Dragon Blade

Plus (Ultra) One

Warnings for Bakugou's language.

It had made the news, and Izuku watched with wide eyes as the footage of the white-haired boy killing the massive creature that had attacked the U.A. Games played on the metro's TV screen again. The entire car was watching in silence, the unforgettable event from four days ago still a shock to most. Bakugo and Todoroki were still reeling from the incident, flabbergasted by both the rescue – which had been entirely necessary, despite all of Bakugo's fuming – and the instant kill of the gigantic creature.

One blink. That had been it, and then the massive thing had split in half, cut cleanly down the middle by the long blade the white-haired boy carried. He'd been injured though, and from what Bakugo said, it had happened when he'd tackled the two U.A. students out of the way. So not only had he instantly killed a beast thirty feet tall, but he'd also done that while injured. What sort of Quirk could enable someone to do that?

The ding of the metro doors opening broke off Izuku's hurried muttering, and he exited the train with the crowd of people, scurrying from the train station just ahead of the blonde ball of anger and confusion that was Bakugo following the U.A. Games. Several people called out to him as he passed, cheering and congratulating him absently on his success in the tournament, and he waved hesitantly back at them. The attention had been strange after that first day, and the second day...and the third as well...but he was starting to get the hang of it.

He pulled out his student ID as he walked through the gates of U.A. High School to defuse the alarm, then hurried up the steps through the crush of other students, his backpack knocking against his back. The TV screens inside the building also were playing the insane footage of the sword-wielding teen's intervention, and he glanced up to watch again as he rummaged through his locker, brow furrowing.

"Deku-kun! Hi!"

He whirled around with a startled yelp, books clenched against his chest. Uraraka was there, standing behind him with a pretty smile on her round face. Her brown bob bounced cheerfully, her pretty eyes blinking at him as she leaned up into his face. He couldn't help the sudden thudding of his heart, and his face steamed as he saw that wow, her eyelashes are so long, and does she have a few freckles on the bridge of her nose too-

"A-aah! M-morning, Uraraka-san!"

So close!

He breathed a sigh of relief when she backed up a pace and gave him one of those floaty smiles, but only because his heart had decided to stop humming in his ribcage and he could actually breathe again. They walked to class side by side, carefully maneuvering around the crowds of general studies and business students, then finally making their way up the less crowded floors of the school where their classroom was located. The door was open when they arrived, Iida already seated at his desk, poring over the chapter they were supposed to read the night before. Uraraka waved upon seeing the notoriously earnest teenager, bouncing over to him with a grin. Izuku followed, greeting Ashido, Todoroki, and Asui -Tsu-tsuyu-chan! – on the way past.

"Midoriya-kun, can you believe the complexity of the sentences we were assigned last night?" Iida wasn't holding back, already discussing the homework in full vigor, eyes still fixed on the textbook in his hands. "Three gerunds in sentence six alone, not to mention that the entire sentence was in past perfect tense."

Izuku blinked then took out his homework, finding sentence six further down the page. Then he looked at Iida's homework, puzzling over the difference.

"I thought it was in past continuous, Iida-kun," he said after a moment. "Aren't gerunds usually found with the continuous tense?"

Everything was quiet for a minute, and then half the class exploded with wails of 'nooooo' or 'I forgot about that!' Izuku went a bit pink in the face and held up his hands, frantically trying to reassure his classmates. Then Bakugo slammed the door open, looking surly as usual, and slouched over to his desk, where he put his feet up and leaned back to talk to Kirishima. And the happy chaos continued, until the door opened again.