Chapter 5

No one had ever bothered to tell Toshinori that teaching was going to be this… complicated.

From the receiving end, it all seemed so simple. He went in with an empty head, and his teachers filled it. He got things wrong, and they set him rught.

But being a teacher, as it turns out, is far more complicated than being a pro hero.

The Heroes Vs. Villains exercise is, in his humble opinion, a relative success. He's already gotten a handle on his students' various quirks from watching Aizawa's class the previous day, but now he has a better feel for them as potential combatants. There's a world of difference, after all, between seeing them use their quirks to raise their athletic scores, and seeing them use their quirks in a conflict.

In spite of the overall success of his first class, he spends most of the day pushing aside the little twist of unease in his gut. The first match bothers him, and continues to do so throughout the day. Young Iida and Uraraka seem to be all right, and their performance was exemplary. But as for the other two…

Midoriya spends the rest of class in the nurse's office, and Toshinori catches it from Recovery Girl when he ducks in to check on his student and hide after his time runs out.

"Why did you let them go so far?" she scolds him. "It's the second day of school, and this is the third time he's been in here!"

"My apologies-"

"It's not me you should be apologizing to!" Recovery Girl's eyes nearly squinch shut, she's glaring at him so hard. "What on earth were you thinking?"

"I..." Toshinori's voice trails off, and he turns his head to look at Midoriya. His right arm is a mess, limp and slightly misshapen, dark with bruises where bandages don't cover it. One For All is a miracle of a quirk, but it abuses any wielder who isn't ready for it. For Toshinori, it puts a strain on his wasted form that leaves him retching blood. For Midoriya, one flick breaks his bones.

And yes, he had an inkling that it would end this way, when he was observing. But after how the match had started, Toshinori hadn't the heart to force the boy to end it on such a note.

"I was thinking I'd made a bit of an error," Toshinori says at length.

"Oh, an error," Recovery Girl says acidly. "And when did that occur to you? Before or after he finished things by shattering every bone in his right arm?"

"Shortly after the match started," Toshinori replies. Recovery Girl blinks, and for a moment her anger gives way to surprise.

"Oh?"

"It's possible that the first mistake I made was assigning those particular teams to oppose each other," he explains. "The selection was random and I didn't know – I'd assumed they were friends, after…" He shakes his head. "Midoriya certainly never said anything."

"All-Might," Recovery Girl says with forced patience. "I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about."

"It's… difficult to explain."

The match started not with a punch, but a grab. Bakugou ambushed them with an explosion, and the second Midoriya was within range , reached out and closed his hand around Midoriya's upper arm.

Toshinori expected to see it come to blows. He expected Midoriya to hit back, or worse, for Bakugou to activate his quirk while still holding him. The boy was a bit of a hothead, after all.

But the moment Bakugou's hand was on him, Midoriya stopped moving.

That wasn't right – Bakugou was strong, certainly, but he was only holding one part of him. Midoriya wasn't trapped, not by a long shot.

Toshinori searched the surveillance cameras, hunting for a better angle than the back of his successor's head, but there was none. Damn it all, if only he could see the boy's face!

"Thought so." Bakugou's voice was smug when Toshinori heard it over the students' communicators. "What's the matter, Deku? I thought you had a quirk now. You still gonna freeze up like a corpse?"

Uraraka's voice rang out, high and worried. "Deku! Deku, what's the matter?" Her tone turned accusing. "What did you do to him?"

"Nothing. Don't need to do anything to him. Too bad you got saddled with him as a partner – what, you didn't know he folds like a wet fucking towel every time somebody grabs him?"

And that's not true, Toshinori thought. He'd taken the boy by the shoulder multiple times. He'd seen the other students do it – he even saw Aizawa trap him just the day before. But never before has he seen young Midoriya simply stop moving.

" Useless Deku's a weak nerd," Bakugou added . "Always has been ."

Uraraka save d the day then, by losing her temper and shouting.

"You leave him alone, you big bully!"

Midoriya jolted as if jerked awake, twisting out of Bakugou's grip. "Not useless-" He leaped back in a retreat, yelling at Uraraka to run. Bakugou lunged again, poised to throw a punch–

This time, Midoriya was ready. It was all Toshinori could do to keep from cheering when he threw Bakugou over his shoulder – mustn't play favorites, must remain impartial. And then Uraraka was gone and Izuku was off and running again.

"You've been lying your ass off this entire time, haven't you?" Bakugou shouted after him hoarsely. "All this time you've had a quirk, and you've been feeding everyone bullshit! Get back here, Deku!"

Over the frequency, Toshinori could have sworn he heard a strangled sob.

"I certainly didn't intend to, but I shouldn't have set them against each other so soon," Toshinori says at length. "I don't know details, but they seem to have a bit of a history. I think young Midoriya had to, ah, resolve some things." His brow furrows. "Exorcising old ghosts, I suppose." On the cot, Midoriya mutters and stirs, but does not awaken.

"Well, that's all well and good." Recovery Girl harrumphs a little. "But if he's to be your successor, All-Might, then you mustn't indulge him when he puts life and limb on the line so early in his development."

"…Well he did win," Toshinori points out.

"Not without destroying half a building and every bone in his arm!" she snaps. "All-Might, you should know better than to let a boy so young into such a dangerous practice fight when he's emotionally vulnerable!"

"If I'd known-"

"You didn't. But it's no excuse not to exercise good judgment." Her glare softens, but only slightly. "You're a teacher now, All-Might. And in that respect you're as much a raw beginner as he is. You have a responsibility to children, not just yourself or some nebulous ideal of peace. You won't get this done by cracking heads and following your heart – it's time you learned to use some sense, dear."

And so, Toshinori gives it a try. His emotions, his impulses, and his gut feelings are pushing him to side with his successor, to eye young Bakugou with distrust and suspicion and get to the bottom of things through Midoriya's side of the story and his side only. But his sense reminds him of the frozen, helpless look on young Bakugou's face after the match ended. His common sense, quiet and meek but irritatingly right, tells him that Bakugou's swollen pride does not call for disdain, but correction. He is a boy like any other; he needs to be helped in his shortcomings, not simply punished for them.

He catches up to the boy as Bakugou trudges down the school's front steps, accidentally scaring the life out of him if the boy's yell is any indication. Whoops, better back it up, mustn't scare him off before he's had the chance to say anything.

"Bakugou!" he begins. "I'll tell you this once! Self-confidence is indeed a vital thing, and you're not mistaken in thinking you have talent befitting a pro! But from here on out-"

Bakugou surprises him by rounding on him and yelling back. "Well FAT LOT OF GOOD THAT DID ME, RIGHT?"

Toshinori wastes a moment tripping over his train of thought. "Er."

"Oh, wonderful." Sarcasm drips from Bakugou's voice. "I have talent. How much talent do I have if Deku read me like a goddamn book and made me look like an idiot in front of the entire class?"

Who on earth is Deku, is the first thought that comes to mind, before he remembers Bakugou shouting it earlier, and the kanji that spell his successor's given name and… oh… well that's not very nice. "Come now, does it bother you so much?" he asks. "It shouldn't, you know. It's your second day, and you have much to learn-"

"You don't know him!" Bakugou snaps, teeth bared in a grimace. It looks like anger, but that's only a mask, and it's a rapidly fraying one. The boy has tasted defeat, and it frightens him. "I've known him my entire fucking life, and he's a weakling! He's always been a weakling! He's never had a quirk, and now suddenly he's-" His words trail off into noises of incoherent frustration.

Understanding dawns then, and he places his hands on his hips. "And now suddenly," Toshinori finishes for him. "He's beaten you at something."

Bakugou's eyes flash.

"Like it or not," Toshinori says. "He's beaten you. You lost today, and unless I miss my guess, you will lose quite a lot by the time you graduate."

"He must have cheated," Bakugou hissed. "He cheated, or he's been tricking me this whole time-"

"And if he has, what difference would it make?" Toshinori asks. "You saw the rest of the matches, same as I did. What do you think of your new classmates, my boy?"

His student doesn't answer aloud, but he draws his shoulders up and clenches his fists until his quirk pops like a handful of bang snaps. Toshinori can almost hear his jaw creak. After a moment, Bakugou's answer comes out, muffled and tight and addressed toward the ground. "Can't beat them."

"That's because, young Bakugou, you are starting from the bottom," Toshinori informs him. "Same as the rest of them. Your pride will get you nowhere. I don't know what anyone else has been telling you, but this is Yuuei, the alma mater of half the top heroes in the country. You aren't special here."

That gets a rise out of him. "Well so what!" Bakugou bursts out, and his eyes snap up to Toshinori's face. "You haven't seen anything yet! He just beat me once! That's all there is to it! And that ponytail girl and the ice guy – fuck it, it doesn't matter! I don't care how strong anyone else is, 'cause I'm gonna get stronger!" His eyes narrow as they meets Toshinori's. "I'm gonna surpass them, and then I'm gonna surpass you, too. I'm gonna vault straight over you as the top hero."

Toshinori blinks. Heavens, he sure told me. For a moment he hunts for a proper reply, for some pearl of educational wisdom to bestow on the boy, but his mind is blank. In the end, all he can say is, "I look forward to it."

The conversation ends there, leaving Bakugou to return home and Toshinori to wander back to the teacher's lounge to power down and sift through his thoughts. He's already pushed himself past his limits in order to appear to Bakugou, and he can't risk being seen by his other students in his emaciated state, so he probably won't have time to catch Midoriya for a talk before the boy goes home for the day.

Did he do that right? He didn't mess that up, did he? It didn't feel like a screw-up.

Time will tell, he decides eventually. He's lit a fire under young Bakugou, that's for sure. He only hopes it was the right thing to do, and that he has the chance to do the same for Midoriya and all the rest of them.

"What's with you?" Aizawa asks as he passes him on the couch.

"Teaching is hard."

"Ha," Aizawa laughs, but it doesn't sound like a laugh. "Ha. Ha. Welcome to hell, Number One. You have no one to blame but yourself."

Nana is equal parts irritated and impressed.

As it happens, Midoriya doesn't quite manage to stay out of that nurse's office. In fact, Nana ends up waiting for him to emerge for the entire day before he finally shows his face in the hallway again.

"Nice take-down back there," she says, and is a little disappointed when he barely acknowledges her, rather than jumping like she hoped he would. His ever-present ghost girl sidekick must have warned him somehow. "Too bad about what you had to do to grab that win, holy shit, kid, be more careful. You keep throwing One For All around like that and you're gonna turn your skeleton into oatmeal before the year's out." If she speaks to him with a level of gusto, she can hardly be blamed. This is the first time in years that she's been able to be witty in front of a live audience.

To her immense disappointment, he continues to barely acknowledge that she's there as he keeps walking. Worried, Nana flits to catch up.

"Hey, come on now," she says, eyeing the sling that currently graces his arm. "I didn't mean anything by it. Hey. Kiddo. I didn't just imagine you seeing me yesterday, did I?"

"Oh, uh. No. Sorry." He has the grace to look sheepish, and as he heads back toward his classroom she notices that he's taking the long way back.

"You're gonna be late," she points out.

"I'm already late," he says, sounding too tired to force cheerfulness into his voice.

Ever persistent, Nana ducks around to get a better look at his face. It's blank as an empty chalkboard, but there's a tightness to his jaw that warrants investigation. "What's the matter? It was a tough fight back there, but you still technically won."

Glassy green eyes turn to her briefly before returning to the floor ahead of him. "I know."

"You're dawdling on the way back, too. How come?"

He mumbles something.

"Speak up, kiddo, my ears are way up here."

"I don't want to see Bakugou."

"The firecracker kid? Him?" Nana tries to nudge him playfully. "C'mon, Midoriya, you've already proven yourself. I mean sure, it was a rough start. You froze up – it happens. Doesn't mean you didn't flip him like an omelet, too."

"I don't want to talk to him."

This is getting her nowhere. Nana sighs heavily. "Suit yourself, I guess. You still up to talk to me, then?"

"Oh, right!" He blinks and perks up again, smiling at her, though she questions how genuine it is. "So... you had questions yesterday?"

"I have every question." Nana shakes her head. "First off, how is this even happening? How are we having this conversation? You're alive, I'm dead. But you see me. How?"

"How do you think?"

She gives him a sour look.

"Sorry, I shouldn't be flippant." Midoriya gingerly adjusts the sling. "Well, short answer is, it's my quirk."

The answer doesn't exactly surprise Nana, but it still twists at her gut – or whatever it is ghosts have. "…Which you said you didn't have, six months ago," Nana points out, her tone biting. Her pity and worry are fading fast.

Midoriya looks away, then at the floor again. "...Yeah."

Nana tries to keep her voice even, but she can't quite manage it. She's a little pissed, and why wouldn't she be? This kid put on his sad, wobbly eyes and fed Toshi some pile of poor-little-quirkless bullshit while keeping him in the dark about the truth. Who does he think he is? "You lied to him," she says sharply.

"Don't take it personally. I lie to everyone."

For a moment Nana's distracted from her line of questions. She's only observed him from afar, but what she's seen of Midoriya has proven him, at least in her eyes, to be… well… not quite sunshine incarnate, but pretty damn close. But right now, he sounds almost… she doesn't want to use the word "bitter". It's not cynical either. Acerbic, maybe? Dry? Tired?

...Those dark circles under his eyes certainly haven't budged.

Nana sighs, more irritated than angry. "I don't like that you lied to him," she says at length. "But I can sort of understand why, with a power like that." She looks at him again. "Still, I heard everything you said about how much it sucks being quirkless, and I believe you. So it seems to me like you're missing out on a lot of attention, not shouting a quirk like that from the rooftops." She pretends not to see him tense. "At the very least you'd probably get that bomber kid to shut up a little."

"No." It's forceful enough that it almost echoes in the hallway, and the poltergeist girl gives a low hiss. "I..." Midoriya shakes his head suddenly, as if clearing it. "It's not that I don't want to. I do want to. But I can't. It's not like anyone would believe me anyway."

"You can't know that-"

"Except I can." Midoriya's uninjured hand curls into a fist. "There're these shows, these stupid TV shows. With psychics, you know?"

"Oh," Nana says acidly. "Those."

"Right? I mean, some of it's real. The minor psychic stuff like mind-reading is real. Most of it's just people with weaker quirks and a lot of showmanship, and that stuff's fine, it's harmless. But then – then you have people who say they have a quirk like mine, and… well, they have audiences, but it's mostly just people laughing at them, or at the people who believe them." Midoriya stops and turns to her. "And I've watched them. All of them. Every episode, even the ones in other countries. My mom thinks I'm crazy for liking that junk, but I don't like it, I just… I keep thinking maybe…" A flicker of desperate sadness crosses his face and vanishes in the next instant. "But it's never for real. They use Ouija boards and seances and stuff like that, and they're either talking to thin air or the ghosts are laughing at them." He pauses, puddling up, and wipes at his eyes with his good hand. "A-and I know that if I try to tell anyone, that's what they'll remember. Just – liars on TV. So I can't tell anyone. Not even All-Might." He meets her eyes, and whatever disapproval still lingering in her vanishes in the face of how much he's absolutely breaking her heart. He looks impossibly young and small and alone. "I'm sorry I lied to him. It – it feels like cheating, having two quirks."

Nana tries to hold her stern look for a few more seconds, and finally sighs with a shake of her head. "Well… don't worry about having two," she says. "God knows you have a lot to worry about, but that's not worth losing sleep over. It's not cheating, and you're not the first."

She knows she's not imagining the note of relief in the way his shoulders slump. "It's pretty useless anyway," he says. "I mean, for a licensed hero. All I can do is just… see and feel things that can't affect anyone else. It's not like I can fight with it, or heal with it. So it's not too much of an advantage. I'm still doing this under my own power."

Nana smiles at him with a good old trademark superhero grin, and together they start walking again. "That's the spirit. Next question, who's your friend?"

Midoriya glances at the ghost girl. "Oh, her? This is Rei. I mean, I don't know what her real name is, she's never told me, so I just call her Rei and she seems fine with it." The girl beams, as if the nickname is a well-beloved present that she likes to show off. "I met her when I was seven. She hid in my closet and tried to scare me, so I shared my toys with her, and we've been friends ever since. I don't know if she has any unfinished business, but she seems like she's fine with just following me around for now." Rei nods vigorously, dark hair spilling over her face. "She can come out of TVs like Sadako."

"I… see."

"One time I was ignoring her so she came out of my 3DS."

"...Neat." Nana clears her throat awkwardly. "And, last question for now, but you asked me yesterday if I needed help with anything?"

Midoriya perks up again at that. "Yeah! Do you?"

"Nnnnot that I can think of, I was just wondering what you meant by that."

"It's that way for a lot of ghosts," Midoriya explains. "Sometimes the only reason why they stay is because they really, really need to do something that they didn't get to do before they died. Like, one last thing they need to tell someone, or they lost something, or there's a problem they know how to fix and they just need an extra set of hands. That's why I always ask whenever I meet a new ghost. Sometimes I can help. Or sometimes they just need someone to talk to who isn't another ghost."

Nana stares at him, momentarily speechless. "That's… an awful lot for such a young kid to be taking on."

"Yeah but I can do it." Midoriya shrugs. "Maybe I'm the only one who can do it. So I'm going to. And I meet a lot of interesting people, which is nice because I never really had any friends before I came to Yuuei. I mean, none that were alive, at least." He hesitates, frowning a little. "That's one of the reasons I want to be a hero. I help people who're already dead all the time. I'd like to stop someone from dying for a change."

Nana watches his face, and can't help but shake her head wonderingly. She laughs a little.

"What's so funny?"

"I was just thinking." Nana grins. "You're one weird-ass kid, but I think Toshi made a good choice with you." Realizing her slip, she looks away and mentally kicks herself. "Uh. I mean All-Might."

Nana keeps looking forward, but she feels the kid's eyes on her. He's a curious one, she realizes with a jolt. A curious kid and an All-Might fan, which is not a good combination for a kid who can see and hear her.

"Soooo, you know All-Might?" Midoriya asks.

Nana heaves a sigh. "Yes I do, but I think you already knew that, which makes that question a little redundant, don't you think?"

"Uh. Yeah."

"I'm gonna do something unfair," Nana continues, halting in the hallway to turn and face him. "But I need to ask you not to lob questions at me about this. There are – there are things that I don't think he's ready to talk about yet, and I'm a ghost, kid. I'm dead as a doornail and that means–" She has to pause a moment when the words stop coming. "That means I'm not in his story anymore. I've kept his secrets because it's been impossible for me to do otherwise, but now that it is possible, I'd still like to keep them. He'll tell you these things when he's ready, I hope, so don't squeeze me for information before then."

"That's… not unfair," Midoriya says. "And I won't. I promise. Um. But I will say, um, I know it must be kind of lonely, following him when he can't see you or hear you, so. If you ever, I don't know. Need someone to talk to? Even if it's just… the weather, or a joke you heard. I'll totally – it's just an offer. You don't have to. I just thought I'd say..." His voice trails off awkwardly.

Nana chuckles again, shaking her head. "Hell. That's one kind heart you've got, Midoriya. Don't you let anyone beat that out of you, got it?"

"Oh, uh, of course."

"Well, good talk. I'd better go. See you 'round, kid." Nana turns to leave.

"Wait, um, Ms. Shimura?"

She pauses. "Yes?"

"I did have one question, and um, you don't have to answer it if you don't want to." Midoriya shifts from foot to foot awkwardly. "But… you mentioned One For All, so you must at least know something about it. And I was just wondering if you knew about it before you died? And how much you know about it? Because if the answer's yes, and a lot, then maybe you could, I dunno, give me some tips?" He cradles his mangled arm. "So this doesn't keep happening."

She considers this for a moment. The teacher in her didn't always exist; Toshi put it there, and now Nana can feel it clamoring to get out. The urge to sweep this little guy under her wing and tell him absolutely everything she knows about One For All is strong. But…

"I really can't," she says reluctantly.

He gives her an utterly crestfallen look. "Can't or won't?"

"Shouldn't," she replies. "Like I said, there are… things I can't talk about, without mentioning things that I know Tosh – All-Might will tell you when he's ready. Or when you're ready." She gives him a rueful look. "I'm dead, kiddo. He's your teacher, not me."

"Well… if you're sure…" Midoriya's looking at her like he's a puppy that Nana's leaving in a soggy cardboard box on the side of the road. "Are you sure you couldn't just, I don't know, give me a hint?"

Nana closes her eyes and asks someone for patience. She shouldn't do this. She shouldn't usurp a position that isn't hers anymore – a position that she threw away like an idiot.

Still, though… puppy eyes were always a weakness of hers, and Midoriya's wielding them with lethal precision.. Maybe just a hint? A little nudge?

"Well…" she says at length. "I'm not sure if I can tell you about One For All, but I guess I could give you a nudge in the right direction. Hmm… Gran could help you." She smiles, inwardly congratulating herself. Gran could certainly help him. Midoriya might not enjoy how, but he didn't specify an easy way.

Best let the living handle this one.

"Gran?" Midoriya echoes.

"As in Torino. Old friend of All-Might's." Nana winks broadly at him. "He's as strong a pro as you could ever ask for, but he's a cagey old dog and hard to find, and he won't lift a finger unless he thinks it's worth it."

"Then how do I get him to help me?" Midoriya presses. "I've never even heard of anyone by that name."

"That's just how he operates. All you need to do is find a way to get his attention – I have a feeling he'll know what's up when he sees it." She taps her chin thoughtfully. "Sports Festival should do it, so you have some time to find your rhythm."

"I'm not sure..." Midoriya glances down at his mangled arm again. "It took me six months just to get strong enough to take One For All in the first place. The Sports Festival-"

"-isn't just about who packs the biggest punch," Nana interrupts, before she can stop herself. "Thank your lucky stars it isn't, kid, or else you'd have to sledgehammer yourself all over again just to stand a chance." He winces. "Hey. An idiot can fling punches around. And you, little Midoriya, are no idiot."

"That's debatable," Midoriya says dryly.

"Is it? I saw the slime monster. That was no lucky shot – you aimed for the eyes, didn't you. You knew exactly what you were doing."

"Yeah and a lot of good that did-"

"It did exactly what was needed, and exactly what you need now – it grabbed the right person's attention." On an impulse Nana reaches out to ruffle his hair, and is pleasantly surprised when she's able to do so. Her hand musses up his wild curls instead of passing through it like a mirage, and Nana can feel it. "And it kept you and your little friend alive long enough for help to come, so that's a plus."

"Mm." Midoriya frowns, looking thoughtful and not necessarily in the good way.

"Hey. Kiddo. Any of this getting through? You did ask." Nana tilts her head, regarding the latest vessel for the power that was once her own. He's little – even littler than Toshi was back then. He's shrimpy and weedy and looks like he hasn't had a proper sleep in a week. And yet, there's a spark to him that she can't deny. "You're new at this, I know. You're new at being this type of strong. Work on getting used to that, work on getting stronger, but don't forget about what you already had going for you." When he blinks up at her, Nana gives him a meaningful poke to the forehead. "Keep exercising that muscle, too. Got it?"

"I… think so," Midoriya says. "I guess I can figure it out."

"Good." Nana places her hands on her hips. "You're still a raw beginner, kiddo. Sometimes 'figure it out' is the best advice you're gonna get." She winks. "See you around."

She vanishes then, flitting off to find Toshi. Guilt nudges at the back of her mind; she'd only wanted to give him a hint, and she'd ended up spilling an entire pep talk on him instead.

Nana tells herself, firmly, that she can't do that anymore. She has to let Toshi be the teacher, especially since he has no way of knowing she's still around to help. But the kid asked her to her face, and she couldn't say no to that face.

But she has to say no. It wouldn't be fair, otherwise.