Notes: Sorry that this chapter took so long to get out, I've been dealing with a bit of drama with one of my classes (the second level of organic chemistry). It's all settled now and I'm home on break so I should be able to write ahead a few chapters to get them out on my normal Wednesday/Saturday schedule going forward.
Also, as a preamble: I would like it to be known that guns will be present in this story going forward in case that is an issue for anyone. Personally, I think that (at least America) has a lot of work to do when it comes to gun control, so know that the fascination and such associated with firearms in this fic is not indicative of my own political or moral views.
Warnings: Guns (in a controlled environment, no injuries occur), PTSD symptoms (specifically paranoia and smaller scale flashbacks)
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Because Aizawa was still recovering from his injuries, he had spent Friday morning observing Izuku as he went through the motions of completing the drills he had been taught. He practiced most with the knife. It had been the one he had used at the USJ, and Aizawa had refused to take it back. Izuku didn't know if it was because it had been stained with his blood or that it had kept them all alive that his teacher preferred it in his hands, but he wasn't going to complain.
After all that had happened, he was paranoid. That villain who had attempted to kill Tsuyu and Aizawa had escaped, and Izuku felt as though he could see him around every corner. It made him uneasy, and having the knife tucked in his bag, even sheathed and buried under his bento of leftover katsudon, made him a little less fidgety. That probably wasn't a good thing.
Friday was also the day he met Shinsou. He hadn't been able to stomach the cafeteria; there were too many people in too uncontrolled an environment for Izuku to rest and eat without keeping his head on a swivel. On the roof, he could keep his back to a wall and watch the door. No one really ate up here because of the wind anyway. He knew because Aizawa had suggested it when he asked for the man's advice that morning during training.
Seeing Shinsou come out of the door was, at first, disappointing and set his nerves alight with the possibility of this stranger being a potential villain. Then his brain caught up, and he realized that it was just another UA student who looked just as disappointed to find another person on the roof, so he called for him to join. It was easier to sit there and plaster on a smile and try to make a new friend than to wallow in his own thoughts.
He ended up inviting Shinsou to the trial for the capture grenades for a few reasons. He knew that Aizawa wouldn't be willing to consider a new student until he was well, but Midnight had already agreed to attend testing, which meant he could soft-launch the idea of another hero potential to his team of mentors. In the end, though, Shinsou had kept largely to himself and only really spoke to Izuku and Uraraka. It was a step in the right direction either way.
He exchanged numbers with Shinsou, which was a novel experience. The boy was now one of seven people in Izuku's contacts; the others were his mom, Aunty Mitsuki, Aizawa, All Might, Midnight, and Hatsume. He used to have Katsuki's number, too, but he had been blocked long enough to get the hint and finally delete it.
Hatsume demanded a group chat right away so that she could get to know his "only other friend," which stung just a bit until Akaeda's Izuku senses started tingling, and he promptly offered his own number and forced everyone else to do so as well so that they could have a class group chat, which for some reason also included Shinsou.
The weekend passed with a flurry of messages in both group chats and private texts from Shinsou expressing his exasperation at having been added to them against his volition. He had tried leaving a few times only to get added back within three minutes of the notification going out. Apparently, he had also tried blocking 1-H contacts but then got his phone hacked so that they could all unblock themselves, which was a lesson Izuku took to heart about what happens when you mess with kids who have a combined two decades of computer programming under their belts.
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It Takes a Village to Raise a Hero
फैनफिक्शनWhen All Might offers Izuku the privilege and burden of taking on the quirk One for All, he says no. Izuku has already decided that he is going to become the first quirkless hero and prove everyone wrong no matter what. More than one hero steps in t...
