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Chapter 27: The Problem with Fame

The UA uniform is too recognisable. Midoriya knew Iida wouldn't be pleased when he discovered that Midoriya had been shoving his blazar in his backpack, and replacing it with his big, yellow hoodie, but he didn't have much of a choice. He was too recognisable. Once upon a time, Midoriya considered himself to be rather plain looking, especially in a world of Quirks. However, his bushy, green hair and the similarly coloured bird which nestled within it, were apparently more of an identifiable feature than he initially thought. Now, that hair was hidden underneath his hood, and Siren had come to appreciate the comfort of the hoodie pocket, as long as she wasn't squished.

Midoriya breathed a sigh of relief when he finally stumbled out of the crowded train carriage, pulling his hood down further over his face, weaving in and out of people's paths as he headed up the hill to UA.

His cheek itched. It was his only real injury, excluding a couple of cuts and bruises and of course, Quirk exhaustion, if that counted. They'd tried their best to heal it (without the use of Quirks, since no one strong enough, like Recovery Girl, was on hand), but for some reason, the crack-like shape persisted to mar the side of his face. They said the scar would fade, given time. Midoriya didn't mind it too much though. It was just off centre from the diamond shape that his freckles made, not quite reaching all of them. It was just another feature that would make him that little bit more recognisable, if it decided not to disappear, that was.

He glanced down at his phone, tapping off the music app that blasted the sounds through his new set of wireless headphones (he'd taken the last apart to see how they worked and used a lot of the parts to build the set he'd used in the Sports Festival. The other pair were specifically for his hero costume, which meant he now required a new set for leisure) and blocked out the rest of the world. His finger hovered above his social media app as he continued to trudge forwards.

It had been a few days since he was released from the hospital. Monday – and the incident with Stain had been back on last Wednesday. For the rest of the week, Midoriya had been shut up at home. Shinso had too, so they'd talked for a while over the phone, trying to kill the time. But both had purposely avoided the news for the entirety of their... lockdown – for lack of a better word.

Someone grabbed his shoulder. Midoriya almost fell over in surprise as a familiar someone pulled hood down and grabbed his headphones from his ears.

"I called for you at least three times," Jiro sighed. She glanced down at the headphones, now in her hands. "Oh, hey, you listen to Japanese stuff too?"

Midoriya turned off the music and took the headphones back sheepishly. She must have been able to hear the song, despite not wearing the headset herself, because of her Quirk. That, or the music was just loud enough to hear anyway. "Y-Yeah, of course," Midoriya stammered, folding up the headphones and shoving it into his bag, taking the blazar out after a second thought and quickly replacing it with his hoodie, after Siren had untangled herself, of course, and returned to her favourite position – on his head.

"And there's the other one," Jiro acknowledged.

Midoriya looked up to see Shinso running towards them, skidding to a halt as Midoriya slung his backpack over his shoulder again.

"Morning," he panted, "Where are the others?"

"I-I kind of ran out of the train station without looking for Uraraka," Midoriya admitted guiltily. "Hopefully she went ahead..."

"Understandable," Jiro nodded as the three of them began to walk the rest of the way to UA, "you don't want to be recognised, especially after the stunt you two pulled last Wednesday."

Shinso just grinned, "Knock, knock –"

Of course, Midoriya had sent his location to the Aviary group chat, so it wasn't just Todoroki and Shinso who were alerted – but Jiro and Uraraka too. Shinso saw this as an adequate excuse to give them a blow-by-blow account of what happened, in his point of view, at least. Technically, he didn't give them much more information than what was released to the public. All they knew more was that Todoroki was there too, what songs Midoriya used, and how Stain was ultimately taken down.