usual. The Sports Festival is two weeks away; when Aizawa makes that announcement, Izuku absently rubs at one of his many bruises from Ms. Shimura's training. With her help, hopefully he'll be ready for whatever his classmates can throw at him.

He's walking out of the classroom for lunch when Aizawa's voice stops him. "Midoriya, a word."

Shit, he thinks, but there's no avoiding this. His classmates all file out, leaving him alone with his homeroom teacher.

Mostly alone, anyway. Narita's still there, and Rei is at his side as always. When Aizawa steps closer, Izuku looks instinctively to her, in case she tries to bite him again like she usually does. After she stopped Kirishima in his tracks at the USJ, he isn't sure he can just let her do that anymore.

But she doesn't.

She doesn't snap, or growl, or change her face into a frightening mask. When Aizawa moves within reach, she wanders over to bat at the trailing end of his scarf.

"Y-yes, Sensei?" he answers, remembering where he is. His heart beats in his throat.

"I seem to recall a rather devil-may-care attitude from you, the other day," Aizawa says.

"Um."

"Not to mention what I overheard Asui saying," Aizawa continues.

"O-oh." He's not talking about the ghosts, Izuku realizes with a shudder of relief. He's talking about Izuku's recklessness. That, he can deal with.

"There's a saying about the difference between bravery and stupidity," Aizawa tells him. "It's only brave if it works. You do understand how close you came to being killed on Wednesday." It's not a question.

"Yes." The floor draws Izuku's eyes. He remembers, not for the first time, that it's only because of the man before him that Shigaraki didn't turn him and Tsuyu to dust.

"You're not short of nerve, I'll give you that." It's so close to a compliment that Izuku jerks his head up again, surprised. "But I don't think I need to tell you that if All-Might hadn't shown up when he did, both you and Asui would be dead right now."

"I-I know."

"So in the future," Aizawa continues. "Don't run into danger unless there's a good chance you won't become another casualty."

"I understand, Sensei." He wants to look at the floor again, but he forces himself to keep his head raised. "Thank you."

He doesn't see Aizawa raise his eyebrow with the bandages in the way, but he can practically feel it.

"For—" The words catch in Izuku's throat. "I mean, when you..."

Aizawa sighs and turns back to his desk. "Go to lunch, Midoriya. Before you embarrass both of us."

Reddening, Izuku mumbles something in reply and obeys.

Ghosts are easy to talk to. The living are not.

Izuku's two weeks of training take off from there.

It's a strange balance for Izuku, trying to focus on getting stronger while not spending too much time thinking about why. If he lets his mind fixate on it, then he'll crack for sure. After the USJ incident, all eyes are on his class. Everyone will be watching. Pro heroes looking to snap up sidekicks will be watching. Most of the other students in their year seem to share a single-minded determination to beat them and show the world that Class 1-A isn't so tough.

All-Might's time limit is getting shorter and shorter now that he's passed on his quirk, and he wants Izuku to use the festival to announce his arrival to the whole world.

No pressure or anything.

And so, Izuku throws himself into getting ready. He strengthens his grip at the dinner table, finds himself reaching for his weights and lifting sets with no memory of starting. Mrs. Matsuda, former yoga teacher during her life, shows him a few useful stretches that he can do while he's resting, watching TV, or doing homework.

And of course, Ms. Shimura takes him outside every day to teach him how not to get the crap kicked out of him.

"So," Ms. Shimura says at one training session, after she sends Izuku sprawling to the ground for the hundredth time. "What did you learn from that?"

Izuku spits out grass and picks himself back up. "That you fight dirty?"

She laughs at that. "It's not fighting dirty if you're fighting on the same level as the villains you're trying to take down, half-pint. Because believe you me, they will fight dirty." She stands over him with her arms akimbo, showing off hard muscle.

Not for the first time, Izuku wonders who she was in her life. He wonders if she was a hero, too. With every session and lesson that leaves Izuku sweaty and aching, it seems more and more likely.She's only been teaching him for about a week, but he's learned so much that he finds himself visualizing moves and throws in class, at the dinner table, on the way to school, and when he lies awake in bed. He mentally runs through the defenses she drills into him, even going through motions with his hands whenever he happens to be standing still. It's not a good combination with his tendency to space out; just the day before, he elbowed Todoroki in the ribs by accident outside the restroom, and nearly knocked Iida's tray out of his hands while in line for lunch. He only has so much time before the festival, and he's determined to etch Ms. Shimura's lessons into his brain and his muscles. If he can't always trust his mind not to freeze up on him, then at the very least he ought to trust his muscle memory.

Izuku staggers to his feet, panting a little as he catches his breath. "Do I have to stoop to their level, though? I thought the point was that we're better than that."

"This isn't a game, beansprout," Ms. Shimura tells him, shaking her head. "You can't afford to keep score when there are civilian lives on the line—lives that you are protecting and the villains are threatening, if you need help with perspective." She reaches out and clips his chin lightly. "Remember, heroes are trained to act in a crisis, to break things if they have to, and to protect people by taking down whoever or whatever is trying to hurt them. You can't afford to get dainty when you're going toe to toe with a villain—especially with a quirk like yours."

"My quirk is strong, though," Izuku murmurs.

"Sure is," Ms. Shimura nods. "It's strong at close range. You're not that Todoroki kid, or the one that drops glitter and shoots lasers out of his belly button—you can't attack from a distance, the way you are. Until you harness that power properly, your only way to fight is to get up close and personal. And when someone's trying to beat you into unconsciousness, you can't get squeamish. Aim for weak spots. Throw sand in their eyes. Insult their mothers. Fake a weakness so they drop their guard."

"That doesn't sound very heroic." Izuku brushes uselessly at the green smear on the front of his shirt.

"Heroism isn't always pretty, short-stack," Ms. Shimura sighs. "It's not all fun and glory. Sometimes it's a sweaty chore. If it helps, don't think of it like fighting dirty—think of it as fighting smart. You have to be willing to fight this way if you hope to defend yourself against bigger, stronger opponents." She pauses. "Which might happen, unless you limit yourself to fighting crimes committed by small children. Or large house cats."

"Hey!"

Rei cackles.

"That's the hard truth of it, at least until you figure out your quirk." Ms. Shimura tells him. "'Til then, I'm gonna make sure you know how to navigate a fight."

"So far, I've been navigating my way face-first into the ground," Izuku says. He's glad he picked a shirt and pants he didn't care that much about, because he isn't sure his mother will be able to get these grass stains out.

"You're improving, though," Ms. Shimura assures him with a smile. "You're getting quicker—I can see it already. I'm starting to have to work hard to knock you off your feet."

"I don't think I've fought this much in… ever," Izuku admits. "I mostly… I never used to fight very much. I'd mostly just talk, or run."

"Well, you've been doing a lot less of that ever since you got started," she says. "I saw you when—when those villains attacked. You stand your ground, and that's good."

"Except when my legs broke," Izuku points out.

"It's a work in progress." Ms. Shimura smacks her fist against her palm. "So far, with every fight I've seen you get into, the other guy's been the one with the upper hand. You're a student, and you're inexperienced with your quirk, so that's going to keep happening."

"Then what do I do about it?" Izuku asks.

"Simple, kiddo." Ms. Shimura smiles at him, and takes another fighting stance. "If someone thinks they have the upper hand, then you break it. Now, attack me again."