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Chapter Summary:
Class 1-A’s Heroics Class runs into a hitch on the first day. And it’s kind of a big one, too.
Hey all, don’t mind me. I’m just gonna- Grabs canon timeline, forcibly stretches it out with headcanons/logic, shoves in some worldbuilding. There we go! Sorry, that was just bugging me.
But seriously, I know that MHA is a Shonen Action series, but they need to stretch out the actual timeline/pacing of the series more. Part of the first official lesson for Heroics Course is for the action, and also to show All Might’s inexperience with teaching. The story is very fast-paced in the beginning, cramming a lot of action into the chapters with very little downtime for the characters.
In this story, I wanted to imply a more normal pacing, even if I don’t always Show it. And, for this at least, I’m grabbing something that I’m miffed about with canon and using it to forcibly stretch out the pacing/timeline.
I was gonna wait longer before posting this, but I was just too proud of this to make this sit around longer.
Chapter 6: Unseen but Still Heard
Toru wanted to cry.
She had thought she’d done everything she needed to do to avoid this. She’d sent skin and hair samples with her costume designs. She’d done her research about the materials she’d need to ask for it to be made from. She’s sent the most exact measurements she could.
She had been so excited to get her hero costume. Surely a school as amazing and well-funded as UA would be able to make something that could work with her quirk!
But the moment she’d opened the case that was supposed to hold her costume, her excitement died a painful, abrupt death.
Gloves and a pair of shoes.
That was all that was in the case. The case that should have had a full hero costume inside it.
Sure, they were very nice and well-made. Perfect for hero work, even! But…
She was invisible, but she was still a teenage girl. She didn’t want to run around naked!
So now she was in the changing rooms with the other girls, trying her best not to cry about her lack of a costume. Not that the other girls could tell, she was invisible after all. Most of them had left already, trying to get to class on time. After all, All Might was their teacher, and no one wanted to keep him waiting for long!
“Hey. You alright there, Toru-chan?” She jolted, twisting to look at the girl who’d spoken to her.
It was Tsuyuu. The frog-like girl was watching her with a little frown, her head tilted ever-so-slightly to one side.
“O-oh. Hi, Tsu-chan. I, um, I’m fine.” Toru winced at the tremor in her voice.
“No, you’re not.” Tsuyu’s words were blunt, and Toru wilted with a sniffle. “Is there something wrong with your costume?”
“Yeah… They- They didn’t give me the full thing. I’m- I’m sure it’s probably just a mistake. I can- I can muddle through with it,” Toru’s voice wobbled slightly as she spoke.
Tsuyu frowned harder at her and it made Toru want to start crying in earnest.
There was a knock at the door that made her jump in surprise. Who was- ?
“Hello? Is there anyone here?” It was a boy’s voice. He sounded really hesitant and nervous, but it didn’t sound like he was trying to get into the changing room. “Sorry, I was passing by and heard voices. I think I’m a little lost, do either of you have a map of the school on hand?”
The two exchanged a look, even if Tsuyu couldn’t actually see Toru’s face.
It was a little strange that the boy had managed to find his way there. But, then again, UA had a really big campus. It was almost bigger than the whole of Musutafu, despite only being part of the area. It actually… Wouldn’t be that hard to get lost, now that she was thinking about it.
“Uhm, yes. I have a map in my bag. Give me just a second to get it,” Toru called nervously, setting aside her costume case and grabbing her school bag. The school handbook had a map in the back, she’d found out. She wouldn’t have even known it was there if she hadn’t thought to read through it at home.
She stood up and stepped out, her handbook flipped open to the school map, and finally saw the boy who’d gotten lost.
He was probably in her year and looked rather… Well, he looked kind of plain.
No offense to him! She was just used to boys having some big feature that made them stand out, but this one looked like he could easily vanish into a crowd. (She knew the feeling.) He had thick, curly green hair, a rounded face, and lots of little freckles. It seemed like the only real stand-out feature he had was his eyes, which were big and round and the same color as his hair. Something about him felt… Soft. Like a kitty that was just starting to grow out of their kitten phase but wasn’t quite a full cat yet.
He smiled sheepishly at her, rubbing at the back of his neck.
“Hi, sorry for interrupting… Oh! You’re invisible!” He perked up, smiling at her. “What a cool quirk! You’re a hero course student, right? Are you planning to be a stealth hero?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m Hagakure Toru. I- Um, I’d like to be a stealth hero, yes.” She couldn’t help the small, sheepish smile.
It had been a while since someone had actually told her that her quirk was cool. Usually, people bring up how hard it would be to be noticed, or that she could sneak into places she shouldn’t because no one would be able to catch her.
(They would also say other things about her. As if she couldn’t hear them. Like being invisible was just a joke… No, she was already sad about her costume. She wasn’t going to make herself sadder!)
“Midoriya Izuku, I’m in the management track. I wanted to explore the school some more before I went home for the day, but I ended up getting lost.” He politely bowed to her. Straightening up, he paused before frowning at her. “Sorry if I’m being nosy, Hagakure-san, but are you okay? You sound a little upset.”
She sniffled. This was awful, she was so upset everyone could tell even if she was invisible. It was just a costume; there was no reason for her to be upset about it!
“It-it’s fine, Midoriya-kun. There was just a mistake with my new costume. It’s silly…”
“It’s not silly. Not if it’s something that upsets you,” he said firmly, kind green eyes looking at her. “What’s wrong with it? I’m in Management, so my school schedule’s free right now. Maybe I can get a teacher’s help for you?”
He sounded so… sincere? Genuine? She could tell that he wanted to help. He wasn’t just offering to be polite.
Well, there was no harm in telling. Right?
“I… I asked for a body suit for my costume, along with sturdy gloves and boots. Something that could turn invisible with me, or at least be opaque enough to not be noticed right away?” Midoriya nodded, looking thoughtful. She heard the door to the changing room opening, likely so Tsuyu could listen in. She didn’t really mind it. “But… But it looks like they just gave me the gloves and boots… I mean, I’m invisible, so it’s not a big deal-”
“What?! That’s awful Hagakure-san!” Midoriya cut her off with a shocked yelp, his face a picture of horror. “Most beginning hero costumes are supposed to include some kind of armoring to protect from shrapnel. If you don’t have that, then you could get seriously hurt!”
“They- they do?” she asked, her eyes widening.
Midoriya nodded, his face set into a serious frown.
“Of course. All student hero costumes are made with a thin armored layer built in. At least, they’re supposed to be. You’re all still learning how to use your quirks for hero work, and that includes things like combat and rescue work. Shrapnel is one of the biggest risks in the field, right after stray attacks. All it takes is one broken piece of glass or metal, or landing wrong on a broken piece of concrete or rebar, and you could end up in the hospital!”
There was an awful lurching feeling in Toru’s stomach. She hadn’t thought of that, but Midoriya was right. It really would be easy to get hurt. And her class had a lot of powerhouses in it, from what she had been able to tell. All it would take was one attack missing the person they were aiming for and…
“There’s supposed to be a thin armor layer between the cloth layers of the costumes, about as thick as cardstock or woven from super-thin wires. It’s not super strong, but it’s supposed to protect you from smaller hazards while you’re training.” Midoriya pinched his fingers together to make his point about how thin the armor was. “You need to have the right protection now, while you’re still learning, to be safe later. It makes it easier for you to decide if you need more or less armor in future costumes. Are you sure they didn’t give you anything else? The case didn’t have a second layer, did it?”
Midoryia looked at her, his face furrowed in concern.
“N-no, there was only one layer…”
“Is the armor supposed to make the costumes heavier?” Tsuyu asked, stepping out into the hallway with them. “Cause mine feels compressing, but it doesn’t feel like there’s more than just really sturdy cloth for it. It’s like a diving suit, actually. And I think I remember Jiro-chan and Ashido-chan saying theirs felt like normal clothes but cooler.”
Midoriya’s eyes were wide, looking deeply concerned. (Toru was starting to feel worried too.)
“You need to tell your teacher that there’s been a serious mistake right away. It sounds like someone in the costume design company that UA ordered from made a really big error. I don’t know why this wasn’t caught sooner…”
“I think we should be okay for today though. It’s our first heroics class, so we’re probably supposed to just do an equipment check anyway,” Tsuyu said, a finger pressed to her chin in thought. The green-haired girl turned to look at Toru. “I think you could probably wear your gym uniform with your new gloves and shoes. I don’t think All Might-sensei will mind. Then we can tell him about the mistake, he’s a teacher after all.”
Toru nodded, though no one could see it.
“Y-yeah! All Might-sensei will know what to do.” Toru paused, then wilted. “Oh, but wait… I forgot my gym uniform today…”
“Here.” Toru looked up and saw Midoriya holding out a cloth bag decorated with purple butterflies that he’d obviously just pulled out from the big satchel he was carrying. “I take self-defense classes with my mom and accidentally brought my gi with me today. You can borrow it for your class. It might fit a little differently on you than it does me, but it should do the trick for today.”
She gasped.
“Ah! Midoriya-kun, you don’t have to-” He cut her off with a wave of his free hand.
“That’s true, I don’t have to lend it to you,” he confirmed, then he gave a smile. She wouldn’t call it a glowing smile, but it was definitely a warm smile. A kind smile. “I’m choosing to. You can give it back to me tomorrow. I’d rather let someone borrow my stuff to help than to just walk away and do nothing.”
Oh, hearing that put a warm feeling in her chest. She shakily took the bag and hugged it to her chest.
“Thank you so much, Midoriya-kun,” her voice warbled as she spoke and, for once, she didn’t care. (Someone saw her problem. Someone wanted to help her. Someone didn’t just wave it off because she was invisible. )
He beamed at her.
“It’s no problem, Hagakure-san. Like I said, you can return it to me later.” She ducked back into the changing rooms before she could burst into tears. (Happy ones, this time.)
(It had been a long time since she had felt seen by someone other than her parents.)
When she came back out, dressed in a simple white gi with her new gloves and boots on, Tsuyu was the only one waiting. The girl smiled at her.
“I let Mido-chan look at your map. He said that he usually tries to get to school early in case of villain attacks and finishes his homework in the library. So you can give the gi back to him then. We should hurry to class though, we need to let All Might-sensei know what’s wrong.”
“Ah! Right!”
With that, the two rushed to catch up with their class, who were all waiting on the training field.
“Ah! Hagakure-shoujo! Asui-shoujo! I was beginning to worry. Is everything all right?” All Might’s voice boomed over the field, looking at them with his signature smile. But Tsuyu was the first to speak up.
“No, sir. We just found out that there’s a big mistake with everyone’s costumes.” Instantly, the entire class’s attention snapped to them and Toru fought back the urge to squeak. “Most of Toru-chan’s costume was missing.”
All Might turned to face them fully, giving them his full attention. Toru scrounged up her courage, hands clenching nervously. (Gosh, she was so nervous to talk to him!)
“Y-yeah… I was supposed to have a body suit with my new gloves and boots, but it wasn’t there. I’m- We bumped into another student who’d gotten lost, and he lent me his gi for class. But he said that student hero costumes were supposed to have an armor layer in them and not just be regular clothes. S-so everyone’s costumes that don’t already have armor in their design were made wrong!”
The class started whispering and talking, all of them double-checking their costumes. (Like her, they probably hadn’t known that their clothes were supposed to have armor built in.)
All Might’s face shifted, ever so slightly, a hand going to his chin in thought.
“I see. You’re very right, that is a serious error.” His tone was very serious as he spoke. Toru could feel herself sinking in relief. (Of course, All Might would listen to them, he was a hero! She had no idea why she thought he wouldn’t.) “Someone could get hurt if you all don’t have the right protection.”
“Our class should be okay today, though. Right, Sensei?” Tsuyu asked, her head tilted. “It’s our first class, so we’re probably supposed to just do checks and spar with each other to get used to our costumes.”
“Ah, yes, of course! I had an exercise planned to put your costumes to the test, but ultimately that was the plan!” He laughed, boisterous and bright. “I will alert your homeroom teacher right away about the mistake, but for now, I’d like you all to split into teams. We’re going to go over the equipment you have and how it’s supposed to work…”
Toshinori wanted to pat himself on the back for how quickly he’d managed to adjust his plans for the class. He’d wanted to do a teamed Hero vs Villain training for them, but he certainly couldn’t do that if they weren’t properly protected! Recovery Girl, for as kind as she was, probably would have killed him if he did that.
(Asui’s comments about checking equipment and sparring certainly helped with the change.)
But the fact that the majority of Hagakure’s costume was missing was highly concerning. Yes, her quirk rendered her invisible. However, being invisible didn’t prevent you from being hurt by things like knives or gunshots. Moreover, she was roughly fifteen. She was a child. Forcing her to work in nothing but her gloves and shoes, in front of her teachers and classmates and strangers was just-
(He had seen things over his years working as a hero. He didn’t have a perfect understanding of it, but he knew there were threats and dangers that female heroes had to deal with that he didn’t.)
He swallowed back the sick swirl of emotions in his chest.
He’d already texted Aizawa to tell him about the error in the costumes. He planned to talk about it in the teachers’ lounge as well.
The lounge was noisy when he arrived. And opening the door revealed Nedzu sitting on a desk and watching as a viciously furious Maijima paced across the floor.
Aizawa was seated at his desk, nose buried in several forms that he was frowning quite severely at as he flipped through them. Kan was seated nearby, doing the same but with a much more hostile expression directed at his papers. In fact, he realized as his eyes scanned the room, it seemed all the hero course homeroom teachers were furiously digging through papers in varying degrees of rage.
“Ah, Toshinori-kun. Tell me, how was your first class?” Nedzu addressed him pleasantly, but he could definitely feel a tense edge to it. He gave a proud (if slightly nervous) smile.
“Very well! The students did a fine job during their equipment checks and getting used to how their costumes felt while sparring. It was mostly quirkless spars, as I didn’t want to risk injury after discovering… well.”
The large rodent smiled.
“Excellent! I’m glad everything went well. It is a shame that such a large error occurred with the female student’s costumes. I suppose we should be thankful that it was found so early in the school year. That gives us plenty of time to see to it that it gets fixed.”
That was… A rather concerning statement. It sounded like it wasn’t just Hagakure’s costume that had such severe issues.
“The- I’m sorry, was it more than just a few?”
“More than just- Oh, if only it were just a few of the costumes!” Maijima’s tone made him almost take a step back. “This is a travesty! An insult! If I find the person who did this, I’ll-”
The noise that his coworker made was concerning, and the mimed gesture implied a very large amount of violence. Nedzu let out a sigh, looking more frustrated than All Might had ever seen him before. (Which was a high bar, considering how unflappable the school’s principal had always seemed.)
“Yes. It seems that all of the updated and new costumes this year were, in fact, subpar. Our costumes usually have armor woven in, but it seems someone in the company we usually work with has failed quite spectacularly in following procedure.”
Maijima let out another concerning noise. Snipe winced from where he was sitting, then spoke up.
“I was here when you messaged Aizawa. I remembered that a few of my students had ordered updates for their costumes and decided to check them.” The sniping hero’s shoulders sagged. “The normally armored clothes had been made with ordinary fabric. Stuff that tears way too easily and doesn’t offer much protection.”
He sounded exhausted, and Toshinori couldn’t blame him. That was a tremendous change and a dangerous one for students who actually worked in the field.
“And worse still, there seems to have been someone who’s decided that they ought to, ahem, take creative liberties with the costumes intended for female students,” Kan’s words came out as a growl. “Too form-fitting, openings where there shouldn’t be any, things that get in the way of quirks… I don’t know who did this, but there’s gonna be hell to pay once we do.”
“Oh, there certainly will be!” Nedzu’s smile gained a new, vicious edge to it. “Maijima-kun and I plan to personally speak with the person responsible and rectify the mistake. As well as remind them that they are meant to consult with us before adjusting a student’s costume.”
“Good gracious…” He mumbled, feeling himself sweat. This sounded like it was much bigger than just a single costume being separated by accident.
Sunda, the first-year management course teacher, looked up at Toshinori. They were one of the younger members of the staff, but he’d found they were happy to explain the sides of management that Toshinori wasn’t as familiar with. And how those had to be monitored especially well for a heroics school.
“This is a very big problem, for us and for our support companies. We have these precautions in our contracts with all of them for student safety on and off campus. The fact that one of them dropped the ball on something this important is a major red flag,” they said, frowning seriously. They curled one of their many braids around their fingers. (A nervous habit that he was slowly becoming familiar with.) “We might even have to get a contract with a new company. It’ll be difficult, but considering how many it looks like we’ll need to replace, I don’t think there’s a single company in the country that’ll turn us down. Not even with the short notice.”
Toshinori winced, quietly thankful that he wasn’t in charge of the paperwork that would likely go into something as complex as that.
“We tend to have multiple companies that make the students’ costumes, just because our companies have specific specialties for equipment that others simply don’t do as well. Once we narrow down which one was in charge of the clothing, we’ll get in direct contact to get answers.” Sunda rubbed at their forehead in frustration. “The fact that no one caught it before we received all the cases and they reached the students… This is a mess. We’ll have to postpone so many of our more intense training sessions for this.”
It certainly was a mess. Someone had sent them subpar equipment and had tried to coast by unnoticed because of their previous work. He could see why everyone was so angry. Not to mention what had been done with the student’s designs. It would be one thing if they had been adding more protection, but they had taken protection away for the sake of- What? Personal appeal? Marketing? Which they couldn’t even do legally because they were all still in school.
They were students. A bunch of teenage kids! It was one thing if they asked for those changes, but they hadn’t! It wasn’t acceptable for a stranger to make those choices without consulting the customer about it.
It was a breach of contract, a breach of conduct, and a breach of trust all wrapped into one.
He found himself wanting to groan in frustration as well, but he swallowed it back. Adding his own emotions to the mix would help no one.
As it was, he needed to try and rethink what he was going to teach. As if trying to come up with his original lesson plans wasn’t hard enough with his limited teaching experience. He sighed, slowly sinking into the seat at his teacher’s desk and pulling out the planner he’d written his classes in.
He had noticed a few things while watching the students spar that day.
Students like Kirishima and Ojiro had done quite well while sparring with their classmates. It was clear they’d had prior combat training. But others like Kaminari and Mineta had struggled quite badly. Perhaps it would be best to focus on teaching them all to be comfortable fighting when they didn’t have access to their quirks? Knowing how to use one’s quirk was vital to hero-work, but no one was a one-trick pony.
He’d faced several situations where trying to use One-for-All would have made things worse and had been forced to rely purely on his skills in hand-to-hand. Knowing how to work without one’s quirk allowed for a much larger variety of hero work that could be accomplished. Aizawa’s quirk made it very clear that having such a skill would be highly beneficial for them.
“Well… I suppose we could turn some things around with it,” Toshinori muttered to himself, flipping to the pages where he’d originally written down the combat lessons he’d planned.
“How so, Mightyman?” Yamada’s voice made him jump slightly, and he looked up to see several of his fellow teachers watching him. He fumbled with his words for a moment before he continued.
“I-I noticed that many of the students in my class didn’t know hand-to-hand. Or, at least, they didn’t know it very well? So it would be beneficial to help them master it for situations where their quirks wouldn’t help them very much,” his voice grew stronger as he went. Despite his inexperience with teaching, he did think this was a good idea. “My own training involved a great deal of martial arts, and much of it has proven to be useful during hero work. Going over the basics and ensuring all the students are on the same level would be good for them. Right?”
“That’s a good point.” Kan finally started smiling, leaning back in his seat as he thought. “We can work in more lessons for handling themselves during a fight too. Like how to fall safely and techniques for avoiding injury.”
Aizawa’s frown lessened, and he let out a thoughtful hum.
“More focus on physical skills over quirks would be useful. Getting them to realize their quirks aren’t all they need would be logical for the long term. Maybe a few first aid lessons…”
The teachers started working on more ideas, for things that could be taught while they required costumes for the students, and things that could wait until later.
This was a hitch, but it was one they could manage.
Chapter Afterword:
Sunda Iki- Their name means “Clear Breath” and they’re a nonbinary (though masc-presenting) hero. Their hero name is “Deep Dive” and their quirk is called “Rebreather”. Their quirk lets them work in low/limited oxygen environments since it lets their lungs work like actual rebreathers. They work in disaster relief and emergency services and often get called in during major fires and underwater situations. One of their non-hero/school hobbies is scuba diving, and they would love to work in underwater salvage/research once they retire from herowork.
There were no management teachers that I could find for this story, so I made one up! Iki is Izuku’s homeroom teacher! He actually likes them a lot, since they do the kind of work that he would want to be doing if he managed to get a Specialist Hero license.
I’ve always had a problem with the costumes for the first years, for the lack of protection or for how they didn’t actually work all that well for their quirks. For me, they just aren’t that well thought out, which is a shame for how much thought went into the kid’s quirks. The ones that bug me the most are Toru and Momo’s costumes. (And Mineta’s but that’s mostly because I think it’s ugly as hell.)
Toru’s bugs me because of how little it was actually able to keep her safe?? Like, villains have knives and guns, and she’s basically naked! All it takes is 1 lucky shot that hits her chest, and she could be dead! And, invisible or not, I really don’t think Toru would have come up with that for herself. I don’t think any teenage girl would want to run around with nothing but gloves and boots on.
And Momo’s costume makes no sense, considering how she talks about needing large amounts of skin to make things. Sure, there are a lot of patches free, but they’re all so small! Hell, even a two-piece speed swimmer suit would have made more sense! Or doing some kind of halter with a cape or loose jacket over the top… And her costume comes apart so fast and easily!
AND NEITHER OF THEM HAVE BRAS! Do you have any idea how uncomfortable, or even PAINFUL, it is to do shit when you have big boobs but no bra?!
So no, they are getting different costumes in this AU. I may not get the chance to describe or draw them, but just know that they will.
Back to the au itself.
In this story Toru and Izuku are buddies! They hang out before school to do homework and talk about training. Or just chat!
Since Izuku can sense Toru’s emotions, he’s much better at reading her than anyone she’s ever met before. And he’s so nice! He takes the things she’s worried about seriously! And he’s good at explaining things she doesn’t understand.
Izuku is really happy to have a friend. And, even better, Toru doesn’t seem to care that he’s quirkless! She likes talking to him. She likes hanging out with him! She’s so nice and bubbly, he loves getting to hang out and do normal teenager things with her.
