Chapter Text
When Gojo-sensei had first told him about the assignment, he had nearly punched the man in the face- he chose not to, of course, his hand would be stopped by ‘Infinity’ anyway.
Izuku was never the most subtle person, infiltrations mission are not his forte. Gojo-sensei knew this. Nevertheless, the man had assigned him the mission anyway. He wanted to reject it, to tell his Sensei to fuck off and choose someone more suitable, but then Gojo-sensei had explained himself- his face serious for once.
Gojo-sensei told him of the rumours of Curse-users working with Villains in Musustafu, and the influx of curses at U.A- the school that 4-year-old Izuku wanted to attend so badly. He was informed that Nezu himself requested for a sorcerer to exorcise the curses at his school, and that the Higher Ups are unwilling to expend any of their students or sorcerers for a long-term mission. A mission that would take months at the least.
The Higher Ups had been reluctant to expend their sorcerers, especially with the emergence of Sukuna’s vessel, but they had been willing to send Izuku. Because to the Higher Ups, he’s barely a fourth-grade sorcerer, he’s someone they would be more than enthusiastic to send away. The Higher Ups will never acknowledge Izuku’s ‘zero cursed energy’, even if it grants him other-worldly strength and senses at the aid of a Heavenly Restriction. The Elders had always been traditionalists.
Of course, Izuku technically doesn’t have ‘zero cursed energy’, it’s just what they Higher Ups believe. The first thing Gojo-sensei had told him when he was taken in was never to reveal his real technique- he had easily agreed, Izuku knew what had happened to people like him. There’s a reason he doesn’t have a Clan anymore.
Izuku asked why it was an infiltration mission when Nezu, the principal of the school, had requested a sorcerer. It wouldn’t be an infiltration if they knew he was there. Gojo-sensei told him that only Nezu knows of the curses and sorcerers, so none of the other staff would know the real reason he was there. It would be a long mission, Gojo-sensei warned him, but Izuku knew that the moment he heard the word infiltration. Izuku pursed his lips, if he really pushed for it, Gojo-sensei would eventually relent and let Izuku start his first year at Jujutsu High as any ordinary student. It’s not what Izuku wants though, not if it comes at the price of peoples deaths.
Izuku stopped wanting to be a Hero a long time ago, Jujutsu and Heroism never mixed well, it was only inevitable that Izuku would give up on the childish dream. Now, with his old dream handed to him on a silver platter, he’s not really sure how to feel. Izuku wants to experience his first official year at Jujutsu High along with ‘shiguro and the others, but he also wants to save the still-innocent students at U.A, the ones who haven’t seen the horror of the real world yet.
He knows his decision, Gojo-sensei does too. Izuku knew his choice as soon as Gojo-sensei finished explaining.
“Fine, I’ll do it.”
His Sensei smiles like a child gifted with a lollipop, “I knew I could rely on you, Izuku-kun.”
————
Izuku is the only one in the class when he arrives. (Gojo-sensei may or may not have teleported him straight to the gates of U.A. “To wish my cute student good luck” his Sensei had told him.) He takes the time to wander back out into the hallways and kill a few low-grade curses here and there. They’re weak enough that he can wave a small knife in their direction inconspicuously and they’d dissolve, so far there isn’t any majorly concerning curses in the school. After a good half an hour, when more students start streaming in the halls, he walks back to his class. On the way he removes his blazer and tie, it had been stifling to exorcise curses in layered clothing- he’s too used to the tank top that he normally wears. For good measure, he unbuttons the top few buttons on his shirt as well, might as well go for full delinquent while he’s at it.
He arrives back at the class, half the classroom is filled at this point, a few heads turning to his arrival, some greet him with a nod- which he reciprocates. His eyes draw to a commotion near the corner of the room, a robotic boy gesturing angrily at a blonde…Is that?
The blonde turns to him, eyes blood red- exactly like he had remembered- it confirms his suspicions.
“Kacchan?”
“Deku?!”
They say at the same time, both gaping at each other in a mirrored way. Izuku shouldn’t be surprised that his old friend is at U.A, it’s all he would rave on about as a child, Kacchan had always claimed that he would attend U.A and be the Number One hero.
“Kacchan! It’s been so-“
“Deku what the fucking hell! I thought you were dead!”
The loud proclamation silences the room, his new classmates turn to stare at the shit-show of a reunion. Kacchan… thought he was dead? Izuku had never knew of what Kacchan was told when he left, he didn’t think the blonde cared enough to be affected by his sudden leave. Izuku didn’t know that his old friend thought he was dead though, he had assumed that the blonde was informed that he had simply moved houses when his parents died. What did Gojo-sensei say to him when he left?
“Kacchan-“ he stops, a new presence appears by the door, flat to the floor. He walks away from Kacchan’s desk, leaving the blonde fuming, and towards the presence- ready to attack at the first sign of a threat. A lump of yellow enters his sight, a curse? no, a man.
“Sir?” he prompts the scraggly man on the floor.
The man stands, shedding his sleeping bag, and pulls out a nutrition pack along with a stack of gym uniforms.
“I’m your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shouta. Put these uniforms on and head to the Training grounds,” he abruptly announces.
Izuku doesn’t falter at the sight of his homeroom teacher, long used to eccentric teachers at this point. He grabs a uniform, turning back to Kacchan who’s still glaring holes into Izuku, he mouths ‘talk later’ to him and moves to head out the door.
————
“-ought you were dead!”
Shouta sighs, it hasn’t even been a minute and his new class has already been proven to be problematic. The one which the comment was directed at stops mid sentence, shoulders tensing (like he’s preparing to fight) and walks towards him. He narrows his eyes at the boy, Izuku he now recognises, it’s one of the profiles he had memorised before the school year. Shouta had been interested in the boy, a quirkless Hero student- the first quirkless Hero student- a student whom had questionable documents. Dead parents, living in an apartment alone in downtown Musustafu, and had been schooled at a private school on the outskirts of Tokyo. The real kicker however, was the lack of a last name. Dead parents or not, everyone has a last name. Shouta had brought up the issue with Nezu after the exams, the rat just smiled at him and told him to ‘not worry about it’ he was forced to drop the issue after.
Izuku is a suspicious individual, even more so when he had sensed Shouta’s presence so quickly. Shouta had seen the boy tense and coil, preparing for a threat, he saw his hand twitch at his side like it was itching for a weapon. Izuku was a walking red flag, a flag that Shouta doesn’t know whether to help or to detain. He doesn’t feel any malicious intent from the boy, but he can’t cross out the option of ‘Villain’ just yet. For now, he won’t say anything and continues with the plan he has for Class 1-A. Shouta needs more time to observe Izuku.
Izuku is the first one to emerge from the locker-rooms, wearing his gym jacket around his waist and tank top in place of a shirt. Shouta doesn’t comment on it, he doesn’t care for petty things like uniform. Izuku crosses his arms against his chest, the movement catches Shouta’s eye, drawing his gaze the numerous scars on his arms. He tries to keep the surprise off his face, from what he picked up, Izuku is much more observant than the average teen. After seeing the scars on his body, Shouta’s leaning more towards to help than detain. It’s not the first time he’s seen scars on his students, but Izuku’s concern him the most. They are not only numerous but are varied; knife scars, claw marks, burn scars, puncture scars that look a lot like healed bullet wounds. It’s surprising that Izuku is so willing to out them on display, normally people would try to cover them up, but instead he confidently shows them off, completely unaffected at the stares he gets when his classmates start to trickle out the locker-rooms.
Once the last student comes out he does the normal spiel of informing the students of the Quirk Assessment they’re about to take, and threatening expulsion once the inevitable ‘no fair!’ comes. During his whole speech, Izuku doesn’t show any signs of nervousness or concern, not even when the threat of expulsion comes. Shouta expected the boy to at least look a little concerned, he would be at a disadvantage against his quirked classmates after all. His entrance exam score wasn’t overly impressive, scoring only just enough to be accepted, so it’s not like he’s physically strong either.
Or so, that’s what he thought.
Aside from the ball throw and 50 meter dash (where scoring better than infinity and being faster than someone with engines for legs would be impossible) Izuku had come first in every other fitness test. If Nezu wasn’t the one in charge of checking applications for any altered or falsified documents, he would’ve expelled Izuku immediately for lying about his quirklessness. Because there’s no way, someone could be that fast and strong without a quirk. He had to subtlety use Erasure during the long-distance run to double check that Izuku wasn’t using a quirk- the boy hadn’t faltered in the slightest when he did, he had even sped up when he activated Erasure, it seems that he hadn’t as subtle as he thought.
By the end of the test, Izuku hadn’t been the slightest out of breath, the boy has yet to even break a sweat- he even had the gall to smile throughout the tests, like he was purposely trying to bait Shouta to call him out. The little brat had obviously held back in the exams, the reason still unclear to Shouta, Izuku doesn’t seem like the type to avoid attention or slack off in something as important as the Exams.
Shouta revealed the results to the class, Izuku’s name showing up in second, right below the recommendation student- Yaoyorozu Momo. He decides not to expel last place, Mineta has potential, although is on very thin ice after hearing the comments he said during the tests.
He dismisses the students, and walks off the field without another word. Shouta needs a nap, and some pain reliever for his headache that he suspects stems from a certain problematic child.
————
“Where have you been?”
“I’ve been living on the outskirts of Tokyo, Kacchan, I-“
“Don’t fucking lie to me, Deku,” Kacchan glares at him from under his hair “Something else is going on isn’t there? You think I’m dumb enough to believe you’ve been frolicking in the forest the whole time- shitty nerds like you don’t get like,” he gestures angrily at his body “that from “living on the outskirts of Tokyo’.”
“I’m not lying Kacchan,” he answers with a calm facade “I really have been living in Tokyo, getting schooled at a private academy, I have no idea why no one informed you of my location.”
Izuku doesn’t know, he doesn’t know why Kacchan was told that he was dead- he feels terrible that Kacchan thought he died, Izuku should have checked himself that the blonde was okay, but at the time he didn’t think he cared about Izuku, that he would’ve blown up the phone as soon as he heard Izuku’s voice.
He had assumed Gojo-sensei had taken care of everything when he moved away, Izuku should have known that idiot had somehow messed something up- his sensei’s definition of ‘taking care of something’ is dramatically different from the average person.
“What happened to you?”
“What?”
“Don’t play dumb, Deku,” Kacchan snarls “Where are all those scars from? You look like you got into a fight with a fucking bear with a machine gun. Don’t tell me the people your staying with are beating your sorry ass-“
“What?! No!” Izuku quickly denies “They’re just training scars!” The lie easily slips out, it’s not the first time he’s been questioned on his scars.
“Tch, if you want to keep your shitty secrets then fine, I don’t give a shit. Just don’t in my way Deku.” Kacchan shoulder checks him as he abruptly leaves, Izuku slumps his shoulders the moment he turns his back. That was too close to his liking, it’s only been a day and someone’s already on his back. Kacchan had always been able to see through him easily, when it came to his old friend, he was an open book for him to read. He had been lucky that Kacchan hadn’t dug any deeper, the blonde would’ve eventually been able to fish out more information out of Izuku if he had tried.
————
He dials Gojo-sensei’s number right after Kacchan leaves, walking around aimlessly through the empty halls of the school, exorcising a few low-grade spirits without a thought. Izuku waits for his sensei to pick up, the man always takes a few minutes to pick up- an annoying habit that irked Izuku. The phone picks ups.
“Izuku-kun! How was your first day?”
“Sensei,” he grits out “tell me why Kacchan thought I was dead.”
“Oh? Not even a reply or a greeting from my student?” he can practically hear the pout through the phone “C’mon Izuku-kun~”
“Gojo-sensei.”
“Alright, alright! I’m sorry! For your information, I didn’t tell anyone you were dead, I just just made sure the police didn’t release any information on your whereabouts, it was for your safety. I had no idea the police would refuse to even confirm if you were dead or alive. I didn’t know the Bakugou’s had jumped to the conclusion you were dead, if I had known I would’ve said something.”
His anger immediately dampens, not completely though- he’s still a little mad that Gojo-sensei didn’t check if the police were doing their jobs properly, but he guesses his sensei isn’t as guilty as he had originally thought. Gojo-sensei is a busy man, he can’t be too mad that he had forgotten to see if Kacchan actually knew he was still alive.
“Oh. Sorry sensei, I guess I kinda jumped to conclusions there.”
“Don’t apologise Izuku-kun! How about you give me an early report on your first day as redemption- I miss my cute student already!”
Izuku rolls his eyes at his sensei’s childish attitude, but gives his report nonetheless.
————
Izuku groans in his seat, slouching against the backrest. He had skipped lunch today, chasing around a pesky Semi-Second-Grade curse his whole break. It wasn’t a particularly malevolent curse, just a really fast one. It had been difficult to try to chase a curse while trying to avoid looking like a mad man running around slashing at air. Izuku was sure that Nezu was laughing at him the whole time through the cameras.
He just about closes his eyes when he hears his name being called.
“Izuku?”
“Huh?” He looks to the girl seated across from him- Asui he thinks her name is. “What is it, Asui?”
“Call me Tsu, kero,” ‘Tsu’ pauses, putting a finger by her mouth “I was wondering, what exactly is your quirk? You’re really strong, but at the same time you carry and use a lot of weapons.”
They… they don’t know? He had assumed that they just.. knew. Izuku mumbles a curse under his breath, he had gotten too used to the Jujutsu community, quirks never mattered there- it’s a useless thing to them, techniques are what they really care about.
“He has a super manly strength quirk, doesn’t he?” Kirishima (?) says from the back of the bus. Nearly half the class nod in agreement, he guesses to an outsider it does seem like he has some type on enhanced quirk.
Oh, well, time to drop the bomb.
“Nah, I don’t have a quirk at all. I’m quirkless,” immediately, everyone looks at him with disbelief- he sighs, not surprised at all by their reactions “you can confirm it with Aizawa-sensei if you want.”
At the front of the bus, Aizawa-sensei cracks open a single eye from his ‘nap’, “Yes, Izuku is quirkless- accuse him of lying or discriminate him in anyway and it’s an one way ticket home.”
Huh, maybe Aizawa-sensei isn’t so bad. His threat of expulsion shuts up the people who were readily waiting to voice their opinions (he glares at Mineta who loooks like he’s one comment away from opening that shit-stained mouth of his). Izuku doesn’t bother to break the silence, closing his eyes for the rest of the trip like he had originally planned to.
They arrive at USJ, the silence breaking with the quiet chatter of his classmates admiring the huge building. He tunes out Thirteen’s speech, opting to adjust his weaponry instead. He’s glad that U.A accepted his Jujutsu uniform as his Hero costume, fighting in anything else feels plain wrong. Izuku had yet to use his blades, or any weapons so far, the Battle Trials didn’t push him to- using his own fists and legs to fight instead.
He’s fiddling with his holsters when an abundance of energy bursts down at the plaza below. Instantly he’s flicking off the safety guard on his guns, pointing them both to seemingly empty air, he strains his senses, awaiting for the inevitable threat. Aizawa-sensei yells at him, demanding him to put down the guns, he must looks crazy he thinks- pointing his weapons at thin air.
Izuku ignore his sensei’s orders, “Eraserhead!” he calls his Hero name to show him he’s serious “There’s something down there!” On cue, a swirl of purple mist manifests at the central plaza, in his peripheral he sees Eraser adorn his goggles and ready his capture weapon. The hero shouts at Thirteen to evacuate the students, and for Izuku to go with them. He ignores the hero, because there’s only one reason to why he’s a student here.
Izuku is only here to kill curses and rid of any Jujutsu threats, and right now, down at the plaza, he sees a whole-ass Special-Grade, and a butt-load of lower ranking curses along with the multitude of Villains scattered here and there.
It must count as a life-threatening situation, because Eraser tenses as soon as he sees the grotesque form of the curses.
“What the hell is that?” he hears Eraser mutter.
“Not the time to question things, Eraser.”
“Izuku. Evacuate or you’re expelled.”
Izuku gives him a shit-eating grin, unfazed by the mass of Villains and curses below him, “Nope! I’d prefer for you to live, sensei.” He doesn’t add the comment that Eraser can’t expel him, at least, not without Nezu’s permission.
“Do. Not. Follow. Me.” Eraserhead jumps into the fray, trusting Izuku to follow his orders.
It’s too bad that following Eraser’s orders would be disobeying Gojo-sensei’s orders, and right now he’s more lenient to the man who practically raised him then the Hero he’s known for a few days.
He runs down the stairs, well, more like leaping, because Izuku’s is skipping at least 10 steps at a time. As he travels to the plaza he fires his guns into the heads of the lower-grade curses, he doesn’t stop to check if they’ve dissolved or not, weaklings like them couldn’t survive a straight shot to the head. Izuku holsters his guns once he arrives at the central plaza, pulling out his wakizashi’s in place of them. Guns wouldn’t do well in close combat.
He makes sure he doesn’t accidentally slice up an actual human when switching from curse to Villain, Izuku is many things, but a murderer is not one of them. He lops off a head of a particularly ugly curse, making sure to keep one eye on the unmoving figure of the Special-Grade further down. It’s not moving at all, which is very unusual, and concerning. Izuku slices another curse in half, not even blinking at the purplish blood that splatters on his face.
“Izuku! What are you doing!? You’re killing them!” Eraserhead shouts at him, smashing the head of a criminal while he does so,
“These things aren’t human ‘Raser! Look they’re fucking dissolving as soon as I hit them!”
His teacher whips his head towards him, a mistake, Eraser loses sight of the purple mist and it teleports away- shit, that fucker could’ve gone anywhere.
“You have a lot of explaining to do when this ends!”
“Uh-huh, let’s focus of winning first, yeah?”
Eraserhead throws a curse into the air, letting in slams into another, “You are in so much trouble, kid!”
“I know!” Izuku ducks under a acid-green fist of a Villain, slicing at his torso before kicking him harshly in the same spot, the Villain doubles over in pain- he knocks him out with another swift kick. Izuku makes his way to Eraser, aiming to group together- the Hero is starting to tire down, judging from the way he’s starting to falter and huff.
He stands back to back with his teacher, holding his duo blades in front of him. The Villains and curses have started to thin out, but at the cost of his teacher tiring down exponentially. If Eraser keeps continuing, he’s going to become a liability. Izuku is strong, but even he can’t protect his teacher while fighting a hoard of enemies- especially if one of them is a Special-Grade. He considers using his cursed technique for a moment, but kicks the idea away almost immediately- he doesn’t know if any of the Villains report to Curse-Users or not. Izuku suppresses on his cursed energy even further to avoid any temptations.
“‘Raser you’re getting tired.” he murmurs lowly.
“And you aren’t?”
“Nope! I could go for hours!” he answers honestly, Izuku hasn’t even broken a sweat yet, “I’m pretty strong don’t ‘ya think?” Izuku smirks.
“Is this your real personality, or do you just get cocky every time you fight?”
He shrugs, uncaring that his teacher can’t even see the action, “Mix of both I guess, I picked up some bad habits from my sensei.”
“I sure as hell didn’t teach you this kid.”
“You’re not the only sensei I have,” Izuku sheathes a wakizashi, pulling out a gun to fire off at the curses that were stupid enough to pounce at Izuku in impatience, he turns again to cover his teacher who’s struggling to exorcise the curses on his end. Eraserhead attempts to activate Erasure on them, it doesn’t have an affect on them, obviously. He swiftly shoots a bullet into the head of a curse that has it’s claws extended to Eraser’s face, it dies instantly, but splatters it’s blood all over his sensei. Izuku calls a quick apology before chopping the ones coming one his right in half. Izuku dances around with his two weapons to exorcise the last of the lower-grade spirits, letting his sensei handle the Villains. He doesn’t normally use a close-range and long-range weapon at once (it’s feels unbalanced) but the situation calls for it, so he won’t complain.
The last curse dies along with the defeat of the last Villain, leaving Izuku, Eraser, the Special-Grade and the ringleader (?) in the plaza. He moves to join Eraserhead by his side, the Hero looking a little more worse for wear.
“You see that big, black creature there?” Izuku whispers to the Hero, he nods subtlety “avoid him, he’s strong, strong.”
Eraser huffs, scanning the bulging muscles of the curse, “Kinda figured that already kid.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he wields his two blades again, Izuku needs his two special-grade weapons to exorcise this curse “just be careful. I’ll take him and you do Mr. Handsy there.”
“I can’t let you do that,” his teacher hisses.
“‘Raser, your quirk doesn’t work on them, you’ll need a more offensive weapon than your capture weapon to kill it.”
“Then give me your sword, problem child.”
“You know how to use duo wakizashi’s?”
“Guns then.”
Izuku shakes his head, “Guns won’t work on something like that.”
Izuku knows his teacher hates the idea of leaving Izuku to fight a monster like that, but at the moment they have no other options, his teacher can’t fight the curse, Izuku is the only one that can. They’re on limited time, Handsy doesn’t seem to be getting any more patient, and they have no idea if backup is coming. Aizawa-sensei knows this, but he had still protested the idea.
“I’ll be fine sensei,” he grins brightly “I was raised by the strongest, you know?
“If your talking about that other sensei of yours, I’m going to kill him when I meet him.”
Izuku laughs at the idea of Aizawa-sensei and Gojo-sensei facing off- their personalities would definitely not mix.
“Whatever you say ‘Raser!” Izuku focuses back on the Villain who’s scratching furiously at his own neck, he cringes when he sees chunks of skin flake off, “Hey Handjob!” he places his wakizashi’s on his shoulders, cocking his hip, and putting on a shit-eating grin. Izuku makes a great image of an egotistical kid with somewhat of a god-complex (Gojo-sensei is definitely rubbing of on him too much) “How about you give me a good fight, yeah? I’ll even fight that big guy there if you want, as long as you leave my classmates alone.”
The Villain glares at him through the gaps of the fingers on his face (gross), revealing a blood-red eye full of killing intent.
“You… you’re a cheater. I hate cheaters, Sensei said that those things were indestructible, yet you killed them all like a stupid glitch! All-Might isn’t even here, nothing is going to my plan!” the Villain angrily stomps like a child throwing a tantrum “You.. I wonder if All-Might will show if I kill some children,” the man smiles, from what Izuku can tell from behind the hand “Let’s see if the little glitch can handle the Anti-All-Might,” Anti-All-Might? “Noumu, kill the kid!”
He lifts his blades on pure instinct, swinging them simultaneously to sever the two fists that had suddenly appeared in front of him. His blades cuts through the two arms of the curse, leaving the curse without his lower arms and hands. Izuku leaps back to gain distance, the movement of the ‘Noumu’ had created a dust screen, blocking Eraser’s view on him.
“IZUKU!”
“I’m fine sensei! Not a scratch on me!”
Izuku is definitely not fine. Curses do not follow orders, curses with that type of strength and speed are not mute, a major differentiation between Special-grades and the lower grades are that they are capable of human speech.
This curse (?) cannot talk.
Does that mean he can’t exorcise it? If it isn’t a curse, what is it? He watches the thing regenerate like someone with a regeneration quirk would, not like what a curse would. Bone, muscle then skin, appears in place of the missing arms- it’s a new sight, curses have a unique way of healing, it’s more grotesque than the thing is doing before him. He can’t believe he had mistaken the thing for a curse, it had the energy of one- Izuku had sensed the cursed energy of at least 5 people in there.
A curse or not, it’s still the largest threat in the plaza- Izuku doesn’t have the option of backing away now. Eraser is busy fighting the Hand guy, and the ‘Noumu’ is already fixated on him.
“Is that all you got?!” he taunts, even though the thing can’t understand him. Unsurprisingly, the Noumu doesn’t reply, opting to throw another heavy punch at Izuku. It takes all his effort to avoid getting pounded into the ground, the Noumu is ridiculously fast. He’s lucky that the creature isn’t capable of higher thinking, the simple attacks it throws are easy to predict, and easier to dodge.
He avoids another punch, jumping to the air and cutting off the arms that reach up to him. The loss of its limbs doesn’t faze the creature, it regenerates them almost instantly, turning to Izuku who landed behind it. Izuku charges at it, avoiding the Noumu’s attempt at grabbing him, it grazes him once, the speed of its moving hand splits the skin of his arm- leaving a jagged wound on his bicep. He doesn’t let it faze him, Izuku leaps to the air again, he doesn’t look away from the Noumu’s face as he instinctively swings one of his wakizashi to sever the arm of the creature again, the other blade moves to connect with the flesh of its neck. The metal passes through with a wet ‘shlick’ and the head of the Noumu falls to the ground- the body following after it. He pokes at it with the tip of his sword- it doesn’t regenerate.
That was… surprisingly easy.
Izuku lowers his blades, turning away from the corpse to see how his sensei is faring. They seem to be at a stalemate, the two of them standing parallel to each other, both having a various amount of injuries. The purple mist warps behind Handsy, coming back from wherever he came from. Misty points to Izuku’s (mostly) unharmed body, then to the decapitated head of Noumu.
“You killed my Noumu!” the Villain shouts.
“What? Was it supposed to be hard?” Izuku taunts with a grin, ignoring Eraser’s unamused huff.
“Shigaraki,” Misty speaks in a baritone voice “A student has escaped.”
“Oh? Looks like it game over for you, Shiggy.”
“No! This isn’t fair!” the Villain scratches furiously at his neck, bending his head back to reach the under of his chin “Noumu was supposed to defeat All-Might, how did you kill him!?”
Izuku shrugs nonchalantly, “Guess I’m better than All-Might then.”
“Shigaraki, it isn’t over, the Noumu isn’t dead.”
What-
Izuku whips his head over his shoulder just in time for the looming figure of the Noumu, fully whole again, appear right behind him. He raises his blades in a last ditch effort- ignoring the panicked shouts of his teacher and the cackling laughter of the Villain- he’s too slow, he had foolishly believed he had won, when he knew the victory came too easy, and now he’s paying the price. The Noumu grabs the back of his head, lifting him in the air, ignoring Izuku’s fruitless attempts to stab at the creature with his blades, and slams him to the ground, face first. The concrete around him cracks, his blood seeping into the seams- he curses inwardly, unable to actually speak with his face smashed against the ground. Izuku is pretty sure most of his ribs are broken.
The Noumu lifts his head again, its knee digging into his back, pinning him down. He takes the breathe of air gratefully, blinking out the blood in his eye to clear his vision. He regrets it. Aizawa-sensei’s face is frozen in horror, staring at Izuku’s bloody form like he’s seen a ghost. He’s standing in between Shigaraki and Tsu and Mineta, protecting them. Izuku locks eyes with Aizawa-sensei, he doesn’t like the mortified expression in his eyes, he doesn’t want people to hurt because of his own mistakes. Izuku wants his sensei to not worry, he wants his sensei to know that he’ll be okay.
He keeps his eyes on sensei’s, even as he feels the Noumu rear his head back further to prepare to slam him down again. Izuku manages to smile, with the same brightness he would have during any other time, ignoring the blood that floods his mouth.
His face meets the hard concrete for the second time, he groans weakly- if any of his ribs hadn’t haven’t broken from the first time, the Noumu got the rest the second. If he really tries, he could move his arm and stab back up into the creature- his hands still grip the handles of his wakizashi’s. Izuku twitches his arm, forcing his elbow to bend and stab through the torso. The tip of his blade just about pierces the skin, he tries to twist to dig the sword in- it’s desperate, but he’ll do anything at this point to get the thing off him.
“Noumu,” he hears a voice rasp.
Izuku cries out in pain, cursing loudly as the Noumu snaps the arm that’s holding the blade. He feels his bone cleanly break in half, the two halves bend and dig into the insides of his arm. Izuku let’s his tears freely flow down his face this time, his pride overridden by the intense pain he feels shooting up his arm.
“Not so tough now are you, cheater.”
Izuku coughs wetly (a pierced lung?), struggling to lift his head with the massive hand pushing down on his scalp. He barely manages it, making sure to lock eyes with Handsy, “Fuck. You.”
His head slams down again.
————
“I AM HERE!!” he hears through the haze of pain. The iconic catchphrase sounds like it’s been spoken underwater- he relaxes into the cold floor, help has arrived. It’s not Gojo-sensei, but All-Might isn’t so bad.
Izuku blacks out, succumbing to the pain.
————
A hand taps gently, but insistently against his cheek. He blinks sluggishly, the sound of fighting clashes in the background.
Is he still at USJ?
He’s being carried, that much he can tell, and his injuries don’t feel healed at all. A another tap against his cheek, he groans.
“Don’t fall asleep kid. You have a concussion.”
Ah, so he still is at the USJ… and being carried by sensei? He blinks harshly to clear his vision, the simple action send a searing pain through his head.
“…Sen..sei… wh-“
“No talking. You’ve done enough.”
Enough? Did he really do good? He hopes so…Izuku laughs weakly, “ha..I’m- I.. was… strong, yeah?” He doesn’t want to be weak…weakness gets you killed- gets others killed. Aizawa-sensei glances down at him, his face worried. It may just be his concussion but he swears he sees Aizawa-sensei smile softly.
“Yeah, kid… The strongest.”
He shakes his head… that’s not right, “N-no…not the.. strongest,” he struggles to get the words out, coughing out the blood in his mouth “Go…gojo-sensei is… ha. I wan..t. Gojo-sensei…he’s the.. stron…gest.”
“Stay awake and I’ll get Gojo-sensei for you.”
“…‘shiguro too?”
He hasn’t seen ‘shiguro in a while, ha.. he’s going to be so mad when he sees Izuku injured again.
“Mhm, ‘shiguro too.”
“…go..od. I- I’m rea..lly tired….’mm wanna…sleep.”
“No sleeping. Gojo-sensei and ‘shiguro won’t come if you sleep.”
Izuku whines, a pathetic noise bubbles out his throat, “b..but… it hurts, sensei.”
“Just hang in there for a little longer, kid. The ambulance will be here soon.”
————
“b..but… it hurts, sensei.”
Fuck, the admission of pain from his student stabs straight through his heart, he ignores it in favour of reassuring the kid help is coming. Izuku must be in a lot of pain to so openly admit so. He tightens his hold on the bloody form of Izuku, focusing on running up the stairs- cursing his own injuries for slowing him down. Shouta forces himself to keep it together, he can wallow in his regrets later. He distracts himself with questions like; who the fuck is Gojo-sensei? and why does his student admire him so much? He can tell as much from the way Izuku talks about him, even while he’s delirious and concussed he raves on about how ‘Gojo-sensei is the strongest’ and ‘I want Gojo-sensei’, no, he’s not jealous that his student prefers another sensei over him, Shouta’s just… wants to make sure his student has a good role model.
He gently taps Izuku’s cheek again when he feels his body start to relax, he hears a big ‘crash’ in the background, Shouta hopes it’s All-Might finishing off that god-forsaken creature- he doesn’t turn to check.
“Sensei!” Uraraka calls from above, before running down to him, “What happen- Shit! Is that Izuku!”
“Uraraka, use your quirk on him.”
“Sensei.. he’s-“
“Now, Uraraka.”
He feels bad for demanding so much from his student, they shouldn’t have to be forced to see their classmate bloodied and bruised like this so early into school, but at the moment Izuku is his priority. Uraraka shakily activates her quirk on Izuku, lifting his weight from his aching arms. Together, they guide him to the top of the stairs with minimal jostling. They settle him down on the floor, double checking he hasn’t fallen asleep. Izuku coughs weakly, looking like he wants to say something but all that comes out is another stream of blood.
With Izuku now laying down, he can get a better look at his injuries, and all Shouta can think when he takes in Izuku’s state is; how is he not dead? It’s a thought that Shouta never wanted to have while looking at his student. In the corner of his eye, he can see Uraraka paling, looking slightly nauseous. Izuku’s tank top is drenched in his blood, he can easily tell, even though the cloth is black. Bruises and cuts litter his body, presumably caused by the bits of concrete that Izuku was slammed into. His ribs are broken, some must be piercing his lung, judging by the blood that he keeps hacking up- and he has a nasty concussion on top of that.
He wraps the worst of Izuku’s wounds with his capture scarf as a makeshift bandage, Shouta’s surprised Izuku hasn’t died of blood loss yet- he thanks whatever god out there that’s miraculously keeping his student alive.
The doors suddenly burst open, revealing the a whole squadron of Heroes, Iida standing at the very front. Snipe shoots at the Villains below, Mic following right after with a burst of his quirk. Mic spots him kneeling besides the injured form of Izuku, and quickly rushes to him.
“The ambulance, Mic, call an ambulance.”
“They’re on their way,” Mic kneels next to him, getting a closer look at Izuku, paling when he takes in the full sight. His lip wobbles, “Eraser… he’s- I don’t think he’ll make it.”
Shouta’s eyes nearly flash red at the thought, “No, he’ll pull through, Recovery girl will-“
“Shouta, Recovery girl’s quirk relies on stamina, something the listener doesn’t have right now.”
“Go..jo… i-… he can… help..tech-quirk… Gojo.. quirk- Sho..ko. take me..to.. Shok..o.”
“What’s he saying?” Shouta jumps at the new voice, snapping his head towards the source-
“It’s just me Aizawa-san,” Nezu says “What was Izuku saying?” he repeats.
Mic relays the information for him, “Something about Gojo? And his quirk taking him to someone named Shoko?”
“Would you please lend me your phone, Present Mic?”
“Wait you’re not going to actually give him to some guy, are you? He needs a medic, not his goddamn sensei.” Shouta hisses.
Nezu holds out a paw, “Please trust me on this, Aizawa-san. Gojo is a colleague of mine, he’s what Izuku needs right now.”
The rat dials a number, the phone picking up immediately,
“What do you want? I only told you to call me if-“
“Izuku was severely injured or captured,” Nezu finishes “I’m afraid it’s the first scenario Gojo-san, I’d appreciate it if you come as quick as you can, Izuku is-“
“I’ll be there in 30.”
The phone hangs up.
“30 minutes? Izuku will be dead by then, Nezu!” Shouta lashes, his quirk flaring up in his anger.
“He means 30 seconds, Aizawa-san.”
“Wha-“
“Where is he?” a voice calls from the entrance. Shouta looks up to identify the Villain (?), he doesn’t recognise the voice at all. Nezu holds out his paw, stopping the staff from attacking- is this Gojo? The man stalks forward, his hair is stuck up wildly, and a blindfold covers half his face. He doesn’t look like much, in that tacky jumpsuit of his, but he can feel the power he carries with him. The aura he exudes is near suffocating- Shouta can’t read his eyes, but he can see the nasty snarl his mouth is twisted into. Shouta swears he feels the space around him shift, as if the man before him can bend the Universe to his will.
“is…is…th..at…sen…sei?” Izuku rasps.
“Izuku,” Gojo is suddenly by his side “It’s me, I’m here, you can sleep now.”
Shouta opens his mouth to protest, sleeping with a concussion is not a good idea, he’s shut up with a furious glare from Gojo. He pretends his life doesn’t flash before his eyes.
Gojo tenderly lifts Izuku up. “I’ll be taking him now,” he says, not looking up at the staff- his eyes (blindfold?) focused on Izuku.
They don’t get a chance to put in another word, Gojo disappears along with his student in a blink of an eye.
He turns to Nezu, “If he dies, then it’s your head I’m coming for.”
The rat nods solemnly, “He’s in good hands, Aizawa-san.”