Rejected Stones

The Capstone

This document beta'd by kylekatarn77

7. The Capstone

What is it we value? Innovation. Originality. Novelty. But most importantly...timeliness. I fear you may be too late, my confused, unfortunate, friend.

-Hoid, The Way of Kings

"Midoriya, Hatsume, stay after class," Mr. Maijima ordered. It was the end of the first day at UA, and Izuku felt exhausted. They'd gone through all their classes and learned what the expectations for the year was, as well as tinkered in the workshop for a bit, though not as long as Mei wanted.

"Can we stay after class and work on our babies?" Mei asked excitedly.

"Just have a seat," Mr. Maijima ordered. Izuku sat down and waited while everyone else filtered out of the room, while Mei practically vibrated in her chair, gazing longingly towards the workshop door at the side of the class.

Once the last of their classmates had left, Mr. Maijima sighed and shook his head. "Well, I can already tell you're both going to be a handful."

"Sorry, sir," Izuku said, looking down.

Mei just shrugged, apparently unconcerned.

"I came down hard on your classmates for mocking you. I'm not going to tolerate that sort of behavior in my classroom, not even a little. But, I also have higher expectations, for both of you."

Izuku looked up, and Mei frowned, settling down in her seat. "What do you mean? Are our babies not good enough for you?"

"No, far from it. Hell, your work is so good I'm probably going to have to make myself go harder on you. Half of me wants to just turn the two of you loose and see what you come up with."

Mei stood, a wide grin splitting her face. "You can count on us sir! We'll build something incredible! If you have any requests, just let us know and we'll make a super cute baby just for you!"

"Sit down, Hatsume. No, I'm not worried about your abilities in the workshop. No, what I'm worried about are your, shall we say, social skills."

Mei let out a loud groan. "I thought those wouldn't matter at UA!"

"Hatsume, social skills are going to be more important than you can imagine. They're going to be what get you contracts with pro heroes. They're what help your classmates trust you enough to help you on projects. And, they're what keeps your teacher from pulling his hair out and denying you access to the Development Studio."

That immediately got both Mei and Izuku's attention. Mr. Maijima sighed and walked around to sit on his desk. "Look, I get it. As I've said, I've dealt with a lot of odd ducks before. You're not the first kid from Mr. Onizuku's class, or from another program like that I've had to deal with. And, well, Izuku, you're not the first quirkless kid I've had in the program either. But you two have got to try a little harder to integrate into the class. You're already on the back foot since you got in through recommendations and they had to take the test. Plus, you are better than them. Some of them are going to resent that."

"But, I mean, w-w-well,we're all in the s-same program," Izuku stuttered. "We're not-"

"You are," Mr. Maijima stated quietly. "It's ok. People aren't created equal. Accepting that is the first step to finding your place in the world."

"Yes, we are very sorry and will do better," Mei agreed. "Now can we go build something?"

Sighing, Mr. Maijima shook his head. "I should really say no, what with the idiot stunt you two pulled at the commencement ceremony."