10

Chapter 10: Classroom

Summary:

Izuku's first day at UA high school.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Izuku tugged at the knot of his tie again, trying to get it to vaguely resemble a triangle at the very least, and tried to ignore Katsuki, who was glaring at him from the other end of the train. It was just his luck that they'd left at the same time and ended up in the same car, but from the map of UA he'd been sent alongside his acceptance letter, the support classes were in an entirely different part of the building than the hero courses, so they would have to head in separate directions almost as soon as they arrived and then he could meet up with Mei. Easy as pie. 

Even though he'd already been there for the entrance exams, walking into UA as a student was an overwhelming experience. He hadn't even realized he'd stopped just outside the door until Katsuki roughly shoulder-checked him, knocking him over the threshold. 

"Stay out of my way, Deku." 

Izuku instinctively tensed, wondering if Katsuki had finally had enough of his new attitude and he was actually going to die before classes even started, but Katsuki just walked away, not even sparing Izuku a backward glance as he headed toward the hero course. He supposed that even Katsuki wasn't over confident enough to attack him in the halls of the best hero school in Japan, where a pro hero could walk around the corner at any minute. Still, Izuku would have to start leaving earlier if he wanted to avoid being jumped outside the gates. 

As soon as Katsuki was finally out of sight, Izuku let out a breath of relief and walked in the opposite direction, relying on the map he'd memorized to find his way to class 1-F. The school was a little like a maze and Izuku wondered how much of that was intentional. It must make it more difficult for villains to find their way around if they ever got inside, or maybe Nedzu had just remodeled the school this way to get some petty revenge on humans and let them know what running a maze felt like. Honestly, it was probably both. Eventually, Izuku found the correct hallway and was met with an armful of Mei as soon as he turned the corner. 

"Why are our teacher's so cruel, Izu-kun?!" Mei sobbed into his shoulder.

Izuku's mind started racing. Were the teachers here going to be like the ones at Aldera? He'd just assumed that they'd be kinder because they were pro-heroes and were supposed to save people, but what if they were just as bad? No, they'd be worse because they had more training. 

Before his brain could even fully process those thoughts, Mei started speaking again, "They locked the lab and won't let us in until the teacher gets here! Why, Izu-kun! I need to make my babies!"

Izuku practically melted in relief. Their teachers weren't actually cruel. It was just Mei being Mei. Not that her outrage didn't make sense! It just wasn't as objectively bad as what Izuku had been thinking! The lab being locked might be an inconvenience, but it wouldn't feel like the end of the world to anyone else besides her. 

"Mei, it's the first day." Izuku reminded her gently, "And don't pretend that you wouldn't just blow something up if you were allowed in right now."

"It's part of my process, Izu-kun!" Mei insisted. "You can't have success without a little failure!"

"Maybe so," Izuku said patiently, "but it still makes sense for them to want to supervise us until they know we can handle ourselves."

She pouted at that, but relented and pulled him by the wrist to sit on the hallway floor next to a few other kids who must be their future classmates. They'd been staring, something Izuku was sure he'd get more used to the longer he hung out with Mei, but they quickly looked away when they noticed him glancing their way. 

Mei pulled out a sketchbook and started sketching out diagrams for her latest invention while Izuku immediately took advantage of the time to analyze their classmates' quirks, or at least those that were obvious from a glance, which surprisingly wasn't that many. There were only two students with obvious mutations and the rest looked normal, but Izuku supposed that less obvious mutations, like the crosshairs in Mei's eyes, might not be easy to see unless he actually had a conversation with them and had an opportunity to get up close and personal. Of the two with mutation quirks, one had a mutation similar to Gang Orca but with head of a great white shark rather than a killer whale, and the other had large pointed ears and a bald head, though Izuku didn't know if the baldness was quirk related or a stylistic choice. Wait a second, he didn't have eyebrows either, which meant that it was most likely due to his quirk. 

"Izu-kun, you're muttering again." Mei said distractedly. 

Izuku jolted and realized that the kid with the pointed ears was blushing and the rest of the class was looking at him nervously. 

"Oh…" Izuku smiled awkwardly at the kid, "S-sorry. I'm, um, trying to be more aware of when I'm doing that. But I would be interested, if you want to tell me!"

The kid looked like he really didn't, but also didn't know how to say no, "Um...I just have alopecia. I don't think it's linked to my quirk, but it might be, since a couple other people in my family have it too, and we all have similar quirks..."

He trailed off and as much as Izuku wanted to ask what his quirk was, he didn't want their classmates to think he was creepy. Actually, it was probably too late for that, since the rest of the students in the hallway already seemed to be avoiding him and Mei. Still, the kid probably didn't feel comfortable telling Izuku his quirk, so he shouldn't press the issue. It would most likely come up eventually anyway, since most classes shared their name and quirk on the first day, something that he wasn't looking forward to at all. At least he wouldn't lose any friends when it came out that he was quirkless.

"Izu-kun," Mei asked suddenly, "did you see that Kamui Wood's fight yesterday?"

Izuku nodded eagerly, grateful for the distraction "It was against that tortoise villain, right?"

"Yep!" Mei confirmed. "So, what did you think?"

He thought for a moment, "Well, it wasn't a good matchup, at least not with how the two currently fight. Kamui's strengths are speed and capture, so Shell-Shock's natural slowness put him at a huge disadvantage. It could have gone a lot differently though. His shell is hard enough that physical attacks are useless against it, not that that would have helped against Kamui's lacquered chain prison, but if he had thought to use his shell as a bludgeoning weapon, he probably could have broken out of even that trap fairly easily One of Kamui's major weaknesses is how soft his wood is, since it has to grow so fast."

"Hmm," Mei grinned and wrote something down, "what do you think of turtle-shell armor?"

Izuku grimaced and shook his head, "Too heavy. There's a reason why tortoises are so slow….Turtles, however, can move pretty quickly in water, so the idea might be more practical for a water-combat hero like Selkie."

"And if there are air chambers to help with buoyancy, the armor won't sink even if it's heavy!" Mei brainstormed happily. She scribbled out some of the things she'd already written down and turned to a new page of her sketchbook. . 

They spent the rest of their wait discussing various hero fights Izuku had seen that week and discussing how to mimic the strengths or cover their weaknesses of both the heroes and villains. Izuku was vaguely aware of their classmates discretely edging away from them, but he coudln't bring himself to care. Katsuki and their old classmates had already made it wonderfully clear how creepy his notebooks were, but Izuku was at UA to become the best analyst he could be, so he wasn't about to let some judgemental classmates hold him back. He was honestly just lucky that Mei had sat next to him at the exams. He probably still would have met her, since they were in the same class and everything, but he would have been about a thousand times more nervous. 

The bell rang right as Powerloader rounded the corner. Mei immediately shoved her sketchbook into Izuku's hands and jumped to her feet, running up to their new homeroom teacher so quickly that she almost ran into him, "Are you gonna open the lab now? Can we get straight to work? When can I start making my babies?"

Powerloader took a step back in shock, but then sighed in resignation, making Izuku giggle softly. He must have gotten a taste of Mei's antics during the invention practical, which must have been a total nightmare because he knew for a fact that Mei had caused at least one explosion during the test. Poor guy. 

"Hatsume, please calm down." Powerloader pleaded. "And yes, we'll be going in the room in a few minutes, but I have some things to explain first."

Mei looked like she was about to argue, so Izuku stood up and tugged on her arm, "Come on, just be patient a little longer, ok Mei-chan?"

Mei pouted and plopped down on the floor again, "Ok, but if he takes too long, I'm picking the lock, ok?"

Powerloader already looked done, "It's an electronic lock. You can't get in without a passcode."

"I'll just have Izu-kun hack it then." 

"It'll take longer to hack the keypad than to listen to Powerloader." Izuku turned to their teacher. "I'm sorry about her, she's just been really looking forward to this."

"It's fine." Powerloader sighed. "Ok, so for the rest of you, thanks for your patience. You all know me from the entrance exam, but I'll go ahead and introduce myself again anyway. I'm Powerloader, your homeroom teacher, and I am also the head of the support department here at UA. Yes, this includes all three emphases, though design and analysis each have a teacher that has responsibility for those students specifically."

"Who are they?" A girl with brown curly hair asked.

"Midnight's in charge of the design track." Izuku said. He remembered that much from their brief conversation as they were taking him to Nedzu's office. "As for analysis, I'm not quite sure, but I'm pretty sure it's Nedzu himself, right?"

"I feel sorry for whoever's in the analysis track." The kid with the shark head shivered. "I've heard Nedzu's a total monster."

Izuku frowned. He hadn't really talked to Nedzu that much, since he'd been more focused on trying to hack UA, but from their brief interaction, he hadn't seemed like a monster at all. If anything, he was just looking for some entertainment, since being so intelligent meant he got bored more quickly. He had heard that Nedzu could be a little scary, but so far, Izuku didn't see any reason to be afraid of him. 

"Can everyone just shut up so we can get this over with and get into the lab?" Mei complained loudly.

Powerloader cleared his throat, "Um, yes, of course. I'm sure you remember that we asked each of you what tools and materials you wanted, correct? Well, we've included those items in your personalized workstations. When you enter the lab, find the table with the tools you ordered. There's also a nameplate on each desk to make it easier and prevent confusion. We have to go to the opening ceremony in twenty minutes, but that time is yours to get familiar with the space and set up your station the way you like it. You've all already passed the lab safety test, but please be aware that if you are caught engaging in unsafe lab procedures, you will receive detention and a ban from the lab until you have demonstrated that you are willing to follow the rules. 

Powerloader looked at Mei as he said that last part and Izuku had to hold back a laugh. Mei would never do anything to jeopardize her lab access. She would, however, bend the rules as far as they could go and use every loophole to her advantage and Izuku would probably get dragged into helping her. So maybe the entrance exam hadn't been quite long enough for Powerloader to get to know her particular brand of idiosyncrasies after all. Oh well, he'd figure her out eventually. 

Powerloader entered the access code and Mei rushed past him the second the door was open while Izuku followed with the rest of the class at a more sedate pace. The lab was large, with about ten large workbenches that acted as desks. Support classes tended to be a little smaller than the average class because of the space and supervision needed, but Izuku didn't mind having fewer classmates. It just meant that there were fewer people to make fun of him. 

Mei was already elbows deep in her new tools, practically drooling as she pulled them from their boxes and started testing them out. Izuku simply chuckled and left her to it, since she probably wouldn't hear him if he started talking to her now anyway, and started looking for his own workspace. He had the feeling that most of his classmates were finding their tables primarily based on the unique tools they'd requested, but Izuku hadn't really known what to ask for. He was an analyst, not an inventor, so all he really needed was a computer with internet access and maybe some notebooks. He'd said as much in the request forms, but made sure to tell them that he already had his laptop and that he was more than used to buying his own notebooks, so they didn't have to go out of their way for him. 

Which meant that Izuku was looking for a mostly empty workbench. He walked around the room, watching as some of his classmates started finding their assigned areas, but every single one of the tables he could see was cluttered with tools and boxes. Maybe they'd just had too much stuff and had put some boxes on his table to keep them off the floor? That'd make sense. It wasn't as though Izuku needed a lot of space to do his thing anyway, since he was used to doing it running down the street while chasing hero fights. He was just glad to be useful, even if that usefulness was just lending some much-needed table space. 

So that meant that he'd have to rely on the little nameplates. He didn't want to bother anyone, so he went over to Mei's table so he knew what the nameplates looked like, since she wouldn't notice him and if she did, she wouldn't care. They were actually really nice, not that he expected anything less than the best from UA, but they each looked like engraved brass and had been screwed onto the table so they wouldn't fall off even if there were a strong breeze or, in Mei's case, an explosion. That was probably smart. 

Izuku walked around the room again, checking the nameplates on each of the tables that didn't have someone there already, only to come up empty. Powerloader had said Izuku was in class 1-F, hadn't he? Had they changed his assignment at the last minute? What if they'd sent him an email and Izuku had missed it? What if they had just decided that he didn't need a desk? What if they'd decided to not let him into UA after all?

Izuku shook his head and forced himself to take a deep breath. If they had decided to rescind his acceptance, the student ID they'd sent him wouldn't have let him pass the gate this morning. So he was still a student of UA and didn't have to worry about that, but he still had to find his desk. Maybe he should ask Powerloader? But he didn't want to bother him and what if he realized how stupid Izuku was when he realized he couldn't even find his own desk and decided to expel him on the spot? It wouldn't hurt to do one more walk around the room and look at all the nametags again, right? Maybe he'd just missed something, maybe….

"Who the fuck is Izuku Midoirya and why does he need a whole-ass room?" 

Izuku whirled around to look at the girl with brown curls, which now that he was thinking about it looked a lot like wire, could that be her quirk? No, he couldn't get distracted by quirks right now! Anyway, she was the one who'd called out and gotten his attention. Actually, she'd gotten the attention of the whole class. Even Mei was looking over at her...wait, did she say room?

Izuku practically ran over to where the girl was gesturing to a door that was marked with the same nameplate as each of the desks, and sure enough, that was his name engraved on the metal. Izuku pushed past the girl, realizing too late that that was probably really rude, and rushed into the room, his room. The lights were off, but the room was illuminated by at least five monitors that Izuku could see, one of which was a giant flatscreen that was mounted to the wall above the desk. There was a giant bookshelf against one of the sidewalls that was filled with notebooks and Izuku's fingers twitched as he thought about filling all of them. 

He heard a whistle behind him, but couldn't pull his eyes away from the set up as Mei came up to stand beside him, "Wow, Hacker-kun, UA doesn't do anything halfway, do they?"

"Please tell me I'm not dreaming, Mei-chan." Izuku said breathlessly. "I didn't even request any of this!"

"Yeah, sorry about that, Nedzu went a little overboard." 

Izuku turned to see Powerloader leaning against the doorframe as the other students either crowded around him or looked in the windows that Izuku hadn't noticed that looked into the rest of the lab. Powerloader was smiling slightly, though it could have been in embarrassment or amusement at Izuku's reaction. 

"Everyone, this is Izuku Midoriya, the only first year in the analysis track and Nedzu's personal student." Powerloader introduced. "It's been so long since Nedzu has had an analysis student that he got a little too excited and insisted on designing your workspace himself. This used to be a testing room, there are a few others on either side of you, but this way you won't be distracted by the noise of the lab or worried about lab accidents damaging your computers." 

Powerloader shot a pointed look at Mei, who ignored him in favor of grabbing Izuku's arm and jumping up and down, "This is awesome, Izu-kun! Just imagine everything you'll be able to do with all these hacking babies!"

Izuku nodded, then remembered his manners and bowed to Powerloader, "Thank you! I'll do my best to put it to good use!"

Powerloader nodded and smiled as he left. Mei gave his arm a reassuring squeeze before running back out of the room to her own workspace and Izuku noted with relief that he had a clear view of her desk from his windows. He didn't know why that was so reassuring, but it was probably because she was his only friend and he didn't want to feel alone again. The other students each looked at Izuku curiously before they too turned back to their own workspaces and he hoped that they wouldn't find him quite as creepy as they had before, now that they had a wall separating them and knew that he was supposed to be analyzing everything. 

Izuku reverently sat down at the desk and started to familiarize himself with the computers. He had a feeling this was going to be a good year.

Notes:

You got a longer chapter this week to make up for the shorter one last time! Actually, it just didn't feel right to try to cut this one into two, so...whatever, just ignore that.

I try to limit the use of OCs in my fanfiction, but sometimes they are necessary, like in this story since canon doesn't tell us anything about the other support students. The three that were introduced here are actually inspired by background characters from the sports festival arc, though, so there's that. I'll probably draw them eventually and give you a visual when I get around to giving you their names.