Heroics and Other Things

Chapter 3: The Benefits of Living Up To Your Gloss

"The support course huh," Shinsou said, looking up at the light filtering down through the leaves of their lunchtime tree.

Izuku nodded excitedly, his lunch laying untouched as he flipped through his Vol. 11 notebook. It was the one with the most recent observations and analysis of Eraserhead, and Izuku was eager to get feedback on it. Mic had cornered him after school yesterday, after Nighteye's visit, to ask if he had any more analysis notebooks he was willing to share, and Izuku had agreed to bring in more tomorrow. Notebooks seven through ten, as well as twelve, were stacked neatly beside him, waiting for the opportunity to be handed off.

"He really seems to think I could do it!" Izuku told him, eyes flicking between lines as he looked for errors or places the analysis could be fine-tuned in a hurry.

"Of course you could do it," Shinsou said, somewhat muffled with his mouth full, then swallowed. "That wasn't the question."

Izuku looked up, giving Shinsou a puzzled look. "What's the question then?"

"The question is whether or not that's what you want," Shinsou said seriously. "You'd be working with that maniac, and if you did this professionally don't think he's the only maniac you'd have to deal with. Your job would be telling heroes they're not good enough, and I'm not saying you don't have the courage for it, but it's something to consider."

Izuku considered this for a moment, letting his eyes fall back to his notebook. He'd managed to go a whole week and a half without crying in front of Shinsou, and he didn't want to break that streak now. Still, he felt tears prickling in his eyes, and he blinked rapidly to avoid having to wipe them away.

"I can't . . . be a hero," he said at last. "It's not in the stars for me. But I always wanted to be useful, to someone, in some way, and if this is a way I can do that I can't turn it down. I . . . I just don't want to be Deku anymore."

Shinsou was quiet for a moment, letting Izuku dash at his eyes with his sleeve without comment. When he spoke his voice was soft, and it made Izuku look up at the gentleness of it.

"I think you can do anything you put your mind to Mido," he said quietly. "If this is what you think will make you happy, then I'm all for it. You deserve that much."

"Thanks," Izuku said, his eyes feeling watery again as he looked at his best friend. "I-"

"Hey Gen Ed boys!" came a loud, feminine voice from somewhere behind Izuku.

He whirled around, to see a girl with salmon pink hair and wide, intense eyes, a pair of goggles perched atop her head. Instead of a uniform she wore a pair of baggy pants and a black tank top with a jacket tied around her waist, looking for all the world like she'd just come from a machine shop. She was carrying a lunch tray balanced on one hand and waving animatedly with the other as she approached the two of them, a grin threatening to split her face in half.

Izuku and Shinsou looked at each other, eyes wide and confused. Shinsou raised an eyebrow, darting his eyes to the newcomer and then back to Izuku. Izuku shook his head. He had no idea who she was.

"Uh, hi?" Izuku said as she reached the spot where the two of them sat in the grass and flopped down, apparently uncaring of the way it made her dishes rattle.

"Hiya!" said the girl, grabbing her bowl of rice and fixing her piercing gaze on Izuku. "I'm Mei Hatsume, from the support course. You're Midoriya, right?"

"Yes?" Izuku asked, then cleared his throat when it came out sounding like a question. "Uh, that's me."

"You're the one Sensei was talking about," Hatsume continued as she shoveled rice into her mouth. "You're going to transfer to the support course as an analyst!"