'I will not use my teacher's first name as a slight against them. I will not use my teacher's first name as a slight against them. I will not use my teacher's name as a slight against them.'

"And three hundred." Izuku sighed, putting down his pencil and sliding the sheet of paper in front of him over to Vlad King, class 1-B's muscular grey haired homeroom teacher, who was overseeing his detention. "Was this punishment taken from America by the way?"

His punishment was simple. Each day after school for the rest of the week he'd come into the 1-B classroom and be given a phrase, most likely the same one he was given today, that he would have to write down a certain number of times. There was no set time he would get out of detention, if he could somehow write all the lines at once he could leave instantly, or be in there until one in the morning.

Sometimes Izuku wondered if U.A. wasn't given too much freedom, with what they could get away with.

"Yes. Most schools still refuse to discipline their students if it means removing them from their extra-curricular activities. We won't let such excuses slide though, troublemakers like your class will be corrected so only the best of the best are on the field in future." The teacher said, far too smugly.

Izuku just rolled his eyes, trailing his left thumb over his mark. 'So I guess what Kyoka told me about 1-B hating us wasn't a rumor then. Even their teacher though? That's just embarrassing for a grown adult.'

"Alright, you did it. You can go, I'll be seeing you tomorrow."

"Yes sir." Izuku said simply, grabbing his bag and walking towards the door. He had a frown and slight glare set on his face as he walked, the visage of Aizawa shouting at him invading his mind.

While all he really wanted to do was be annoyed about the situation, he couldn't stop his mind wandering to Aizawa's exact reaction. Though he didn't like admitting it, he could kind of see where the man's frustration with him could have come from what Aizawa was assuming to be the version of events that took place.

However, his actual reaction stood out. It was kind of surprising to see Aizawa of all people yell when it came to what was overall such a small slight. He would have assumed it would have taken much more prodding.

Before he could think about it more, he slid the door open only to be greeted with a sight that immediately made some of the heaviness in his chest lift. His glare faded and his frown lessened as he saw Hagakure and Kyoka waiting for him.

"There you are!" Tooru exclaimed, surprising him with a hug which he returned surprised, with a slight blush. A sudden jab in his arm got Izuku to look over to see Kyoka's jack stabbing his arm lightly, more like prodding it while she stood with her arms crossed. It was almost oddly affectionate in a way.

"We were worried about you dude. Aizawa wouldn't let us into the infirmary to see you. What the heck happened during hero class?" The purple haired teen questioned, with a raised brow. Izuku let go of his invisible crush, turning to his other crush with a frown.

"Well-"

"You can talk about it on your way home. You're blocking the entrance." Vlad King's annoyed voice called, making Izuku flush and hurry on. The girls fell in line with him as they all started making their way to the station.

"So…. You waited for me?" The marked teen asked, hoping to change the subject. Kyoka rolled her eyes with a small smile.

"Well duh. You are our friend, of course we'd wait." She pointed out. Tooru skipped a little bit ahead of the two, turning to face them while she walked backwards.

"What Kyo said!" She hummed happily, while Izuku blinked. 'Huh, guess Kyoka is letting her use that nickname as well. I wonder if it's just us or if it's all our friends…' "Iida and Uraraka had to go early, something about Iida's brother wanting to see him. Uraraka was going for moral support in case it would be hard for him."

"Ah, that makes sense. I hope it goes well for them." Izuku hummed as the three walked past the gate into the empty streets. "What about you two? How was your day?"

"It was fine." Kyoka squinted at him. "You're trying to change the subject."

"Oh come on Midori, you know you can trust us right?" Tooru asked, making his heart hurt slightly. It wasn't that he didn't trust the two girls, it was just…

He just couldn't believe telling the truth would actually matter when it came to Bakugou. It had never done anything for him before. It was normal for him to get away with this kind of thing and based on what had happened so far, why would he expect this time to be different?

"I just was taken down in class." He said very simply, completely bypassing the issue as they walked into the station. "Then I kinda ran my mouth when I shouldn't have and got on Aizawa's bad side. I was just tired and made a stupid decision."

With that he quickly hopped onto the train, managing to avoid talking to the two about it for a moment while he found seats. Both Kyoka and Tooru, though he didn't see, gave him worried looks from behind.

They didn't push the issue for the rest of the ride home, the three just talking about the school day and what they were planning to do after. It was nice and calm.

Despite the bad day, for the moment, Izuku was happy.

He got to simply enjoy being with, to him, the two greatest girls in the world.

Soon he departed the train and left, hugging them both as he said goodbye.

His smile soon faded back into a frown. Sadly, even time with the two of them couldn't erase his bad mood for good, as he remembered what the rest of the week would be like.

One day looking back on it, he'd realize he had no idea just how bad it would actually be.

"Midoriya. Meet me back here during lunch please."

Izuku put on as neutral of a face as he could manage, as he stepped into his classroom. It had been a few days since his detention was assigned, as the weekend had passed, giving the freckled boy plenty of time to stew on the situation.

It was Monday now and Aizawa had called out to the teen during homeroom, though fortunately he seemed less irritated than he had been on Friday. He saw his scruffy tired homeroom teacher shuffling through papers, before looking up upon hearing the door open. Not wanting to cause a repeat of last week, he nodded his head at the man. "Sir."

"Midoriya." The man nodded back, gesturing to a chair in front of him which Midoriya sat down on. He looked up to see the tired pro hero leaning back in his seat. "Alright, I'm not here to waste time to let's get this over with. I am sorry."

Izuku's eyes widened as he tilted his head confused.

"S-Sir?" He questioned, raising a brow. "What do you mean 'you're sorry'? Shouldn't you be making me apologize to you or something?"

"My own reaction last week was irrationally overblown. I stand by my decision to give you detention for the rest of the week, as I am not one to go back on my punishments without good reason." Aizawa began explaining, making the magic teen have to fight the urge to roll his eyes. "You did still disrespect an authority figure which is considered punishable even if I normally do not do it myself. However, the issue is in how I personally handled assigning that detention."

Izuku shifted uncomfortably, remembering the yelling. It may not have done much to intimidate him but it was still unpleasant to recall.

"Yelling at you for an overall minor slight is unbecoming of me as a hero and projects a poor message for you and your class when it comes to dealing with how people act towards you. It should be something that you should never rise to like I did last week." Aizawa explained tiredly, shuffling some papers and putting them away before continuing.

"With the final exams being planned for the last two weeks I've been under a lot of personal stress planning, on top of doing my usual patrols and lessons. This has shortened my already limited sleep, which in turn has shortened my patience. Add to that the fact on the day I had lost a villain in a patrol and I was already in a rather bad mood before you threw the match, then slighted me after."

"…Nezu had a hand in this didn't he." Izuku asked suspiciously, squinting his eyes at his teacher. The pro sighed. "You'd never willingly admit to potential 'weakness' like that."

"I knew it was too obvious. Still, it is the truth. So as I said, I apologize for how I acted, even if I stand by what I said." Aizawa said, waiting for Izuku's response.

"Thank you. I'm sorry for using your given name and being disrespectful towards you." Izuku apologized himself, readjusting himself on his seat. "Sir… May I say something though?"

Aizawa waved his hand as if to say 'go ahead.'

"It's regarding pairing up me and Bakugou sir." Izuku said, gripping his trousers.

He could admit to what really happened but thoughts of the Abbey and the entire situation with them flashed through his mind. He remembered all the times Bakugou got away with whatever he wanted in middle school and so he didn't bother to pursue it. Without proof, it would be pointless. He didn't need to be branded a liar again, with his thoughts settled, he continued.

"I think it's a… questionable decision. There is no way Bakugou will work with me, no matter what I do. He simply just won't even if I try to appease him. It seems more like a hindrance than anything else."

"If you can't get Bakugou to work with you, then work around him, problem child." Aizawa said simply, sounding almost scripted which made Izuku suspicious. The scruffy pro lent forward, putting his hands together. "Sometimes you have to work with people you don't like for the sake of others, this won't ever stop being true in this profession, so if you can't make him learn to work with you, you'll simply have to work around him, much like I sometimes have to work around heroes like Endeavour. I won't be removing him as your partner until after the final exams. Understood?"

Izuku's mind was screaming at him to bite back, to fight it for once but he just sighed, nodding his head. He knew working around Bakugou wouldn't help, that's exactly what he had tried to do last week only to get a gut punch for it.

He didn't want to risk making Aizawa snap again especially just after the two managed to recover from what could have been a complete disaster for their respect of one another.

"Alright sir. Thank you." He said, forcing as polite a tone as he could, standing up. "Will that be all?"

"Yeah. You're dismissed."

Izuku nodded, turning and hurrying out the door. He only took a couple of steps forward however before he stopped, clenching his fist as he felt his annoyance, anger and general negative emotions all beginning to flare up as he thought about the fact he would be stuck with the definition of anger issues then punished for it after the fact.

He wouldn't snap at Aizawa again, but he just… he needed some way to get this frustration out before he snapped!

Making sure quickly no one was watching, he lifted his marked fist and threw it into the wall beside him. He only meant to get out some frustration then run before he potentially got in trouble for it, hopefully feeling a bit better. It wasn't even a proper punch, which would turn out to be fortunate….

Instead of his fist colliding with the solid wall and making him feel better, it collided with something soft and squishy, almost flesh like and then… "AH!"

Izuku's eyes went wide in horror as he heard Tooru's voice. 'Oh no no no…' "Hagakure?!"

"Ow…" Yeah that was definitely her, for some reason fully invisible. Before he knew what he was doing, he used Dark Vision to make sure he could see her, flinching as he saw her cupping her breast he'd presumably punched. He threw his arms around her, pulling her tight against him as disgust and worry filled him.

"I'm so so sorry!" He apologized, holding her tight. "I didn't realize you were there and I was just annoyed and… I'm sorry Hagakure! Please don't hate me!"

It took a moment but arms wrapped around him after a moment, the invisible girl hugging him back. "It's fine… it hurts but it was an accident, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Then I forgive you… Jerk." She said, almost teasingly at that last part as she rubbed his back slightly before letting go. "Besides, not like you could have known I was there unless you started using your powers for no reason. I would have tried to move but I didn't want to accidentally let you know I was here… guess that fell through."

"Wait. why are you here?" Izuku asked confused, stepping back and looking her in the eye. Fortunately he could see her exact line of sight with Dark Vision so he knew she was looking back at him.

"W-Well… Me and Kyo were worried about you…" She started to explain bashfully, rubbing her arm. "You never really told us what you actually got in trouble for, so I was just seeing if I could find out. I obviously didn't want to be caught by Aizawa though so I decided to get… undressed…"

Izuku's eyes went wide, and his face went completely red in realization, while the invisible girl let out a small squeak. Before he could stop himself, he muttered aloud. "Oh no I t-touched your- AH!"

Suddenly Hagakure turned and bolted, presumably embarrassed while Izuku froze up, stunned by the revelation he'd accidentally gotten to second base technically. 'Oh god Hagakure I'm so sorry…'

It took his brain a few moments to reboot before he could take off, trying to find her and apologize. He didn't manage to, sadly, the girl managed to effectively disappear until lunch ended.

She didn't show up in class until after him and didn't come towards him. He could feel her embarrassment from his seat which was far from pleasant. Kyoka just looked between the two with a little bit of worry in her eyes.

That day, after he once again left his detention with Vlad King, he had to walk home alone. Kyoka had warned him ahead of time she would be going home early due to her parents wanting her to meet a family member and Tooru had assumedly still been too embarrassed to talk to him alone yet which Izuku couldn't really blame her for.

He'd called up his carpool, the number given to him by Nezu, as he wouldn't be accompanied by anyone if he went on the train this time.

Before it had arrived, unfortunately for him the weather seemed to decide it also wanted to cause him some issues, as a downpour suddenly came on. He'd run for cover, but hadn't been fast enough to get out the rain before his bag got soaked through, his homework inside got ruined, much to his chagrin.

He'd gotten home about half an hour sooner than he would have, had he taken the train, disappearing into his apartment and plopping down on his bed somewhat annoyed after getting into some fresh dry clothes.

The very first thing he was doing, now he had thought of how he'd explain it to the detective, Izuku texted All Might, asking him to send Tsukuachi to his house so he could explain the bonecharm to the man.

A moment after he sent the text, he heard the sound of a notification coming through and checked, being surprised when it wasn't a text from his mentor but from Tooru.

The Invisionable girl 3:

The Invisionable girl 3: Hey, sorry for running like that and not talking to you, I was just like super super embarrassed… - 04:12PM

You: Oh I get it, it was a totally fair reaction. Are you okay? You aren't still sore right? I'm really sorry again… – 04:13PM

The Invisionable girl 3: I'm fine, it's not like… you know, bruised or anything… god this is weird to talk about with you… - 04:16PM

You: Sorry! You don't have to! If you'd rather I just drop it so it makes you more comfortable or that I will! – 04:16PM

The Invisionable girl 3: No it's okay. I was gonna say... maybe we could meet up tomorrow? Go into the market or something, just try and get past the awkwardness and that. Just need to spend some time with each other doing other stuff I think. – 04:18PM

Izuku moved to type out that he'd love to when suddenly, for reasons unknown to him, his phone suddenly switched off completely. Surprised, he let out a frustrated shout as he turned it back on.

"What the…" He was confused when it turned back on, revealing it had reset to his default wallpaper. Annoyed, he quickly moved to his contacts and was relieved to see everyone's numbers were still in along with their message history.

He saw All Might had texted him a response, saying he'd have to wait until tomorrow for Tsukauchi to come around to talk to him, as there were some complications down at the station. He sent a quick thank you text before going to Hagakure, typing out his response again.

The Invisionable girl 3:

You: I'd love to! Five o'clock sound good? – 03:23PM

The Invisionable girl 3: Yeah, I know where we can meet up! – 03:24PM

Izuku grinned, failing to notice the fact his phone's clock had reset to an hour early. He didn't notice for the rest of the day either, spending his time on hero forums and Yotube when he wasn't studying and recovering his ruined homework.

The Tuesday morning had gotten off to a bad start. Izuku had almost been late for school as his alarm clock had failed to go off until far too late into the day, forcing him to skip breakfast, barely managing to arrive in time.

He'd made it to class with literal seconds to spare, something Iida had later reprimanded him on. Izuku had discovered the magical word that day to immediately make the boy be quiet whenever he was too much to deal with, simply saying "Stain" and managing to stop him making another peep about the subject.

Hagakure had said hello to him and the two had interacted briefly but both it seemed wanted to save a full on discussion or anything similar until they were hanging out in the town, giving them some time to prepare.

He'd gotten out of detention again that day to find himself alone, a text from Kyoka apologizing and explaining Mina had dragged her off for a musical event she'd found out about and hadn't let the purple haired girl escape.

The mental image he'd gotten of the girl kicking and trying to escape from Mina dragging her to some kind of concert admittedly had managed to get a smile on his face even if only for a moment. After that he'd checked the time, being surprised when he saw how early it said it was.

Instead of realizing there might have been a problem with his phone's time however, he'd instead assumed he'd simply finished faster than he expected, getting faster at writing now he knew the lines to the point he had developed muscle memory for writing them.

He'd gotten home after that, being surprised when Tsukauchi had shown up barely ten minutes later and now he was escorting the man out of his house while thanking him profusely, after he had given the detective his number to contact him if he needed to.

"Oh, one more thing, Midoriya, I can't guarantee this evidence will be immediately usable due to the complications around its existence. It's useful but it may take some time to actually be considered by other detectives." He explained, bowing. "Still, thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'll see you after."

"Thanks again! I hope it can help!" Izuku called after the man, before closing the door and smiling. 'Now I just got to get ready to meet Hagakure. I hope she won't mind coming with me to Z-Hero to see if they have the new Kamui Woods figures that got shipped out recently.'

He grabbed his phone from the table, opening it and his smile almost immediately faded. 'What…'

1 New Notification

The Invisionable girl 3: IZUKU?! WHY THE HECK DID YOU STAND ME UP?!

First his survival instinct kicked in from her using his first name, then he remembered it was just a text and stopped the magic from flowing through his mark before he could accidentally use Far Reach to throw the television across the room.

'Huh?!'

The Invisionable girl 3:

You: Wait what? – 04:23PM

The Invisionable girl 3: I was standing out in the cold for ages and you never showed up! I thought you said we were going to meet up by the Z-Hero store near the station?! – 04:24PM

You: I did! I was just about to get ready! Wait… - 04:25PM

The Invisionable girl 3: It's almost half five!

Izuku looked up, grabbing the TV remote to turn on the television and check the time, letting out a suffering sigh when he saw she was right. He collapsed back into the couch, groaning as he hid his face in his hands for a moment. 'Oh for the love of the void…'

He picked his phone up, quickly screen capturing the time and sending it to the girl.

The Invisonable girl 3:

You: I'm so sorry… - 04:27PM

The Invisionable girl 3: … - 04:28PM

You: You aren't mad at me are you? – 04:29PM

The Invisionable girl 3: At you? No. – 04:29PM

The Invisionable girl 3: Am I mad in general though? Yeah. I just… I was freezing, I almost cracked my tooth falling down the stairs, I'm pretty sure this one creepy dude was staring at me while I was waiting for you and it's all for nothing and I've had to go home with nothing but frustration and just AGHH! – 04:31PM

You: Sorry… - 04:32

The Invisionable girl 3: Ugh, look just give me some time to calm down, I'm just… I can't put into words the frustration I'm feeling right now and it isn't fair of me to complain at you over something you couldn't even help. I'll talk to you when I'm ready… - 04:35PM

You: Right. I swear I'll try to make up for it! I just… please don't wait too long? I just want things to be okay… - 04:36PM

The Invisionable girl 3: Fine…

Izuku didn't get another text from the girl for the rest of the day. He hit his phone against his head in annoyance at the time though, cursing his own stupidity. 'Don't wait too long?! You're lucky she's not mad at you at all!'

Feeling a headache coming on from everything happening to him over the past few days, the marked teen stood and hurried into the bathroom, filling the sink with cold water and splashing his face, looking to the cupboard in front of him. 'Mom keeps the paracetamol in here right? Just need one so this headache goes away…'

He leaned forward without realizing, grabbing the handle and trying to pull the cupboard open. It didn't immediately work to his annoyance, forcing him to put more effort into opening it as he leaned even further towards it… then suddenly it finally gave, opening up fast right into his face.

SMACK!

"AH!" He shouted out as he stumbled back, clutching his cheek. He really should have stopped walking back though, as the pain in his cheek was soon joined by an even greater pain in his head. His backwards pacing was stopped by the bathtub behind him that caused him to fall, his head smashing against the wall as the shower curtain fell in with him pulling down the metal bar holding it up down atop him.

He groaned in pain as his entire body flared up, his mother's concerned shouts coming from through the room. 'Maybe aspirin would be better…'

"I really wish this didn't make me so tired." Izuku yawned. It was the next day and not even one class had passed before he'd ended up in the infirmary with Recovery Girl who was reluctantly healing him.

"I swear you're like a pain magnet." The nurse tutted once her lips left him, his body healing up. "You're lucky it was only bruises."

"It was? Wait then why did you kiss me?"

"In case of internal bruises, sonny." The nurse explained, pointing over to the nervous general studies students nearby who had been the whole reason for Izuku having to come in. Izuku groaned, seeing the far too amused smile on her face. "After all, the impact from mister Juba, ah, what was it again you did kid?"

"I blew him! I'm sorry I blew mister Midoriya!" The student apologized wholeheartedly, bowing while Izuku groaned and Recovery Girl clearly was fighting back the urge to snicker.

Juba it turned out had a quirk to create shockwaves at will, rather powerful but he had no interest in becoming a hero, he just wanted to study under one of the most prestigious schools in the country. However, despite this he was most definitely not an upstanding student.

He'd been trying to impress a girl in his class with his quirk when Izuku had been walking past, only to get hit with the shockwave and thrown against a wall, leaving him questioning what god hated him.

He knew the answer but he had a feeling the Outsider would deny turning his life into a gag reel for his personal amusement no matter how hard he pressed.

Juba's quirk was called 'Blow off' and it meant he had a specific way of saying he used it on people.

"I'm sorry again for blowing mister Midoriya!"

"It's okay dearie, we all make mistakes. The impact from him 'blowing' you could have caused a lot of internal bruising. You are lucky you didn't get a concussion. Are you feeling okay now?"

"I'm fine." Izuku said with a blush through gritted teeth, standing up. "Am I good to go now?"

"Yes. Just don't end up in my office again today or I'll hit you with my stick." She threatened and Izuku nodded, leaving the infirmary and heading for class.

He just had to be exhausted from Recovery Girl's quirk when he'd have to do hero class with Bakugou right at the very end of the day. The last two days had been bad enough, leaving him with more bruises than necessary and at one point genuinely contemplating simply walking out the class all together. Now he had to deal with it while feeling like he would drop any moment.

He thought that would be the worst part of his day but as it would turn out, the worst parts of his day would have nothing to do with Bakugou but with, sadly, Tooru.

It was at lunch when the first disaster happened. He'd just gotten his food and was carrying his tray over to the table where Todoroki, Iida and oddly Tokoyami were sat at.

Kyoka and Uraraka were at another table along with Tooru and Ashido. He, of course, wasn't going to sit with Tooru at the moment as he didn't want to make her uncomfortable, but he would have to pass them anyways to get to his table, so he'd had a simple innocent thought.

If he took a slight detour to pass beside Hagakure, he could say a quick sorry in person and be gone before an actual conversation had to start. He could apologize without causing any issues and if she wanted to, she could have just ignored him.

It would have been fine… except a blonde boy from class 1-B had spotted him walking past. He had spotted him coming past his table at the same time he was trying to pass by Tooru and had decided to stick his foot out where Izuku couldn't see it.

He'd felt his foot snag and then before he knew what was happening his tray flew out his hands forward, everything on it spilling all over the invisible girl in front of him while he ate the floor.

"AHHH!"

He groaned, a pain in his head as he tried to push himself up, hearing his crushes scream and making his stomach churn.

"Oh sorry, I didn't see the trash in my way. That's odd, you'd think someone in 1-A would know how to dodge a simple foot, you're supposed to be an amazing class of heroes are you not? And you can't even see a single sneak attack-"

"MONOMA!" A feminine voice shouted angrily, getting Izuku's attention to see a tall ginger girl with blue eyes who smacked her fist into the blonde boy, presumably Monoma's neck. "You should know better than to trip people up! What are you, a child!?"

"Uhh… S-Sorry…" Izuku groaned as he looked over to Hagakure only to see her turning and running, presumably to get changed. "Dammit…"

"You okay dude?" Ashido's voice asked, getting him to look up and see the pink skinned girl staring down at him with a sympathetic gaze. He nodded and a hand appeared in front of his face. He took it, being helped to his feet by the redhead who had knocked out Monoma.

"Sorry about him. He has a blackhole where his brain should be." She said, letting go of his hand. "I'm Itsuka Kendou, vice principal of 1-B. I apologize for how Monoma is acting, he seems to have vendetta against your class for reasons I still don't get. You're okay right?"

"Yeah, just sore…"

"Will your friend be okay?"

"She'll be fine." Kyoka spoke up with a frown, looking to Izuku sympathetically and glaring slightly at Kendou. "As long as you keep your goon of a classmate away from her and Midori from now on."

"I'll do my best. Here, let me make it up to you at least a little. I overheard some information about the exams coming up-" Izuku, Kyoka and Uraraka all perked up slightly, curious. Ashido spun around in her seat so fast Izuku thought she may have given herself whiplash as she leaned in excitedly. "-Apparently the physical portion is going to consist of fighting villain bots like the entrance exam had. I heard it from some upperclassmen, it's been the same test for the last two or three years."

"Oh thank god!" Ashido let out a sigh of relief, putting a hand to her chest as she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she grinned wide. "I can't wait to let Kaminari and everyone else know, we're gonna be just fine!"

"Actually Ashido… I think you should let Deku tell everyone." Uraraka spoke up with a slight smile that almost looked dangerous. "After all, she did tell it to him."

"Huh but- Ow!" The acid girl suddenly shouted out when one of Kyoka's jacks stuck into her arm.

"She's right. Midori should tell everyone, especially Tooru." The purple haired girl said, giving a meaningful look that quickly made realization settle in both fluffy haired teen's minds.

"Right…" Izuku hummed.

"Kendou, you just gave away our advantage!" Monoma hissed, only to get hit again by the redhead who began dragging him away.

"Quiet, you pest!" she grumbled, making the group stare at the two. 'She's like their class' big sister, huh? I better clean up…'

"You want some help, Deku?" Uraraka asked, only to get a shake of the head from Izuku.

"No thanks, it's fine." He sighed, doing it himself. By the time he had cleaned up, he'd decided trying to get more lunch just wouldn't be worth it and had wandered off for a while until the bell had finally rung, making his way back to class.

He'd waited for everyone to show back up, Tooru being one of the last back to class (wearing a gym outfit) and he knew he'd have a few minutes before Aizawa would arrive for class, so he'd gotten a group of the people who might be interested together, making sure Hagakure was among them even if she was slightly hesitant and shared the news.

There had been excited cheering, sighs of relief and Iida gaping at Izuku in horror over the fact he would reveal such information to everyone in the class. When he'd started chopping his hands, berating Izuku for his 'betrayal of the rules' Izuku had looked him in the eyes for the second time that week and simply said "Stain."

For the second time that week, Iida instantly shut up.

Everyone else thanked Izuku before heading back to their seats while seeming much more relieved and the marked teen focused on his invisible crush, walking over to her guiltily.

"Hey Hagakure? I'm sorry about earlier. I just wanted to say sorry and leave you alone but…"

"…It's fine." She sighed quietly. "It's annoying but it was that jerk from 1-B's fault. I'm angry at him. Not you."

"Oh good." He said quietly, breathing a sigh of relief.

"I guess now is a-"

"Alright everyone, suit up already." Aizawa's sudden voice made everyone jump as the man walked in. He raised a brow at Izuku who smiled nervously and shrugged, making the man shake his head, pressing a button on the remote in his hand and letting all the suitcases with their suits slide out. "Just hurry up. We're in training city C."

"Yes sir!" Everyone shouted, everyone hurrying to grab their costumes. No one wanted to be the one who was late when Aizawa told them to hurry up.

Soon, the class was all within the observation room for training city B. Izuku was near the back of the crowd, already knowing he'd be paired up with Bakugou and not wanting to stand out.

Teams were picked out for everyone other than Izuku and Bakugou, Hagakure being teamed up with Iida.

And then, they were pitted against him and Bakugou for the second match.

He heard something shift beside him while Yaoyoruzu and Uraraka left to prepare, Todoroki and Asui following behind them. His face heated up slightly when he saw it was Hagakure who was now standing beside him.

"Okay this isn't exactly ideal for how I wanted to do this but seeing as going out in public didn't work… see the building at the end of the third street on the left? Meet me there."

"H-Huh?"

"Look I promise I genuinely want to talk, not jump you or something. We'll talk there. Bakugou isn't going to actually work with you anyways, is he?" She asked, making him shake his head.

"R-Right…" Izuku sighed, straightening up while the girl moved back over to Kyoka in the crowd.

They got in fairly soon, Todoroki's natural inclination to using his ice powers being a very unfortunate disadvantage that soon put Asui to sleep and allowed Yaoyorozu and Uraraka to steal a fairly easy victory.

The moment he and Bakugou had stepped into the arena and they had heard Aizawa announce them to begin Izuku had bolted away from Bakugou, jumping up a few walls in an alley and getting onto a rooftop, before using Far Reach to catapult himself into the air.

He used Full Cowling while in the air to rapidly connect up his wingsuit, letting him glide down to the building Hagakure pointed all before Bakugou would have any chance of seeing where he went to cause any issues.

He soon realized a small issue however. Hagakure had completely failed to tell him what floor to meet her own and with her outfit, it meant he'd have to manually check every room for her.

He'd gotten to the third of the four floors and was checking around, surprised by how many wires were rigged up in the room. He couldn't help but wonder if this was powering a few of the buildings around the city in general.

It certainly didn't seem safe with how they were all set up, some running up the walls and across the ceiling, a few running into a hole.

As he quickly found out when his foot snagged on one of the wires, he was absolutely correct, it wasn't safe.

Not only did he face plant, feeling a tooth get chipped but his foot pulled the wires hard, most of them going taut and pulling against the ceiling above which turned out to be disturbingly flimsy, starting to crumble before…

CRACK!

"EEEIII!"

CRASH!

Thud!

"ARGGHH! OW OW OW OW!"

'No… not again…'

"Ugh…" He groaned, looking up to see the last thing he wanted to see at that moment. In amongst the debris of the collapsed ceiling were two gloves and boots. He barely had enough energy to activate Dark Vision and as soon as he did, he felt bile rise in his throat as he saw the invisible girl's leg had twisted in a way that it shouldn't have. 'No no no…' "Hagakure…"

"It hurts! It hurts! Shit… Argh…" She let out a choked sob that made his chest feel heavy as he struggled to his feet, not at all enjoying how the girl was squirming and clutching her most definitely broken leg.

He struggled over to her, before suddenly he let out a cry of pain and the light in his eyes died as his empathy kicked him, all of the girl's pain and fear suddenly coursing through him.

Suffering the turmoil of strangers was bad enough but this…. Feeling Tooru suffering like this might have been enough to break him.

"It's okay, it's okay, I'm here." He said, gently setting a hand on her shoulder trying to reassure her even as he flinched, gritting his teeth. Hearing her choked, pained voice broke his heart.

"Ah.. it h-hurts Izuku… it hurts…" She sniffled and he held her, gently running a hand through her hair.

"It'll be okay; Recovery Girl will heal it up. Just focus on my hand, okay? Focus on my hand…" He instructed, trying to do whatever he could to lessen the pain. A recovery robot soon arrived, loading the girl onto a stretcher with Izuku's help. Aizawa chimed in on his earpiece, instructing him to go with the girl to explain what happened to Recovery Girl and get a small check-up himself to be safe.

He'd done so, doing his best to distract the girl from the pain as long as he could until she was eventually in the hands of the school nurse who had healed her up as soon as possible. However, it had taken up a lot of energy from the invisible girl, causing her to pass out.

Izuku had sighed as once again, it meant they couldn't discuss what was happening between them at the moment. His own check-up had been simple, being dismissed with minor injuries overall and told to come back to the nurse tomorrow. She wouldn't heal him again for the day as he would likely be too tired.

He had come back to class to find out, unsurprisingly, his team had won as it had essentially become a one on one between Bakugou and Kaminari.

Izuku had gotten a lot of angry glaring from his partner and Izuku knew it wasn't because Bakugou cared that the marked teen had not attacked Tooru like he was supposed to. He probably was once again assuming Izuku had just been trying to 'steal his glory' because he seemed to think everything had to be about him.

Shaking his head, trying not to think about it he just turned his attention back to the monitors to watch the next match. While he did, Kyoka soon made her way to his side, squeezing his wrist before letting go.

He nodded his head in thanks, a quiet conversation starting between them.

"You're definitely okay, dude?"

"Yeah…"

"It sucks. What's happening between you and Hagakure right now."

"…"

"It's hard to watch from where I'm standing." Kyoka hummed, crossing her arms and letting out a small sigh. Izuku sighed himself, looking down.

"It hurts from here as well. We're probably not figuring it out today now though…"

"Probably not." She sighed. "I was going over to her house to hang out again later. I'm gonna walk you home first."

"H-Huh?"

"I am good at more than just hearing you know. I can see the misery on your face." She bumped into his side gently. "Least I can do to try to make the day a tiny bit better."

"…Thanks Kyo." Izuku smiles despite himself, scratching the back of his neck. "I'm really thankful for it. So, you were going to hang out with Hagakure? I didn't know you two were spending time together."

"Well yeah, we do have lives outside of you, Midori." She said slightly teasingly, sticking her tongue out at him and making him flush as he rushed to defend himself.

"T-That's not-what i- I just meant that I d-didn't k-know you two w-were hanging out- I mean…" Kyoka started laughing while Izuku hid his face in hands embarrassed.

"Don't worry, I'm just teasing." She assured, flicking his arm with a small smile. "But yeah, you may not have noticed but me and 'Ru have been spending a lot of time together since internships ended."

"Huh, good for you two then." Izuku smiled slightly. 'Well, If I can just fix this whole Hagakure situation then maybe this means I'll have a better shot when I finally- Hang on…' "'Ru?'"

"What Tooru told me to start calling her. Was how I decided to go with the Kyo nickname." Kyoka explained, grinning. "I think she was going to ask you as well, but got a little shy."

"Hagakure? Shy? Blasphemy." He chuckled to himself, face slightly red even as he grinned. "Does sound kinda nice though."

"Well then, all the more reason to try to talk soon."

Izuku hummed, sad eyes looking down briefly.

"Yeah…"

They continued making small talk until Kyoka's match finally came at the end, leaving them unable to talk for a while after as they rest of the school day went by.

They found out Hagakure had gone home early due per Recovery Girl's request, meaning there was no chance at all Izuku would be talking to the invisible girl in person.

Izuku had managed to get out of detention fairly early that day as Vlad King was feeling merciful and as promised, Kyoka had been waiting for him, both setting off together while once again making small talk about random topics.

Kyoka's mother was going on a tour for a while, some heroes Izuku had heard about debuting, some games they both liked to play and a band they found out they both liked.

Just some random conversation topics to pass the time, Izuku feeling for the first time in the whole week somewhat happy again, just happy to be with Kyoka as she chuckled at one of his jokes and teased him as they soon arrived at his stop.

But this meant Izuku was happy and apparently the universe couldn't have that right now!

His hand had suddenly ached and briefly he'd felt a massive spike of panic, thinking a demon might have once again come to ruin his day. Instead however he spotted something flying at Kyoka's head and had grabbed her, pulling her down only for a soccer ball to hit him in the face hard, knocking him over. His chipped tooth ached. "Ow…"

"Hey! You brats should watch what you're doing!" Kyoka shouted angrily at someone in a nearby park, grabbing the soccer ball and pelting it back where it came from while Izuku stood up. She turned to the freckled teen with more kind eyes, putting a hand on his head. "You okay dude? That didn't set off any injuries, did it?"

"I'm fine… thanks for being worried though." He groaned, beginning to walk with a frown. "Come on, we're almost at my place."

"Right." Kyoka said with a sigh. They didn't make much more conversation after that, knowing they'd have to split up fairly soon.

Before Kyoka left though, Izuku noticed her face looked conflicted right before she hugged him tight. He hugged her back and what he didn't see was the slight smile that came onto her face.

"Hey Midori?"

"Yeah?"

"I just want you to know you're still the only dork I'm really comfortable hugging like this."

Izuku felt a soft smile come onto his face at that, as she pulled away with one of her own. "Thanks Kyo."

"No problem, but don't expect me to do it again." She said with her teasing grin as she stepped away. "I'll see you later dude, just… don't be afraid to call if you need something, even to talk, okay?"

"I will… See ya Kyoka." Izuku called after, as she waved by and took off herself. Izuku sighed as she disappeared down the steps, whispering under his breath. "What did I ever do to deserve meeting you?"

With a sigh, he turned and walked into his house, greeting his mom who gave him a concerned look from his tone which he brushed off, falling onto the couch and fishing through his pockets, finding his phone.

He pulled up his contacts, quickly finding Tooru's and opening it up, trying to read the previous messages less he causes his heart to hurt again while he began typing out a single, simple message.

It was starting to feel meaningless even though he didn't want it to, he just didn't know what else to say.

The Invisionable girl 3:

You: I'm sorry. – 4:32 PM

It soon was registered as read. He didn't get a reply.

Izuku sadly had no chance of talking to Hagakure or Kyoka or anyone in person the next day, whether he wanted to or not.

It was finally the day of their theory tests, which meant they all had to be quiet, stay in their seats and work their asses off. They'd be provided lunch in class but not expected to talk, then finally they'd be let out one by one as they finished their final tests of the day.

It was stressful but Izuku honestly found a brief reprieve in it, as he only struggled once or twice with the questions on most tests and breezed through them for the most part.

There were one or two like English he struggled more on than he'd expected, but overall he'd been proud of his performance. Sadly, it just meant when the end of the day did finally roll around he was sent off for detention early and when he finished up with that, he knew he'd have to walk home alone.

He couldn't wait like he would have any other time, because they didn't want any distractions going on so he had just had to call the carpool and go straight home.

He'd made it home soon enough and had been caught off-guard by his mother asking for his help before he could go to his room.

"The light in my room needs replacing sweetie, but I can't get it out. Can you do it for me please?" She asked and Izuku nodded, taking the light bulb from her. He'd gone to her room, hopping on her bed and grabbed the fixture, trying to unscrew the bulb.

It would turn out however, that the light bulb was stuck tight, Izuku having to fight with it hard. It barely budged as he twisted with all his might, trying not to shatter it.

Eventually getting irritated and just wanting it out, he'd activated Far Reach and tried to tug the bulb out, which proved to be a terrible idea as his increased strength combined with the tug led to something a little familiar happening.

CRACK!

Parts of the ceiling fell away as Izuku's eyes went wide and he was hit in the head, causing him to drop and land on the edge of the bed, rolling onto the floor and groaning.

He flipped onto his back and gritted his teeth, before finally his frustration got the better of him and he screamed to the heavens. "WHY DO THE CEILING GODS HATE ME!?"

Inko had run in from that and upon seeing what had happened, had just sighed and led him through the room, grabbing an ice pack and rubbing his back for a moment while she pressed it to his head.

After a couple of minutes, when the pain had subsided somewhat, she had told him she'd be out shopping for an hour or two and told him to be careful not to get hurt again. Izuku promised he wouldn't and had decided the best way to pass the time would be to just watch the TV until she got back.

No way he could hurt himself doing that at least.

He was halfway through some murder mystery sci-fi show he was barely paying attention to, reading hero news on his phone when it suddenly came through with a notification.

As soon as he saw who it was, his eyes went wide.

The Invisionable girl 3:

The Invisionable girl 3: Hey… can we please talk? Just over the phone? Clearly talking in person isn't working. – 5:02PM

As soon as he registered that, his head had whipped around until he spotted his headphones over in the corner. He carefully focused Far Reach, using the weakened tendril version, to grab his headphones and pull them over to him gently, dropping them in his hands. 'I really need to remember I can do this. Changing the light probably would have gone way easier if I'd just used these…'

He'd plugged in the headphones and immediately called the girl, tapping his foot impatiently.

After a moment, it connected and Izuku heard the most beautiful thing he'd heard all week.

"Hello? Is that you, Midori?"

He smiled slightly. "Yeah, it's me Hagakure."

"Hey…"

There was silence for a moment.

"God this shouldn't be so awkward." She huffed from her end, making Izuku smile as he laid back on the couch, just treasuring this moment of finally getting to hear her again.

"Yeah… at least we are talking though…"

"Yeah. Um…. So before anything else, I just want to say I'm not mad? About the leg thing or the food. Kyoka explained what happened in the room and I saw what happened with that 1-B jerk. I know it was just some really bad luck."

"Yeah. I never meant to do any of that, I just wanted to say sorry and it was just… god this past week has kinda sucked."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Mine hasn't been that amazing either to be honest but… It's a little better now we're finally talking again." She said and Izuku could hear the smile in her voice.

"Mine as well. About um… y-you know, the start of the week when I um…"

"Y-Yeah, when you got to second base without asking if I wanted to do the same with you." She teased, making him go crimson and start spluttering. He heard her giggling on the other end. "I'm just teasing, Midori! Only fair you get embarrassed after what happened to me then."

Izuku frowned and glared playfully at his phone. He heard a sigh a moment later.

"But yeah, i've been missing you. I wanted to talk, but I didn't, I was either too embarrassed or I didn't want to get angry for no good reason when it was all just accidents. Then yesterday I actually fell asleep trying to type out a reply to your message because of how tired I was from Recovery Girl healing me… It's been a disaster." Tooru grumbled on the other end. Then she said something else.

Izuku didn't quite hear the next part however as his phone's notification went off again and he got a text message from Tsukauchi that made him grit his teeth.

It was very simple, explaining how due to the fact they couldn't figure out the bonecharm, it would be dismissed as evidence usable in the case. Izuku's anger spiked as once again, torturers and evil, vile men once again got away scot free no matter what he did to try to stop them.

Haruki's face flashed through his mind when he'd first found the man, bloody and beaten in that chair at the abbey and his thoughts were vocalized before he could stop them.

Vocalized right as Hagakure had to be in the middle of saying something important.

"So I hope we can just put this behind us and keep being friends-"

"OH FUCK OFF!" Izuku roared angrily, before his eyes went wide as he registered the girl's words. His throat went dry, his chest ached and his eyes started to wet as his hands began to shake. "H-Haga-"

He was cut off for a moment by something that broke him. He heard light, pained sobbing start to come from the other end. This wasn't something he could blame on anyone else, this time… he'd made her cry himself.

"O-Oh my void… Hagakure, I'm so so sorry! I swear I didn't mean to, I just… I got a text from one of the people working the abbey case about some dismissed evidence and I just, I got angry and… I didn't mean to direct it at you! I'm sorry!"

He was shaking as he heard the sobbing begin to get louder, more painful. "I g-get it… M-Midoriya."

…She didn't use her nickname…

"I just… I n-need to go." She sniffled. "I b-believe you…"

But she didn't.

He could tell she didn't, the doubt in her voice was painfully clear. Right when it seemed they'd finally fixed it, he'd broken it worse than it had been before.

She hung up and Izuku knew no amount of texting would get a response. He looked down shaking and broken as his tears began to pick up… then he got another notification.

He looked, seeing a second text from Tsukauchi.

Detective Tsukauchi:

Detective Tsukauchi: If you can, however, prove the effects of this 'bonecharm', we may still be able to retain it as evidence. We'll need you to come down to the station at some point. - 5:18PM

Izuku gripped his phone tight, before he suddenly threw it across the room, watching as it hit the wall and fortunately landed safely on the carpeted floor of the hall as he let out a frustrated shout.

"ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!"

Looking back on it, if you'd asked him to pick any moment, he'd have always picked this as the most painful one.

Izuku was, understandably, in the worst of the worst moods the next day.

The day of the practical exams.

He wasn't even trying to pretend he wasn't irritated, sad, pissed and all other manner of negative emotions because he was this close to just being done. Life sucked, and he was angry and he just wanted this nightmare to be over.

He'd at least tried to keep a neutral face however as he'd walked into the gathering of his classmates outside the training cities, where the teachers had asked them to come to.

He'd spotted Tooru standing alone and he wasn't really sure what he was thinking when he moved to stand beside her. Probably say sorry, hope beyond hope somehow she wouldn't be mad at him. He just hoped there wasn't a scene

As it turned out, there wasn't. There was something much worse. She'd looked over to see him standing next to her and before a single word could leave his mouth… she'd taken several steps away from him.

Izuku could pin-point that as the exact moment his heart split in half.

"Alright everyone!" Nezu called out, grabbing everyone's attention and not giving Izuku long to lament the sting in his chest as they focused up. "I believe a few of you may have heard you would be fighting robots for this exam, and this was true!"

Multiple students got excited grins or relieved looks on their faces… until Nezu started to cackle evil.

"Key word being 'was!' You see, after the incidents regarding the USJ, Stain and Mister Midoriya and the Abbey of The Everyman-" Izuku gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, trying to think about anything other than them right now. "-We decided it would be much more sensible for you all to get a more 'hands-on' style of exam. Which is why, instead of fighting villain bots, you will be paired up and fight us, the teachers!"

There was a moment of silence, before fear then began to wash over most of the students. Nezu laughed cheerfully.

"Glad to see you're all so excited and eager! Now, here are your parings and who you'll be up against!"

After that, the principal began listing off each team and who they'd be up against.

Kirishima and Satou against Cementoss. Izuku frowned, knowing if Kirishima and Satou couldn't come up with a plan smarter than 'punch it', which they usually didn't, they weren't going to win.

Asui and Tokoyami were pitted against Ectoplasm, which Izuku could quickly work out would be more of a challenge for Tokoyami overall then Asui. She seemed to be there more to balance things out.

Uraraka and Aoyama were fighting Thirteen and Izuku could immediately tell the match up was meant to make Aoyoma's quirk useless as his lasers wouldn't escape the pro's black holes. Which meant Uraraka would be forced to take charge for them to win.

Ashido and Kaminari were in a match that made Izuku feel nausea just knowing someone thought it would be a good idea. Nezu was their opponent, the smartest pro ever against the two objectively least smart members of the class. Izuku wondered if there was some endgame he couldn't even see in Nezu's mind

Iida and Ojiro against Powerloader, Hagakure and Shoji verus Snipe and Mineta and Sero combatting Midnight didn't seem to have any big obstacles in their way and more just some basic, surface level weaknesses at best for Shoji and Mineta.

Momo and Todoroki against Aizawa had been a surprising match up to the marked teen and he could just tell from the look on their homeroom teachers face he was definitely planning something with that match up though he didn't know what.

Then Izuku's eyes went wide as he realized there were only two students left and one teacher missing.

He suddenly realized exactly why Aizawa had insisted on putting him with Bakugou all week…

"AHAHAHA! I AM HERE!"

Izuku's mouth dried up as he looked up to see All Might in his muscular form flipping onto the scene, standing up tall with his fists on his hips and a cocky grin. "To fight young Bakugou and young Midoriya!"

Izuku's bad mood got worse for two reasons at that moment.

For one, he knew he'd now have to somehow work with Bakugou and fight All Might, which was beyond horrifying, like his own worst nightmare.

For two…

Everyone else had something in their match they might learn from or that could help them in the future. Izuku saw no lesson for him to learn here… and far too much for Bakugou to refuse to learn.

He was about to be used as a tool to fix Bakugou… and he was NOT okay with that.

It had taken a while but eventually Izuku and Bakugou's fight had rolled around. Izuku at least had the pleasant surprise of seeing both his crushes and all his close friends pass their exams with flying colors.

In fact, the only losers had been Mina and Kaminari, who simply had no chance and Kirishima and Satou who had lost exactly how Izuku had predicted them to.

After they all came back, Izuku and Bakugou had finally been told to enter for their match. The "best" for last.

He'd gotten multiple sympathetic looks, he was pretty sure even Tooru had very briefly given him one because they all knew the same thing as him. This fight was a disaster in the making.

And Izuku could only think of one thing when he and the explosion teen had entered into the training city their exam would be taking place in.

'…I think my PTSD began because of an event before I even had my mark.'

"TEAM MIDORIYA AND BAKUGOU, PRACTICAL EXAM, READY? GO!"

Izuku watched Bakugou storming on ahead with gritted teeth and clenched fists, sighing to himself. 'Like or not, I'm not getting out of this. I'm going to have to at least try to make him work with me this time if I don't want to fail myself.'

"Bakugou…"

He heard a light growl and Izuku ran to catch up, his increased agility getting him to the blonde's side in seconds despite the distance between them. "Listen. We need a solid plan, it's All Might who were up against so we can't just wing this! It's not question, even with multiple powers i-"

"Fuck off Deku! Stop following me!" Bakugou snapped, hurrying on faster and making Izuku pause for a moment, before he shook his head and ran on. 'Keep pushing, just a little more…'

"He's going to be waiting on us on this road, we should at least take another route!"

"I'm not going to run away from this fight!"

"So you're going to go head on when you could sneak around and at least have a slight chance-"

"FUCK OFF! I'M NOT A COWARD LIKE YOU!" Bakugou barked, smoke starting to pour from his palms. Izuku swallowed.

Smoke…

Laughter…

"DO IT, DEKU!"

'Not now!' Izuku shook his head, running to catch up one more time, a glare setting on his face. 'I'm done being nice about this.' "Come on, don't be the idiot you usually are for once in your life, you narcissistic idiot! Even with his handicaps he's insanely strong and you aren't as strong as you think you- AHH!"

SMACK! BOOM!

Bakugou whirled around and Izuku's mark had ached but he'd been too caught off-guard to react, the blonde's gauntlet smashing into him as he set off an explosion at the same moment, throwing Izuku onto the ground.

"Don't you talk about strength you pathetic nerd! I'll do this on my own and I'll win! STAY OUT OF MY FUCKING WAY!"

Izuku saw black spots that slowly grew bigger, his vision disappearing and sounds around him fading. Everything began to disappear as a dull throbbing filled his head…

Then suddenly, he was eight years old again.