Live and Let die - Veronero - 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia (2024)

Chapter 1: When you were young and your heart was an open book

Summary:

What was Gojo Satoru without his eyes? Without his six eyes? What was a god without all his might?

Gojo Satoru had died. And with him, his power.

Chapter Text

Gojo Satoru always knew that he was different.

He was a weird child. No one ever told him, but he could see it in their eyes, their hushed whispers, his father’s frown and his mother’s strained smile.

As a child, he never cried. Not when he was hungry, not when he was tired. He just stared at his parents with his unsettling sky- blue eyes.

He didn’t laugh either. No matter how much people talked to him, he didn’t laugh. No toy could bring joy out of him, no gift or kind gesture.

Gojo Satoru was a strange child.

When Satoru closed his eyes for the final time, he never expected to wake up. His death was the only thing he was sure of in this strange new world.

He closed his eyes, the great Gojo Satoru, the god amongst mortals, the strongest, and his heart stopped beating.

He was dead. That was it.

So why was he still here? Why could he hear his beating heart, his breath, could feel the world around him? Why could he still see?

Satoru never believed in rebirth. If you died, that was it. No second chance. No reawakening.

When he opened his eyes again, he was quiet. So quiet that his parents believed him to be stillborn.

Satoru didn’t laugh, or cry, or do anything really except to stare at everyone with his unsettling bright eyes.

And the first thing Satoru noticed, after being reborn, after waking up again against all odds, was-

He couldn’t see.

The endless vision of his six eyes had simply… vanished.

Where he could see every blink, every heartbeat, every swirl of cursed energy, every minuscule movement, now there was a glaring emptiness.

The colors seemed muted. The shapes blurry and unfocused. Satoru always asked himself what it would be like to see like a normal human would. Without seeing everything, at every time. Without covering his eyes and still see, see so much.

When he closed his eyes now, there was nothing. Emptiness. A black void where infinity had been.

What was Gojo Satoru without his eyes? Without his six eyes? What was a god without all his might?

Gojo Satoru had died. And with him, his power.

Gojo Chieko had thought herself to have the perfect life. She was born into a numerous, but average Clan, not powerful enough to draw attention but also not unsignificant enough to be overlooked. She had an average, eye-based quirk that was not too flashy to stand out too much and not too weak to be scoffed over.

Her parents were caring, not overbearing and not indifferent. Her school grades were average, but still good enough to earn praise. Her friends were average as well, barely more than acquaintances and enough not to draw attention.

Even her looks were average. Long black hair and brown eyes, nothing extraordinary in a world of quirks.

Chieko had an average desk job at a local minor hero agency where she met her equally average husband. After a few years, they got married and after another year they decided to have a child. They were just another normal family with a perfect normal life.

When she became pregnant, Chieko was overjoyed. Who wouldn’t be?

At the time of her child’s birth, everything was prepared, the name picked carefully and the date of birth calculated perfectly.

But.

Everything did not go perfectly.

Her son, Satoru, was born two months too early on a cold winter night. The birth was painful, and when her son did not cry, she feared the worst might have happened.

But her son was alive, and sane, despite his early birth.

He looked healthy, but there was something… different about him. His hair and eyelashes were unnaturally white, and his eyes.

His unsettling blue eyes.

The first time Chieko looked into her child’s (too all-knowing, too wise) eyes she felt scared.

A child’s eyes should not look like that. So old. So knowing.

Chieko felt like a prey before a predator.

(She never looked into his eyes again.)

From there on, Chieko’s perfect life spiraled downwards.

Satoru was an (unnatural) unusual child. He never cried or laughed (he just looked at her with those eyes) but Chieko was sure he would be just fine.

After all, the perfect, normal Chieko would never give birth to such an unnatural child.

Satoru knew his mother didn’t like him. (How similar to his past life.)

She wanted him to be the perfect child. To not fall out of line. To live up to her expectations.

And in his first life, that’s what he did. He played the act of the perfect son. Of the child gifted with the six eyes. Of the god in the making. And gods did not make mistakes.

And now, looking into those same eyes, filed with stress, telling him to just do what you’re supposed to do you wouldn’t want to disappoint the clan wouldn’t you now, you wouldn’t want to disappoint me-

Satoru- couldn’t. Not again. Not without his eyes. (Not when all it brought him was pain.)

He didn’t have the energy to fake a laugh, or cry, not when the world seemed so dull.

He knew he must seem weird. He must seem unnatural.

Except in this world, His eyes were seen as weird, as an abomination, while in the jujutsu world every Gojo knew exactly what those eyes meant. How powerful they were.

(A gift from the gods.)

How ironic, that the same eyes his old mother praised and fussed over were the ones that his new mother couldn’t even look into.

His father’s name was Tadashi. That’s what he found out a year after being born.

He had never seen him much. And if he came, he always looked at Satoru with… disgust.

As if he couldn’t believe that his son was something so different.

When he came over, his mother’s smile looked more strained than usual. She desperately tried to start a conversation, without success. Tadashi was cold, and distant.

His visits became lesser and lesser over the months. Some time, Satoru didn’t see him for half a year. Then, it seemed like he stopped coming at all.

Satoru heard his mother sobbing on the phone sometimes, saying how it was all Satoru’s fault, that his weirdness made Tadashi go away, that he is unnatural, unnormal, unwanted.

Satoru’s first word was not ‘mom’ or ‘dad’ like most of the other kids.

No, his first word was ‘fly’.

He was in the park, with (his mother) Chieko. It was one of the rare days where she treated him more human and less like a thing.

Satoru was held on her hip, facing the sky, while Chieko showed him the flying birds.

That is a bird. And birds fly.

“fly!”, Satoru had said. And again, and again, until he could pronounce it correctly. Chieko had laughed.

That was one of the fondest memories Satoru had with her.

Satoru’s Quirk came in when he was four.

After four years, six months and fourteen days in this new world the boy had grasped this world’s system pretty easily. It seemed a lot like his old world- but without the underlying part of the jujutsu world.

Satoru had not seen a single curse since coming here.

(he ignored the voice that told him that it was because he just couldn’t see them anymore.)

Instead, there was a concept called ‘Quirks’.

They were, in a way, something like a very own cursed technique. Although, it could come in every form imaginable. Chieko had a simple ocular quirk that made her able to have a heat vision, and Tadashi had a minor telekinesis quirk.

Satoru had asked Chieko about those who didn’t have a quirk, and she pressed her lips together and averted her gaze, something she always did when looking into Satoru’s eyes.

Disgust.

Satoru didn’t ask again.

(But he remembered, a young woman without cursed energy and lack of talent, that somehow still pushed her way to the very top.)

(he also remembered a man, more like a demon, the one who had accomplished the unthinkable.

“Gojo Satoru? I killed him”)

So when Satoru was four, one late evening, his eyes burned. And then he could see everything.

Regaining the six eyes was like jumping into the sea. You know it’s cold, and initially it’s uncomfortable, but your body adapts quickly, and soon you can enjoy it like many times before, like embracing an old friend.

When Satoru’s eyes activated the first time after four years, it hurt. The influx of senses, information and infinity hit him all at once, his brain overloading.

But, for the first time in this life, he laughed.

Gojo Satoru had died. The six eyes had died with him.

Gojo Satoru was reborn. The six eyes were reborn with him.

After gaining his ‘quirk’, Chieko looked at him differently.

It wasn’t hard to notice. After all, Satoru could see everything.

Chieko looked at him like a rabbit would look at a wolf.

As if every move could be your last.

Satoru couldn’t say that he didn’t care. He had expected it, in fact.

But that didn’t mean that it hurt less.

Children, Satoru thought, are special.

They too, looked at him differently. They too could sense that something wasn’t quite right with him. But children, especially such young ones, didn’t separate between right and wrong. Black and white. For a child, Satoru was different. But that didn’t mean he was wrong, or unnatural. That was just the way Satoru was, and the kids accepted it.

It was a nice change from the cold atmosphere at home.

Even if he was a lot older and more intelligent that the toddlers at his kindergarden, he played along, if only for his own interest. He showed off his flashy eyes and his infinity and the children ooh-ed and aah-ed, and Satoru would be lying if it didn’t inflate his ego just a little bit.

The adults however weren’t so accepting, just like he expected.

Some were jealous, some were scared, some were uncomfortable. They all hid it behind tight smiles and sweet words. Satoru brushed it off. He didn’t need their acknowledgement.

School was different. The children here were also special, in a way, but they were also dumb. Most of them imitated each other, not yet grasping the concept that words and actions had consequences.

When you hit your classmate, it hurt and they cried but you don’t understand you have to stop because it doesn’t hurt you.

Satoru didn’t make many friends. He never talked to anyone, and if someone tried to talk to him he’d just stare at them until they went away.

He didn’t need friends.

(he missed the ones long gone.)

Elementary school passed like a blur. Then came middle school.

By the time Satoru was eleven he had already regained most of his techniques. His physical state was maybe lagging a bit behind but that was nothing intensive training couldn’t fix.

This was also the time when Chieko started to come home less. Apparently, she was talking to Tadashi again, and spending more and more time with him at his home.

Sometimes she didn’t come home in weeks.

Satoru had to cook, clean, and generally care for himself all by himself by the time he was thirteen. He enjoyed his newfound freedom far more than he should, but why should he be sad over someone that he didn’t care in the first place?

(that didn’t want him in the first place)

It was good how it was now. Satoru was free from scared stares and brown eyes that would never quite look at him. Free from a trembling voice and a hand that was careful not to ever touch him.

It was better this way. For both of them.

When he was fourteen, he met Hiashi. Hiashi moved to Satoru’s neighborhood and came into his class. At first, Satoru didn’t care about him. He didn’t care about anyone. But there was something different about Hiashi.

Maybe it was his narrow, falcon like eyes that reminded him of someone. Maybe it was the long black hair that fell just the right way. Maybe it was the way he would look at him, with his dark eyes, as if they were equals.

They became friends, somewhat. They laughed and joked together.

Then Satoru slipped up.

Goodbye, Suguru, he said one day.

Suguru Hiashi cocked his head to the side, confused. Who’s Suguru?, he asked.

They stopped talking after that.

When Satoru was fourteen, in his last year of middle school, it was time to decide what career Satoru would choose.

Of course, most of his classmates wanted to be heroes.

The concept of heroes had both fascinated and confused Satoru when he first heard of them. People hired and paid to save people? That was… something that went against everything Satoru knew.

A hero was someone who put the lives and the wellbeing of others above his own. A hero was someone who didn’t hesitate to act, if only it meant that someone could live on just a little bit longer.

(Someone like Yuuji.)

Whatever the heroes in this world were, they certainly didn’t live up to the name. They acted as some sort of… secondary police force, that fought against ‘villains’ and protected the people. Apparently, they were being paid by the government to do so, and their popularity was also a big factor.

There were even schools to make someone a professional hero. Being a hero in this world was a respectable and often chosen career choice.

This was… confusing.

The title of hero was not something you could simply learn like that. It was given to you by others, and it certainly wasn’t something you could pursue as a career choice.

You could learn how to be a jujutsu sorcerer, but certainly not every sorcerer was considered a hero.

(Satoru wasn’t.)

And yet, they were everywhere. On the news, on billboards, advertisement, they even had their own merchandise! There were events like the popularity pools and the UA sports festival showcasing the heroes and plastering them all over the media.

With their flashy costumes, hero names and catchphrases it seemed like something coming from a kid’s cartoon.

Satoru wondered if the same heroes would still save people and fight against villains so readily if they didn’t receive money for it, or even if they weren’t ranked by strength and popularity like video game characters.

Heroes were very weird, Satoru concluded.

That’s why the hero career didn’t appeal to Satoru the way it did to the other students.

It wouldn’t be right to call himself a hero.

(not after all the things he did.)

But after fourteen years of living as a civilian, Satoru was itching for a good fight. To feel the thrill and the adrenaline rush and the ultimate win over his opponent.

Too bad he’d have to hold back with his technique. Humans were different than curses after all. He couldn’t go around killing humans. So that was a big no-no for most of his more destructive techniques.

So, maybe the concept of the hero career wasn’t that repulsing for him anymore.

That changed completely when Satoru found out he couldn’t legally use his quirk in public without a hero license.

“Mother”, Satoru said when Chieko was home for once. “I’m going to be a hero.”

While there were a lot of hero schools in Japan, really, a lot, Satoru knew exactly which one he would choose.

Satoru didn’t try to delude himself. He didn’t want to be hero for selfless reasons like saving people, or the general greater good of the population. He wanted to pursue the hero career because it was the only way to get a hero license and use his quirk freely in public, and, most importantly, because he missed fighting and standing in the center of attention he couldn’t really imagine leading a simple civilian life. After years and years in the jujutsu world such a life seemed so… boring.

Hero work didn’t seem that different from his work as a jujutsu sorcerer anyways.

Oh who was he kidding, he just wanted to beat something up without repercussion.

(He wondered if Yaga-sensei was proud of him. He could have a relaxing, trouble-free life and still chose to ‘help people’ etc etc. Look, Yaga-sensei. He’s responsible now.)

But, if Satoru was going to be a hero, then he’ll be the damn best hero to ever exist. The god amongst humans. The strongest.

That’s why he was now standing in front of the gates of UA high school, dressed in gym clothes and his black blindfold secured onto his eyes. But didn’t mean he couldn’t see

the gigantic building in front of him, a big mass of glass and concrete, over towering him and every student entering. Satoru grinned. This was going to be interesting.

Chapter 2: When you got a job to do you gotta do it well

Summary:

Satoru brought one of his hands in front of him, the other stretching out. Purple and white lightning surged around him, the air crackling with power. He could feel the energy flowing through his body, changing the very space itself. This was his power. His strength.

Chapter Text

The written exam wasn’t a big problem for Satoru. He had always been a natural prodigy, or at least that’s what everyone always told him, and he remembered most of the themes in the exam from his time at jujutsu tech. Physics, math, chemistry came as easy to him as breathing, considering the fact that he had to do college-level calculations in his head every second if he wanted to maintain his technique. Enlisch, literature or history were a different story, though he thinks he managed to be at least decent.

Though some green kid in front of him wouldn’t stop mumbling…

After the written exam the boy went with the other candidates into the auditorium where a loud yellow man started to explain to them the practical exam. Honestly, Satoru didn’t really listen and zoned out during the talk for the most time. But the rules were simple: killing robots gives you points and the higher points the higher your chances at being admitted in the hero course. Or something. It seemed pretty discriminating for candidates with quirks that worked only on the human mind and body, but who was Satoru to judge?

A loud shout interrupted Satoru’s musings.

“Excuse me! You, with the blindfold!”

Satoru turned around and came face-to-face with a tall boy with neat black hair and rectangular glasses… and were that engines sticking out of his legs?

The white-haired boy pointed at himself with the universal ‘who? Me?’ gesture.

“Yes, you over there!”, the boy continued, waving his arms around robotically.

“That blindfold is against the dress code of the laws of UA! Please remove it at once!”

Satoru felt his eyebrows rise slowly.

“Is it now?”, he asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Indeed! Permitted to the practical exam are clothes akin to a gym uniform, and support items or other… thingssuch as your blindfold are strictly forbidden!”

Satoru hummed. He faced the boy in silence for a moment, contemplating just ignoring him.

His trolling instincts however said otherwise.

“following that logic, wouldn’t your glasses be prohibited as well?”

The black-haired boy blinked a few times, probably not used to someone talking back at him.

“W-well… I mean… of course not…”

Satoru clapped his hands together. “Great! Then that’s settled! Good luck on the exam! Bye bye~”, he said and jogged of in the other direction,

As soon as he saw the same yellow man with sunglasses from before (present… Michael? No that wasn’t right) appearing on the observation post on the roof of the building, his attention focused on him. He could see the intervals in which the man breathed, his unrhythmic blinking, the way he tapped his foot in a nervous habit.

Satoru stood still in front of the closed entrance admits the chattering teenagers, muscles tensed, ready to bolt.

Satoru saw the way the announcer breathed in deeply, and, without a warning, shouted.

“START!”

The doors opened and Satoru bolted. He didn’t hear what else the teacher said to the students, and barely registered that he was the only one to have moved.

Everything he could hear was the blood pumping in his body and the wind howling in his ears. He skirted around the corner and spotted a bunch of bulky robots, the arms raised and their eyes glowing red as they whirred towards him.

Satoru grinned. Instead of slowing down, he became faster, the concrete splintering under the force of his feet when he launched himself in the air. He jumped past the first robot, ripping his head off in a fluid motion and launching the separated metal chunk into the next one, throwing him into the wall. He twitched and sparked, but stopped moving ultimately.

In this time, Satoru already kicked the next approaching robot away and twisted his limbs with limitless until they ripped off. In the next second he turned around and punched a dent in the last robot’s head just before its arm reached him.

Satoru grinned, surrounded by steaming and sparking metal remains. Judging by the big number 2 sprayed on the metal, he was now eight points richer, while barely half a minute had passed.

This was so much fun.

Satoru glanced almost lazily into the sky before teleporting where his eyes looked, appearing in the empty space high above the ground without a warning and startling some poor birds.

Looking down on the fake city, he could see students and robots alike running around like ants. Satoru selected the part at the other end of the city that would take most participants quite the time to reach, and in the next heartbeat he was there.

The three-pointer robots barely had time to react before he blasted them out of existence.

With every move, every bit of energy released, Satoru found himself grinning wider and wider. Adrenaline flooded his senses, his fighting instincts kicking in until his thoughts were a blurred line of dodge jump kick punch destroy.

Satoru hadn’t felt this amazing in years.

Somewhere in UA, a big room full of screens and computers, a certain president’s nose twitched. Interesting. It was rare for his instincts to flare up.

Intrigued, the animal hybrid’s eyes wandered across the screens, searching for the source of his discomfort, quickly finding its source.

“Aizawa.”, he said.

A yellow sleeping bag on a chair somewhere on his right grunted in answer.

“I want you to take a look at this one.”

The other sighed, the sleeping bag slowly zipping open and a head poked out, akin to an animal sticking its head out of its nest.

Tired red eyes wandered across the screens until they stopped at the one person the principal had zoomed in to.

It was a young teenager, average age for UA- hopefuls, tall and lanky, white hair. The only thing unusual seemed a black blindfold tied around his eyes.

Although the way he moved… something irritated the tired man. His movements seemed way too fluid, way too powerful for an average fifteen-year old. Despite being essentially blinded, the boy acted as if it didn’t bother him at all, reacting to visual stimuli as usual even if he literally couldn’t see.

Shota couldn’t pinpoint his quirk exactly either. Sometimes it looked like super strength or speed, then teleportation, then flying, or telekinesis, but nothing that could explained with just one quirk.

And he was… grinning. As if eradicating tons of robots programmed to fight was nothing more than a game.

“File?”, the man grunted, extending a hand.

“I already have it here!”, chirped the president, opening a thin paper folder.

The man sighed and dropped his hand, listening instead to the president reading the file.

“Gojo Satoru, fifteen years old, male.”, said the president, while said Gojo Satoru blasted a robot through a wall.

“Quirk: limitless…”, the mouse-bear continued. He hummed. “Named by the user.”

The man grunted. “How does it work?”

The president hummed, flipping through the pages. “It says here it is a manipulation of space on a molecular and atomic level. My my, truly a versatile quirk.”

And a destructive one, the teacher thought, his eyes tracking the white haired boy’s movements on the monitor.

In the wrong hands, such power could bring down cities. A frown was beginning to form on his firehead. God it was too early for a headache.

The president smiled. Oh no. Aizawa knew that smile.

Nedzu’s paw hovered over a big red button.

“Let’s release the zero-pointers now!”

Satoru was having the time of his life. Destroying robots left and right, the boy didn’t realize how much time passed, his sense of time non-existent until yellow man’s (president mike…?) voice boomed over the city.

“FIVE MINUTES LEFT EVERYBODY! TIME TO SPEED UP!”

Satoru grinned. How much points did he have now? It didn’t matter. Adrenaline ran through his veins, and Satoru felt like he could take on God. Which he probably could, by the way. Did God even exist? Anyways. Now is not the time. Focus, Satoru. UA entrance exam. Robots. Limitless go brr.

The boy flew through the alleys, eyes scanning his surroundings for the familiar electric flow of the mechanical robots. He accelerated, jumped through the city until he landed in front of a small purple kid with… balls? On his head? Being cornered by a one-pointer.

The kid screeched when he saw him.

“Nuh-uh! This one’s mine! Go find your own robots!” He picked one of his … balls? Of his head and fucking threw it at Satoru like weirdo. They both watched as it harmlessly bounced off his infinity and landed on the ground. The purple boy stared. Before Satoru could open his mouth for a snarky remark, the earth trembled under their feet. In union, both looked up to see the damn biggest robot Satoru has ever seen emerging from the city.

“That’s a fucking zero-pointer?” Satoru heard ball-kid scream behind him.

A zero-pointer. Huh. Satoru thought they’d be smaller. But oh well. He grinned, turning around.

“I’ll leave this one to you then!”, he said, barely hearing the other’s confused shout before he teleported into the sky.

From up here, even the enormous zero-pointer seemed small. Technically, this robot brought no points. Technically, Satoru was just wasting his time fighting him, especially if he still could use the remaining time to gather more points. He could almost hear Nanamin scolding him.

(you’re being irresponsible, Gojo, this is unnecessary Gojo, why do you always have to show off Gojo-)

But Satoru never really listened to him anyway!

Satoru grinned. Time to go plus ultra.

In the teacher’s longue, a certain principal’s grin widened.

In an instant, Satoru teleported in front of the Zero-pointer. The mass of metal and wires towered over him like a particularly big metal elephant. To be fair, from down here the robot really looked massive. The boy’s grin widened.

“I’d step back if I were you.”, he told some purple-haired girl in front of him with ear tentacles… or something.

She threw him a skeptic look, muttering something like “your funeral”, but she still turned away and ran as far away from the zero-pointer as possible.

Satoru inhaled, exhaled. He stood motionless while the robot’s concrete-shattering legs made the ground quake and the houses around him tremble.

With practiced movements, he gripped the top of his blindfold and pulled the black fabric down to his neck. Satoru opened his eyes.

The influx of information was nothing he wasn’t used to, even if he wanted to hide his head in his hands and his fingers itched to put the blindfold back on.

As if he had done it a thousand times before, (which he had), he clasped his hands in front of him.

Cursed technique Lapse: Blue

Cursed Technique Reversal: Red

Satoru brought one of his hands in front of him, the other stretching out. Purple and white lightning surged around him, the air crackling with power. He could feel the energy flowing through his body, changing the very space itself. This was his power. His strength.

This world would soon know why they had called him a god.

Hollow Technique: Purple

Satoru’s fingers snapped.

Throughout the UA grounds, two explosions echoed. The first one was a green-haired boy, plain-looking, but power accumulating in his core until he quite literally exploded, and yet he managed to bring a zero-pointer down, only to protect one person.

The second…

Satoru’s unhinged grin stretched over his face.

The second was a god.

The purple mass of energy tore through the zero-pointer like paper, eating the metal and plastic away like it was nothing.

It razed into the robot, tearing and tearing until it folded into itself, the purple mass consuming and consuming until the air cracked.

And then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone- and with it the zero-pointer. The only proof it had ever existed was the circular dent on the ground.

Satoru exhaled.

AND THE TIME IS… UP!”

Aizawa sighed. That boy was so going to be in his class.

“That’s certainly impressive.”, Nedzu chirped. “Not one, but two zero-pointers destroyed this year. I don’t think we’ve ever seen this, no?”

Aizawa groaned. He needed so much coffee for this.

Nedzu followed the white-haired boy with his eyes. Something about him was… not right.

The way he held himself. The way he looked as if he didn’t struggle at all, not a single hair out of place, not a single speck of dust on his clothes. And those eyes-

Nedzu watched Gojo halt in his tracks. The hairs on the back of his neck rose.

The boy turned around- and looked straight into the surveillance camera. There was no mistaking it. He knew he was being watched, knew Nedzu observed him as if he was standing right in this room. The principal stared right into those unsettling blue eyes. Otherworldly. Frightening. Interesting.

For the first time in a long time, Nedzu felt fear.

He watched as a grin spread slowly across the boy’s face, still maintaining eye contact, until he slowly lifted the blindfold around his neck and secured it again over his eyes.

As if a spell was broken, Nedzu blinked. He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. His eyes tracked the boy even as turned around and headed towards the exit.

Nedzu could still feel his eyes on him.

Satoru grinned as he passed the exit. He was very sure that he had gained enough points for the hero course, if not enough for the top ten. At least, someone had been watching him, and he had a pretty good guess who it was.

“I’m home”, Satoru mumbled. He dropped his groceries and fumbled for the key.

It was only nly when he turned around that he realized that he wasn’t alone in his apartment.

He blinked slowly.

Chieko and Tadashi were sitting at his coffee table.

(He never called them mother or father in his head. They weren’t, anyways.)

“Mother?”, he called out.

Chieko averted her eyes, shifting uncomfortably on her chair. Despite Satoru speaking to her, it was Tadashi who answered.

“I heard you applied for a hero career. At UA, to be exact.”, the stern man said.

Tadashi, or Nakamura Tadashi, was a tall but plain looking man with dark green hair and yellow eyes. He always wore a suit, even now, jacket and pants neat and tidy, not a spot on his clothes.

Satoru didn’t resemble him one bit. Between him and Chieko, it was hard to say who he looked like less.

“Yes.”, Satoru responded. He had no respect for his father, in his present or past life. He was just a man who happened to impregnate his mother. And his mother was just the woman who happened to give birth to him and raised him, however reluctantly. Nothing more, nothing less.

Tadashi frowned, his eyes narrowing.

“You will not speak to me in such tone, son.”

Satoru scoffed. He lowered his head and let the black sunglasses slip past his nose, focusing his gaze on the man in front of him. He relished in the way he flinched once they made eye contact.

Satoru smiled.

“I’m sorry, father. Yes, I did apply to UA high. The entrance exam was a month ago, to be exact. What of it, old man? You gonna tell me I can’t go?”

Chieko laughed nervously, unnaturally high pitched.

“Satoru! Don’t talk to your father that way!”

The effect was somewhat lessened by the fact that she didn’t look him in the eyes. Satoru raised his head again.

Tadashi and Satoru both ignored her.

“UA’s letter was in our mail this morning.”, he said, raising a white briefcase with UA’s emblem printed on it.

Satoru silently cursed. They must have taken Tadashis’ address as his address. He had hoped to have the least interaction with his parents over this matter as possible. Generally, he was happy if they just left him alone.

“How inappropriate.”, he said instead. “I’ll make sure this mistake doesn’t happen again, and UA will certainly not disturb you anymore.”, Satoru said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“if that’s what you came here for you can leave now.”

“Don’t be foolish, boy.”, Tadashi stood up and held the envelope out for him to take.

“Open it.”

Satoru held out his hand in return, and his father reluctantly dropped the envelope in his hands.

Wordlessly, the teenager sat down on the table the furthest away from his parents as possible, and opened the letter. Instead of paper, a metallic disk fell on the table, immediately opening a hologram to hover over the surface.

His line of sight was immediately taken over by a very large familiar face.

“I AM HERE… AS A PROJECTION!”

Annoyed, Satoru blinked and shoved up his glasses higher. He could hear Chieko gasping in front of him. Wasn’t that… All Might? The hero? Was that letter really from UA?

“Young Gojo! It is indeed I, All Might, the number one Hero! From this year on, I will be a teacher at UA high!”

Alright, this explained things. But seriously, who had let this man become a teacher?

“Gojo Satoru! You passed the written exam with excellent results! 97 from 100 percent!”

Satoru smirked. He knew he aced the part of the exam that was mathematics and physics, he had to, to even understand how limitless worked. And the rest… well, after all there was nothing Gojo Satoru wasn’t good at.

“… And in the practical exam, you got 81 villain points… and 60 rescue points!

The exam was not only graded by villain points! Because how can a hero course reject people who save others and do the right thing? Because of that… we also grade by rescue points!”

So that’s how they graded this exam… Logically, Satoru had known that UA wasn’t going to grade the hero hopefuls just by brute force and destructive potential alone. Rescue points seemed like a god balance. After all, a hero had to do more than win over his opponents.

Still, Satoru was disappointed that that was all to it. He had expected UA to work smarter than that.

For once, the exam was drilled for people with flashy, destructive quirks. Mental quirks or quirks that affected the human body specifically had no chance. And even then, having a hidden point mechanism was absolutely stupid. Only someone dumb would put the well- being of others before their own in a controlled, non- lethal situation. It was very probable that candidates who were usually very helpful and would give their lives for their comrades and friends without questions didn’t act on it in the exam simply because they thought it wasn’t required to pass. What a pity. And this was the most prestigious hero school in Japan?

On the screen, All might moved to the side to reveal a big ranking chart. Satoru was pleased to find his name right at the top.

“Because of this, the sum of your rescue and villain points makes… 141 Points! Congratulations! With this number of points you break the UA entrance exam record, the highest record previously being 79 points!”

Satoru leaned back in his chair. He broke the record by two villain points and sixty rescue points… He couldn’t say that this surprised him. The boy tuned out All Mights remaining speech and relished in the feeling of glory. This was something no one else has ever achieved. Gojo Satoru really was a god. And now, the entirety of UA knew it too.

The moment the projection ended, Satoru turned to his speechless parents.

“Well, Father? Aren’t you proud of me?”

Satoru laughed and stood up from his chair. “I’m upstairs if you need me.”, he turned around without awaiting his parent’s reply.

The moment he was out of sight, he teleported to the roof, still grinning. He breathed in the fresh evening air, and gazed over the many city light that illuminated the light.

141 points…

(I wonder, are you proud of me too Suguru?)

Many streets away, one explosive blonde would have a screaming fit when he found out that he was placed second, and not first.

And in another house, a green haired boy would cry tears of relief to still having it made into the hero course.

Satoru sat on the roof the entire night, his eyes fixated on the city below him, thinking about his past, and his future.

Chapter 3: What does it matter to you?

Summary:

The boy made eye contact with the ponytail girl, hoping to convey the ‘do you see this shit?’ expression at her through his blindfold. The girl just pressed her lips together and shrugged, which Satoru chose to interpret as ‘idk man, I just got here’. Satoru nodded anyways and sat down in his seat.

Chapter Text

On his first day of school Satoru took the train. Technically, he could just teleport there, but he didn’t want to risk being caught using his quirk publicly on his first day of school.

The train was packed, but no one spared him a second glance, despite his blindfold.

The fact that he was standing next to a person with a fish head surely helped.

Once arrived at UA it didn’t take long to find his classroom. Class 1A.

Most seats were empty at his arrival, the only ones being a girl with black hair pulled up in a ponytail, a blonde guy with a black streak in his hair and… would you look at that, the weird engine-legs guy that he already met in the entrance exam. Aaaaand he was walking towards him. Great.

Satoru watched impassively as engine-legs moved towards him with exaggerated movements. Why was he moving his hands that way? Was that also part of his quirk?

The boy cleared his throat. “Good morning! I am Iida Tenya from the Somei private academy! It is nice to meet you!” Geez what a personality.

Satoru forced a smile. “Nice to meet you.” He went to move to his seat, but Iida stopped him.
“Wait! You are Gojo Satoru, am I correct?”

Satoru sighed internally. “Ye-?” “Perfect!”, the other boy interrupted him.

“Seeing as you broke the entrance exam record by 42 points, it is great to make your acquaintance! You realized that were separate grading points, right?”

“Well-“

“In this case I apologize for my impolite behavior earlier!”

“Okay…?”

Iida nodded, waving his arms around. “Have a great day!”

Satoru watched him walk of, utterly perplexed. He didn’t remember teenagers being that… weird. Well, his only points of reference in his past life were Shoko and Suguru, the latter being homicidal and the former being, well, Shoko.

The boy made eye contact with the ponytail girl, hoping to convey the ‘do you see this shit?’ expression at her through his blindfold. The girl just pressed her lips together and shrugged, which Satoru chose to interpret as ‘idk man, I just got here’. Satoru nodded anyways and sat down in his seat.

The next fifteen minutes or so were spent dozing off into the distance- at least that’s what it seemed on the outside. In reality, Satoru was analyzing his surroundings and his classmates.

With the six eyes, Satoru could see the way the quirk factor, or the cursed energy in their bodies was shaped. Satoru had already theorized not shortly after he got his eyes back that the ‘quirk factor’, how experts called it, was the forming of a cursed technique. Instead of cursed energy- or, if you used a metaphor, electricity- every human here had access to a cursed technique. This meant no access to enhancing the body with cursed energy, no domain expansion, and no cursed technique reversal- at least not for most people.

Persons who were aware of the cursed energy in their bodies, like Satoru, could of course manipulate it, but that wasn’t the case for most people. As a result, the cursed energy or the quirk factor pooled in the places the person used it the most, or felt a certain way, which made guessing the quirks of his classmates easier.

The ponytail girl for example was hard to guess. The energy spread through her entire body, deeply engraved in every atom. It also had no special feeling, which told Satoru nothing. Moving on. Blonde guy’s quirk factor felt and looked… electric. Probably an electricity or lightning-based quirk. Emitter, most likely. Unsurprisingly, Iidas’ quirk factor focused in his legs, probably enhancing his speed.

More and more people pooled in, and more quirks for Satoru to analyze. A guy with red hair had a quirk factor that felt very… rocky, and unmovable, Satoru didn’t know how to describe it. Another girl’s quirk pooled in her hands, emitter type. Maybe water-based, or some kind of liquid. One guy’s factor pooled in his stomach. Maybe some kind of food-quirk? Something that has to do with eating?

His musings were cut short by the next student who came through the door. He had puffy ash blonde hair and red eyes, who immediately focused on Satoru.

“Oi! You!”, Satoru watched the teenager stalk towards him with disinterest.

Once arrived, he slammed a smoking hand down his desk. A fire quirk?

“Listen here you damn extra!” Satoru sighed. The blonde continued, snarling.

“I know you placed first on the entrance exam, but I’m gonna beat your ass. You’re nothing but trash compared to me! Got it?” He punctuated his words by creating a small explosion on his desk. Suddenly Satoru regretted placing first on the exam. The extra unwanted attention was just not worth it.

However, he could also not stop himself from poking the bee’s den.

He grinned, waving the smoke away. Mockingly, he placed his chin on his hand. “Is that everything?”

Satoru could practically hear the boy’s patience snap.

“You-“, he snarked, his hand flying up to grip Satoru’s shirt, only to meet his infinity. Satoru raised an eyebrow. This guy was just really out for trouble.

Explodey’s eyes widened incredulously, his hand struggling against the invisible barrier. He opened his mouth again, but the commotion had alerted Iida, who was now also coming towards them. How wonderful. Satoru zoned out again, barely listening to the two fighting, not until a boy with green hair stepped through the doors.

Now that’s a quirk Satoru’s never seen before. It glowed like a lightbulb, making it difficult to focus on, but every time Satoru looked at it, he couldn’t quite grasp it, the quirk seeming to bend around his gaze like water.

Then Explodey started screaming again and at this point Satoru was too annoyed to care. He ignores them while his classmates were fighting and wondered how he ended up in such a weird class. He contemplained intervening in the fight just to see how angry Explodo boy could get, but was ultimately stopped (maybe for his on good) when he sensed another person arrive.

This person was clearly an adult and someone with the utmost control over their Quirk, if the way the energy ran through his body was any indication. So probably a pro hero, or even Satoru’s new teacher. With amusement and slight worry Satoru watched the grown man crawl into the room like an overgrown caterpillar. Or maybe that was just his Quirk. Hmmm no that was a sleeping bag and he had an eye-based quirk. Maybe he was just weird.

Well, Satoru has seen weirder.

(“Where does a curse like that even come from?”, Satoru eyed the weird, pink curse new in Sugurus collection that was currently trying to… molest their sensei.

“you don’t want to know”, Suguru replied, bandaging his wounds after his solo-mission.

“But-“

“You Don’t. want. to know.”)

Shota honestly already had enough of his class. Every day he woke up wondering why he chose to be a teacher and every day he still dragged himself to work. He eyed the mob of loud chattering (and screaming) teenagers as he slowly unzipped his sleeping bag. His gaze swept over the teenagers, assessing each one of them while waiting for the class to calm down.

His eyes stopped at the white-haired boy from the entrance exam, Gojo Satoru, the boy with maybe the most confusing and most destructive quirk Shota has ever seen. He was unsurprised when he found the teenager already staring at him, even if it was hard to read through the blindfold.

Shota knows Hero-hopefuls like him, with a powerful Quirk that thought that’s all they need to be a hero. Most of them, he expels on the first day. But Gojo may turn out to be the exception.

Ignoring the startled looks and shouts of surprise of his new class, Shota makes his way to the front of the class.

“who let this hobo into UA?”, someone muttered from the back. Shota chose to act as if he didn’t hear that.

“It took you all eight seconds to calm down.”, he says instead, his glare silencing even the rowdiest members of the class. He takes note of Bakugo Katsuki standing at the front, palms smoking, and the bone-breaker kid, Midoriya, gaze jumping between Shota and Bakugo, looking as if he might piss his pants if Shota looks at him wrong. Or maybe wilt like a dehydrated plant.

Iida Tenya, Tensei’s brother, stands beside them, hands half way raised in an attempt at peace making. In the second row, Gojo starts to grin.

“I’m your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shota.” He rummages in his sleeping bag before taking out a gym uniform. “Put these on and follow me. And don’t be late.” With a final glare, he slinks out of the room, the sounds of confusion and hasty scrambling filling the room behind him.

Satoru has to suppress a grin on his way to the changing rooms. He likes his new teacher already. Aizawa seems such a direct contrast to Yaga-sensei that its almost comical.

(in a way, Satoru is grateful that they are so unalike. He doesn’t have time for feelings right now.)

He actually reminds him a bit of Shoko, with his eyebags as deep as the Mariana trench and looking as if he has never had a day of peace in his life.

(Shoko never had eyebags before. In the years before his death, she rarely even laughed.)

Satoru blinks the memories away. He wonders if Aizawa smokes…

The gym lockers are, like any other lockers in any other school, crowded, unnecessarily small and a great creation of insecurities, busted secrets and embarrassment.

Satoru changes quickly while the other boys take turns complimenting each other’s abs and messing with their gym uniforms. He notices a white and red haired boy silently changing in the corner, a patchwork of burns and barely healed bruises on his back. Satoru firmly shoves that in a box labeled ‘later’ somewhere in his brain.

It’s not like he doesn’t have his own fair share of scars, even if they are long since healed. But he can still see them, even if no one else can.

A finger-long stab wound in his forehead, over his left eye. A scar starting from his neck and winding all the way down across his chest to his right hip. Six stab scars in his right leg.

Scar tissue circling around his torso. A row of stitches across his forehead.

(Are you the strongest because you are Gojo Satoru, or are you Gojo Satoru because you’re the strongest?)

He shakes his head, concentrating on slipping his gym shirt on. He’s getting sentimental in his old age.

“We’re going to have an assessment test.”, Aizawa starts once they’re all together out in the open again. “Due to the current laws, we have no baseline for the range of your quirk’s abilities, so you’ll be doing the usual sports test, but you’ll be allowed to use your quirks this time.”

Excited murmurs break out throughout the class, every student hyped to show off what they can do. Satoru just yawns. An Assessment test? bo-ringggg.

“Gojo”, Aizawa says, making his mouth snap shut. Is he calling him out for yawning?

“You have the highest practical entrance exam score. What was your furthest softball throw in school?”

Satoru places his chin in his hand tilting his head as he thinks. He doesn’t like being made an example in front of the whole class.

“Hmmm… I don’t remember!”, he says with a grin. And it’s not even a lie. Everything back then just felt so… uninteresting. How was he supposed to memorize some boring sports score?

Aizawa just stares at him. “You don’t?”

“Nope!”

The man sighs, so profound and full of hate at the world that Satoru almost feels sorry for him.

“Whatever. Just throw the damn ball. But this time with your quirk.”

He gestures to a drawn circle on the ground behind him, and Satoru makes his way over, accepting the ball Aizawa throws him, weighing it in his hands and making it float just barely with limitless.

“Anything goes?”, he asks for confirmation.

“Yes. Just don’t leave the circle or destroy the ball.”

Satoru hums. Throwing the ball up and down in his hand. No one notices that it doesn’t really touch his skin, and that it stays in the air just a little longer than normal.

Then, Satoru throws it higher than ever, closing his hand in a fist with his pointer and middle finger pointing outward together.

A red ball of pure force begins formingat his fingertips, volatile enough that Satoru feels it in his bones. As the ball comes back down, Satoru releases the built- up energy with a literal bang.

Red light envelops him as the ball goes flying, further and further until it’s nothing more than a speck on the horizon.

Stunned silence envelops the gathered crowd as the students stare where the ball vanished with open mouths.

Aizawa’s measuring device beeps, and he turns it around to show the others.

1164.8 meters, the device says and the class goes wild.

“More than a kilometer?! That’s insane!”

“I wonder what I’ll get, I’ve never been permitted to use my quirk in school like this!”

“This seems so fun, I wanna try too!”

Satoru knows the class made a mistake as Aizawa’s glare turns frigid.

“Fun? This seems like fun to you? This is UA, you’re all training to be heroes, this is not supposed to be fun. Fine then. Whoever comes in last in this test will be judged to have no potential and expelled immediately.”

Cries of outrage immediately break out from the students. Explodo boy… explodes. Engine legs shouts something and waves his hand aggressively enough that another kid has to duck under them. The green haired kid looks like he’s about to pass out.

“But… it’s not fair!”, a girl shouts. “It’s the first day of school!”

Aizawa shrugs. “World’s not fair, kid.”

Satoru has to suppress a snicker. Honestly, he gets Aizawa. Training to be a hero might seem exciting and fun to the hero students, but it’s still a highly dangerous job where they could very well die. Someone has to make them aware of that.

(Satoru thinks of Maki’s tired eyes and a twisted knife in Yuta’s too young hands. Megumi, crying over Yuuji’s body, and Yuuji who was never the same after the incident. In the Jujutsu world, this kind of talk wouldn’t be necessary because death was already unreversibly intertwined in their lives.)

He’s mused out of his thoughts by the start of the other exercises.

First, fifty meter dash. Satoru smiles as he stands next to engine legs at the starting line.

The latter eyes him with furrowed brows as he gets in starting position and Satoru keeps his relaxed slouching posture.

“Ready…”

Satoru raises a hand.

“Set…”

He hooks a finger under his blindfold and lifts it just barely.

“Go!”

Engine legs takes off like a rocket, and surely he would’ve made first place if it wasn’t for Satoru.

When the other breaches the finishing line, Satoru is already there, brushing dust of his shoulders and the blindfold firmly in place.

“0.01 seconds!”, says the measuring device next to him. Satoru grins at engine legs’ dumfounded expression.

Aizawa just blinks from the sidelines, noting down their scores. Ah right, he already saw most of his capabilities in the entrance exam.

On the grip strength test, Satoru has to actually think a little on how to use limitless here. He’s sure his actual grip strength is already impressive, but if he uses his infinity…

Satoru closes his hand around the device and holds it with his other hand, slowly creating an infinity around his body. The invisible wall expands, growing larger and larger, until the numbers of the device rise so fast they become a blur. Satisfied, Satoru let’s go if the device. Oh. Whoops.

Error, it blinks.

“Uh.. isn’t it forbidden to actually break anything?”, a girl with short purple hair says next to him, her judging eyes fixed onto the blinking message. Satoru opens his mouth, but Aizawa’s faster than him.

“He didn’t.”, he says, tired eyes fixed in the girl.

“This device just can’t handle numbers past a certain point.”

Satoru grins and throws up a peace sign at the girl. “How in the hell…”, she mutters before turning away.

In the long standing jump test, Satoru simply walks up calmly to the jumping line before teleporting himself to the other end of the courtyard. This should secure him the highest score, right?

He briefly considers using teleportation during the repeated side steps as well, but figures it isn’t worth the headache it would give him to constantly flicker back and forth in such an enclosed space, so he does things the old- fashioned way.

Since he already did the ball throw, he sits this one out and watches one girl actually get an infinity as her score. He grins, surprised that someone actually got a higher score than him. (And infinity of all things!)

He grins, holding up a hand for a high five as she comes back. “Yo! That was super cool! What’s your quirk?”

She nervously returns his high five, though she doesn’t seem appalled.

“It’s zero gravity!”, she says showing her hands with five pale pink pads on her fingers.

“I nullify the gravity of anything I touch.”

Satoru whistles lowly. It’s certainly useful, but this girl will have to work really hard to actually become a hero with such a quirk.

“I assume you want to go into rescue then?”, he asks. “Yeah!”, she smiles happily. “Like Thirteen! They’re my favorite hero.”

Satoru has absolutely no idea who that is, but he nods along anyways.

“If I can ask, what’s your quirk? I saw you teleport at the 50- meter race, but then you also came highest on the grip strength test?”

Satoru is kind of irked having someone ask about his technique, but he interrogated her first so he supposes he can throw her a bone.

“Hmm… it’s hard to explain. Basically, I can manipulate the space around me on an atomic level” that’s the explanation he gave on his file. “I can create forces that attract or repel, or also a neutral force. The easy answer to the teleportation is that I create a negative space in an area and pull myself towards it.”

The girl blinks a few times. Satoru knows she probably didn’t understand much of it.

“… Alright. It certainly sounds complicated.” Satoru chuckles. “You have no idea.”

“Does it have something to do with why you can’t see?”, she asks curiously.

Satoru cocks his head to the side. “Hm? But I can’t see just fine!”

Her brows furrow. “But-“

A sudden explosion cuts her off. Satoru sighs as he sees explosion boy rush forward, shouting something again, before being restrained by Aizawa. Hmm… this cloth weapon does look really useful. It must’ve taken a lot of time to master it.

“Let me go you damn hobo!”, the boy shouts, struggling against the binds of carbon fiber.

“DEKU! You quirkless loser, what’s your damn game?!”

Satoru cocks his head to the side. Quirkless? But Midoriya clearly had a quirk. Satoru doubts he could have gotten third place in the entrance exam without it. However, maybe that had something to do with the weird feeling of his quirk? Now that he thinks about it… there’s something similar to his quirk just outside the training grounds. Satoru turns his head in that direction, but whoever or whatever it was, they’ve long since left the area. Suspicious.

The small scuffle from before has quickly been solved by Aizawa, who cancelled out Bakugo’s quirk. Erasure… what an interesting ability. The moment Satoru had truly grasped the versality and fathomless possibilities of quirks, he had researched quirks who could alter other people’s quirks.

He hadn’t found much- quirks like those were incredibly rare. However, one prominent entry he had found was pro hero Eraserhead, an underground hero active in Musutafu.

What a coincidence that he of all people would become Satoru’s homeroom teacher.

(Satoru suppresses a shiver at the pure thought of having his quirk erased. He never wanted to feel as weak and unprotected how he felt when he was first born into this world.)

The rest of the tests went relatively eventless.

Satoru did sit ups and seated toe touch basically quirkless, because even if he could use his quirk to a useful level during those tests… he simply didn’t feel like it. His other high scores should make up for his average ones.

He sighs before entering the long distance run.

“Sensei, we already know I could just teleport to the finish line in an instant. Can’t I sit this one out?”

Aizawa just stares at him until Satoru sighs again and trots to the starting line.

As soon as the signal starts, Satoru teleports to the finish line without effort, watching his fellow classmates struggle along the way.

Aizawa presents the results of the test without much fanfare, and Satoru immediately searches for his name at the top. To his chagrin, the top spot belongs to someone else this time. Yaoyorozu Momo, he reads, scanning the room for the girl. Unlike Satoru who scored high in some tests and average in the others, she scores incredibly high in every test. He supposed he can give her this one victory, since he’s pretty sure she pulled a fucking scooter out of her stomach for the long distance run.

“By the way”, Aizawa says nonchalantly as he dismisses the hologram, “I was lying about the expulsion.”

“WHAT?!” The class shouts, especially poor Midoriya who got in last place.

Aizawas face morphs into a scary smile, somehow still devoid of any emotion. “It was a logical ruse to push you to your limits.”

Satoru can’t help laugh at their surprised face.

“Of course it was a lie” Yaoyorozu said surprised. “I thought everyone knew that?”

“I didn’t…”, mumbled the girl Satoru had talked to earlier. He should really start learning all their names…

But to be fair, Satoru had also thought Aizawa was being serious. No, Satoru is still sure he was. The only reason he didn’t expel Midoriya was probably because the boy had showed potential. Potential to become something more than he currently is.

Aizawa dismisses them, telling Midoriya to go to the nurse’s office, and fucks right back off to where he came from. Into his sleeping bag again, probably. That man did not get enough sleep.

“Oi! Blindfold freak!”

Satoru turns around, watching as Explody comes stomping over to him with a look of pure anger on his face. Satoru tilts his head. “Yes?”

The other boy twitches, a hand moving as if to grasp him by his uniform, but he stops, remembering his earlier experience with Satoru’s infinity. Instead, he stares him down.

“Maybe you got lucky at the entrance exam”, he says, red eyes narrowing dangerously, “But I’m going to beat you next time- you’re nothing more than a stepping stone to my path of greatness, got it?!”

Sheesh, and everyone thought Satoru had a god complex.

He tilts his head to the other side, placing his chin in one hand. “Hmm… who are you again?”, he grins.

Explody’s face scrunches up in fury and his hands start smoking again, but Satoru just laughs and turns around.

“See you around, explosion boy!”, he waves, making his way out the school.

What a weird place.

Chapter 4: But if this ever changing world we live in makes you give in a cry

Summary:

“Gojo-san! I must ask that you address me with my proper name!”

“Right…”, Satoru says, scratching his head.

“You forgot, didn’t you”, says Uraraka dryly next to him.

“…Yeah”, Satoru admits.

Notes:

It's bonding time babey!

Also why did I chose live and let die as the song for this fic, I'm running out of lyrics for the chapter titles, damnit

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

The second day of school was pretty boring in comparison to the day before. No random test, no threats of expulsion, even explody boy didn’t start another fight. Satoru yawns, already bored out of his mind while present mic explains basic English sentences at the blackboard.

“Gojo-kun! Which one of these sentences is wrong? C’mon guys, a little bit of action here!”

Satoru blinks, his gaze flying over the sentences.

“Uhh… number two?“

“Bzzz! WRONG! Yaoyorozu!“

Satoru slumps in his seat as Yaoyorozu answers correctly. Who needs English anyways?

Math and physics however, are like childplay for Satoru. He aces every question and more, and he’s also pretty sure he understands the subject better than Ectoplasm who is teaching it.

At lunch, Satoru determinedly ignores any healthy option of food, walks past the different lunch menus withour a glance, before he stops at the dessert stand. With a tablet stacked full of sweets and cakes of various kind, he makes his way towards a free table.

“Ah- Gojo-kun! You can sit with us!” Satoru turns to see the infinity girl from the day before waving him over. He could already see engine legs and Midoriya sitting next to her.

With a sigh he lets himself fall into the empty seat.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch your name yesterday.”, he says to her, immediately beginning to stuff his face.

“It’s fine!”, she says, introducing herself, before her gaze falls to his plate.

“Uhh… Gojo-san, is it really healthy to only eat sweets?”, Uraraka says as he sees his ‘lunch’.

“I must agree with Uraraka-san!”, engine legs says. “As heroes in training, we should eat a balanced and nutritious lunch, so that we have enough energy for the day!” His hands chop wildly through the air, almost nailing poor Midoriya in the face.

“Nah, it’s fine”, Satoru says around a mouthful of cake. “Actually, it’s part of my quirk. I can only eat sweets.”

“…Really?”, Midoriya says dubiously.

“…Nah”, Satoru says and chuckles when his face falls. “I’m just messing with ya, sorry. But it does actually have something to do with my quirk, pinky promise.” He takes another bite. Mmmm, strawberry.

“… If you say so”, engine legs says, adjusting his glasses.

“Oh!”, Midoriya sits up straighter, a notebook suddenly in his hands. “Is your quirk like Sato’s, then? Does sugar make you physically stronger? Or does it have any other reasons? What even is your quirk exactly? Can you only teleport? Is that red force something similar, Or did you just teleport the ball away? Do you wear a blindfold for a reason? Does it also have something to do with-“

“Midoriya, let the poor boy breathe!”, laughs Uraraka, and Mirodiya blushes as he stutters an apology. “S-sorry… It’s a habit.”

“It’s fine”, Satoru waves his hand. “Or…”, a mischievous grin appears on his face as he leans forward. “…Are you actually just scouting out the competition, Midori-kun?”

He laughs as Midoriya falls into stutters again. “That- that’s not- I’m just- I just really like quirks a lot”, he stammers, averting his eyes. Maybe Satoru shouldn’t poke at the nervous boy so much... Nah.

“My quirk…”, Satoru contemplates. He grins teasingly. “Why don’t you figure it out yourself? I think you’re a rather smart cookie underneath all that anxiety.”

Midoriya smiles shakily. “I don’t know if I should see that as a compliment…”, he mutters.

“Well! What about you then?”, Gojo asks. “Uraraka has zero gravity, engine legs has engine legs, and you?”

Midoriya wilts, throwing glances at his now healed finger, while engine legs starts chopping his hands again.

“Gojo-san! I must ask that you address me with my proper name!”

“Right…”, Satoru says, scratching his head.

“You forgot, didn’t you”, says Uraraka dryly next to him.

“…Yeah”, Satoru admits.

Engine legs reintroduces himself as Iida Tenya after another lecture, while Midoriya fidgets as he tries to answer his previous question. “Didn’t you already see my quirk yesterday?”

Satoru shakes his head. “I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Midoriya throws him an incredulous look, but Satoru sees that he steels himself before answering.

“In that case…”, he says with a wry smile, “I- in that case you can also figure it out yourself, Gojo-san”, he says, eyeing Satoru as if he might jump him right at the table.

Satoru just grins, impressed. “My, my, Midori-kun! You’re quite sneaky, aren’t you?”

“N-no I’m not, sor-“

“C’mon stand up for yourself a little! That intimidation attempt wasn’t half bad!”

“I wasn’t trying to-“

While the day had been rather boring, it‘s at the hero combat exercises when things start to get interesting.

I AM… coming through the door like a normal person!“, The number one pro hero, All might, exclaimed while he came through the door very much not like a normal person.

The class erupted in cheers of course, but Satoru was quiet for once. He was focused on the number one hero for a different reason.

First, All might was horribly injured. A large, very destructive wound spanned along his right side, right over his missing stomach and right lung. Satoru could see blood amassed in his remaining lung in clots, and generally he saw just so much wrong with all Might’s body that it surprised him that he was still standing.

Was it his quirk that kept him going? His quirk that, on second glance, looked so much like Mospriya’s that it was uncanny. Satoru‘s gaze locked onto the green-haired student. Yes, unmistakably, they had the very same quirk. Was all might related to Midoriya somehow?

His whirring mind came to a stop when all might announced the battle training and pointed to the wall.

Suitcases with their numbers slid out of them, each containing their hero costumes.

Ah yes, the hero costume, a thing Satoru had thought over again and again.

It was a thing so ridiculous to him that he contemplated not filling it out at all, but he didn’t want to get saddened with whatever the support department cooked up for him, so he just went with a basic black tracksuit. A jacket and pants with lots of pockets (for sweets) with a lot of mobility and out of reinforced material. All in black, with his blindfold on top, it made a stark contrast to his white hair. He had played with the thought of just drawing his old jujitsu uniform, but ultimately decided against it. It didn’t feel right wearing a uniform for an organization that never existed in this world.

Still, in comparison to his other classmates, he looked rather plain.

Some of them, he could understand, like Iida‘s getup or Tokoyami’ds black cloak. Others… not so much.

Explosion boy looked like the unholy fusion of a Pomeranian and a grenade, which, okay it has to do with his quirk but seriously? The white and red haired boy‘s whole left side was a single block of ice (could he even move in it?) and most of the girl‘s outfits were extremely tight and they were even wearing heels (Why???).

Even Midoriya… well. It was obvious who his idol was. Satoru’s secret relative theory further solidifies in his head.

All might begins explaining the exercise, splitting them up into teams of two to make them fighting each other, with one team acting as ‘villains‘ and one as ‘heroes’.

The villain’s objective is to not let them touch the bomb or capture/incapacitate both heroes, while the heroes goal is also to capture the villains or touch the bomb before time runs out.

Rather basic, however Satoru can’t help but think all might didn’t really think this through. If this was real, the villains could simply detonate the bomb the moment they notice the heroes’ presence, and even if they didn’t, fighting near it might set it off. A head-on confrontation really wasn’t the best course of action here. But for a basic exercise, it should work.

“Sensei”, iida says, “is it really a good idea to decide teams by drawing lots?”

Satoru almost laughs, because what kind of question is that? In the jujutsu world, you were lucky to even have a teammate. If they had a technique that didn’t work well together with yours, sucks to be you. You just had to deal with it.

“Well, pro heroes also often can’t control who they team up with, right?”, Midoriya says. Good point.

Iida agrees easily while all might starts to look a little constipated. “Yes, that is exactly why! Haha! Now, let’s proceed with making the teams!” Satoru grins. Poor man, he really had no idea what he was doing, did he?

Satoru ends up in team C, with Yaoyorozu Momo as teammate. Of course, he would have preferred being alone, but out of all the people in his class he’s glad it’s her. She’s rather smart, and can create almost anything they need.

She nods at him as they meet eyes (or… blindfold), and he politely nods back.

They end up standing next to each other in the observation room, while the first set of teams, Iida and Bakugo (so that’s his name!) vs Midoriya and Uraraka, enter the building.

Poor Midoriya, Satoru thinks as he watches him flinch back from Bakugo’s glare. He really has no luck.

“Who do you think will win?”, he asks Yaoyorozu. Personally, he thinks it will be the hero team. Bakugo is strong, and Iida is from a prominent hero family, but from what Satoru has seen, Midoriya is smart, and very resourceful. It depends on how the villains work together, but Satoru bets his blindfold that Bakugo will try to rush in and do everything by himself, disregarding Iida and fueled only by rage. Anger makes blind, and if that applies to Bakugo the chances of his loss are quite high.

Yaoyorozu looks surprised by his question, but answers anyways after a quick thinking pause.

“I think it’s fifty-fifty. Bakugo is strong, he placed second on the entrance exam by villain points alone, and Iida is also a force to be reckoned with. Neither Midoriya nor Uraraka have any formal training, and the heroes have a disadvantage in this exercise anyways. However, Midoriya is rather intelligent from what I have seen, and he might manage to use bakugo’s temper against him.”

Satoru nods. “It’s pretty obvious they have history together”, he says, watching Iida and Bakugo set up the bomb. “I wonder how that will play out.”

They watch Uraraka and Midoriya enter the building through a window, carefully heading along the corridors, before Bakugo bursts through and ambushes them, just as predicted.

Uraraka splits off from the battle, heading further up, while Midoriya stays and holds him off.

Hmm… Satoru would have tried to take him out with teamwork, but the chances were high they would’ve been both taken out instead, especially without knowing each other.

Bakugo throws his first punch, and the room gasps.

“Wow…”, Yaoyorozu breathes as they watch Midoriya throw Bakugo to the ground in a practiced move. “it’s almost as if he knew he would do that.”

Satoru doesn’t answer. If they really knew each other before coming to UA, it’s not surprising that Midoriya was able to anticipate some of his moves, but Satoru wonders how many times Midoriya has been in this exact situation, not in a controlled environment, to know to this extend how Bakugo will attack him? Satoru’s brows furrow as he watches the fight. Combined with Bakugo’s temper and Midoriya’s nervousness around him, he doesn’t like the picture that’s being painted.

The class watches the fight with bathed breath, barely even aware of Uraraka trying to slip past Iida on the top floor. No, the fight between Midoriya and Bakugo is clearly the highlight of this exercise.

They start treading blows, but it’s clear that Midoriya is being forced on the defensive facing Bakugo’s firepower. That opening move wasn’t bad, but Bakugo has quickly recovered and drives his opponent back with his quirk. If this continues like it does now, Midoriya will lose. It seems like he knows that too, because he turns tails and flees, with Bakugo hot on his heels. It seems like he’s buying time for Uraraka to capture the bomb.

Satoru watches as Bakugo catches up to him, predictably shouting about something again, before his hand wanders to the gauntlets at his arms. Satoru straightens up immediately.

From what he saw, there’s a huge buildup of nitroglycerin in those gauntlets, that, once released, has enough firepower to level an entire building. “All might”, he alerts. “He isn’t really going to-?” But All might’s already holding the mic.

“Young Bakugo, stop this immediately! If you hit him you might kill him!“

On the cameras, Bakugo‘s crazed grin widens.

“It won’t kill him if he dodges-!“

Before anyone can say anything else, an explosion rockets through the building, so loud that the students don’t even need coms to hear it.

He really did it, Satoru thinks incredulously.

“What the fuck! All might, Isn’t this supposed to be an exercise?“, some red haired shirtless kid says next to all might. At least someone here has common sense.

“that didn’t seem very heroic“, Bird boy mumbles from the back.

All might speaks into the mic again.

“Young Bakugo! If you use that attack again I will be forced to stop the match!“, he says.

Satoru eyes him through his blindfold.

“You should stop the match now, All might.“, he says with an unusual seriousness. “Bakugo’s not going to listen.”

All mights hand clenches around the mic. “I have confidence in young Bakugo’s character!”, he says instead with his usual smile. Though, Satoru thinks it looks a bit strained.

Satoru keeps quiet, scanning the man’s features carefully from behind him. He sees the way his eyes are practically glued to Modoriya’s image, following his every move.

Was it anyone else, Satoru is sure All might would have stopped the fight without hesitation. It must depend on Midoriya. Did all might not want to ruin his fight? Not very teacher-like of you, all might.

Regardless, Satoru keeps quiet and watches the teenagers duke it out instead.

Midoriya runs away again (“not very manly…”, shirtless kid mumbles), Bakugo follows, they both have a very emotional and adrenaline-saddled screaming match before they both charge at each other simultaneously.

Satoru notices how Midoriya’s arm starts to glow as he channels his quirk, a quirk so bright that it almost hurts to look at. How interesting- it seems his quirk really does destroy his body.

Satoru sighs, not bothering to call all might out this time. The disaster is already forming too fast that any one of them can stop it (except Satoru, of course- not that he wants to put in the effort.)

All might raises the com again, making a half-assed attempt to stop them, but the damage is already done.

Bakugo’s attack hits Midoriya full force, and Midoriya-

His fist goes upwards, destroying the ceiling and blasting a hole in every floor up to the top. A truly impressive force. It almost rivaled Satoru’s red.

Of course, if he wanted, Satoru could have done even more damage.

The room falls into stunned silence as Uraraka takes Iida’s confusion as an opportunity to secure their win, just as the timer runs out.

Midoriya falls to the floor, one arm broken and one severely burnt, while Bakugo looks as if he’s having an existential crisis.

“So, can any of you tell me who the MVP was in this match?”, all might asks after Midoriya was wheeled away to the nurse’s office and the class has assembled together again.

“Wasn’t it Uraraka or Midoriya?”, frog girl asks.

“Nah, it was Iida”, Satoru butts in, picking at the seams of his shirt’s sleeve.

“That’s right, young Gojo! Can you elaborate on that?”, all might beams.

Satoru sighs, but reluctantly looks up.

“Well, Iida was less the MVP and more that everyone else was just…” incapable”… inexperienced and acted rash. No offense”, he glanced quickly to Uraraka in the back.

“Bakugo acted to reckless with his gauntlet attack and ran off in his own, Midoriya as well because he injured himself too much. Uraraka was more responsible than then in a way, but if it had been a real weapon there was a possibility that it would’ve gone off. Iida adapted to the exercise the most by removing things Uraraka could’ve used as ammo and keeping her away from the weapon, even if, as said before, it was a real weapon that wouldn’t have worked.”, Satoru concluded. Yaoyorozu beside him nodded while All might paled a little.

“…Yes! Exactly! Does anyone else have something to add?”

Yaoyorozu raised a hand. “As Gojo-san said, the hero team only won because they acted as if the exercise was, well, an exercise, and not a real battle. In a way, they were cheating because the bomb would have been a risk too high. In fact, it would have been better to not fight in vicinity of the bomb at all.”

“Well said, young Gojo, young Yaoyorozu!”

All might proceeds onto the next fight- the dual-haired boy and the octopus kid against invisible girl and tail man. It’s not much of a fight per se, seeing as Todoroki wins in the first minute by freezing the entire building. Satoru almost feels bad for the villain team- with the invisible girl, they would have stood a good chance against any other team. But Todoroki’s quirk and training are just on another level.

The third battle, bird kid and frog girl vs shirtless kid and some other guy with giant elbows, is a little more interesting and also the first normal battle they’ve seen so far, without excessive injuries or immediate victory.

When the victors, the hero team, are announced, it’s finally Satoru’s turn to get ready.

He grins at Yaoyorozu as they enter the building, Satoru carrying the bomb.

Their opponents, the hero team are Jiro and Kaminari, while Satoru and Yaoyorozu make the villain team. A shame, if Satoru had been on the hero team, he could’ve teleported himself to the bomb in an instant, ending the match even faster that Todoroki.

Satoru doesn’t know much about their quirks, except that Jiro’s has something to do with her hearing and Kaminari’s is based on electricity.

“So what’s the plan?”, he asks his partner, scanning the building with the six eyes.

Yaoyorozu blinks. “Oh- I thought you would want to lead on this exercise. What you said about Iida was quite intelligent.”

Satoru shakes his head. “Not really. Besides, you wanted to say the same, right? You’re smart, Yaoyorozu! I’m sure you can come up with a way to win.”

Satoru could come up with a decent strategy, he could even solo this exercise, but with the way the girl looks at him for guidance he can’t help but being reminded of his cute little students in his past life. Ah, he misses being a teacher.

Yaoyorozu nods. “Alright. Oh, and you can call me Yaomomo. My last name can be a mouthful.”

“O-kay, Yaomomo!”, Satoru grins. “So, how are we going to do this?”

She hums, scanning the building before them in thought. “Well, first things first. We should exchange all information necessary. My quirk lets me create anything I want from the fat lipids in my body. I have to know the atomical composition first though.”

Satoru nods. Now, how should he explain limitless? “My quirk is complicated to explain, but basically I’m untouchable and can create attracting and repelling forces. Also, my eyes can see very far and even through obstacles.” And through skin and the earth and see every individual atom in the atmosphere.

Yaoyorozu nods, impressed. “That’s a powerful quirk. Is that why you wear a blindfold?”

Satoru smiles faintly. “Among other reasons.”

She touches her chin, eyes unfocused as she thinks. For a moment, with her spiky hair and intelligent eyes, she looks just like Megumi.

“I think I have an idea…”, she says, smiling mischievously. Satoru grins back.

(“Oh, and also is this a good time to mention I can teleport?”

“Gojo-kun… is there even something you can’t do?”)

Satoru stands outside the room, back facing Yaoyorozu as she finishes barricading the door. They chose one of the rooms without a damn hole in it (thanks Midoriya) and came to the conclusion to close it off from the outside.

With wonder Satoru watches as she pulls a dozen metal bars out of her stomach and places them in the threshold, screwing them together with a screwdriver. Their opponents will not be getting through that door anytime soon.

They pause as the bell sounds, signaling the beginning of the exercise. “Alright”, Yaoyorozu says. “You know the plan.”

Satoru nods and scans the building. Kaminari and Jiro are still on the ground floor, but he sees how Jiro stabs her ear… tentacle? In the walk and points up. Shoot. She knows where they are. He turns to Yaoyorozu and mines zipping his mouth shut. She nods, and holds up two fingers. Plan number two.

Satoru nods, and without hesitating much, teleports himself right behind the hero team. Jiro is the first one to notice, she freezes, turning around, but Satoru clamps a hand over her mouth before she can alert her teammate and teleports them away.

He lands in an abandoned room, and immediately has to dodge an incoming attack. Jiro obviously knows what she’s doing, because she doesn’t waste any time coming in close and personal.

Satoru indulges her for a while, batting her attacks away as he stays on the defensive, curious as to what she’ll do next.

He sees the way her tentacles extend to a speaker at her hands, but he’s entirely unprepared when a deafening shockwave washes over him, stunning him momentarily.

So hearing isn’t all she can do. Is she projecting her heartbeat?

Jiro aims a punch at his face, but he’s recovered enough to throw up his infinity in time. He grins as her fist struggles against the invisible wall, moving to wrap her wrist in capture tape. She flinches back, trying to get out of his grip, but Satoru sidesteps her attack and gets behind her, gripping both her wrists tightly in the white fabric.

“Victory!”, he sing-songs and steps away from the girl, throwing up a peace sign. She sighs, disappointed, before settling on the ground.

“Don’t be like that!”, Satoru grins, bending down. “Your hand-to-hand was actually pretty good.”

She glowers. “I couldn’t even hit you.”

“You would’ve, without my quirk.”, Satoru shrugs.

Back in the observation room, most student’s jaws were on the floor at seeing such an obvious display of power.

“He can really teleport?!”, Ashido shouted, stars in her eyes as she watches the screen.

“And he knew exactly where they were, too, kero”, said Asui.

“But that’s not all, right?”, Kirishima said with a grin. “He also had this red… force thing at the ball throw! What even is his quirk?”

Bakugo in the back was simmering with rage, while Todoroki watched the display impassively. “At least he deserves the number one spot”, he said silently.

On the higher floors, Yaoyorozu was locked in battle with Kaminari. She had materialized a metal bo staff and was driving Kaminari further and further away from the bomb room. The boy was just barely dodging and parrying her attacks, until he caught the staff in his hands.

Yaoyorozu hissed and dropped it as electricity curses through it, and Kaminari took that moment of distraction to form his ultimate attack. They could see him shout something on the screen, his whole body emitting lightning into the space around him, and Yaoyorozu jumped back, her stomach glowing as her quirk started working.

“What’s Kaminari doing?”, Sero mumbled as they watched the fight.

Suddenly, the built up energy exploded outward with blinding light, causing the cameras in the area to go offline temporarily. All might panicked, already raising the mic to his lips when the video returned, showing Kaminari walking around aimlessly and Momo peeking out from under her isolating blanket.

The class, and Yaoyorozu, watched in confusion as Kaminari bumped into a wall, holding his thumbs up the entire time and drooling a little

Mina snorted a laugh. “He fried his brain! I can’t believe it.”

The class erupted into snickers as Yaoyorozu walked up to Kaminari slowly with the capture tape in hand.

Satoru raises a hand to the com in his ear. “Yaomomo, I’ve captured Jiro. What’s the situation with you?”

“Same here”, she says, and Satoru hears faint murmuring from the other side, and something that sounds suspicious like Kaminari saying “wheeeeeyyyy” over and over again. What the hell happened there?

“I think he fried his brain or something”, Yaoyorozu says, sounding as confused as Satoru feels.

“The hero team wins!”, All might voice booms throughout the building, and Satoru grins.

He teleports back to Yaoyorozu, snickering at the sight of Kaminari’s expressionless face.

“Good job!”, he says, holding his hand out for a high five. Grinning, she meets his hand.

“Now, how do we bring him out of here?”, Satoru says, nodding towards Kaminari.

“Can’t you teleport?”

He pouts. “Aw, but I’ve done it so much already! It gives me a headache, you know!”

That wasn’t even really a lie, though the entire truth would be that it gives him a headache if he teleports long distances or with multiple people, since he had to expand his vision quite a bit for the former.

The rest of the matches was rather uneventful, and by the end there were no more major or even minor injuries. Even Kaminari regained conscious shortly after their match, though he

was teased endlessly by his classmates mimicking his whey-mode, as they had named his state after his ultimate attack. Even after they returned to their classroom the students were still chattering about the fight simulation, or discussing each other’s quirks and fighting styles.

“Yo!”, Kaminari approaches him, shoving his way through the other chattering students.

Satoru lifts his head. “Whey-boy!”, he grins, relishing in the way the boy slumps.

“What have I done for people to call me that?!”, he says dramatically, clutching his chest.

Satoru chuckles at the display. “Maybe don’t fry your brain next time.”

“Yeah alright, that’s one me.”, Kaminari sighs. “But you were super cool back there! You were all whoosh and then ka-pow and Jiro was on the ground!”

Satoru grins at the boy’s excitement. “You didn’t see me though? You were busy losing to Yaomomo”

“That’s harsh”, Kaminari says with a grin of his own. “I wasn’t loosing too badly.”

“Well-“

“And I saw the fight later, from the recording. I can’t believe I didn’t even notice Jiro was gone until minutes later.” Satoru shrugs. “Well, there was a reason I went after her first. She would have immediately noticed you were gone. In fact, she heard me before I even did anything.”

“About that.” Speak of the devil. Jiro suddenly appears near his desk, sitting down backwards on one of the empty chairs.

“I already knew you could teleport, I was paying attention to the tests yesterday unlike someone-“ “Hey!” “But when we fought-“, she narrows her eyes. “It’s not like I couldn’t land a hit, I just couldn’t touch you. How is that possible?”

Satoru grins. It was about time someone caught up on that.

“Here”, he held out his hand. “Try and touch me.”

Jiro seemed skeptical, but still extended her hand towards him. Her eyes widened as her fingers suddenly stopped before she could reach him.

“How-?” She struggles against his infinity, but no matter how much she presses, the invisible wall won’t budge. Kaminari’s mouth drops open, his gaze fixed on the space between their hands.

“It’s difficult to explain”, Satoru begins, “But basically, with my quirk, I’m dividing the space between our hands indefinitely. No matter how much you divide a number, it won’t ever go down to zero, just like the space between our hands can never become null. You won’t be able to touch me, unless-“, he grins, cancelling his infinity so that their fingers finally touch. “-I let you.”

Jiro and Kaminari stare at their fingers, until Jiro reluctantly removes her hand. “Impressive”, she says, looking down at her hand.

“Just like Achilles-“ “-and the tortoise, I know”, Satoru finishes her sentence.

“So your quirk is basically just math?”, Kaminari asks with an amused grin.

Satoru bristles. “Now, when you put it like that it sounds boring. It’s not just math, certainly not basic math. It’s also physics and algebra, not to mention all the graphs that I have to simultaneously imagine in my head, and- stop laughing!”

Kaminari had fallen into barely contained snickers, and even the corners of Jiro’s mouth had started to twitch suspiciously.

“Sorry, sorry”, Kaminari laughs. “It’s just, now that you explain it, your quirk doesn’t sound so awesome after all!”

Satoru crosses his arms, but can’t quite suppress the grin pulling at his lips. “Not that yours is all that impressive either, Whey-boy.”

Kaminari opens his mouth to retaliate, but is distracted by the arrival of Midoriya, one arm in a sling but otherwise right as rain… Just a little tired.

The class immediately crowds around him, and even Satoru stands up to get a better look.

“Good job Midoriya!”, he pats him on the back once everyone else has finished introducing themselves. “It must have been scary, going up against Bakugo like that!”

“Yeah, a little… Kacchan is scary.”, Midoriya mumbles.

Satoru tilts his head. “Kacchan? Is that what you call him? Kinda cute…”

“H-hu? T-that’s just what I call him, since we’re childhood friends… please don’t call him that, he might actually kill you…”

“Childhood friends?”, Satoru asks. He remembers Bakugo charging and shouting at Midoriya the day before, calling him useless, aiming an attack at him that could have ended his life.

“He didn’t seem very friendly to me”, he says.

“That’s just how he is!”, Midoriya says. He doesn’t look him in the eyes. “Don’t worry about it.”

Satoru doesn’t answer, but he vows himself to keep a very close eye on Midoriya and Bakugo from now on.

“Shit”, Satoru says as he stands before the monitor showcasing the train’s departure times at the station. “I missed my train.”

For the umpteenth time, he thinks about saying fuck it and teleporting home, but no, quirk laws. What a pain. He doesn’t even have enough sweets at home to alleviate the headache teleporting such a distance would cause him. He sits down with a sigh, resigning himself to wait the ten minutes for the next train.

As he watches the people come and go, he suddenly feels a familiar presence at the edge of his awareness. He turns his head, spotting a head of red and white hair making its way down the stairs.

“Oi! Todoroki-kun!”, he says, jogging over to the boy and ignoring the stares that follow him.

“Are you taking the next train too?”

“Gojo-san” Todoroki eyes him strangely. Satoru can practically see him considering to just turn around and leave him there, but he surprises Satoru by giving a short nod.

“That’s cool! Then we can go together!” The boy doesn’t answer, but Satoru doesn’t mind. He’s used to the cool brooding type, he’ll have Todoroki warming up to him in no time!

(“Gojo-sensei, if you don’t stop pestering me about your stupid sweets right now not even your infinity will be able to withstand what I throw at you!”)

“You know, I never congratulated you on your win! It was really impressive how fast you could freeze the building, you won even faster than me! Though I have to say, that hero costume is an absolute eyesore, I’m sorry. How did you even come up with that-“

“Are you just talking to me because of my father?”, Todoroki interrupts him suddenly. He looks wary, with a look in his eyes that tells Satoru he has been in this exact scenario many times before.

Satoru tilts his head in confusion. “But I don’t even know your father?”

Todoroki’s gaze doesn’t change, even if he looks a bit confused. “Most of my classmates at my old school just wanted to get close to me because of him. You know that won’t bring you anything right?”

Satoru scratches his head, confused. “Is he like, famous or something?”

Todoroki gapes at him, and it’s maybe the most expressive Satoru has ever seen him.

“You… don’t know who he is.”

“Nope!”

He falls into silence, brows slightly furrowed. Satoru is content letting him be this time, waiting for him to make the next move.

When enough time passes that Satoru has almost forgotten their earlier conversation, he speaks up.

“… you too.”, he says faintly.

“Hm?”

“Your quirk”, Todoroki says, a bit louder. “It’s also impressive.” He turns his head away from him, but Satoru still notices him fidgeting slightly. How cute!

“Aw, thanks!”, Satoru grins. “Who knows, maybe we can spar together sometime!”

Todoroki nods reluctantly, and they fall into silence again. Satoru has to suppress his chuckling.

Aaah, it’s almost as if he’s back at Jujutsu tech, teaching his cute little emotionally stunted students how to socialize. Good times.

(“But… what if they don’t like me?” “Don’t worry, they’re nice kids. Er, animals in panda’s case. Stuffed animals. That can talk.” “…What?” “Don’t worry about it! They’re not the type to bully other’s, they’re my students after all! Just act natural!” “Somehow, that doesn’t assure me at all…” “Yuta! Don’t be so negative! You’re under my protection, I’ll make sure nothing happens to you. I promise.”)

The quiet resumes, and eventually, their train arrives. They sit next to each other, still in silence, until Todoroki turns to him after a few stops.

“You’re the strongest in this class.”, he says, and it’s a statement, not a question, not even a tease. So Satoru doesn’t nod, he just watches him.

“You’re the strongest in this class”, Todoroki says again, “So eventually, I’m going to have to beat you.” Satoru looks at him, really looks at him. This doesn’t feel like a challenge, not like Bakugo when he threatens Satoru that he’ll defeat him eventually. There is no emotion behind Todoroki’s eyes, no determination, no anger, no desire to actually beat him.

“Why?”, Satoru asks.

Todoroki looks taken aback. “What do you mean ‘why’?”

“Why do you want to beat me?”

Todoroki stays silent, staring at the other boy.

“Because, when I looked into your eyes when you told me just now, it didn’t feel like you actually wanted to defeat me.”, Satoru continues. “It just felt like something you think you need to do.”

Todoroki doesn’t answer. He stares straight ahead, the only sound around him the chatter of the passengers and the whoosh of the train. His brows are furrowed, and he looks as if he is thinking hard about what Satoru just said.

The ride continues, without either of them saying anything. Eventually, Satoru’s stop nears, and he stands up. “Todoroki”, he says one more time, and knows the boy is listening even with Satoru’s head facing the other direction.

“When you ever need someone to talk to”, he says, “I’m there.” And he really means it this time. Satoru doesn’t know much about Todoroki’s situation, but he feels as if he might be more complicated than he seems.

The boy doesn’t answer, and Satoru doesn’t expect him to. Instead, he leaves the train with one last wave and leaves Todoroki alone on the train, still staring at him until it starts again and Satoru is out of his sight.

Notes:

Also, there will be no romance between Satoru and bnha characters :)
If he calls them cute it's really just because he sees them as his protegees

Chapter 5: Out of the doorway, the bullets rip

Summary:

“Midoriya…”, Aizawa’s gaze lingers on his recently broken arm. “Stop breaking all your goddamn bones.”

“Y-yes sensei!”, Midoriya squeals and lets his head hang low. Poor kid.

Notes:

Alright the chapter titles are now from various queen songs. Also, don't try to read much into them, I just went with the vibe

Remember when I said I probably won't continue this? That was clearly a lie

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“What the fuck”, Satoru mumbles as he stares at the mass of reporters crowding against the UA gate.

“My thoughts exactly, man”, comes from someone next to him. It’s… Kirishimo? The boy with spiky red hair and an obsession with saying “Manly!”. Satoru sees Mina and Kaminari next to him, both eyeing the crowd with varying anxiety.

“What are they here for?”, Satoru asks, already thinking about a different entrance route.

“Probably because of All might”, Mina says, biting her nails anxiously. “Because he’s starting to teach here, you know?”

“Right”, mumbles Satoru. That’s why it’s a bad idea to only have pro heroes teaching here, and such prominent ones on top.

“Well, there’s no other way! We’ll have to get through them somehow!”, says Satoru, already marching towards them.

“Couldn’t you teleport us inside or something?”, Kaminari asks as the group reluctantly follows behind him.

“Unfortunately, no”, Satoru sighs mournfully. “You need to check in with your student card at the gate, otherwise it’s registered as a security breach.”

“Why do you sound like you’ve tried it?”

“I haven’t!”, Satoru lies. That had been a very awkward conversation with the principal.

They fall quiet as they near the mass of reporters, trying to look as small and inconspicuous as possible, but fail as the reporters hone in on them like a shark smelling blood.

“What do you think of All might?! Can you imagine him as a teacher? What’s his class like?”, they immediately ask, shoving a camera in their faces.

“Uh-“, Kirishima says, stepping back, but Satoru answers before the reporter can reassume her endless questions.

“Who’s that?”, he asks with a look of pure innocence on his face.

“Huh?”, the reporters stutter, lowering the cameras in uncertainty, and they take that opportunity to slip through the gates.

“Oh my god-“, Mina laughs, doubling over and clutching her stomach. “That was awesome, did you see herface?” Satoru laughs with them at the memory of the reporter’s incredibly confused and taken aback expression. “-acting as if you didn’t- didn’t know fucking all might-“

“What? Who’s that?”, Satoru says again and they all break down in another laughing fit.

“What’s so funny?” They turn around to see Uraraka and Midoriya come through the gates, the latter looking as if he’s just seen a ghost.

“Ah, nothing”, Satoru says and readjusts his uniform. “How did you get through?”

“Ah well…”, she says, nervously pressing her fingertips together. “We wanted to just charge through, but they looked rather… scared? They didn’t approach us at all!”

That’s all it takes to make the entire group burst out laughing again. Kaminari and Mina are clinging to each other for dear life, and Kirishima even has a few laughing tears in his eyes.

Uraraka frowns. “Seriously, what’s so funny?”

Eventually, all of the students of 1A managed to slip past the press, some with more success than others. Satoru is pretty sure some of them called Aizawa-sensei homeless, but he doesn’t look particularly bothered as he starts homeroom class. Satoru wonders if anything can bother him at all, or if he’s simply given up on life. Honestly, Satoru can understand that.

“I saw the recordings of yesterday’s training”, he says, his gaze sweeping over the class.

“Bakugo, you’re talented. Stop acting on your emotions alone like a kid.”

Bakugo looks as he’s about to explode but grits out an acknowledgement through his teeth.

“Midoriya…”, Aizawa’s gaze lingers on his recently broken arm. “Stop breaking all your goddamn bones.”

“Y-yes sensei!”, Midoriya squeals and lets his head hang low. Poor kid.

“Anyways”, Aizawa says. “Today, you’ll be…” Taking another insane test with threats of expulsion?!, thinks the class. “…choosing your class president”, Aizawa concludes and the class breathes a sigh of relief.

“You can settle it amongst yourselves however you want”, he says, already zipping up his sleeping bag. “I’ll just be… over here.” With that, he flops down to lie behind the desk like a giant yellow worm. Satoru wonders if he can really sleep in an environment like this. Well, whatever. The class’s attention is clearly settled on who will become the class president, and they quickly decide on a vote, despite having known each other less than a week.

Satoru stares down at his blank paper, for once unsure what to write. He could vote for himself- but, ugh, then he had to act responsible. No thank you. He writes down Yaomomo’s name instead. She seems like a decent, level-headed person who would probably be happy having a leadership position. He briefly contemplates Midoriya, but… Nah. He’s more likely to just combust on the spot rather than take charge of the entire class. Someone who would vote for him must clearly be nuts!

In the end, it’s Midoriya and Yaoyorozu tied with three votes, and above them, with four votes… huh?

“Alright, who the hell voted for me?”, Satoru says as they stand at the front of the class, his gaze sweeping over the mass of students. His eyes linger on Kaminari, who just grins mysteriously. Little shit.

Satoru sighs. “Well, sorry to disappoint, but I actually don’t want to be class rep. Too much work, y’know?”, he grins.

Aizawa, who counted the votes, sighs. “Alright, who you wants to be class rep?”, he says as he turns to Yaoyorozu and Midoriya, who looks ready to faint. “Decide quickly, I don’t have the patience to sort out another vote. “Midoriya quickly turns to the taller girl.

“Y-yaoyorozu-san can do it, I don’t mind!”

“Alright, then it’s decided.”, Aizawa says tiredly. “Yaoaorozu as the class rep and Midoriya as the vice class rep.”

The class cheers for them, and Satoru makes sure to clap the loudest. He’s still unsure about Midoriya, but maybe in time he’ll grow into a responsible person deserving of the spot.

Yaoyorozu smiles happily, thanking everyone who voted for her, and that concludes that class.

At lunch, Satoru once again bypasses the entire options of healthy food and makes a beeline for the desserts, piling as many on his plate as will fit, much to the chagrin and judging stares of Uraraka and Iida and the confusion of Yaoyorozu, who joined them today.

“Come on Gojo-kun, you can’t eat sweets every time!”, Uraraka exclaims, watching the cake disappear into Satoru’s mouth at worrying speeds.

“Uh, yes I can?”, Satoru says once he swallows. “In fact, I’m doing it right now.”

“Not even a little bit of rice?”, she says, holding out her rice bowl. Satoru sighs.

“Fiiiine”, he says, making a show of gathering a bunch of rice on his chopsticks and chewing it. “Happy?”, he asks, mouth full of rice. Hmm, it’s not that bad. Maybe he’ll consider it in the future.

Uraraka nods happily and continues eating, while Satoru resumes wolfing down his cake. He’s not really angry at her, of course- how could he? She was just looking out for him.

(Suguru too, had always nagged him about eating less sweets. Until he was the one being nagged by Satoru because he was losing so much weight.)

“If it makes you sleep easier at night, I do eat healthier for breakfast and dinner”, he says. “It’s just that my quirk sometimes gives me a headache if I use it too much, and eating sugar helps.”

Yaoyorozu nods in understanding. “It’s similar with me- My quirk relies on the fat in my body, so I have to eat a lot to replenish it after I use my quirk.” In fact, she had easily triple the food portions they had stacked all around her.

Uraraka blinks, suddenly embarrassed. “Oh- I didn’t know that.”

“It’s fine!”, Satoru grins. “It’s kind of nice to have someone looking out for you that way, you know?”

She smiles, relieved. “Speaking of looking out- Midoriya-kun, you haven’t eaten anything at all! Are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah…”, Midoriya says, staring queasily into his noodles as if they hold the secrets of life.

“It’s just, I don’t know if I’m qualified for vice class rep. I- I haven’t really done anything deserving of the position…”, he laughs nervously.

Iida and Uraraka are quick to reassure him, but Satoru exchanges a look with Yaoyorozu.

“Midori-kun… can I be honest with you?” Midoriya looks up in surprise, but quickly nods.

“Of course!”

Satoru rests his chin on his hand, looking Midoriya in the eyes. “I have my doubts about you being chosen as vice rep.”, he says, serious for once.

“I mean no offense, but you’re not a very authoritative figure in this class. Against Bakugo, for example, you would have problems making him listen to you.” Midoriya’s face drops, his eyes glueing themselves to the table.

“But despite that”, Satoru continues, making the other’s eyes snap back up in hope, “I don’t think you’ll really be a bad vice rep. You’re clearly very selfless, placing other’s wellbeing above yours, and the exercise yesterday shows that you can put your nervousness aside and put yourself in a leading position if necessary. So yes, I do think you’re qualified as vice class rep.”, he says. “Just maybe not the most qualified in the class, you know?”, he concludes with a smile. “I’m not telling you this so you step down, this is just my honest opinion. Do with that what you want.”

Midoriya looks back at him with neither nervousness nor disappointment, but determination and understanding. “I understand”, he says. “Thank you for being honest with me. I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome, Midori-chan!”, Satoru grins. “And now eat! Lunch is finishing soon and all your noodles are still there!”

“Oh, you’re right-“

It’s in that moment when the alarm starts.

Immediately, the entire lunch hall falls into panic. Satoru stands up, scanning their surroundings for possible threats.

“What’s happening?”, Iida asks a passing student. “It’s a level three security breach!”, they say, quickly gathering their things and standing up. “It means someone infiltrated the building!”

Satoru is immediately in high alert. Is it villains? Or something else? He tries to expand his senses, to use the six eyes to search the building, but in the chaos it’s hard to distinguish individual signatures. The mass of panic and fear is overwhelming his eyes so badly that Satoru has to abandon that attempt.

“Are you alright?”, Yaoyorozu asks him, a hand on his arm. She can’t really reach him because of his infinity, but her touch is still somewhat calming.

“Yeah”, he answers, fighting against the impending headache. Thank god he ate so many sugar earlier. “Thanks, Yaomomo.”

They try to fight through the crowd together, but to no avail, even with the help of limitless.

Satoru can’t make out Midoriya, Uraraka or Iida anymore, they must have lost them in the chaos.

Satoru is about to say fuck it and teleport himself out of there, but all of a sudden Iida is flying through the air like a fidget spinner, powered by his engine legs and Uraraka’s quirk probably, and slamming into the wall above the exit sign.

“Everything is fine!”, he shouts, hanging on for dear life. “Everyone, It’s just the media, it’s fine! There’s no need to panic!”

He’s right, Satoru realizes as the chaos starts to subside. It’s just the press from this morning, the same annoying reporters blocking the courtyard. He even senses Aizawa and present mic already dealing with them. He relaxes, loosening the grip on his infinity a little.

It’s just the press, he tells himself. No villains, no curses, no curse users.

(“It seems this curtain lets anyone pass but me”, Satoru says with a bitter smile on his face. Fuck, it’s his students in there and he can’t even help them. They just got Yuuji back, so who will it be this time? Nobara? Maki? Megumi? He can’t lose any of them, he almost broke when he heard that one of his students died while he was away and he couldn’t do anything.

He still sees Haibara’s still body in front of him, his legs missing because a fucking curse bit them off.

“It’s going to be fine”, Shoko says next to him. “Nothing will happen to your students.” Satoru finds that hard to believe.)

Back in the classroom, Midoriya stutters his way through an explanation on why Iida would be much more suited as the vice class rep, and with a grand emotional display of friendship, the job goes to him.

Satoru smiles, glad that Midoriya made this decision after all.

“I thought about what you said“, Midoriya says to him after he sits back down. “About someone being better suited for this position.”

Satoru raises an eyebrow. “I hope you didn’t just give the place to Iida simply because of that?”

Midoriya hesitates. “…No”, he says calmly, and Satoru smiles. He’s already so proud of him, he has to fight the urge to reach out and ruffle Midoriyas fluffy green hair.

“No, it’s not just because if that.”, Midoriya continues. “I think I would have made this decision regardless of whether you talked to me beforehand or not. But…” he seems to think. “But I think you made me realize what I already knew deep inside of me, I just couldn’t see it at the moment.”

Satoru grins at him. “Well, I’m always happy to help.”, he says and Midoriya smiles back. “But, do you know what I realized?”

“What?”, Midoriya asks curiously.

Satoru snickers. “You didn’t get to eat your noodles after all. A shame!”

Midoriya looks surprised for a second, before he starts laughing too.

Later, after the class has ended, Midoriya approaches him while he’s packing his stuff together.

“Gojo-san”, he says, fidgeting slightly with his hands. “What is it?”, Satoru says, shouldering his backpack.

“I was wondering”, Midoriya says, “Why did you not want to be class rep?”

“Ah”, Satoru says. “It’s not for some profound reason or something, of you think that”, Satoru reassures him. “It just seemed like a bunch of unnecessary work for me, you know? And on top of that, if I was class rep, I’d have to be responsible and follow the rules and set a good example and all that. Bo-ring.”

Midoriya smiles exasperatedly and Satoru has the inkling that he had already anticipated a similar response.

“Still”, he says as they walk out the classroom, “I think you would have made a great class rep, Gojo-san.”

Notes:

Satoru, seeing a bunch of teenagers in a dangerous field of work: adopt?

Satoru’s monkey brain, nodding: adopt.

And, if you're wondering who voted for who:

Yaomomo: Yaomomo, Satoru, Todoroki
Mirodiya: Midoriya, Uraraka, Iida
Satoru: Kaminari, Mina, Kirishima, Asui

Chapter 6: You got blood on your face, you big disgrace

Summary:

“It’s fine”, he hears Midoriya’s fretting voice. “We wouldn’t have gotten out without your help anyways, but- Gojo-san, you’re bleeding.”

Satoru blinks. He brings a hand to his nose, and it comes away wet with blood.

“Ah”, he says.

Notes:

USJ is here!!! Time to traumatize my favorite characters!

Bigger chapter than usual since I wanted to fit it all in

Also, when was anybody going to tell me that we've already reached over a hundred kudos??? We're already at *checks fic* ALMOST A HUNDRED AND FIFTY???? Omg you guys are amazing I love you so much!!! To everyone who commented, you are the light of my life, the blood in my veins and the chocolate in my croissant!! And to those who didn't, I still see you and appreciate just as much! I FUCKING LOVE Y'ALL

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“Today, we will be doing a joint training exercise with myself, All Might and one other hero.”, Aizawa’s tired voice resounds through the classroom.

“Oooh! Sensei, what will we be doing?”, Satoru shouts in excitement.

“Rescue training”, Aizawa grunts, sounding as excited as Kaminari about math.

“Shipwrecks, landslide zones, everything in between and on the outside.”

The class descends into murmurs, everyone talking about what they wanted to do first.

Rescue training… Satoru didn’t know how to feel about that. Sure, it was a substantial part of hero work, and certainly very important, but Satoru had never really done something like that. While exorcising curses, the area around them was almost always deserted, the inhabitants having either fled or died. The nearest thing Satoru had ever done to a rescue mission was probably the Shibuya incident, and the less he thought about that, the better.

“I’m not done”, Aizawa says tiredly into the chaos, and the class immediately quiets down.

“We’ll be taking the bus, since the facility is off campus. You can chose if you want to wear your hero costumes or not. That’s all, don’t be late. Now shoo.”

Satoru thinks about not wearing his ‘costume’, but decides against it. The gym uniform he would have worn instead was uncomfortably tight and not very protective. At least in his costume he had more mobility.

In the bus, Satoru quickly sits down next to Midoriya, munching on a chocolate bar, not really paying attention to the conversation until Asui mentions Midoriya’s quirk. He perks up, his chocolate bar forgotten for now.

“Your quirk looks a lot like All Might’s”, She says, and Midoriya starts stuttering so much Satoru is worrying he might have a stroke. Still, he analyzes his reaction carefully, how he vehemently tries to deny her statement and searches for an excuse, and how he relaxes when Kirishima unknowingly covers for him.

He grins when Midoriya catches him staring and freezes like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Well, enforcer type quirks aren’t uncommon, you know? There are a lot of heroes with quirks similar to All Might. Although, no one really knows what his quirk really is either, right?”

He watches Midoriya relax further, and, of course, that’s when he strikes.

“Midoriya, you’re a fan of All might, yeah? And you’re good at analysis too. What do you think, what’s All might’s quirk?”

Midoriya pales so quickly that Satoru starts to worry he might faint, before his eyes suddenly go in every direction except Satorus.

“A-Ah well, I don’t- um, there are a lot of theories, you know? A-and any one of them could be true, I- I mean either it’s just a really strong strength quirk or it could a-also have something to do with the smoke that surrounds him sometimes, n-not that it does! It’s just a possibility a- and-“, he descends into muttering, not noticing when the conversation moves on without him.

“Poor Midoriya… You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”, Kirishima asks, turning to Satoru.

He shrugs, finishing his candy bar and stuffing the wrapper into one of his pockets.

“It’s fun to annoy him”, he says, grinning.

“Gojo-chan”, a croaking voice says. Satoru turns to Asui, who is staring at him with her big froggy eyes. It would be creepy if it wasn’t so cute.

“What is it, gama-chan?”, he asks.

“Call me Tsu-chan”

“Okay! Tsu-chan, then.”

“I always speak my mind. And I think your quirk is really weird.”

“Yeah, I know”, Satoru chuckles. “I don’t understand it myself, sometimes.”

“You wear a blindfold, but you always know exactly where everything is, and you always seem to look us in the eyes, too. Is that also part of your quirk?”

Satoru grins, hyper aware of how everyone is suddenly staring at them.

“My, my, Tsu-chan! You’re asking quite the personal questions, you know?”

“Yes”, she croaks, not even a hint of shame on her face, and Satoru chuckles. He likes her already.

“You know how sometimes at concerts the singers wear earplugs? Not so that they don’t hear anything at all, just so that their ears don’t get overwhelmed and they hear the music at a normal level.”, he says, waiting to see if she understood what he was trying to say.

(“What the hell are they talking about?”

“I don’t know man, maybe they’re just really passionate about music?”)

“I see, kero”, Asui says. “That makes sense. Sorry for making you uncomfortable.”

“It’s fine! If I was, I wouldn’t have answered.”

“If we’re talking about powerful quirks”, Kirishima butts in, “I gotta say, it’s definitely Bakugo and Todoroki, right? The way he froze an entire building…”

Satoru glances back to the two, Tododoki seemingly sleeping peacefully (Without his horrible hero costume, thank god) and Bakugo staring out the window in perfect moody teenager fashion.

“Yeah, but Bakugo’s personality is kinda shitty, you know? Not very hero-like.”, Asui croaks.

“What was that?! SAY IT TO MY FACE, YOU EXTRA!”, Bakugo starts yelling from behind them, finally startling Midoriya out of his mumbling spiral.

“It’s funny how we haven’t known each other long, but everyone knows Bakugo’s temper is the worst”, Kaminari grins. “Hey Gojo”, he says over Bakugo’s death threats. “If you and Bakugo fought, who would win?”

“HAAAH? I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!”

Satoru turns to Bakugo, looking him right in the eyes. Slowly, he starts to grin. “Nah, I’d win.”

The inside of the unforeseen simulation joint- the USJ (“Not Universal studios Japan? Aw, Man!”) is, simply put, gigantic. There’s a shipwreck zone, a landslide zone, fire and windstorm, earthquake- you name it, it’s there.

Even Satoru has to admit that he’s impressed. Of course, there’s nothing over real field experience, but this way at least the students will be somewhat prepared.

Pro hero thirteen points out different zones and starts explaining them, but Satoru doesn’t really listen. There’s a constant buzz in the back of his mind, like standing amidst a swarm of bees. He frowns, shaking his head. Maybe it was the security system?

“Gojo-chan?”, Satoru turns to see Asui standing next to him again, her head tilted to the side. “I was wondering, if you’re the concert singer”, she says, “When’s the concert for you?”

Satoru grins. “That’s the fun part. It’s always the concert! Life is a party, and all that.”

She hums, and Satoru’s mouth is already open for an answer when he hears Aizawa talking up ahead.

“Hey, thirteen”, he hears Aizawa say. “Where’s all might? Wasn’t he supposed to be here already?”

They speak lowly, so that any normal student wouldn’t be able to overhear them. Too bad Satoru’s not a normal student.

His attention snaps over to them, and he sees thirteen holding up three fingers. “It seems he overexerted himself on the way to school… he’s resting in the lounge.”

Overexerted? All might? There had been an unusually high amount of All might sightings on the news when Satoru checked on the way to school, but that couldn’t have been enough to actually bother the number one hero right? And what’s with the fingers. Three? Three what?

He sees Midoriya stiffen out of the corner of his eye. So he knows what three means. What is Satoru missing?

Thirteen continues explaining to the class how their quirk works.

“It’s an amazing quirk for rescue”, they say, holding the rapid attention of the class, “But it can also kill someone just as well.” The atmosphere drops, and even Satoru’s mouth presses into a thin line. Thirteen doesn’t need to tell him. He already knows.

(“At least curse me a little, at the very end.”)

Satoru blinks the memory away. Not now. He tries to focus on the teachers again, before the lights in the dome suddenly black out. He immediately snaps to attention, ignoring how the constant buzzing in his head grows louder and louder. He grits his teeth, his eyes snapping to the center of the plaza, where the air is starting to distort.

“Aizawa-sensei-“, he warns, and he whirls around.

Slowly, person after person starts pouring out of the gate, with one particular at the center. Satoru narrows his eyes. Has he seen him before? He feels… familiar.

“Sensei, is this part of the exercise like in the entrance exam?”, Mina asks, and Satoru can feel the class relax.

“No”, he says, limitless buzzing under his skin. “Those are villains.”

Midoriya throws him an alarmed look and steps back, eyes fixed on the mass of people gathering at the plaza.

“Stay together and don’t move!”, Aizawa says as he slips on his glasses.

“Thirteen, proceed with the evacuation. Kaminari, try to contact the school and see if they have attacked there too. Gojo” His eyes slip to Satoru for a second. “I don’t know the extend of your quirk, but try if you can teleport out of here to call for backup.”

Gojo nods, and Aizawa’s gone, jumping into the crowd.

Kaminari raises a hand to his headset, but frowns. “I can’t contact the school.”, he says. “The signal is jammed. It’s like there’s-“ “-a forcefield around the USJ.”, Satoru ends the sentence.

“I see it too.” He should have known. The buzzing that’s been on the back of his mind the entire time- that was another quirk taking control of the dome and cutting them off from the outside world.

When Satoru tries to see outside it, there’s a wall of energy layered around the dome, dense enough that his eyes can’t penetrate it.

“I can’t see past the dome”, he swallows. “Which means I also can’t teleport outside of it.”

The class starts to panic slightly after he finishes. The reality of the situation starts to settle in, and many of them start to tremble in fear.

“Everybody stay calm”, Thirteen says with a leveled voice as they herd the class towards the exit. “We’re going to evacuate to the school and notify the other heroes, and then everything will be alright.”

Satoru barely hears them, his attention focused on Aizawa’s fight. He’s a trained pro hero, so a few grunts barely make him sweat. Still, Satoru keeps an eye on him- just in case.

He also feels the ominous presence of a few other villains at the back- feeling so wrong that it makes Satoru’s hair stand on edge just by looking at them.

The class has almost reached the gate, when suddenly- one of the presences in Satoru’s range disappears. He throws his arm out and the class skids to a stop just as purplish black mist erupts from the ground in front of them, taking on a vaguely humanoid shape with startling yellow eyes.

Satoru has a blue already at his fingertips when he starts to speak.

“Unfortunately for you, I can’t let you escape.”, he says, his low voice dangerously calm.

“Greetings. We are the league of villains. It might seem a little presumptuous, but we have invited ourselves in to end the life of the symbol of peace, All Might.” His freakish eyes blink.

“However, he is not here, as we were informed. Has there been some kind of change in schedule?”

Satoru’s mind starts whirring. How did the villains know their schedule? There was no way for them to get information from UA, unless- the break-in. It was so obvious that Satoru wanted to bash his head against the wall. How were mere reporters supposed to break through UA’s prestigious security system? He should have fucking known.

The villain starts monologuing again, but Satoru’s had enough. Within a heartbeat Satoru appears behind the mist villain, blue forming in the space between them and dragging anything and everything towards it. The villains eyes widen as he’s starting to get sucked into the void, but his form wavers, melting into the ground. He reappears a few feet away, but is already forced into defense again by Bakugo and Kirishima. The former unleashing an explosion so powerful that it fills the area with smoke.

Satoru frowns in annoyance as he notices that their attacks had no effect on the villain.

“How cute”, he says, reforming out of the smoke. “Unfortunately for you, I can’t afford having you butting into our fight.”

The mist expands, curling forward like tentacles until the entire plaza is covered in a giant purple whirlwind. Satoru quickly catches on to what he’s doing, and grabs the nearest two students and teleports out of range. His infinity wraps around them, making sure not a speck of purple comes near them. Just as quick as it came, the mist dissipates, leaving behind only a handful of students.

Satoru’s eyes sweep over them, his range simultaneously expanding as he checks on everyone else.

“Oi! Let me go, you freak!” Satoru blinks, realizing he still has Bakugo and Kirishima in his hold. “Sorry”, he says, dissipating his infinity.

Shoji, Iida, Mina, Sero, Uraraka and Suta Saota Seto sugar man are still here, along with Satoru, Kirishima and Bakugo. Nine out of twenty, plus thirteen.

Iida, immediately in vice class rep mode, tells Shoji to see if he can figure out where everyone is. However, Satoru cuts him off.

“Midori-chan and Tsu-chan are in the shipwreck zone, Yaomomo, Jiro and Kaminari in the mountains, Todoroki alone in the landslide zone- no wait, Hagakure’s with him. Tail man’s in the fire zone, Tokoyami and Koda in the whirlwind zone. Aoyama… is hidden somewhere near the plaza. But everyone’s in the building.”

Iida blinks, perplexed, but Shoji nods. “It’s true”, he says with one of his hand-mouths.

“How-“, Iida starts but he cuts himself off. “No matter. Gojo-San, you can’t teleport yourself out of here correct?”

Satoru nods, as much as it irks him to admit it.

“They’ve put a sort of… force-field around the dome”, he tries to explain. “It messes with my eyes. But if we could somehow get out of the USJ, I can get to UA in an instant. However…”

He eyes the swirling mass of black mist that’s still lurking near the entrance.

“We’ll have to get past him first.”

“Leave it to me”, Thirteen says and moves themselves to stand in front of the students.

“While your teleportation is useful, Gojo-kun, we’ll need Iida’s quirk to blow the mist away. Only he is fast enough so sound the alarms on the outside.”

“I could still-“

“No, wait.”, Sero says, stepping forward. “Sorry, but I think it’s better if you try and help our classmates that are fighting. With Iida’s quirk, we can also get help quickly.”

He smiles, and Satoru knows he’s right.

“I agree with Sero-kun”, Thirteen says.

“I still don’t like leaving you here with him”, Satoru says. “I have the situation under control. I’ll know if anyone’s in realdanger.”

Thriteen sighs. “If you insist”, they say. Satoru almost starts an argument, but the mist villain decides for them.

“Who is foolish enough to discuss their plans in front of the enemy?”, he says, the mist expanding and lunging for them, but thirteen is prepared this time.

A cap from the top of their gloved fingertips jumps off and the mist ends up being sucked inside, not unlike Satoru’s blue. Still, as a portal opens inside of the mist villain, Satoru knows thirteen has made a fatal mistake.

“Thirteen, stop your quirk, now!”, he says, his eyes widening.

He materializes behind the hero, just in time to stop the warp gate from redirecting their quirk. Blue meets the black hole’s force coming from the mist, the two forces playing tug of war with the space, both trying to tear it away.

The difference between the two quirks however, is that black hole simply sucks matter in and turns it to dust, while bluecreates a void in a space and sucks the matter around it in to fill that unnaturally created void.

Black hole is strong, but limitless is stronger.

Eventually, even the warp gate gets sucked into it, along with a good portion of the surrounding ground.

In the end, thirteen and Satoru are standing in a crater of Satoru’s making, only themselves and the ground under them unmarred, protected by Satoru’s Infinity.

Satoru tries to get his breathing under control, turning around for Thirteen. “Are you alright?”, he asks. “Yes”, they breathe. “Thank you, Gojo-kun.”

Satoru doesn’t have the time to answer, turning to Iida. “Iida, run, quickly! What are you waiting for?”

He only hesitates briefly before complying, his engines firing up as he charges towards them.

But the sentient mist has other plans. “I can’t let you escape”, he says and lungs for Iida again.

Oh no you don’t, Satoru thinks and throws himself forward, jumping blindly towards the mist. His hands meet something solid and they go tumbling down, Satoru pressing something withing the mist downwards. It struggles against his infinity, trying to wrap him in his mist, but Satoru’s defenses stay strong. Up until a giant portal opens up under both of them.

Shit. Satoru lets go, immediately teleporting himself back to safety.

“You have a strong quirk, little hero student”, the mist says as he starts to reform. “So similar to my powers, too. I wonder how it would have played out if you were on our side?”

Satoru sneers at him, but before he or Misty can continue their little standoff, an explosive force slams into him, literally.

“What, you think you can take all the spotlight for yourself?”, Bakugo shouts, his hands forming continuous explosion where they are closed around his metal body.

His head rises and he makes contact with Satoru’s. “Just piss off! We’ve got it under control!”

“He’s right”, Thirteen says, having recovered. “We’ll take it from here. Go help the others.”

Satoru smiles faintly. “Don’t die, alright?”, he grins crookedly.

“Wouldn’t dream on it!”, Kirishima shouts, bashing his fists together. Satoru gives him one last nod and within one blink and the next he’s gone.

At UA, in the teachers lounge, present mic worriedly turns to the principal. “Nezu-san”, he starts, but the mouse-bear already nods.

“I know. We’ve lost communication with the USJ.”

Endless water opens up beneath Satoru, and he almost crashes into the side of the boat as he starts to fall, scrambling for purchase as he skidders down towards the water surface. Luckily, something catches him and drags him over the edge.

Strange… Satoru usually has no problem controlling where he teleports. Maybe it’s the jamming signal? He grits his teeth.

“Gojo-san!”, comes from next to him. He turns to a very wet Midoriya. “Yo.”, he waves as he stands up and starts dusting his clothes off.

“Need a hand getting out of here?”

“Please, kero”, Asui says. “The ship is already starting to sink.”

Satoru knows. Out of everyone, Midoriya and Asui were the ones in the most danger.

“Hold on tight”, he says placing an arm around each of their shoulders, before he expands his senses.

He warps away like usual, but- something is wrong. A sharp pain stabs into his temples, and he feels himself stumble and fall into cold water. What? He was sure he had planned to warp himself to the riverbank, what had gone wrong?

He feels as Asui grabs him and Midoriya and quickly pulls them toward the shore.

Satoru faintly senses other presences in the water, but everything is hidden by dense fog.

He can’t even clearly see Asui and Midoriya right next to him, everything feels muted and foreign. Faintly, he’s aware of reverse cursed technique starting to work, but the static that’s placed into his mind doesn’t waver. Fucking villains with their fucking electrical quirks.

“Sorry”, he croaks out once he feels solid ground under his feet. “I miscalculated.”

“It’s fine”, he hears Midoriya’s fretting voice. “We wouldn’t have gotten out without your help anyways, but- Gojo-san, you’re bleeding.”

Satoru blinks. He brings a hand to his nose, and it comes away wet with blood.

“Ah”, he says.

“Are you-“

“I’m fine”, Satoru interrupts. “I probably just won’t be able to teleport anymore”, he says with a smile that’s more a grimace.

“It’s alright!”, Midoriya says, and Satoru imagines him waving his hands. “You already did enough.”

It’s not alright, Satoru wants to say.

He’s supposed to be the strongest. He shouldn’t fail in such a simple thing, he should have been able to resolve this whole disaster in minutes. He curses silently, damning his weak body.

When he was fifteen in his past life, he wasn’t even able to access most of his techniques except blue and his infinity. And then came Fushiguro Toji and the Star plasma vessel mission.

Still, even then his body had taken a lot of time to get used to the new influx of information.

In this world, his cursed technique is a quirk, and it has the repercussions of one. Satoru should have known that starting to use it so much would have eventually put a strain on his body.

While Asui and Midoriya discuss their next move, he takes his blindfold off and massages his eyes tiredly.

His mind feels like a beehive, he can’t seem to form even a simple equation needed for limitless, much less the rows and rows of numbers for teleportation. The jamming quirk is affecting him more than he thought.

“You don’t get it, we have to fight! We have to help Aizawa-sensei somehow! He’s all alone against all those villains!”, Midoriya shouts.

“I don’t know, Midoriya-chan… Isn’t it better to leave it to the pros? We haven’t even been hero students all that long…”

“But… Gojo-san, what do you say?”

“Hm?” Satoru looks up, and his uncovered eyes meet Midoriya’s. He can see his eyes widen, his heart rate picks up and the way he can’t seem to tear his gaze away from Satoru’s eyes. Satoru blinks. For once, he can finally see his environment clearly.

“Usually, I’d agree with Tsu-chan…” His eyes fall back to the plaza, where the hand villain is engaging Aizawa. “…But something about those villains rubs me the wrong way.”

With impending horror, the three of them watch as Aizawa and the hand villain fight, until he manages to catch Aizawa’s elbow in his grip.

Satoru’s eyes widen as he sees how his elbow starts to disintegrate, how the atoms split up and lose their connection, how each individual cell falls apart, turning into dust.

Frozen in fear, Satoru watches how Aizawa manages to free himself, jumping back before being immediately engaged by the remaining villains. And then-

“I’m not the final boss, Eraserhead”, Hand villain says, and a creature so wrong and unnatural that it seems to go against the course of nature itself appears.

It feels like a slimy mass of decaying worms and maggots against Satoru’s uncovered eyes, almost like a particularly nasty curse.

Its arm stretches out, reaching towards Aizawa, and Satoru’s body moves before he even fully registered it.

He teleports between them, his eyes and his head screaming at him, and he feels more blood rush out his nose. Still, it’s worth it as the creature’s fist halts against his infinity.

“Gojo-!”, Aizawa shouts, but Satoru isn’t listening. His eyes are focused on the way he can see dozens of quirks stuffed into the creature’s body. It’s stare bores into Satoru’s eyes, and he can see no human soul behind them. With rising horror Satoru realizes that the creature in front of him had once been human.

It dawns on him then, what it reminds him of so much. The curse Mahito’s human experiments. So wrong and disgusting that it made bile creep up his throat.

“Cheater! Cheater!”, the hand villain shouts from behind him, a hand scratching furiously at his neck. “Nomu! Kill them!”

The thing- nomu?- lunges again, but his attacks are futile against Satoru’s infinity- and Satoru’s starting to have enough of this game. With barely a lift of his finger, The Nomu’s limbs start to twist, the crunch of bone and the splatter of blood music to Satoru’s ears. The Nomu doesn’t scream, doesn’t even really react as its limbs are broken in a hundred pieces, but Satoru feels with rising disbelief as they start trying to stitch themselves together.

“You fucking cheaters, destroying the nomu- I’ll fucking show you-!”

Satoru expects him to lung towards them, he surprises him again by turning to Asui and Midoriya at the shore.

“First, let’s get rid of the unwanted onlookers.”

Satoru’s blood freezes to ice, and he can only watch as his hand races towards Asui- He won’t be quick enough, he can’t even guarantee to teleport there safely- but he doesn’t need to.

“You’re really cool, Eraserhead”, the hand villain says as he turns around to meet Aizawa’s red eyes. Satoru breathes a sigh of relief, before turning to the nomu thing again.

It reaches back with its arm again, despite it being a bloody mass of torn flesh and broken bones, and the moment it stops against the infinity Satoru vaults up to tap his fingers against the beast’s brain. He searches for a brain flow to interrupt so that it will fall unconscious, and finds- nothing? In his stupor, Satoru doesn’t even notice the nomu’s following attack. How does it not have brain activity?

He seriously contemplates seeing if tearing his head off would work, but before he can act on this thought the doors to the USJ blast open. Satoru’s head snaps up.

“All might!”, Midoriya shouts in relief. It is him, in all his glory, standing at the entrance of the USJ. Damn it. Satoru was starting to have fun.

“Gojo” Satoru turns to see Aizawa still staring at the hand villain, wrapped in his scarf. “Take Midoriya and Asui and get out of here. Leave the rest of the fight to the pros.”

The villain keeps struggling in his bindings, muttering something about “Kurogiri” and “Where the hell is he?!”

Satoru glances at the Nomu, uncertain. It seems pretty strong, and Satoru knows he could end the fight in less than a minute.

“Gojo”, Aizawa says, his voice cutting. “You’ve done enough.”

Satoru sighs. He supposes Aizawa is right. Maybe this time, Satoru doesn’t have to do everything alone. Maybe, he can rely on others this time. Just this one time.

He gives the Nomu’s limbs one final twist, before trotting over to Midoriya and Asui. All might is steadily making his way over to them, batting the remaining small fry villains away like flies.

“Let’s get out of here”, he mutters as he grasps them by their collars, and then he’s gone.

They reappear somewhere on the plaza, just where thirteen and the rest of the students are still holding off the mist villain. (Kurogiri? That’s what hand villain had muttered. Pretty uncreative.)

Not in the exact place Satoru had wanted because his head is still killing him, but at least he’s getting better. Maybe it’s reverse cursed technique, or maybe he’s just getting used to the jamming signal, or the villain responsible has been knocked out and the remaining effects are just part of Satoru’s headache.

Shit, he thinks as a stabbing pain pulses behind Satoru’s eyes, and more blood falls from his nose.

“Gojo!”, he hears, and he blinks the dark spots away from his vision as thirteen turns to him.

With wide eyes, Satoru can only watch as their moment of distraction manages to be their one mistake that lets Kurogiri escape.

“STAY HERE YOU FUCKER”, Bakugo yells and charges at him, but the villain is already disappearing into the ground.

Without thinking, Satoru attempts another teleportation, wincing as pain explodes in his head. For a moment, he sees red, and a small groan of pain escapes him.

“Gojo-san?!” He turns to see Midoriya steadying him. Shit, he barely even teleported a foot away from his original position.

“It’s okay, I’m fine”, he mumbles, but he knows he would fall to his knees if it wasn’t for the other boy.

When his eyes focus again, Kurogiri is gone and Thirteen is carefully approaching them.

“Are you all alright?”, they ask, the dark eyes on their costume sweeping over their forms.

“Me and Asui-chan are fine”, Midoriya says. He throws Satoru a look filled with worry.

“But Gojo-san…”

I’m not hurt”, Satoru emphasizes. “It’s just quirk exhaustion.”

He looks at the space where Kurogiri had been just moments before. Damnit.

He turns to look at the plaza again, where all might is fighting the nomu. He has a bad feeling about this, and for once he hopes he isn’t right.

“Wait”, he realizes, turning around and looking at his classmates with wide eyes. “Where’s Bakugo?”

Back at the fountain, All might is facing the nomu-creature, while Aizawa is still trying to restrain Shigaraki.

The man struggles in his capture scarf, fingers wrapped around the fabric, and Aizawa knows he can’t let his attention waver for even one second.

The man snarls in his bindings, one bloodshot eye staring at Aizawa. “Kurogiri”, he hisses, and Aizawa almost dismisses it as his usual crazed talk before a portal of purplish mist starts to open up beneath him.

Aizawa jumps back as fast as he can, forced to let him go before his weapon is cut in half.

He whirls around as they reform a few meters further. His eyes widen as he sees Kurogiri didn’t come alone- a struggling Bakugo is in his grip, snarling and kicking in the villain’s grasp.

“Kurogiri”, Shigaraki says, scratching his neck. “What took you so long?”

“My apologies, Shigaraki Tomura”, he says. “The remaining students took me off guard. One of them escaped-“

Kurogiri”, Shigaraki says with a dangerous calm, his fingernails still digging red lines into the soft flesh of his neck.

“If you didn’t have such a useful quirk, I would’ve turned you into dust just know.”

An almost invisible shiver runs through the villain, and the purple whisps of mist seem to form a little faster. Bakugo struggles more, the explosion in his hands being muffled by the mist.

“At least you got us a parting gift”, Shigaraki says, inspecting the struggling teenager hidden in the purple fog.

Aizawa grits his teeth and readies his capture weapon, debating which one of the two he should target first.

Kurogiri’s quirk is too unpredictable, and their only escape route. Taking that out of the game would be beneficial, but Aizawa’s elbow burns with the reminder of Shigaraki’s destructive quirk.

In the end, the decision is made for him.

“Whatever”, Shigaraki says, his eye fixing on Aizawa. “Let’s get rid of their joker first. Nomu.”

Carolina smash!”, All might shouts, his arms crossing before delivering the blow. The water behind the nomu flies away from the force, but it looks unaffected by it all, staring down All might with his wide, unnatural grin.

Whatever young Gojo did to him, he’s starting to recover. His twisted limbs start rotating back into place, the wounds close up and the bones realign themselves with a sickening snap.

Still, it raises its half healed arm, aiming a punch right at All might’s face.

As quick as the wind, he dodges it, baring his teeth in its face.

“Missed!”, he grins, before he freezes.

“Wasn’t aiming for you”, Shigaraki sing-songs behind him with a gleeful voice.

All Might’s blood turns to ice as he turns around, seeing the nomu crouched over a small, unmoving figure in the ground.

Aizawa’s head is smashed into the concrete, creating spider-web like cracks, and the creature breaks his arm in the other hand like a twig.

All might flinches at the resounding crack. “You monster”, he growls before regaining his wits and aiming for the nomu again. The mutation drops Aizawa like a sack of potatoes, turning back to All Might.

“Aizawa-sensei…”, Satoru whispers, eyes wide in horror as he watches the nomu crush his teacher like a bug.

“What is it? What’s happening?!”, his classmates and thirteen ask, too far away to see the same things Satoru sees. Only Shoji’s face is frozen in terror, all his arm extensions turned into ears.

“Gojo-“

But Satoru is already gone. Fuck his headache, fuck the jamming quirk and fuck his stupid frail teenaged body.

His next teleportation is a few good feet away from the fight, but he still falls onto one knee as the world starts to blur. Fuck, he’s crying blood isn’t he? But Satoru doesn’t care. His attention is entirely focused on Aizawa, how his bones jut out of his arm and the pool of blood grows larger beneath his head.

Stand the fuck up, he tells himself as he struggles to his feet and folds his hands in a familiar sign.

“Who…?”, Shigaraki turns around, only to get hit in the face by Satoru’s red head on. He grins as the villain gets blown back, disappearing somewhere in the near trees.

“Shigaraki-!”, Kurogiri cries out, and Bakugo uses his moment of confusion to land a house-sized explosion right into his corporeal body.

DIE!”, he screams, and Kurogiri is forced back.

He throws Bakugo one last glare full of distaste, before dissipating into thin air, probably running after Shigaraki.

“I didn’t need your saving you damn-“, Bakugo starts, before turning around to look at Satoru.

He freezes, his gaze jumping between his uncovered eyes, the blood still steadily dripping from his nose, and the way he’s barely keeping upright.

“Hey-!”

“Not now”, Satoru interrupts him, stumbling over to Aizawa.

The nomu let go off him and started aiming for all might again, leaving the man lying in a puddle of his own blood.

Satoru picks him up, trying to ignore the way his arm dangles from his grasp, or how his face is so red with blood that Satoru doesn’t even recognize him, and how his heartbeat grows fainter and fainter by the minute. He closes his eyes, trying to speak over the storm raging in his head.

“Bakugo”, he says. “How many meters away are we from thirteen and the others?”

“Hah?!”, he sneers “the fuck you want now?!”

“Just do it”, Satoru says, trying to keep the impatience out of his voice.

“Fine… about 500 meters I think? More if you count the stairs.”

Satoru turns in their vague direction, still practically blind to the world. Bakugo huffs and grabs him by the shoulders, adjusting his position so he’s facing the right way.

“Just go”, Bakugo says over the sound of All Might and the Nomu. “Get hobo-sensei to safety. I’ll be fine in my own.”

Satoru wants to protest, but he can’t bring himself to care enough to go through the whole process of speaking.

He focuses, trying to get the small part of his brain that is still sane to function as he calls up the correct equation. He hasn’t done this for a while, not since he expanded the range of his eyes enough to cover entire nations if possible, but the process still feels familiar to him. The blood smeared across his face and hands also helps- blood is always a useful catalyst.

He finishes the equation and warps himself and Aizawa away, hopefully to the plaza.

He feels solid ground under his feet, but the relief is short as his legs immediately give out under him as soon as he lands.

The screaming pain in his head grows louder and louder, strong enough to drown out everything else, and the last dregs of his vision are taken over by static.

He’s barely aware of the weight of Aizawa sensei being lifted off him, and his whole face starts feeling warm, though he doesn’t know if it’s because of the blood pouring out his mouth and eyes or if it’s just because he’s starting to lose consciousness.

He focuses on breathing in one lungful of air after the other, fighting through the sharp pulse of pain in his head.

Inhale, exhale.

He starts to get feeling in his fingers again.

Inhale, exhale.

Faint murmur starts to reach his ears.

Inhale, exhale.

He starts to make out vague outlines through the static, the shape of a body, the beating of a heart.

Inhale, exhale. Inhale…

“- jo! Gojo-kun, please answer, can you hear me?”

“Thirteen…?”, he croaks.

“Yes, it’s me! Gojo-kun, what happened? Why is Aizawa-san…?”

Satoru blinks, and muted colors swim in his field of vision before disappearing again. He opens his mouth, but nothing comes out.

Damnit… All Might grits his teeth as the Nomu’s fingers dig deep into the wound at his side. The familiar purple mist of the warp villain swims in the corner of his eye. He struggles, tightening his grip on the nomu, but it digs its fingers deeper into his body as retaliation.

“All Might!”, he hears, and looks up in wonder. It’s Midoriya, running towards him, tears of frustration in his eyes, before an explosion cuts him off.

“YOU’RE IN MY WAY, DEKU!”

Sounds and color drift past Satoru, each more confusing than the next. He’s vaguely aware of someone trying to touch his shoulder, but they don’t get through his infinity.

With each breath he takes, a bit more awareness comes into his body. He feels reverse cursed technique whirring at the back of his mind, but it feels like trying to use a vacuum in the Sahara. And there’s still the jamming quirk like a blanket over his mind, buzzing and humming around him. For an instant, he is fifteen again (really fifteen), and being surrounded by hundreds of flyheads at the entrance of Tengen’s chamber.

He knows there’s a fight somewhere at the edge of his awareness, a fight he could very well win, but he can’t drag himself together any more to possibly interfere- at least, until a deafening explosion sounds through the entire dome.

Immediately, it’s as if a fog has lifted from Satoru’s mind. He inhales a shuddering breath, his head shooting up as the pain in his mind starts to fade. The force field, is his first thought. All Might must have broken it when he put a hole in the roof.

His attention immediately snaps back down, counting the different signatures. Hand and Mist villain, All Might, Midoriya, Todoroki, Bakugo.

He hesitates as he looks at All Might. Damn… He must have really exerted himself in that last fight. One more move, and his façade will collapse.

Midoriya must know this too, because he immediately launches himself forward.

Oh no you don’t, Satoru thinks as he readies limitless.

Much to the surprise of Thirteen and the other students, he’s gone again, standing in between Midoriya and the hand villain.

Their eyes meet and the villain starts to flinch back in surprise, but Satoru is faster.

Limitless takes hold on his outstretched arm and he twists.

The man cries out in pain, as first his arms twists out of its socket, than the first bone breaks.

Snap after snap, Satoru targets his lower arm bones, then the individual fingers of his hand, filled with vicious satisfaction as blood starts to splatter and the villain’s screams fill the air.

“Tomura!”, the mist guy says and reaches out towards him, but before he can, a shot rings out. Satoru looks up.

“It’s the heroes!”, Midoriya cries out in relief.

Satoru loosens his hold on Shigaraki, watching as Thirteen starts dragging him and Kurogiri towards them. He holds his hand out again, but knows he’s too late as they disappear into the mist. Just before the portal closes, Shigaraki’s eye snaps over to him and they make eye contact. Before Satoru can do anything, they’re gone.

Satoru exhales in the resounding silence, his shoulders dropping.

“It looks like they escaped after all…” He sighs, turning to Midoriya. “You alright?” Then he registers the state of his bones. “Again?! Midoriya, do you hate your bones or something?”

“Uh, n-no…”, Midoriya stammers, his eyes going back and forth with something behind Satoru. Right, All Might!

Satoru turns around, looking for the tall figure hidden in the settling dust, and finds… “Huh?”

He blinks, his mind racing. Is his mind still playing tricks on him?

All might is still half hidden by the cloud of dust, but Satoru’s six eyes filter through it as if it wasn’t even there. He already knew All Might was getting weaker, but this…?

He looks almost skeletal, with sunken-in cheeks and his clothes hanging off his thin frame like off a coatrack.

“Hmm, so this is what you were hiding?”, Satoru says, tilting his head to the side. “I should have known.” The underlying shine of his quirk that was always there before is now gone, retreated back into his core. This… tiny form that he has, it’s probably a repercussion of his injury, right? “Do you know your quirk is fading, tiny might?”, Satoru says, focused on the flickering light he can see inside of him.

“Uh…”, tiny might says, his small blue eyes looking at Satoru with confusion.

“G-gojo-san”, Midoriya says from behind him. “You already knew about All Might’s secret?”

“Nah”, Satoru says. He reaches for the blindfold around his neck, slipping it blindfold back on, and sighs at the immediate relief. “It just doesn’t surprise me, that’s all.”

Police report of the USJ incident

Questioning of: Hero student GOJO SATORU, CLASS 1A, class number: 19

“Hello Gojo, I’m officer Tsukauchi. Before we start, I’m legally bound to inform you that my quirk, lie detector, makes me aware of whether a statement made by you is the truth or a lie. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. Now, for the record, please state your name and age.”

“Gojo Satoru, 15”

“Thank you. Now, would you please recount the events of what has been dubbed the USJ incident, with your own words? Take as much time as you need and don’t be afraid to include everything you deem necessary, no matter how small.”

The respondent takes a moment to compose himself.

“I was at the entrance to the USJ, like everyone else, when I noticed a warp in space at the bottom near the fountain. I alerted Aizawa-sensei and he told us to stand back after he recognized they were villains.”

“Did you notice them before he did?”

“I think so. A few of the others thought that it might be part of the exercise, but I didn’t. After that, Aizawa started fighting the villains. He asked me and Kaminari to see if we could contact the school somehow with our quirks.”

“Your quirk makes you teleport, correct?”

“Among other things, yes.”

“Do you mind explaining to me why you weren’t able to use it?”

“My quirk relies heavily on my eyes. A part of the requirements needed to use it is that I have to see the place I’m teleporting to with my eyes.”

“Is that also part of your quirk?”

“…Yes.”

“Do you… want to elaborate?”

“…No.”

“…Alright.”

“I couldn’t see past the dome because there was a force field around it, made by a quirk that also prevented us from contacting anyone outside the dome, and it acted like a curtain to my eyes. I couldn’t see past it.”

“Alright. And then the Mist villain attacked you?”

“Yes. Thirteen and us had come to the conclusion that Iida would be better suited to bypass him than me, so we tried to make an opening for him. I kept the villain from injuring thirteen, and after they reassured me that they would be fine, I was tasked with looking after the other students that had been scattered.”

“And you found Midoriya and Asui?”

The respondent nods.

“They were stuck on a sinking ship, so I teleported them away. But…”

“But you were confronted with the villains?”

“Yes… The hand villain, I forgot his name, and the nomu.”

“Shigaraki Tomura.”

“Yeah, something like that. I don’t really remember what he said, but he ordered the nomu to attack Aizawa-sensei, so I stopped it.”

“With your quirk?”

“Yup. I also managed to injure him, though he started to regenerate. Then, All Might came and told me to bring Midoriya and Asui to safety. He told me he could handle it, but obviously, he was wrong.”

“All Might and Eraser1head are pro heroes. They put your safety above everything else. I’m sure that in that moment, even if they were unsure of their victory, they wouldn’t have told you.”

The respondent doesn’t answer.

“Anyways. Back with Thirteen, my arrival managed to be the distraction the mist villain needed to escape, and he took Bakugo with him. I also saw how the nomu broke Aizawa-sensei’s arm and smashed his face.”

“That must have been very scary to see. I’m sorry had to experience something like that.”

“…”

The respondent seems confused.

“Uh… Well, I teleported back and forced hand man away, and Kurogiri followed after him. All Might was busy with the Nomu, so I brought Aizawa back to the others.”

“And then you were out of commission for a while, correct?”

The respondent crosses his arms.

“I overused my quirk, that’s all.”

“… Gojo, I hate to say this, but that is a lie.”

The respondent sighs. “Fine. The jamming signal was giving me a headache, and my head felt like it was splitting in half. I couldn’t really see or hear anything in the following five minutes, but that passed when All Might blasted the nomu through the roof and the force field broke.”

“And then you teleported back to the fight?”

“Yeah. I saw the hand villain reach out for Midoriya and stopped him.”

“Other eyewitnesses say you did more than ‘stop him’.”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you injure him?”

“Yes. With my quirk, I twisted the space his arm was occupying. If he wanted it intact, he shouldn’t have waved it right in front of me.”

“Still… that act of violence was rather unnecessary.”

The respondent scoots forward until he can look the officer in the eyes.

“Officer, I was in an extremely stressful situation and thought I might die.”

Edit: According to Officer TSUKAUCHI NAOMASA, that was a lie.

“My sensei was harmed to the point of unconsciousness right in front of my eyes and Midoriya just broke both his legs, again. Are you really giving me shit right now for self-defense?

“… Fair enough. What happened after the villains escaped?”

“Just so we’re clear, I wouldn’t have let them escape. I talked with All Might a bit, teleported me and Midoriya to the entrance of the USJ and now we’re here.”

Tsukauchi pauses the recording, looking Gojo in the eyes (and what a creepy pair of eyes. They make him shiver just by looking at them).

“I’ve come to know that you saw something you weren’t supposed to see after the other heroes started to come in.”

Gojo’s eyes flash dangerously, and he seems to stare right into Tsukauchi’s soul.

“Ah yes, the tiny might form. Is this where you start threatening me, officer? Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. I know the panic it’ll cause.”

Tsukauchi swallows, but his outward appearance doesn’t change.

“While that is good to hear, that’s not what I wanted to say. Tell me, have you known about All Might’s other form before today?”

Gojo sits back in his chair, drumming his fingers on the table.

“Nah. I had my suspicions, but that, I didn’t know about.”

“What about his injury?”

“What injury?” Gojo’s question is innocent, but Tsukauchi can see hear him grinning, and doesn’t even need his quirk to confirm it as a lie.

“Alright, fine”, Gojo says after his glare. “Yes, I knew about it. And you should also tell him to get his lungs, er, lung, checked out, I’m no doctor but I’m pretty sure they aren’t always supposed to be filled with blood.”

Tsukauchi blinks perplexed. What exactly was this boy’s quirk? “I’ll… make sure to tell him. Now.”

Tsukauchi resumes the recording.

“I believe that was all.”

“One more thing.”

Tsukauchi’s eyes snap back up, and he almost gets a whiplash from how fast the atmosphere in the room changes. Gojo’s earlier mischief is gone, replaced by cold calculation.

“The nomu… When I fought it, I noticed a lot of concerning things.”

Tsukauchi leans forward in interest. “Oh? What kind?”

Gojo’s eyes seem to lose focus as he looks past him, seemingly staring somewhere far away.

Suddenly, Tsukauchi is forcefully reminded that this is just a fifteen year old boy, just having lived through the probably most traumatic experience of his life.

“It wasn’t like anything I’ve ever seen before. I don’t quite know how to describe it, but one thing I know for certain: It had multiple quirks.”

Tsukauchi inhales sharply, his hands clenching around the fabric of his pants. All for one, he thinks immediately.

“Are you sure?”, he stresses.

“A hundred percent”, Gojo says, his incredible eyes finding Tsukauchi’s again. A hundred different shades of blue open up before him, as endless as the sky.

“Something like that… can’t possibly be human.”, Tsukauchi murmurs.

“It was”, Gojo disclaims. “Or… it had been. Not anymore.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“When I touched it’s brain, there was no activity.”, Gojo says bitterly. “Whoever was used as vessel for the nomu’s power, they have long died.”

Tsukauchi swallows, thinking of the impending consequences this discovery will have for the world.

End of the transcript

Notes:

Can anybody tell I really REALLY didn't want to write the All Might vs nomu fight? It was a STRUGGLE

I really thought about doing a deus ex machina type of situation with Satoru, but decided against it. I want him to SUFFER. So I had to nerf him a little, sorry not sorry :3

Chapter 7: Write my letter, feel much better, and use my fancy patter on the telephone

Summary:

“Gojo-kun.”, Mina says as she reopens her eyes. “Todoroki’s the son of Endevour. You know, the number two hero? ”, she says, hoping to convey the entire emotional range of ‘are you shitting me right now’ with her eyes.

She watches with exasperation as Gojo’s widen in surprise, unerstanding and then realization.

“ Ooooooh ”, he says. “That makes so much sense! ”

“I can’t believe this guy”, Jiro mutters, facepalming hard enough to probably leave an imprint.

Notes:

We're getting the gang THERAPY

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Satoru sighs, carefully unwrapping a roll of clean bandages. With steady hands, he dips the fabric into a bowl of freezing water, his fingers brushing against the ice cubes still swimming on top.

With practiced movements, he starts wrapping the soaked bandages around his head, almost groaning in relief when they cover his overused eyes.

A knock rings out through the hospital room just as Satoru wraps the last inches of fabric across his eyes.

“Enter”, he says, although he already knows who it is.

“Gojo-kun!”, “Gojo!” And other variations of his name ring out as a gaggle of teenagers burst through the door. A blurry figure launches through the room, embracing Satoru and clutching him so tightly he has trouble breathing. Almost on reflex, he reaches for his infinity, before forcing the instinct down.

“Kirishima-kun…”, he says, awkwardly patting the red head on the back.

“Ah, I’m sorry Gojo!”, he says, letting go of Satoru and sitting down next to him on the bed. “But I’m just… really glad you’re alright!” Oh god, are those tears in his eyes? Shit, Satoru’s not equipped to deal with that! “You were?”, he says instead, a hand hovering awkwardly over the boy’s shoulders.

“We all were”, Uraraka says from the other side. Tsuyu next to her nods, and even Yaomomo and Kaminari seem to look relieved.

“None of us except Midoriya were even seriously hurt, but when you came back with Aizawa-sensei looking like… well, we thought whoever hurt him got to you too.”, the class rep says, her dark eyes downcast as she remembers the events from the day before.

“Of course, I explained to them how it was just from quirk overuse, kero”, Asui continues. “But it was still really scary.

“Yeah!”, Kaminari says. “You were even bleeding from your eyes, man! It was creepy, like something out of a horror movie!”

Satoru tries to smile reassuringly, but it probably looks closer to a grimace. “I’m sorry for worrying you”, he says, and he means it. No one should ever see him in that state. “I probably shouldn’t have pushed myself too hard. But…”

“We get it”, says Uraraka with a wobbly smile.

“I would have done the same. If there’s something I can do to help, I just have to, you know?”

“I agree with Uraraka!”, Kirishima grins. “We aren’t angry at you! I still have to thank you for getting me out of the villain‘s range at the beginning! Who knows where I would have ended up if it wasn’t for you?” Kirishima claps him on the back. “That was real manly if you, Gojo-bro!”

“Me too, kero”, Asui says. “I never said anything to Midoriya-chan… but in that moment on the ship, I really thought that we might not make it.”

Satoru’s lip wobbles. “You guys…”, he says, trying hard as if he isn’t about to start crying dramatically. Damn teenage hormones.

He tries to grin instead, as wide as he can. “It’s fine! I’m just happy you’re alright, okay?!”

“Okay!”, they echo, and fall into relieved laughter. Somehow, Satoru feels the tension of the last day leaving his shoulders, and he sinks further into the hospital bed as the other students resume their light-hearted chattering.

“I was actually surprised that you have eyes at all, Gojo-chan”, Tsuyu says, a finger on her chin. “I honestly thought there was nothing under that blindfold. Maybe a horrible scar, kero.”

Satoru grins. To anyone else, her words might’ve come off as offensive, but Satoru knows she didn’t mean it that way.

“Sorry to disappoint”, he says. “But don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll see lots of horrid scars in the future.”

“Don’t be”, Tsuyu croaks. “Looking back, they were actually quite pretty. I was just distracted by the blood at the moment.”

“No way, you’ve seen Gojo’s eyes?!”, Kaminari butts in. “I thought you were blind! I want to see them too, c’mon!”

“That makes no sense.”, Yaoyorozu responds, crossing her arms. “If he really was blind, he wouldn’t move around with such security. Though I have to admit that I’m curious as well.”

Satoru just smiles. “Maybe later”, he says, when the thought of opening his eyes doesn’t make his skin crawl.

“Fair enough”, Kaminari shrugs.

“They were really beautiful, like the sky”, Tsuyu tries to explain upon Uraraka’s question for her to describe Satoru’s eyes. “With the clouds reflecting inside of them too. They were like a kaleidoscope, I could be lost in them forever.”

Her word bring a large smile on Satoru’s face. “Aww, that’s so nice of you!”, he coos. His chest warms with happiness at his eyes being called pretty for once, beautiful even.

(“ Unnatural”, hissed Chieko when she thought Satoru couldn’t listen.)

They end up chattering for a while, talking about nothing in particular, until Kirishima brings up Midoriya.

“He really wanted to come see you”, the red head said. “But he still needs to heal, so recovery girl forbid him to move.” Kirishima scratches his head, a solemn expression on his face. “But out of all of us, he was the most worried about you, I think.”

Satoru doesn’t respond at first. He doesn’t doubt that Midoriya was really worried about him, he had been in quite the state after all, but he can’t help but think that that’s not all he wants to talk about with Satoru.

“What exactly happened while I was…”, he cuts off, searching for the right words.

“Collapsed?”, Kaminari suggests.

“Out of it?”, Kirishima says.

“Disassociated?”, Tsuyu ribbits.

Satoru blinks. “…yeah. That.”

Tsuyu shrugs. “Nothing much. Thirteen brought Aizawa outside to the medical corps. Iida had already returned with reinforcements, and they were apprehending the remaining villains. We wanted to bring you outside too, but when we turned around again you were gone.”

Right, Aizawa. Wait, Aizawa!

“Aizawa-sensei! How is he?!”, Satoru asks, head turning around. Frantically, he expands his vision through the entire hospital, searching for a familiar signature, ignoring the slight burn in his eyes.

The others exchange a look.

“We don’t know”, Uraraka mumbles. “They took him away immediately, and we haven’t heard anything from him since.” She casts her eyes down. “He… he was hurt pretty badly. We don’t even know where he is.”

“He’s here”, Satoru confirms, head turned in the direction of a familiar beating heart. “He’s not awake yet, but he’s not in critical condition.” Anymore . But Satoru doesn’t say that. It’s better not to disturb his classmates more.

“That’s a relief”, Yaomomo breathes out, and the others also seem a lot more relaxed. “He must have been hurt pretty badly, to still be asleep.”

More like in a medically induced coma, Satoru thinks. He remembers seeing his bones splinter and break how the skin of his elbow disintegrated under the hand villain’s touch like it was nothing, the noise his head made when it hit the concrete.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

They try to talk about lighter themes, even if it’s difficult to find anything else to talk about when the events of the USJ are still fresh in their minds. Logically, Satoru knows that avoiding to talk about it is not the healthiest course of action, but this is neither the time nor the place to do so, so he keeps quiet, content to let the conversation flow into mundane topics.

“…My parents almost wouldn’t leave me out of their sight”, Uraraka laughs. “It’s like they’re scared I’ll disappear if they don’t watch over me twenty four-seven.”

“Yeah, my moms are like that too”, Kirishima says. “But I guess it makes sense. We just survived a major villain attack after all. Speaking of”, he turns to Satoru.

“Where are your parents, Gojo? Did they already leave for work, or something?”

Satoru’s smile presses into a thin line.

“Yeah, something like that. They’re really busy, and I didn’t want to disturb them further.”

Neither Chieko nor Tadashi had even set a foot in the hospital, Satoru would have known. If it wasn’t for the announcement of the principal, Satoru wouldn’t have known that they already contacted the student’s legal guardians.

With that, the conversation came to an end, and the gaggle of teenagers exits the hospital room, not before making Satoru promise them that he’ll visit Midoriya. They are all going home after being checked on by the medical staff, and Satoru’s glad they came to visit him before they went.

The door closes, and Satoru is alone again.

He sighs, leaning back on the bed. He assured recovery girl and the other nurses and doctors that there was no need to hold him here further and that he was all fine and dandy, but they insisted on making him stay overnight. And since Satoru couldn’t make his ‘parents’ sign the documents for his discharge, he would be stuck here for at least another day. He sighs again, and stands up. If he’s stuck here anyways, he might as well make some visits.

And if Midoriya can’t come to Satoru, he will have to go to him.

When Satoru enters the room, Midoriya is not alone. He doesn’t know whether to be excited or apprehensive as he spots All might in his deflated form sitting opposite of him.

“Ah, Young Gojo…”, All might says, and Midoriya’s head whips around.

“G-Gojo- san! You’re alright!”

“Of course I am”, Satoru says with a reassuring grin. “I wanted to visit you, but is now a bad time? I can come back later, if you want.”

And take my chance to eavesdrop on you.

Midoriya’s eyes jump from Satoru to all might and back again, his mouth open in uncertainty, but All might raises a hand. “It’s fine, Gojo-shonen”, he says. “I wanted to have a talk with you, anyway. Sit down, please.”

Satoru complies, sitting down in a chair opposite of him and resting his elbows on his knees. “Should you really be running around already, All Might?”, Satoru starts before the man can say anything. “I can see that your body still needs rest.”

“Ah, it’s all right”, he says, smiling faintly. “Recovery girl healed the worst if it. And call me Yagi-san while in this form, please.”

Satoru nods. “So what did you want to talk about? I already told your friend from the police force that I won’t spill your secrets, so no need to worry about that.”

All might laughs nervously. “Ah, you already Talked with Tsukauchi? That’s good to hear. While that was part of it, I also wanted to talk to you about the nomu.” The smile disappears, leaving behind a serious expression, amplified by his sunken-in eyes.

Satoru leans forward further, but before he can answer, the door to the room opens and Tsukauchi, the detective that questioned Satoru, steps in.

“Ah, speak of the devil!”, all might says, coughing up blood. “We were just talking about you, Tsukauchi.”

“A-all might, is it alright for him to see you like that?”, Midoriya asks. “Don’t worry, it’s fine!”, the man responds. “He’s my closest friend in the police force.”

“I’m glad you’re alright, All might”, Tsukauchi smiles. “I don’t believe we have met”, he says to Midoriya, reaching over to shake his hand. “Tsukauchi Naomasa, I’m a detective working with the police.” Midoriya looks a little dumbfounded, before responding with his own name. “Nice to meet you…”

Tsukauchi’s eyes sweep over Satoru, before they widen in recognition. “Ah, Gojo-kun! I almost didn’t recognize you with the bandages. Nice to see you’re doing well.” Satoru smiles back.

“You already know each other?”, Midoriya asks.

“Yeah”, Satoru answers. “I’ve already had the pleasure. Tsukauchi-san questioned every student but you after the USJ.”

“Oh…”, Midoriya says, looking up at the detective. “Are you here for that as well?”

Tsukauchi shakes his head. “No, that can come later. Rest for now. I’m actually here to discuss the situation of the nomu with all might.”

Satoru folds his hands together under his chin.

“I assume you want me to help with that?”

Tsukauchi smiles apologetically. “That would be most appreciated. I know you’ve already explained all your findings in the report, but new things have come to light that complicate the situation further.”

“Was the nomu even found?”, Satoru questions.

“Fortunately for us, yes. It seems that Kurogiri wasn’t able to warp him away for some reason.”

Satoru hums. Kurogiri’s quirk probably only worked if he knew the exact coordinates, not unlike the method Satoru had used while teleporting himself and Aizawa. Without knowing where the nomu was, they also had no way of retrieving it.

“When we apprehended it, there was no struggle at all, and it remained entirely mute.” Tsukauchi continues. “It was like you said, Gojo-kun. There seemed to be no brain activity, and it was confirmed later by specialists who examined it. It’s simply brain-dead.” Midoriya swallows, and Satoru plays with the edge of his bandages as he thinks.

When Satoru uses Unlimited Void, it renders any human brain-dead as well. With curses it’s a different story. However, the feel of the nomu’s mind was the same one of his domain: the state of a mind after an influx of information too big for the brain to handle.

“Could it be because of it’s multiple quirks?”, Satoru asks, much to the surprise of All might and Midoriya. “ Multiple quirks?! ”, he coghs, wiping blood away from his lips.

“Yes”, Tsukauchi says grimly. “I already didn’t want to believe it when Gojo-kun told me, but the scans confirm it: the nomu had a magnitude of quirks, including shock absorption, strength enhancement and regeneration.”

“How is that even possible?”, Midoriya mumbles. “I’ve never heard of anyone having multiple quirks.”

Tsukauchi exchanges a meaningful look with All might, one that Satoru doesn’t miss.

“The police is still working on the case”, he says, but Satoru knows that’s not all there is to the story.

“But yes, the investigation department thinks that’s probably the cause of that. No usual human could handle having so many more quirks than normal.”

They fall into silence, Tsukauchi, Midoriya and All might pensive while Satoru’s mind whirls.

The league of villains has a way of passing quirks to other humans, and that meant that there was a possibility that they could create more nomus. However, Satoru knows that that can’t be all there is to creating such a creature- there’s always the need of a vessel .

“Did they analyze the nomu’s DNA?”, he asks.

Tsukauchi sighs. “Yes, although I had hoped you wouldn’t ask. The forensic department did manage to extract a more or less intact DNA sequence from the nomu, though it was barely recognizable. They managed to trace it back to a man who had recently gone missing.”

Midoriya gasped as Satoru’s teeth grit together.

“The nomu was human ?!”

“It was”, Tsukauchi confirms, throwing a glance at Satoru. “Though by the time it arrived at the USJ, there was no trace of the original human. His mind had simply been erased.”

The room falls into silence. Satoru contemplates if he really wants to ask about that , but gives in to the urge with a sigh. He might as well give it a try.

“And there’s never been a way anyone managed to transfer quirks, ever , in the entire history of quirks?”, he asks, staring Tsukauchi right in the eyes.

He exchanges another uneasy look with All might, while Midoriya seems to have frozen in his bed. Interesting.

“That’s classified”, Tsukauchi ends up saying, and Satoru has to suppress a feral grin. “I see”, he says, standing up. “Well, I think I’ll go back to my room now, to rest and all that. Tsukauchi-san, I would like to say it’s been a pleasure but we would both know that it’s a lie. Yagi-san, Midoriya, I’ll see you at school. Try not to break anymore bones before then, okay?”

With that, he strolls out of the room, leaving the three remaining occupants baffled.

Tsukauchi laughs as he registers his passing words. “What a personality.”, he says. All Might’s lips quirk upwards. “Yeah, he’s quite something, isn’t he?” He turns to Tsukauchi, his brows furrowing in worry.

“You wouldn’t have been able to say anything in front of young Gojo, but tell me Tsukauchi, is it really…?”

“We don’t know for certain”, Tsukauchi swallows. “We all believed him dead after you two fought. But… the possibility is there.”

“Who are you talking about? What fight?”, Midoriya says, his innocent eyes wide as he looks between All Might and Tsukauchi.

“Don’t worry about it for now, Midoriya-shounen.”, All Might says. “Now is not the time for that conversation.”

Outside the door, Satoru grins.

A day after the USJ, Satoru is back home. School only starts the next day, giving the students time to recover. He’s in the process of making tea, when his phone dings as a new message pops up. Curious, he unlocks it and opens his messaging app.

From: ???

Hey Gojo-kun, this is Mina. Me and most of the class are meeting over at my apartment, since we didn’t really want to be alone right now, even though school only starts back up tomorrow… If you want, you can come too

From: Mina

Gojo? It’’s fine if you don’t feel like it, you don’t have to come

From: Gojo Satoru

I’m outside your door

Mina blinks in surprise, raising her head to look out the window. Lo and behold, Gojo Satoru is standing right outside, in all his white-haired eye-less glory. “What the fuck”, she mutters before hurrying to open the door.

“Yo”, Gojo greets her.

“Yo”, she says back. She notices that for once, the ever-present blindfold is gone, having been replaced by dark, circular glasses. His hair also doesn’t stick up like a paint brush anymore, instead falling down in a way that makes him almost look normal. He looks fine, no trace of the blood that was smeared all over his face at the USJ.

“I don’t remember giving you my address.”, she says once the initial shock is gone.

“Don’t worry about it”, he says. “Can I come in?”,

“Sure”, she says, shaking her head fondly. She closes the door behind them, leading him to her room.

“Guys!” she says into the room. “Guess who’s here!”

She steps dramatically to the side, throwing her arms out as Gojo steps into the room.

“Yo!”, he says with a grin. There’s a pause. Then-

“GOJO-SAN!” The room explodes, many of them leaping up to crowd around the poor boy. Mina remembers that the last time most of them saw him was still at the USJ, blood falling from his eyes and his hands full of an unconscious Aizawa-sensei.

She still shudders as she remembers the faraway look on his face, devoid of any emotion, as if he simply wasn’t there anymore.

“Alright, alright, calm down!”, Gojo says, laughing while various members of 1A cling to him.

He alternates between ruffling Sero’s and Tsuyu’s hair, and even pats Tokoyami’s feathers briefly, much to his chagrin. He settles down into one of Mina’s many beanbags, his long legs stretching out in front of him.

“So”, he begins. “What have you guys been up to while I was rotting in the hospital?”

Mina giggles as Hagakure answers. “Not much”, she says. “All our families didn’t let us out of their eyes the entire day yesterday! I barely managed to convince mine to let me go today.”

“I know what you mean”, nodded Kaminari. “But… I don’t know. I’m kind of scared something might happen to you guys and I wouldn’t be able to do anything… again”, he forces a laugh. “Is that weird?”

“No, not at all!”, Uraraka butts in. “I feel the same. Especially when I think of Aizawa-sensei… I hope he’ll get better soon.”

The room falls into silence, everyone no doubt thinking about their own fair share of memories of the USJ.

“Damn…”, Kaminari says. “I’m sorry Mina, you probably wanted to have a get-together to forget about yesterday, and I just had to bring the mood down… I’m sorry”

“No”, Gojo interrupts, unusually serious. “We’ll have to talk about it eventually, we can’t just push the events away forever.”

“What he said”, Tokoyami nods. “We cannot let the darkness fester in our hearts.” The dramatic statement was somewhat lessened by dark shadow trying to steal some popcorn from Hagakure’s bowl behind him.

“Well, what do you suggest then?”, the invisible girl said, holding the bowl safely out of dark shadow’s range. “Something like group therapy?”

“Hmm… let’s start by just saying something we were scared of. Admitting one’s feelings is the first step on the path of healing.” Or at least, that’s what Haibara had always told him. Or did he? Satoru barely remembers the sound of his voice. It was so long ago…

“I’ll start.” Gojo nonchalantly picks up a piece of candy from a bag in front of him and throws it in his mouth.

“When I saw how the nomu hurt Aizawa-sensei, for a second I was really worried that he had died.”

Mina worries her lip between her teeth as she thinks. Seeing the otherwise always calm and composed Gojo admitting his fears so easily was not something she had really anticipated.

“I would’ve died if it wasn’t for Aizawa-sensei, kero”, Tsuyu says. “I flinched back when my mom was trying to touch my face yesterday, because it reminded me of how Shigaraki was trying to kill me.”

“Tsuyu…”, Uraraka says, empathy in her eyes as she settles a comforting hand on her friend’s shoulder.

Mina sees her steel herself as she takes a deep breath. “I was really scared when we were fighting with thirteen against Kurogiri”, she says, and Mina nods. “They did most of the work, but it got really close sometimes. I was scared he’d warp me away to god knows where if I wasn’t paying attention.”

One after the other, they all admitted their deepest fears of the fight, even Mina talked about how scary it was to see Bakugo disappear into the mist before their eyes, thinking she might be next.

And- Gojo was right. By the end of it, Mina’s chest feels much lighter. Knowing her classmates had been just as scared has her made her feel better about admitting her own fears, and she doesn’t feel as if she was weak or dumb for still being scared even though the villains were long gone.

Eventually, the conversation morphs naturally into lighter territory, without the constant weight of the memories of the USJ at the back of their minds.

“... And then Todoroki just froze him! And he said ‘It’s pretty embarrassing for you losing against a single kid, huh’ and I had to really concentrate to not burst out laughing right then and there!”

Mina giggles as she listens to Hagakure, imagining Todoroki nonchalantly defeating hordes of enemies.

“Now that I think about it, they were pretty stupid attacking UA, right? They didn’t stand a chance against trained pros!”

“Did you see them when present mic came in? He just went: ‘YEAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!’ and they dropped like flies!”

“No way, it was more like ‘WOAHHH’!”

“Go clean your ears, Kaminari, it was clearly a yeah! Didn’t you hear him at the entrance exam?”

“Well sorry for- damnit dark shadow!”, Kaminari swears as the sentient quirk manages to steal his piece of candy right from his nose. “That was my favorite flavor, too!” Dark shadow just chirps smugly as they retreat back behind Tokoyami. Gojo snickers and picks up another piece.

“Dark shadow, catch!”, he calls and throws it in their direction. Excited, the shadowy bird shots up and grabs it out of the air, munching happily.

It quickly escalates into a game of catch with the bird quirk, ending when they knock over Mina’s lava lamp by accident. “I’m sorry!”, they cry, turning to Mina. “It’s fine!”, she says quickly, patting dark shadow on their beak. “Nothing’s broken, see!” The bird nods in relief, helping her turn it back onto the counter. While they put it upright again, Mina’s eyes fall on her makeup box. “Oh!”, she says in excitement. “We should all do each other’s nails!”

While Ojiro and Sato look a little unsure, Gojo immediately jumps up. “I want them purple!”, he says, making grabby fingers at her. Mina laughs and gathers her nail polish, and soon every teenager ends up with one color or the other in hand, trying (and failing, in Kaminari’s case) to paint each other’s nails.

Tsuyu ribbits happily at her newly green nails, smiling over to Koda. “You’re really good at this, Koda-chan”, she says while he blushes in embarrassment.

“So manly!”, Kirishima’s eyes sparkle as he inspects his crimson nails. “No wait, don’t touch anything yet!”, Mina has to warn him as he reaches for the popcorn bowl again. “They have to dry first, dummy!”

Tokoyami, with his messingly done black nails, courtesy by dark shadow, sits in front of Gojo while he decides on the correct shade. “This one’s closer!”, he decides as he hands him a shade of purple resembling the color of amethysts. “Closer to what?”, Tokoyami asks as he unscrews it. “Ah, nothing important”, Gojo says, but Mina thinks his smile has turned a bit wistful.

“Oi, eyes on me”, Hagakure says and Mina turns back to her with a sheepish grin. “What do you say?”, Hagakure holds a small bottle with golden polish inside. “Is it this color?”

Mina shrugs. “I don’t know, you have the comparison right in front of you.” The bottle moves next to Mina’s head as she compares the color to the one of Mina’s eyes. “Yeah, they’re pretty similar.”, she says, painting the nail of her left middle finger. Her left pinky finger is the same purple-black as Jiro’s eyes, while her left ring finger is the same soft brown shade of Uraraka’s. “Look i found sparkles!”, Mina smiles. “So I can make your eyes too!”

“Aw, that’s so nice of you!”, Hagakure says. “Oi! Gojo!”, she says turning to the white-haired boy. “What color are your eyes?”, she asks. She doesn’t ask him to show them to her outright- she respects people’s privacy, and if he deosn’t feel comfortable then she won’t ask it of him. It doesn’t matter that he had them open at the USJ, there were literally in mortal danger then.

“Hm? Oh!”, Gojo says and pushes his black glasses on top of his head, baring his eyes for everyone to see. For a moment that feels like eternity, Hagakure stares into them, mesmerized by the way the sky itself seems to reflect in them.

“Goddamn”, she mutters, suddenly embarrassed. Gojo just laughs and winks at her.

Mina nods beside her. “Those are some pretty eyes.”

“Uhh”, Hagakure stares down at the shades of blue on the table, contemplating which one to chose when Gojo has… all of them? In the end, she just shrugs and chooses a random shade of blue. “This one will do.”

Gojo grins at her as he slips his glasses back down, though he leaves them low enough that he can still glance over them.

“What do you think?”, Hagakure calls over to him once she’s finished, showcasing a bright blue fingernail.

Grinning, he gives her a thumbs up. “Don’t move ”, Tokoyami hisses as the movement shakes his hand.

“Ah, sorry Tokoyami-kun!”

He hums happily while Tokoyami refocuses on his hand, fiddling with his glasses.

“By the way, Mina-chan”, he says, and Mina looks up. “Did you simply not invite everyone or were they not able to come?”

Mina shrugs. “Well, Bakugo didn’t want to, predictably, Midoriya is staying at home with his mom, Iida’s and Aoyama’s parents wouldn’t let them come, and Todoroki”, she shudders slightly. “He’s just so scary! And he seems mean! I didn’t want to get on his bad side!”

“Oh, I can ask him”, Gojo says, taking out his phone. “I’m pretty sure he already finds me annoying, so it’s fine.”

Mina blinks. “Well… alright then. I don’t know if he’ll be even able to come though, you know, because of his dad.”

Gojo shrugs. “It’s worth an attempt, no? And it worked for you all, so why not?”

“True, but his situation’s different”, Jiro says, inspecting her black nails.

Gojo blinks. “Why…?”

Mina and Jiro exchange glances. “You know, because his dad has a reputation…?”

Gojo scratches his head. “Why, is he famous or something?”

Almost everyone in the room turn to stare at him, incredoulusness written on their faces.

“Is he for real right now?”, Hagakure turns to ask Mina.

“To be honest, he said something similar to me a few days back… I thought maybe he was joking?”, he continues.

Todoroki? Joking? , Mina thinks. He cannot be serious right now. But when she looks at him, she doesn’t see a trace of mischief on his face.

“At least you’re pretty”, she says lowly, her eyes closing in disbelief. “Thanks but… huh?”

“Gojo-kun.”, Mina says as she reopens her eyes. “Todoroki’s the son of Endevour. You know, the number two hero? ”, she says, hoping to convey the entire emotional range of ‘are you shitting me right now’ with her eyes.

She watches with exasperation as Gojo’s widen in surprise, unerstanding and then realization.

Ooooooh ”, he says. “That makes so much sense!

“I can’t believe this guy”, Jiro mutters, facepalming hard enough to probably leave an imprint.

“Now that you say it, they kind of look alike!”, Gojo continues, and Mina seriously wonders how he even got into the hero course. “I sure fucking hope so”, Kaminari mutters while Shoji seems to go through all five stages of grief behind him. “Do you see now why we have our doubts?”

Gojo opens his mouth to answer, before a ding of his phone interrupts him. No fucking way , Mina thinks as a grin spreads out on his face. “Welllll”, he says, waggling his eyebrows. “He just said he’ll come!”

Mina practically races to the door as the doorbell rings soon after.

“Todoroki-kun!”, she says to the boy, his hand still raised to ring the bell.

“Hi”, he says awkwardly.

“Come in!”, Mina says, stepping to the side to let him in. “Thanks”, he says stiffly. “For the invitation.”

“You’re welcome”, Mina says. “I invited the whole class.” Damn, now that she says it she feels kind of guilty for leaving him out.

She guides him to her room, and Gojo immediately perks up. Mina briefly wonders where his ever-present glasses went, before finding them on Kaminari’s face. She sighs.

“Todoroki-kun!”, Gojo calls out to him, waving him over. “I’m glad you could make it! We’re painting our nails, what color do you want?”

The room briefly freezes, everyone stopping what they’re doing as they turn over to the two.

Todoroki hesitates, and Mina’s scared that they just made a fatal mistake, before he answers.

“I like blue”, he says, and she laughs in relief.

“Where did you end up during the USJ, Todoroki?”, Kaminari asks, still fiddling with the glasses while Gojo carefully applies the blue nailpolish on the boy’s fingers, his tongue poking out in concentration.

“Man, I really can’t see anything in these!”, Kaminari sighs in frustration, taking the black lenses off and sticking them onto Gojo’s head again. “That’s kind of the point”, he chuckles, not taking his eyes off his task even as the glasses slip down his forehead and onto his nose.

“Landslide”, Shoto answers.

“Ah, so you were with Hagakure then?”

“Yes.” He pauses briefly. “Although I didn’t see her.”

“Hm, unsurprisingly.”, Gojo hums. “At least you didn’t freeze her by accident.”

“Believe me, it was close ”, Hagakure says, plopping down next to them. “You really don’t

hold back at all, do you?”

Shoto shrugs. “I apologize. I didn’t know you were there.”

“Nah, it’s fine”, Hagakure waves, or at least Shoto thinks she does. It’s hard to tell when he can’t see her hands. “It was actually pretty cool.”

Their conversation gets interrupted when her phone buzzes. “Ah sorry, I’ve gotta take this”, she says, standing up and distancing herself from the group. Shoto watches her pass, eyes fixed on the name on her phone. Mom , it reads.

“All done!”, Gojo says, and Shoto looks back down at his nails. “Just don’t try to touch anything for now, god knows how many things Kirishima has stained by waving his hands around all the time.”

Shoto nods, eyes fixed on his hands. They look nice, he thinks. He always thought it did, ever since Fuyumi painted her nails when she was a teenager. Shoto thinks maybe Toya would have liked to as well, if his father allowed it. He turns his hands, watching as the blue hues waver in the sunlight. It looks like Toya’s flames, he thinks with a pang of melancholy.

(Somewhere far away in a small, run-down apartment, a certain villain sneezes, swearing as his hand slips and the black nail polish he was using ends up everywhere but his hands.)

“Sorry about that”, Hagakure says while she sits back down. “Your mom again?”, Kaminari asks, playing one game or the other on his phone. “Yeah”, she answers. “She’s being really overprotective right now. Not that I can blame her.” She sighs.

“What about you, Todoroki? Did you have trouble getting your parents to let you come here too?”

Todoroki blinks. “My sister… worries. A lot.” His eyes cast down, onto his blue nails. “My father… not so much.”

Kaminari shrugs. “That’s to be expected, right? As a pro hero, he’s surely used to situations like that.”

“I don’t know, kero”, Tsuyu butts in. “IIda’s whole family is made out of heroes, and they wanted him to stay home too.” Kaminari shrugs, not noticing how Todoroki’s shoulders seem to sag faintly.

“So Endeavour really is your dad, huh?”, Gojo says from the side. “Damn.”

Todoroki stares at him. “You really didn’t know?”, he says, and the expression of absolute bafflement that’s on his face is maybe the most emotion Kaminari has ever seen him emote.

Gojo shrugs helplessly in response. “I don’t keep up with hero news, how should I know?”

Todoroki and Kaminari exchange glances, the former conveying: ‘Is he for real right now?’ and the latter: ‘Unfortunately, yes.’

Gojo, oblivious to their turmoil, starts arguing with Jiro instead.

“Did you at least know who All Might was or did you think he was just another hero?”, she throws at him. Gojo rolls his eyes. “Of course, I’m not that oblivious.”

Jiro sends him a look . “Somehow, I doubt that.”

“He forgot Iida’s name not even a day after he introduced himself”, Uraraka butts in. “Maybe he has brain damage from all those sweets he eats.”

Gojo gasps offended, acting as if she just outed his biggest secret. “That’s not true! Who even remembers other people’s names anyway after the first time?”

“I do”, Jiro retorts. “ Everyone does. You’re just stupid.”

“Maybe I just don’t care”, Gojo says. “What, am I supposed to do, memorize every hero in the top ten?”

“Whatever”, she says, facepalming. “At least tell me you know all our classmate’s names by now.”

Gojo’s eyes go comically wide. “Um…”

“Gojo!”

Towards the end of the day, the group has ended up huddled together, all on Mina’s queen-sized bed as they watch one thing or the other on the internet.

Shoto ends up sandwiched between Gojo and Kaminari. He briefly tried to wiggle out of the pile of teenagers, the effort proving futile as none of the two budge even an inch. He resigns to his fate, leaning back against the pillows as he stares at the screen of Mina’s laptop again. They’re watching some old horror movie from the pre-quirk era, one that Gojo had insisted on seeing. Shoto doesn’t really understand the appeal of watching a movie you’ve already seen, but Gojo seemed so adamant that he hadn’t said anything.

(“The heroine is kind of annoying, but she dies spectacularly in the end!”

“Stop spoiling the entire movie you idiot!”)

To be honest, Shoto thinks the movie is a little boring. Most of the others flinch and scream from time to time, except Gojo who just laughs manically, but Shoto isn’t affected at all.

“How are you doing this?”, Kaminari asks as he ducks behind him when another zombie appears.

“Doing what?”, Shoto asks.

“Pretending like you’re not scared!”

Shoto blinks. “But I’m not?”

Kaminari curses as blood splatters over the screen before them, mumbling something about emotionally constipated bastards. Shoto is neither a bastard nor emotionally constipated, so he can’t mean him.

The entire movie passes more or less like that, and eventually Shoto finds himself starting to enjoy it. The visual effects aren’t much, but the cinematology and foreshadowing is pretty great.

When the credits start to roll, he turns to the others. “That was nice. Can we se another?”

NO! ” Mina hisses, slamming her laptop shut. “No more horror movies for today!”

“Aw man”, Gojo pouts. “At least someone liked it”, he says, turning over to Shoto, who nods.

“Maybe we can watch something else then”, Uraraka suggests, looking very pale. “Something with rainbows. And unicorns.”

“I don’t know, kero”, Asui says from next to her. “It’s getting pretty late. I probably should be home before the sun sets.”

One after the other, everyone except Shoto and Gojo start agreeing with her, standing up to gather their things.

They all hug each other goodbye, promising to get home safe, none of them really sad seeing as they’ll all see each other the following morning.

In the end, only Shoto, Gojo and Mina remain, the latter turning to them with a smile. “What about you then? You can stay for longer, if you want, I don’t mind!”

Shoto has to admit that he is tempted. It felt so nice today, to get away from his fretting sister and his indifferent father for a while. He has never felt this way before. In the end, he shakes his head. “it’s better if I return home.”

Gojo nods along him. “Yeah, me too. But we’ll see you tomorrow!”

Shoto steps forward. “Before I leave, do you have anything to remove this?”, he says, waving his hand with the blue nail polish. Mina frowns, and Shoto freezes. Did he do something wrong?

“Why?”, she asks, crossing her arms. “Do you not like it?”

Shoto hesitates. It doesn’t matter much if he liked it or not. “My father won’t like it.”, he just says, averting his eyes.

“Oh…”, she says with understanding, uncrossing her arms. “Yeah, I do. Hold on a second” She starts rummaging around in her drawer, until she emerges with a bottle of clear liquid. She sits him down and starts wiping down his nails again. Shoto watches as the blue, that reminded him so much of Toya’s flames, disappears.

“I did, by the way.”, he says. She looks up at him questioningly. “Like it, I mean. It looks very pretty.”

Mina grins, and Shoto relaxes. Maybe he’s not so bad at this whole conversation thing after all.

“I’m glad! We can do it again sometime, if you want!” Shoto nods, a small smile pulling at his lips. “That would be nice.”

“I can take you home, if you want”, Gojo says after he’s done. “It won’t even take me a minute.”

Shoto frowns. “Last time I saw you do that, you were bleeding from your eyes. And you don’t even know where I live.”

Gojo rolls his eyes. “That was different. And why does everyone ask me that? I have my ways”

“Still-”, Shoto says, but Gojo sighs and steps forward. Immediately, the scenery changes. With a start Shoto realizes that he’s outside his home.

“Um”, he says. “Thank you?”

“You’re welcome!”, Gojo shouts, and then he’s gone.

Satoru blinks as he stands in his living room yet again, the familiar sight of the unused couch and coffee table greeting him. He sighs, flopping down on the sofa. He throws an arm over his eyes, making sure to take his glasses off beforehand.

It’s almost sunset, and the last rays of light turn the room golden. Tomorrow, school will resume as normal, but today, Satoru’s still alone in his apartment.

For once, he’s not Gojo the hero student, not even Gojo Satoru, the strongest sorcerer. (Except he wasn’t the strongest at the end, was he?)

For now, he’s just Satoru.

( “I still think this is stupid”, Maki sighs from her seat. “What good will talking about our emotions do us?”

“I-I don’t think it’s an entirely bad idea”, Yuta throws in. He’s getting more used to his peers every day, but his social anxiety is still very prominent.

“Shake”, Inumaki agrees.

“Don’t be so negative, Maki”, Panda says, immediately flinching back when she levels him with a glare.

“Whether it’s stupid or not, we’ll give it a try, yeah?”, Satoru says. “If you’re really against it, I’ll go first.”

Maki throws him a surprised look, but doesn’t protest further. Satoru thinks about his next words carefully.

“When I got the call”, he starts, “That the cursed spirit on your mission was graded as a special grade, but for some reason registered as a first-grade, I was scared it might have been too much for you to handle.”

His voice stays calm, but he has to suppress a minute shake in his hands. When he got that call it had reminded him too much of Haibara, of his lifeless body in the morgue. Or, what was left of it.

“I was scared one of you might have died.”

His students look grim as they process his words. Eventually, Yuta speaks up.

“Me too”, he starts. “I was also scared when I heard about it. I-I mean, you’re all very capable, but I was still worried…”

“Shake”, Inumaki says again. His hands hesitate as he signs. It was scary.

Panda nods. “And all those corpses…”, He shudders. “They all had very gruesome deaths.”

Maki frowns as everyone ends up looking at her. “What do you want me to say?”, she snaps. “That I was scared? That I was hurt? Is that it?”, her face scrunches up in fury, her hand twitching to her bandaged ribs.

“I’m not trying to humiliate you, Maki.”, Satoru says, locking eyes with her. She deflates a little, the anger leaving her body and leaving only exhaustion. “But you don’t have to say anything if you want to”, he adds. “I just don’t want you to end up bottling everything up. Do you understand? As your teacher, it’s my responsibility to make sure you’re alright.”)

Notes:

Btw, the scene at the end doesn't reference any canon scene from jjk, it's just about a random mission I made up

Chapter 8: Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me

Summary:

Todoroki watches him, and Satoru can almost feel something big building up in his brain. Then, he drops the bombshell.

“Is Midoriya All Might’s secret love child?”

Notes:

How have we already reached 250 kudos??? HOW. That’s a whole fucking hundred more than last time I checked

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Satoru sits in his usual seat, feet propped up on the desk as he yawns. Damn, maybe he shouldn’t have stayed up so late watching cat videos… anyways.

It‘s kind of weird how UA only gave the students one day to recover after a traumatizing villain attack, but Satoru doesn’t really think he has any room to talk as a (former) jujutsu sorcerer. In that particular field of work, they were practically being paid to do just that. Maybe UA also wants to uphold a certain level of normalcy, both for the students and for the press. The UA festival was coming up anyway, so maybe they wanted to start preparing the students as fast as possible.

“Oi”, Satoru hears from behind him.

He turns around, looking at Bakugo. He lets his six eyes wander over his body, relieved when he finds no injuries.

“Bakugo!”, he lets a grin spread on his face. “I’m glad you’re alright after the USJ. You could’ve joined us yesterday, you know?”

“As if I care about shit like that”, he scoffs. “What was even up with you during the attack? You always bleed out of your eyes when you use your quirk, like shitty Deku?”

Damn Bakugo, aiming right where it hurts. Satoru just brushes his words off with a shrug.

“Quirk overuse. I’m sure you’re not unfamiliar? And other circumstances. Also, with Deku, do you mean Midoriya? That’s not a very nice thing to say about your classmate.”

The other boy sneers. “I call him useless because he is useless. Not that that’s any of your damn business.”

“Ah, you’re right”, Satoru grins devilishly. “Kacchan.”

Bakugo’s face twists in outrage and fury while Midoriya makes the noise of a dying squirrel behind him, and it’s the most murderous Satoru’s ever seen him. Damn did he hit a nerve? Sensitive much.

Still, Satoru doesn’t stop grinning, even as Bakugo’s mouth opens for a no-doubt spectacular screaming fit, but then something entering Satoru’s range has him snapping his head to the side. There’s no fucking way.

But no, Satoru didn’t see wrong, it’s really Aizawa at the door, his entire face and one arm wrapped in bandages.

“AIZAWA-SENSEI???”, the class shouts in unison. “Yes, it’s me”, Aizawa says, his tired red eyes glaring at the class from under the bandages. “Calm down and get back in your seats.”

“S-sensei, should you really already be up and about with your injuries?”, Midoriya asks carefully, eyeing the mummyfied appearance of his sensei. “I’m fine”, Aizawa insists. Satoru doesn’t believe a word he says. The bandages can fool the class, but Satoru is the only one who can see what’s really under them.

His most life-threatening injuries have been healed, like his broken face and skull, and even the bone in his arm has been somewhat mended. The more superficial injuries however, like the disintegrated skin of his elbow and the bruises and cuts on his face, have yet to heal. Additionally, his orbital channel has been heavily damaged, almost to the point of it being unfixable. It’s a wonder the doctors were able to heal it, heavy surgery was probably required. But for Aizawa, whose entire quirk relies on his eyes, that kind of injury could have been the end of his career.

“The state of my body is of no importance”, Aizawa says. “And there are more relevant things to address.”

Ah , Satoru thinks. The sports festival.

“The UA sports festival is coming up”, Aizawa confirms his suspicions. “Which means the fight’s not over for you:”

“Is it really safe to hold the festival so close after a villain attack?”, Ojiro frowns. “What if they attack again?”

“Well, what would the villains all over the world think if UA cancelled their most prominent event, that is watched all over the world, after one villain attack?”, Aizawa says.

“That UA is intimidated easily.”, Satoru speaks up. “That we’re weak. That we’re scared .”

Aizawa’s gaze lingers on him for a second, before continuing. “...That’s right. As irresponsible as it seems, not holding the sports festival would show the world that UA considered the villain attack a real threat, and would encourage villains in the future.”

Satoru hates it, but Aizawa is right. If UA chose not to hold the event, it would unfortunately show the villains that the villain attack was enough for them to increase their security, and that they considered it a real threat. Especially since the majority of villains participating in the attack were small fries, it would encourage other villains that they had the potential to cause a lot of chaos as well. And, Satru has to admit, it was ridiculously easy for the villains to cause as much distruction as they did, too easy. All it took was a simple staged break-in and someone with a quirk that disrupts electricity. If Satoru ever catches that fucker he will make him wish he was never born .

Aizawa continues, oblivious to Satoru’s plots of homicide. “However, our security will be raised by as much as five times. No villain will make it into UA’s sports festival on our watch. That attack was, hopefully, a one-time thing and won’t happen again now that we have arrested most villains responsible.”

Satoru almost laughs. The most dangerous villains, Kurogiri and Shigaraki, made it away relatively unscathed. The one thing the heroes and police had actually achieved was to take the nomu into custody, and it was a small win considering they could possibly make more.

“But on top of the reasons i already listed, the sports festival is a huge opportunity for hero students, especially in their first year.” His eyes sweep over the class, sticking to Midoriya for a bit longer. “Can anyone tell me why?”

Satoru actually has to think a little before he understands.

“The internships, obviously”, Yaomomo answers, and Aizawa nods in approval. “Once a year, heroes all over Japan watch the festival and extend internships to their agencies to the students that they like or that have impressed them with their performance. It’s maybe the biggest opportunity for hero students to make ties with agencies that might take them in as sidekicks after they graduate.”

Satoru supposes that’s true. Especially for field experience and to see first hand how the hero world really functions, internships are very important. It’s kind of obvious that most, if not all students in this class have a really warped and naive vision of what being a hero is, especially with the entire propaganda and hero society practically being shoved down their throats since they were born. Satoru knows that for many of them, the internship will be a heavy wake up call. He looks at Aizawa and thinks that maybe this man has the most realistic view of the hero industry.

The moment Satoru knew the difference between limelight and underground heroes, it was startingly clear that underground heroes practically picked up the slack of everyone who stood in the spotlight. They saw the dark side of the world, drug and human trafficking, murder and homicide, general violence and so much more gore and blood than any other hero in the top ten. For the general public, they would only ever see heroes saving the day and battling against villains they were destined to win over from the start. The real, nitty-gritty details of the things heroes had to deal with aren’t often made public.

“Now that you all know what awaits you, I expect you all to start training, and to give it your best”, Aizawa says. “But before we go on, I want to address a few things about the USJ.”

Immediately, the hyped and excited atmosphere pops like a balloon. Aizawa sighs as he sees the uncomfortable faces of his students.

“Many of you had to experience a highly traumatic situation. And it’s because of UA’s lacking security that it came to that.” His eyes sweep over the class, briefly meeting Satoru’s. The boy frowns, and looks away. “For that, UA and its entire staff apologizes.”

Satoru blinks as the class breaks out in murmurs. He hadn’t expected UA to take responsibility so easily.

“It’s fine!”, Mina’s voice rings out. “The school couldn’t have known, after all!”

“Yeah!”

More and more voices echo her, all reassuring how a apology isn’t necessary. Satoru isn’t one of them.

It’s true that UA couldn’t have anticipated an attack like that, but there were certainly ways to have prevented it.

First, the break-in. Why had no one checked if someone had infiltrated the school? How could no one notice that the school schedule was missing? And now that he thinks about it, why was All might late anyways? Could the three fingers Thirteen had held up at the beginning mean something in regard to a time limit?

“Regardless”, Aizawa interrupts Satoru’s spiraling thoughts, “The school offers free therapy with the school’s counsouler hound dog to all students that might want it. It isn’t mandatory, but it is highly recommended to at least try out a session.”

Huh , Satoru thinks. Therapy . He didn’t know what to think about that. Of course, it was useful to people who needed it, but Satoru never really felt like one of them. It might seem extremely hypocritical, since he had the whole mini-group therapy with most of 1A the day before, but Satoru couldn’t help it.

For Jujutsu sorcerers, something like therapy was unheard of. A normal therapist was unsuited to treat someone with cursed technique, as they couldn’t really open up to them without being labeled as schizophrenic and shipped off to the nearest mental hospital, and people who could see curses or have cursed energy were rare enough as it was. Death, injury and despair was something so deeply ingrained in jujutsu society that it became the norm when for everyone else it would be the exception.

When a jujutsu sorcerer was deemed a liability or unstable, they were to be executed and the higher ups liked to forget about their existence as soon as possible after. Like Yuta. Like Yuuji. Like Satoru.

The three major clans were practically a factory for mentally ill sorcerers that would eventually snap, and even the idea of change was so far out of their minds that every attempt was rooted out like a weed.

So no, Satoru didn’t think he really needed therapy. But… did he want it?

“That’s all”, Aizawa says as he dismisses them. However, as Satoru starts to stand up with the others, Aizawa beckons him over with his good arm. “Gojo. A word.”

“You wanted to talk to me?”, Satoru says once they are both sitting down in a separate room in the teacher’s lounge.

“Yes”, he grunts, somehow managing to sip his coffee through the bandages. Impressive.

“I wanted to talk to you about your actions at the USJ.”

Satoru tilts his head in confusion. “My actions?”

Aizawa fixes him with another glare. Then, he sighs.

“Initially, I wanted to talk to you about staying out of fights that are clearly over your level and to let the heroes and your teachers handle it, but upon further reflection I realized that that wouldn’t really amount to anything. Because you were actually able to help the most at the USJ.”

Satoru stays silent as Aizawa takes another sip. “Help? I don’t think i was actually able to do much at all.” Aizawa was still hurt because of him. The villains escaped. All might got injured fighting the nomu, a fight that Satoru could have stopped before it went out of control. Hell, he should have been able to teleport out of that dome the moment it was clear something was wrong, but he couldn’t.

Aizawa raises an eyebrow at his answer. “Doesn’t sound like that to me. Thirteen especially said that without your intervention, they would have been seriously hurt.” Satoru shrugs. “Maybe.”

“Kirishima and Bakugo both stated that you prevented them from being displaced by the mist villain. You helped Asui and Midoriya escape from the shipwreck zone, something they couldn’t have done by themselves, and which could have had serious consequences. You stopped the nomu from attacking me the first time. You took responsibility for my safety after I was put out of commission, and you rushed to protect Midoriya the moment it was clear he was in danger. If that isn’t helping, then I don’t know what is.”

Satoru shifts uncomfortably on his seat. “But I should have been able to do more.”, he admits after a long pause of hesitation. It feels far too vulnerable to admit something so deep from his soul as that.

Aizawa’s gaze seems to soften as he looks at Satoru. “That’s probably something we all thought. Just because you could do something shouldn’t mean you should have to.”

Satoru’s head snaps up. “Aizawa-sensei”, he says, dangerously calm. “If you hadn’t sent me away, I would have ended that fight in seconds. I could have apprehended Shigaraki and maybe even Kurogiri. I trusted you to have the situation under control, and look what good it did!”, he snaps he last part, fustrated with Aizawa, but mainly with himself.

“Do you really think you could have apprehended them with such ease?”, Aizawa asks. There is no malice or lecturing in his tone, just plain curiosity.

“Yes”, Satoru answers without hesitation. “My te- My quirk makes me untouchable. There wouldn’t have been even a chance that any of them could have done me serious damage. Kurogiri could have been difficult, but he too has his weak spots. Aizawa, I know you haven’t been my sensei for long, but you saw me at the entrance exam, and at the exercise with all might. You know what I’m capable of.”

Aizawa stays silent for a long time, so long that Satoru fears he might not answer him at all.

“You know”, he says finally. “Sometimes when I talk to you, it doesn’t feel as if I’m talking to a young student at all.”

Satoru doesn’t know what to answer. That he’s actually twenty-eight, that he’s thirty-three? That he has seen more death and fought against enemies stronger than what Aizawa could ever imagine? That he has lost every single person that ever meant anything to him? That, for as long as he can remember, the balance of the world resided on his shoulders?

Aizawa sighs as he doesn’t answer. “You’re clearly very capable. Maybe you’re right, and I shouldn’t have made you step back. But as a teacher, my first priority will always be to protect the students. Neither of us knew the true capabilities of the nomu, and if anything would have happened to you I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself.”

Satoru scoffs. “Yeah, and because of that they might come back in the future. What when someone dies then?”

He regrets it as soon as he says it. Aizawa doesn’t react outwardly. But he also doesn’t respond, his eyes suddenly looking through Satoru to a place far away.

Hesitantly, Satoru raises a hand to his blindfold and lets it drop to his neck. His gaze meets Aizawa’s for the first time since the USJ. He sees the way his sensei’s shoulders drop as if he carries an unimaginable burden, how his eyes seem to have become even more tired. He blames himself too , Satoru realises.

“I’m sorry”, Satoru breaks the silence.

Aizawa holds his gaze for a moment, before his shoulders sag further a she sighs. “I think we both have made mistakes”, he says.

“No”, Satoru says as he rubs tiredly at his eyes. “I shouldn’t have said what I did.”

When Yuuji ‘died’, Satoru had hated himself so much that he hadn’t known what to do anymore. A student of his had died while he was away not even a week after he had met him, only because Satoru wasn’t careful enough. It was unfair of him to talk to Aizawa that way. In a way, he had unconsciously let his past frustrations out on him.

He understood the points Aizawa was making. In his shoes, Satoru would have done the same. Aizawa hadn’t known how dangerous the nomu truly was, and he had no way of knowing the full extend of Satoru’s capabilities. in his eyes, he was just another naive overconfident hero student.

Satoru leans back in his chair as Aizawa resumes speaking.

“The actual reason I called you here”, he starts”, is to discuss how you handled Shigaraki.”

“Ah”, Satoru says. “The officer I talked to mentioned something like that.”

“While it’s admirable that you protected Midoriya, the way you did it is not. I’m sure there would have been better ways to handle the situation than whatever you did.”

Satoru frowns, but before he can answer he continues. “I’m not saying the way you reacted was entirely wrong, but I just have to make sure that you understand that what you did was borderline torture.”

The boy’s frown deepens, something that Aizawa notices. “Just because they are villains doesn’t mean they aren’t still humans.”, he says, mantaining eye contact with Satoru.

“As heroes, our job is to subdue, as quickly and as painlessly as possible. Senseless force is not the way to do that.”

Fundamentally, Satoru knows that the man in front of him is right. What he did to Shigaraki, he did because of pure anger and satisfaction, not because it helped capture him. In that moment, Satoru had wanted Shigaraki to suffer . He still does. But, Satoru’s never been one to hold back. When he fought Fushiguro, at the kyoto exchange event, at Shibuya and later at his fight against Sukuna. It never mattered to him, if his opponent was sentient or not. He has to admit that he relished in making his opponents feel pain, and a swift knock-out had never really been his style. This new world really was different from the jujutsu world.

(“Suguru, should we just… kill them all”?)

“I understand”, Satoru lies. “I think it was just… the panic and frustration of the attack, or something”

He smiles at his teacher, hoping he would buy it.

Aizawa looks at him for a few seconds, before sighing. “That’s all. You can go”, he tells him and Satoru moves out the door as fast as he can without looking suspicious.

For once, Lunch was rather uneventful. Subconsciously, Satoru was kind of just waiting for the alarms to sound again, but he could at least uphold something akin to calm on the outside. Like usual, he’s sitting at a table with Iida and Uraraka, though Midoriya is missing. Curious.

He’s not really listening to their conversation, mostly spacing out, busy examining every person he can see with his senses, but he’s shaken out of itby Iida calling his name.

“Gojo-san?”

“Huh?”, he says, turning to him. “Did you say something? Sorry, I was spacing out.”

“We were just talking about our motivations to be heroes”, Uraraka says, pressing her fingertips together like she always does when she’s nervous.

“Ah”, he says. “So what are yours?”

Iida pushes his glasses up, striking a pose. “As the son of a prominent hero family, it is only natural that I follow in their footsteps and make them proud!” Satoru nods, as expected of him.

“What about you, Uraraka?”, Iida nods over to her.

“Ah…”, she fidgets, avoiding their gazes. “nothing as noble or selfless as that. I uh… mainly did it for the money.”

Satoru starts to nod, as Iida’s face contorts in surprise. “Money?!”, he exclaims.

Uraraka laughs nervously. “I know, I know. A hero must always think of others before themselves, right?”

“Uhh, no! To support one’s livelihood is an admirable goal as well!”

Uraraka laughs. “Well, to be honest, my parents aren’t… well off, so to speak. I just want to make their lfie a little easier, you know?”

“Well, that’s also quite selfless, don’t you think?”, Satoru says. “Maybe”, Uraraka shrugs. “What about you then?”

“Me?”

“Yeah! Why do you want to be a hero?”

Satoru smirks. “Boredom”, he answers.

They blink. “Huh?”

“I like fighting”, Satoru answers honestly. “I’ve always liked it. Going up against others and coming out on top, finding strategies to win against difficult opponents… That’s why I want to be a hero. Everything else just seems so boring in comparison.”

They are both speechless as they look at him, processing his words. “I… honestly don’t know what to answer”, Uraraka says. “Well, at least you had fun at the USJ, right? When you fought against-”

“No.”, Satoru cuts her off with a cold voice. She stops in surprise, but before she can say anything else, a new tablet comes down next to them.

Satoru turns, and sits face to face with Todoroki. His face looks stoic, as cold and unmoved as ever, but his eyes betray how he really feels. “Can I…sit here?”, he asks.

“Sure!”, Satoru grins. “We were just talking about our motivations to become heroes? Wanna join?”

“Oh!”, Uraraka smiles. “I bet it’s similar to Iida. Do you want to make your father proud too?”

Immediately, Todoroki seems to stiffen. “...No.”, he says after a small pause. Uraraka freezes in surprise, but quickly regains her bearings. “Ah, so you want to become a hero for yourself then? That’s also cool.”

Todoroki doesn’t really answer her. After a few seconds of silence, he speaks up again.

“How come Midoriya is so close with All Might?”, He asks instead.

Uraraka and Iida blink in confusion while Satoru hides his smile behind his hand.

“Close? Oh, well they did eat lunch together just now, but i thought it was just because of the USJ? When Midoriya ran up to him?”

Todoroki remains quiet, but throws Satoru a glance. “Oh right, Gojo was also there. By the way, what did Aizawa-sensei want to talk to you about?”

“just some things about the USJ”, Satoru smiles dismissively. “Don’t worry about it.”

Todoroki watches him, and Satoru can almost feel something big building up in his brain. Then, he drops the bombshell.

“Is Midoriya All Might’s secret love child?”

A beat. All three of them stare silently at Todoroki, who just blinks at them owlishly.

Then, Satoru promptly bursts out laughing.

“All Might’s- what?”, Uraraka asks sumbfounded. “Why would you even think that?

“...Their quirks are similar”, he says. “And All Might talks with Midoriya a lot.”

“As is his duty as our teacher!”, Iida throws in. Satoru is still laughing.

“...What’s so funny?”, Todoroki eyes him.

Satoru cuts off into giggles, wiping a few tears away from under his blindfold. “Never change, Todoroki”, he says and breaks out into another fit of giggles. “All Might’s secret love child…”, he squeezes out. “Oh god, don’t ever ask him that, he might actually combust…”

Todoroki blinks. “So, is he?” Satoru folds in two as he starts laughing uncontrollably again.

Very interesting , Satoru thinks as he stands outside the teacher’s lounge. So All Might really has a limit. And it’s steadily declining. Honestly, Satoru had kind of suspected it, but to hear it for real is a different story. All Might, the symbol of peace, the number one hero, reduced to this…

“But about the sports festival”, All might continues. “You still can’t regulate one for all, can you?”

Satoru perks up. One for all?

“Well, that’s not really progress, but we’ll get there in time for the sports festival”, All might says as Midoriya tells him about the USJ and his broken bones. Are they talking about Midoriya’s quirk? Is One for all its name? It wouldn’t be surprising for All might to give advice to Midoriya, since their quirks are pretty similar. But somehow Satoru suspects that that isn’t all. And All might confirms it with his next words.

“I have to admit that I don’t have much time left as the symbol of peace. That’s why I granted you my power, so you could one day succeed me.”

Satoru’s eyes widen as his mind starts to race. His power? Could he possibly mean… His quirk? Is that why All Might’s quirk is fading? Because he found a way to somehow transfer it to Midoriya? Is that why Tsukauchi and All might seemed so hesitant to talk to him about the nomu at the hospital?

Satoru discreetly teleports away as he hears shuffling on the other end of the door.

Is that your secret, Midoriya?

In a small, rather run-down bar at the edge of the city, there’s a man polishing glasses behind a bar counter who is made out of purple mist. He cleans one glass after another, calmly and composed, ignoring the young man sitting in front of him.

Tomura holds a glass, his hand clenching and unchelching around the material.

His other arm is cast in a sling, bandages from shoulder to finger. Or, what’s still left of his fingers.

In front of him, on the counter, lies a small picture.

“I want him dead”, Tomura hisses, his hand trembling with rage. His red eye that peeks out from the hand pressed to his face is wide and bloodshot, and the skin of his neck is scarred and scabbed over.. “I want him to scream, to beg on his knees for forgiveness. I want to watch when I start with his arm, then his legs, until I turn ot all to dust.”

“Be patient Tomura” , a voice rings out. Kurogiri and the man both turn to a small screen in the corner of the room.

“That boy might be hiding more than he lets on.”

“Sensei…”, Tomura mutters as he calms down somewhat.”

“After all, he is responsible for the state of your arm. It’ll take a while to return it to its original state, even with my range of quirks.”

Tomura shifts uncomfortably, not wanting to think about that . The scrunch and crack of his bones still haunts him in his dreams.

“But don’t worry… If all goes according to plan, you’ll get your revenge soon enough, Tomura.

Beneath his fingers, the photo of the white-haired boy crumbles to dust.

Notes:

I‘ll probably edit this later cuz I didn’t proof read this chapter, but I’m tired… I think I’m gonna take a nap…

Chapter 9: Everything's alright just hold on tight

Summary:

“Do you really think I can do it?“, Uraraka blurts out. “Do you really think I can become as strong as you guys one day?“

Satoru thinks of Maki, ostracized and abused by the clan she was born into because she was a woman. Nobara, underestimated over and over again because of her gender. Shoko, often treated as the peacemaker, the fragile girl, never even being considered to become a sorcerer in the field.

Uraraka’s lacking confidence may not be entirely because of her gender, but Satoru is going to make sure she becomes the strongest she can be. He smiles. “Of course! If you really really train hard, you’ll be going head to head with them in no time, believe me. Not with me though”, he grins mischievously. “I’m the strongest.”

Notes:

Last chapter before the sports festival!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Satoru’s eye twitches.

It’s the last ten minutes of class, and everyone is on edge, but Satoru can’t focus for a different reason.

Over the course of the last hour, more and more students have been gathering around their class door, probably waiting for them to get out. The multitude of signatures their quirks cause swim at the edge of his awareness like street lights outside a window.

Eventually, class ends and Bakugo is the first to open the door. Satoru almost sighs. Out of everyone, he was maybe the worst choice to deal with them .

Satoru sighs as the doors open and the blonde immediately starts antagonizing the persons waiting outside.

“Why are they even here?”, Midoriya whispers, already shaking at the prospect of having to squeeze himself between all of them to leave.

“”They’re scouting out the competition”, Satoru murmurs back. “We’re the class that has survived a villain attack, and they want to see what we’re made of before the sports festival.”

Midoriya looks confused. “So it’s class 1B?”

“No”; Satoru answers. “At least, not entirely”

With keen eyes he watches a purple-haired kid make his way forward. He’s tall, and lanky, and looks as if he hasn’t had proper sleep in years. Really, his eyebags rival Aizawa’s.

“Get out of my way, extras!”, Bakugo shouts, shoving his way through the studen Satoru sees the way their eyes linger on him, full of hate and disdain.

“Bakugo, stop calling people extras just because you don’t know them”, Satoru grins, clapping a hand on his shoulder before he can leave.

“Is everyone in the hero course this arrogant?” Eyebags asks, his tired eyes fixed on Satoru. “I came to see what 1A was all about, but…” He turns to stare at Bakugo. “It’s kind of disappointing.”

Satoru already sees the way Bakugo starts preparing for a screaming match, and squeezes his shoulder in warning. Bakugo throws him a glare, before shrugging his hand off with a “Tch” and shoving his way out forcefully.

“Sorry about him”, Satoru says with an apologetic smile. “I’d like to say he just had a bad day but unfortunately he’s always like that.”

Eyebags just blinks at him. “There are quite a lot of people who didn’t make it to the hero course and are now stuck in gen ed or other courses, you know”, he says, scratching the back of his head. “but… If we do well enough in the sports festival, they might transfer us into the hero course.” His eyes sweep over the other members of 1A. “Which means they can also transfer people out.”

The clas gasps while Satoru’s grin widens.

“Consider this a declaration of war.”, the boy says with a stare that could sour milk. “If you’re not careful, one of us might take your spot.”

Satoru can’t help but giggle. “Good luck then”, he says, clapping the other boy on the shoulder. “You’ll need it.”

He frowns, staring at Satoru’s hand as if he’d like nothing more than to bite it off. “Are you making fun of me?”

Satoru laughs. “I would never. In fact, how about you join me for training today? I’ll be in gym gamma today after class. If you really wanna scout out the competition, that’s your chance!” He pats his shoulder teasingly and slips past him out the hallway. Sports festival this year is going to be interesting!

“Gojo-kun.”

Satoru looks up, mouth full of cake as he chews. “Hm?”

Uraraka places her food in front of him, sitting down with a determined look on her face. He’s already noticed that she was particularly fired up today, something he can respect.

“What is it?”, he asks, swallowing his cake.

“I heard you are training today after school?”, she asks.

“Yeah”, Satoru licks the frosting off his lips. “Wanna join?” She nods forcefully. “I thought- Our quirks are kind of similar, aren’t they?” Satoru tilts his head. “In which way?”

“Well- I’ve seen you at school and at the USJ- You can repell and attract space, right? That’s also a form of gravity!”

Satoru hums as he takes another bite. “Well, yes. But it’s still different from your quirk. I don’t think I could help you much in that regard.”

Uraraka deflates slightly. “Maybe you’re right”, she sighs. “Sorry. I probably shouldn’t have asked at all.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I mean… Even if our quirks were similar, you surely already have your hands full with training for the festival right? I don’t want to disturb you by asking you for advice.”

Satoru shrugs. “It’s still quite some time before the festival. I don’t mind! We can still train together, if you want.” And I’m pretty sure I could win the entire festival without effort , he doesn’t say.

“Really?”, Uraraka asks, her eyes sparkling. “Thank you so much! I won’t waste your time, promise!”

Satoru smiles. “I’m sure you won’t! Just listen to Gojo-sensei and I’ll make you super strong in no time!”

“Okay Gojo-sensei!”, she says, and Satoru freezes. Suddenly, he’s in his twenties again and staring at his first batch of wide-eyed students. He blinks, and Yuuji’s smiling face is replaced by Uraraka’s.

“I hope you don’t mind if that other guy shows up too”, he says. “I offered it to him, but I don’t know if he’ll actually show up.”

“I don’t mind!”, she shakes her head.

“Is there a particular reason for this?”, he asks, finishing his cake. “Or are you just excited for the festival?”

Uraraka goes quiet for a second, her expression falling into one of contemplation.

“I really want to get far”, she says. “I don’t want to be as useless as I was in the USJ.” When she looks at him, Satoru sees deep sorrow and regret. “I wasn’t able to do anything, really. I just stood there when Thirteen was attacked, and even Kurogiri escaped when we fought him. I was just… there, I guess. Not like you.”

Satoru pauses his eating as he looks at her. “You did so much, you even helped Aizawa-sensei against the villains. I could never be able to do that”, she smiles sadly.

“Why not?”, Satoru says after a brief moment of silence. Uraraka blinks up at him. “Huh?”

“You said you would never be able to help fighting villains, or something. Why not? Isn’t that what you’re training to be?”

She hesitates. “Yeah, but…”

“I admit, it’s easy to get intimidated when we have so many powerhouses in our class”, Satoru shrugs. “Bakugo, Midoriya, Todoroki… and me. In your opinion, what makes us so different from you?”

“I guess… You all have really powerful quirks. You’ve obviously trained before getting into UA, and you’re pretty smart. Also, you were the most active during the USJ.”

Satoru shrugs. “Only Todoroki had any more or less professional training before UA, as far as I know. I’ve never visited any martial arts classes or had any kind of teacher, neither did Bakugo or Midoriya. Yeah, we have powerful quirks, but so do you.” He stares Uraraka right in the eyes. “I mean, the power to control gravity? That’s one hell of a quirk. You can’t tell me that’s not powerful?“

Uraraka stares at him dumbfounded.

“We were the most active during the USJ- because we could. I can teleport, Bakugi and Todoroki were already there, and Midoriya only made it more or less in time because he used his quirk and broke both of his legs to do so. If Kurogiri had taken you instead of Bakugo, I bet you would have fought with all you had too.“

Uraraka seems speechless. She gapes at him, mouth opening and closing multiple times.

“Do you really think I can do it?“, she blurts out. “Do you really think I can become as strong as you guys one day?“

Satoru thinks of Maki, ostracized and abused by the clan she was born into because she was a woman. Nobara, underestimated over and over again because of her gender. Shoko, often treated as the peacemaker, the fragile girl, never even being considered to become a sorcerer in the field.

Uraraka’s lacking confidence may not be entirely because of her gender, but Satoru is going to make sure she becomes the strongest she can be. He smiles. “Of course! If you really really train hard, you’ll be going head to head with them in no time, believe me. Not with me though”, he grins mischievously. “I’m the strongest.”

When Satoru walks into gym gamma, he didn’t expect anyone to actually come.

But there he is, purple eyebags guy, slouching moodily at the entrance like a socially awkward toddler on his first day of school.

“Yo! Gen ed guy!”, Satoru shouts as he skips over to him. “You actually came!”

He turns around, his eyes narrowing as they land on Satoru. “Yeah… you weren’t fucking with me, right?” His eyes shift around nervously.

“Nah”, Satoru says. “If I wasn’t serious, I wouldn’t have offered.” He hops into the gym, thankful to see it relatively empty.

“There’s someone else joining us though, she asked me earlier today. I hope you don’t mind?”

Eyebags scratches his head, trudging after Satoru. “It’s fine…”

Satoru throws his schoolbag somewhere in a corner, before turning to him and clapping his hands. “So!”, he grins. “What are your plans?”

The other blinks at him. “Uh. What?”

“Your plan. Your course of action. Your evil mastermind scheme?”

He continues to stare at him without moving. Satoru sighs.

“Gen ed guy.”

“It… It’s Shinso.”

“Shinso-kun. You want to get into the hero course, correct?”

“Yes?”

“I assume then, that you want to get as far as possible, maybe even win it. So what’s your plan? I want to know what I’m working with here.”

Shinso eyes him suspiciously. “Wasn’t it supposed to be that I scout out the competition, namely, you , and not the other way around?”

Satoru shrugs. “That’s a fun lie you told the rest of 1A there.”, he starts, and watches Shinso stiffen. Gotcha .

“What?”

“C’mon, you know what I’m talking about.” He grins, showing his teeth. “That they’ll get booted out of the hero course if they do bad enough.”

Shinso avoids his eyes, staring at the ground. “It’s a pretty solid tactic, to make them nervous of you before the festival even started.”, Satoru continued. “Fortunately for you, and I say this with all the love in my heart, they’re stupid enough not to check that further. Or they simply don’t care.”

“Are you going to tell them?” Shinso looks composed on the outside, but Satoru can see the uncertainty in his eyes.

“Nah”, Satoru answers. “Where would be the fun in that?”

The other boy looks conflicted, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. “Why did you really tell me to go here?”, he bursts out. “At first I thought it as some kind of fucked up intimidation attempt, or you were going to beat me up here where no one could see, but now you’re so…”, he scrunches up his face, looking Satoru up and down.

“Irresistible? Charming? Fun? Gorgeous?”, Satoru teases.

Shinso sighs. “Forget it. Just answer the question”

Satoru shrugs. “I guess since no one gets expelled or thrown into gen ed if you do get into the hero course, there’s nothing wrong in getting to know you a little right? If you’re going to be part of my class.”

The teenager looks at him like he has suddenly started spouting that he wants to become president of the USA.

“You… you actually think I’ll make it?”, he asks incredulously.

Satoru sighs. God, what is it with him and the emotionally stunted, brooding teenagers? Megumi, Maki, god, had it already started all the way back with Suguru?

“Shinso, you seem like an okay guy. To be honest, your stunt just now with your whole ‘declaration of war’ was kind of cringe, but it’s fine, the others took it seriously, more or less.” Shinso blushes, embarrassed, but Satoru continues. “It’s glaringly obvious that you don’t have any kind of training, not even something basic like strenght and muscle training. You probably have a mental quirk, or something that works specifically on the human body, and after you failed at the entrance exam, the hero course is your only chance! Am I right?”

Shinso grits his teeth together, staring intently at the ground. “...Yes”, he grits out.

“And you want to win the sports festival. So did you train at all? Did you even ask any of the teachers about the transfer? Aizawa-sensei for example would have helped you out, I think. He seems like the type to latch onto miserable children like you.”

Shinso continues to stare at him intently. “What even-”

“You thought it was pointless, right?”, Satoru answers for him. “You still think so. Deep down, you know that you’ll never win the sorts festival.” Shinso’s eyebrows start drawing together, but Satoru is not done. “But you think you can make enough ruckus that they’ll at least notice you. You may not be able to reach the top, but you’ll put up one hell of a fight, maybe even take out some of the hero course kids with you. Because you have an ace up your sleeve, your quirk. And before anyone can realize what it really is, you’ll already be one step closer to your goal.”

The teenager in front of him gapes at Satoru, his mouth open in surprise. “... How the hell did you know? Is that your quirk?”

Satoru shakes his head. “You’re just easy to read, that’s all.” He grins, crossing his hands behind his back as he leans back on his toes. “Shinso, I’m very serious when I say that I think you have potential. And to be honest, there are a few hero students that I’d like to see be taken down a peg or two or ten. And I think you can do it. It’s not pity, or some fucked up plan. I really want to help you.” He stretches out a hand. “So what do you say?”

Shinso stares at him. Finally, he sighs. “Fuck it”, he says as his hand meets Satoru’s. “I hope you know what you’re doing, because I don’t.”

Satoru’s grin turns feral. “Oh, don’t worry. I’ve been told I’m a good teacher!”

“Let’s start with a spar”, Satoru says not much later. They’ve warmed up and stretched, enough to prevent any pulls in the muscle, and enough for Satoru to know that Shinso is… there’s no nice way to put it. He’s a weakling. Low stamina, low strength, for fuck’s sake he can’t even reach his toes. Satoru really has his work cut out for him.

Shinso raises an eyebrow. “Won’t you have an unfair advantage?”

Satoru rolls his eyes. “I’m not going to use my quirk. You won’t, too. This is just physical.”

Shinso eyes him warily. “Aren’t you, you know…?” He waves a hand in front of his eyes. Satoru blinks. “Am i what…? Oh!” He laughs. “No, I can see just fine. That’s the one part of my quirk that I can’t turn off.”

“...If you say so”, Shinso says and settles into a (poor) stance. The boy seizes Satoru up looking at his gangly limbs and relaxed stance, and Satoru has to suppress a grin at his self-assured expression. He actually thinks he has a chance.

“Push your legs further apart”, he starts. “Yes, like that. bend your knees, you look like a giraffe. Keep your upper body upright, keep one hand in front of you and the other outstretched.”

Shinso complies, and his stance morphs into something semi-acceptable. Well, they’ll work on that.

“Okay, throw a punch at me. Don’t be shy, try to hit me! Not that you’ll be able to, haha.”

He glares at him, and Satoru has the impression that by now Shinso wants to punch him for personal reasons, not only because of the spar. Still, he easily side-steps the fist he aims at his face. He sticks his leg out, hooking it around the other’s ankle and yanks his leg out under him. With a small “oof”, he falls flat on his face, one fist still outstretched.

“Your center of gravity shouldn’t shift so much”, Satoru says to the downed boy. “An opponent can easily take advantage of that, like I did. Also, straighten your wrist when you punch. If you would have hit me, your wrist would have gone up and hurt you more than me.”

Shinso sighs as he turns around, pushing himself back up. “Haven’t you heard of the saying ‘don’t kick a man when he’s down?’” Satoru grins. “I can really kick you, if you’d prefer.”

“No thank you.”

“Alright, again.”, Satoru instructs. “Widen your stance. Good. A little lower- yes, like that. Now come at me.”

The next punch is a little better. Shinso aims for his stomach this time, his wrist straight and his body upright.

Satoru steps neatly into his punch, flicking him in the forehead. “Better”, he smiles. “Now, let’s spar for real.”

Shinso pants as he aims a kick at Satoru’s ribs, yelping when it’s knocked aside. Still, he doesn’t fall as he did the first few times, instead turning with the momentum and shoving his elbow into Satoru’s face. He tilts his head, aiming a punch at Shinso’s guts that knocks the breath out of the boy.

“Don’t attack if it leaves you unprotected”, Satoru says, already blocking the next attack. He has to hand it to Shinso, the kid is nothing if not stubborn. Satoru aims a kick at his head, which Shinso intercepts, and tries to throw him off balance by grabbing his leg. Satoru just grins, going with the fall as he uppercuts him. He laughs maniacally as he rubs his bruised jaw. “You’re brutal ”, the kid says.

Satoru shrugs. “Would you want me to hold back?”

“No”, Shinso says, settling into his stance. “Again.”

Satoru grins, and aims for Shinso again.

Not even half an hour later, Shinso lies exhausted on the gym mats, gasping for air as Satoru looms over him, looking largely unfazed. “How… do you do that?”, he asks between breaths. Satoru just shrugs. “Stamina. We’ll work on that with you.”

Suddenly, the doors to the gym open and they both look up.

“I’m so sorry I‘m late! I completely lost track of time and it took forever to get here!”

Uraraka slips through the doors, a nervous smile on her face.

“Hey Uraraka!”, Satoru raises a hand in greeting.

She jogs over to them, taking off her jacket. “Did you start already?”, she says looking down onto Shinso, who’s still on the ground. “Hi, I’m Uraraka Ochako! You’re the guy from before, right? From Gen ed!”

“Yeah…”, he stands up, awkwardly bowing to her. “Shinso Hitoshi.”

“Cool!”, she smiles. “So, what are we doing? Sparring?”

Satoru grins. “Yup! How about you two spar against each other for now? So I can see how capable you are.”

“Sure!”, Uraraka nods and walks over to the mats.

“Uh… really?”, Shinso says, staring her up and down. “No offense, but…”

Uraraka’s smile turns deadly as she tilts her head to the side. “I got into the hero course and you didn’t”, she says sickly sweet. “I’m gonna wipe the floor with you, beanpole.”

And she did.

Shinso lies on the ground, evaluating all his life choices as he stares at the ceiling.

Uraraka looms over him, still smiling, swaying on the tip of her toes. “Still complaining?”, she says. “Nope”, Shinso says as he stands up.

Satoru giggles from the side. “That’s on you for underestimating her”, he calls over.

Shinso grunts as he settles onto a stance again. He supposes he is right.

This time, it takes more than a few seconds for Uraraka to win, but the difference between them is still startingly clear. She threw him over the shoulder, in a practiced move she had done tons of times before. She knows what she is doing, she has been in countless spars before, even against real villains, Shinso remembers.

“Okay, I think that’s enough. Let’s leave the poor boy alone for now.” The white haired boy approaches, and it’s getting really awkward for Shinso to not know his name. But it’s too late to ask now.

“What now then, Gojo-kun?”, Uraraka asks and Shinso freezes as he stands up again.

“Wait a minute”, he says, pointing at the white haired boy. “ You’re Gojo Satoru? The one with the highest score on the entrance exam ever ?”

“Yep!”, he says with that infuriating grin. “That’s me!”

“You didn’t know?”, Uraraka asks. “But you’ve been here all this time!”

Shinso grimaces, she’s right, that’s on him. “In my defense, he called me ‘Gen ed guy’ at first.”

She grimaces apologetically. “Yeah, he does that.”

“Hey! Stop talking about me as if I’m not here!”

“Alright”, Satoru smiles as he looks at Uraraka. “You ready for this?”

She grins. “Born ready!”

She lunges without warning, going right for his throat. Satoru jumps back, staying on the defensive at first. She’s really not bad, and miles better than Shinso. Still, to him, her attacks look like child’s play.

He bats her arm away, sidestepping the elbow stab it turns into and kicking the feet out from under her. Instead of freezing or stumbling, she immediately turns her fall into a roll, using the ground as leverage to kick upwards in a mean kick to his jaw that would have knocked him out. He bats it away, grabbing her leg, but she uses his occupied arm to her advantage, aiming her fist at his exposed side. He lets go of her foot, kicking her in the stomach. She blocks it, grunting from the impact, before she charges at him again.

“Not bad”, Satiru smiles, and he means it. He’s already seen her improving since they started.

“Okay, let’s stop for now.”

Uraraka stops, and hey both settle down on a bank next to Shinso.

“Shinso, what have you learned from today?”, he asks cheerily while Uraraka chugs at her water bottle.

“That I’m gonna die at the festival”, Shinso deadpans.

“Don’t be so negative!”, Satoru says. “You’re not gonna die. Maybe get maimed, at best.”

Shinso throws him a look. “That doesn’t make me feel better.””

Satoru just laughs.

“So”, Uraraka wipes her mouth. “What now?”

Satoru hums. “Well, I actually wanted to work with you with your quirk, but Shinso doesn’t want to disclose to us what his quirk is, right?”

“Yes”, Shinso crosses his arms. “And you? Are you comfortable with me knowing about yours?”

Satoru laughs. “Shinso, even if you knew everything there is to know about my quirk and every possible weakness inside out, you wouldn’t be able to beat me.”

Shinso’s eyes narrow. “We’ll see about that.”

“Yeah, we will.” Satoru grins at him.

“Well, I think I’ll take my leave then. See you tomorrow?”

Satoru can’t suppress a small smile at the uncertainty in his voice. “Yup. We’re gonna whip you into shape, don’t worry.”

Shinso grunts in response, and as the doors of the gym close behind him, Satoru turns to Uraraka.

“So, Uraraka”, he says with a grin. “How much can you lift with your quirk?”

A lot, is the answer.

Satoru quickly understands that the negative repercussions of her quirk mostly come up if she uses it for a lot of time or on multiple things in quick succession. Of course, the weight and amount of things she lifts is also a factor, but in the first minutes or so there isn’t really a limit to how much she can lift, just how long she can hold it up.

“Okay, you can let go now!”, Satoru calls over to her, and most of the equipment in gym gamma crashes to the ground. Whoops. Well, the school will pay for it.

“I’ve never lifted so much at once”, Uraraka pants on the ground, surrounded by multiple weights.

“Well, you can’t really hold it for more than five minutes before puking your guts out, so we’ll have to work on that”, Satoru says, and almost as if on cue, Uraraka’s face starts to turn an alarming shade of green.

“Oh dear!”, Satoru says, frantically searching for a bucket. “It’s fine”, Uraraka presses out, and holds her forehead while the nausea passes. “If you say so”, Satoru says. “Oh, that’s an improvement from last time right?” ‘Last time’ referencing to hero training a few days ago in which she had thrown up in two different corners, much to her embarrassment. “Ugh, don’t remind me”, she mutters. “Okay, I’m ready to go again!”, she tries to stand up, but Satoru firmly pushes her down again. “Let’s… wait for a few more minutes.”

“You wanna hear what I’ve figured out?”, he continues, and Uraraka nods enthusiastically.

“Alright, so you don’t really have a limit as to how much you can lift with your quirk, just on how long you can hold it. Of course, a pebble and a three-ton boulder have a difference, but technically once you reach a certain weight you have the same five minutes-limit. Which means, that for five minutes, you can lift as much as you want.”

Her eyes widen in understanding. “You’re right… So what now?”

Satoru grins. “Now, we’re going to increase that time.”

Training had gone relatively well, Satoru thinks on his way back home. Shinso needed a lot of work, that much he could admit, but he and Uraraka had already made huge progress already. A proud smile spread over Satoru’s face.

Bam .

A loud noise makes him look up. He’s walking past a dark alley, only a few trash cans placed inside, the perfect place for shady business. Carefully, Satoru readies his infinity as he approaches the entrance.

Rustling noises reach his ears, and one of the trash cans is toppling dangerously to the side. Before he can do anything, a small, white something rushes out and jumps at him, being caught by his infinity, and oh my god it’s a cat!

Satoru gasps delighted as he catches the small furry thing, holding it up under its arms as it hisses and tries to scratch at him. “Oh my god you’re so cute!”, he gushes, inspecting the struggling cat.

It has dirty white fur, mated by mud, dust and trash, and pretty sharp claws, ow , what was that for? The cat just yowls at him. The thing that stands out the most is the single big eye on its forehead. Not that it’s simply missing one eye, it really only has ever had one, like a cyclops. A cat-cyclops… A catclops!

Satoru twitches when the cat continues to yowl and hiss at him. “Stop screaming, I only want to help you!”, he says, activating his infinity as it starts scratching at him. Eventually, it seems to go limp, hanging in Satoru’s arms and only occasionally growling at him. Satoru laughs. “You’re coming home with me!”

When Satoru re-enters his apartment, the angry cat still in his grasp, the first thing he does is prepare a bath, much to its dismay. It screams, meowing desperately as it tries to get away from the filled bathtub, but Satoru is relentless.

“Just get in the damn water, it’s not going to kill you!”, but the cat seems to believe otherwise. Eventually, Satoru manages to dunk it in the tub, sighing as the cat immediately goes limp as it realizes the water is harmless.

“You’re so dramatic”, Satoru says as he starts scrubbing it clean, ignoring the smug look it sends his way.

After it’s clean, a quick check confirms that ‘it’ is a ‘he’, and Satoru starts thinking about names. It might seem fast, but with the six eyes, Satoru sees quickly that it isn’t chipped, and also doesn’t have any kind of disease like worms or something. The cat looks around his apartment, sniffing everything in sight, while Satoru thinks.

“How about… Taro?”, he says, googling popular cat names. “Nah, that doesn’t seem right…”, he says and the cat throws him a flat look. “Uhh…”, Satoru scrolls down the list before shutting off his phone and chucking it somewhere in frustration. “It can’t be that hard to name a cat. It’s a cat!”

He turns to watch said cat hop on one of the chairs, rubbing his head against the table. He seems to have calmed down somewhat, at least he isn’t shrieking at Satoru anymore.

“I’ve got it!”, Satoru says. “How about Gege?”, he grins, laughing as the cat turns to glare at him. “Alright, it’s decided! You’re stuck with me now, Gege-chan!”

Gege hisses before jumping off the chair and running into a different room. Satoru just laughs.

Notes:

Yes, you read that right. The cat really is Gege Akutami. No, I don't know why I did that either.

Chapter 10: The world, I’ll turn it inside out

Summary:

Pulling a move like this might be dangerous- too dangerous, considering the league still running g around, considering last time he was in danger Satoru was still too weak to even protect anyone . But he has to do this. He has to show the world what happens if you mess with Gojo Satoru. He might not have the reputation he has in his past life, but his power, limitless, the six eyes- it’s all there. And it’s time the world saw it too.

Notes:

Sports festival let’s go!!!
Shorter chapter than usual I think, but I don’t have much time the upcoming days so I wanted to post this now when I still have it

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

It‘s rather quiet in the prep room, Satoru thinks as he sucks on his last lollipop before the festival.

It’s quiet, but the air is full with tension.

even Kaminari and Mina, the chatterboxes of 1A, sit in their seats with beads of sweat running down their foreheads.

Every member of the class is panicking one way or another, Yaomomo is stress-reading her big ass manual with the atomic composition of everything she can create, Jiro is fidgeting while listening to music, Midoriya has been muttering and writing in one of his notebooks nonstop for the past hour, Iida is lecturing Uraraka who looks faintly sick, and even the oh-so stoic Todoroki’s brows seem to furrow in worry. Satoru watches him throw glances at Midoriya every now and then, he seems to debate something. With amusement, Satoru watches him stand up and approach the muttering boy.

“Ah! T-Todoroki-kun, what is it?”, the boy asks after he notices the other boy looming over him.

„Objectively“, Todoroki starts, „I think I’m stronger than you.“ Satoru hangs his head low as he suppressed his giggles. Poor Todoroki and his lacking social skills.

„Uh…“, Midoriya says as more and more members of 1A turn to look at them.

“However… All Might has an eye on you, doesn’t he?”

Midoriya freezes, eyes looking everywhere but the boy in front of him as his mouth opens and closes in shock.

Satoru leans forward. Has Todoroki figured out what he has been suspecting as well?

“I’m not trying to pry into that, or something”, Todoroki interrupts him. “But…” his gaze turns cold. “Regardless, I’m going to beat you.”

The rest of the class gapes at him, and even Midoriya stares at Todoroki with an open mouth, for once out of words, however before anyone can say anything, Todoroki frowns and walks off.

“Well that was… something”, Kaminari mutters in the back. “Wouldn’t have pegged him for the type to cause trouble right before the start.”

“I thought he was kind of nice…”, Mina says with a frown, watching him walk off. “Where is this coming from all of a sudden?”

Satoru doesn’t say anything, watching Todoroki sit down on the other end of the prep room. As if sensing his gaze. Todoroki looks up. Catching him stare, he frowns and looks down.

“Eventually, I’m going to have to beat you” , Satoru remembers him say. He would think Todoroki just wants to prove himself, but he has an inkling that that’s not all.

He never answered his following question, after all.

Satoru understands why Todoroki declared to Satoru that he would beat him, but Midoriya? Objectively, he’s not very strong. Sure, he has a powerful quirk, but he’s more prone to injure and put himself out of commission than to be useful, as he’s showed many times. So is All Might the deciding factor?

“Todoroki”, Midoriya speaks up and Satoru turns to him. He’s pleasantly surprised that he finds determination masked under all that anxiety. “I don’t know why you want to beat me so bad”, he continues, “and, objectively , of course you’re stronger than me. Stronger than most people here, probably.”

(“Oi-“, starts Bakugo before he’s shushed by Mina. “Shut up, I want to see this.”)

“But… that the gen ed course end the other courses are aiming for the top as well just shows us that we have to give it our best.” He looks Todoroki right in the eyes. “So I’ll be fighting with everything I have, too!”

Todoroki continues to stare at him. Then he nods, barely.

Satoru just grins. For once, he really is curious on how this will turn out.

The stadium is just as over-the-top, enormous and probably very expensive as the rest of UA, Satoru thinks as he eyes the rows and rows of excited spectators.

He is once again immensly glad for his blindfold, without it the thousand different signatures would have given him a headache the size of Tokyo. Distantly, he spots the teacher’s familiar signatures as well as Present mic and Aizawa in the announcement booth. What a match made in hell. He hopes Aizawa doesn’t actually commentate- that would suck for everyone involved.

“That’s a nice speech you did there, Midori-kun”, Satoru says to him as they walk into the stadium.

“A-ah, what speech…?”, Midoriya mutters as he looks around. “So many people…”

Satoru shrugs. “You could’ve just said nothing, you know? But you did. That’s admirable, too.”

“Maybe…”, Mirosiya says, throwing him a side glance. “How are you even so… calm about it all? There are thousands of people in this stadium, and probably millions more watching from TV and oh god what if I embarrass myself it’ll be recorded forever-“

“Midoriya! Focus!”, Iida calls over to them. “And Gojo! Focus on your own incoming speech!”

Satoru freezes. Hold on, pause, record scratch. “What?” His what ? “My what ?”

“It’s time for the student’s pledge!”, Midnight calls out from the podium as if on cue.

“Representing the students is Gojo Satoru from class 1A!”

Fuck his life. Aizawa-sensei, I’m going to kill you , Satoru thinks as he slowly trudges towards the podium.

His brain is going at a mile per minute, drafting up and throwing away dozens of themes for speeches, eventually throwing a few different attempts together and strengthening everything with duct tape. He’s Gojo Satoru- a simple speech like this shouldn’t be a problem.

Still, he’s overwhelmingly aware of every single person staring at him, the civilians, the heroes, the students below him, everyone looking at him as he stands on the podium before the microphone.

His eyes sweep over the entire first years of UA, and he takes a deep breath.

“All of us here”, he says, his voice steady as it rings out through the stadium, “Are gathered here today to give it our all in our first sports festival, be it the hero course, gen ed, management or support.” His eyes spot Shinso and he grins into the crowd. “So let’s all do our best. Plus ultra, and all that, yeah?”

He smiles, stepping off the podium and next to class 1A again.

“That wasn’t half bad”, Asui comments next to him. “Knowing you, you probably made that up on the spot, right?”

Satoru smiles, although it is more a grimace. he sends a glare towards Aizawa’s signature in the commenter’s booth.

“All right, let’s start with the first event!”, Midnight announces, the hologram of a wheel of luck appearing over her. Satoru wonders if the event is really luck-based or if it’s planned beforehand- although it’s probably the latter. Even UA can’t prepare a festival as big as this on the spot.

The wheel rolls and rolls until it stops on-

“Obstacle race!”, Midnight calls out, and a feral grin spreads over Satoru’s face. Out of every possible events, this one was maybe the best outcome for him- though probably a nightmare for everyone else.

He eyes the crowd gathered around the entrance gate, which is already starting to open.

“Three!”

He falls into a light jog, mingling into the crowd, catching a few elbows aimed at him with his infinity.

“Two!”

The students throw him the stink eye as he advances deeper into the crowd, quickly turning into confusion when they can’t seem to touch him.

“One!”

Satoru slips his blindfold off.

He opens his six eyes, and immediately the world becomes startlingly bright. He sees every single atom in the stadium, every quirk, every quickly beating heart. He sees the robots placed around the course, the pits, the mine field. And, most of all. The finishing line.

“START!”

Satoru stays rooted in place as everyone around him starts to move. Noises fade into the background, his senses concentrated on a single space, his technique activating as numbers and equations are being calculated at top speed in his mind.

Pulling a move like this might be dangerous- too dangerous, considering the league still running g around, considering last time he was in danger Satoru was still too weak to even protect anyone . But he has to do this. He has to show the world what happens if you mess with Gojo Satoru. He might not have the reputation he has in his past life, but his power, limitless, the six eyes- it’s all there. And it’s time the world saw it too.

Between one moment and the next, Satoru teleports past the finishing line.

Notes:

Hehe

Chapter 11: Guaranteed to blow your mind

Summary:

Satoru grins at his team. “We’ve got this, don’t worry!”

Okay, they might not have got it.

Notes:

Here's the second event! I was a little unsure with the team composition, since Gojo doesn't really need a team, you know, but let me know what you think about this :) Also, since I'm starting Uni soon my update schedule will slow down cause I'll be busy

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“OKAY EVERYBODEY! CAN I GET A HEY!?”

The crowd cheers, their combined voices almost drowning out present mic.

“HERE COMES THE PLAY-BY PLAY FOR THE FOLLOWING EVENTS, FIRST: THE OBSTACLE COURSE!! Are you ready to do the commentary, mummy-man?!”

“You’re the one who forced me to come”, Aizawa’s tired voice echoes through the speaker.

“ANYWAYS! Let’s get started right away! What should we pay special attention to in the early stages?!”

“This part right now.”

The hundreds of students squeeze together through the narrow gap, fighting and elbowing each other. At least, until the ground under them turns to ice.

“AND THAT’S TODOROKI SHOTO FROM THE INFAMOUS CLASS 1A! Seems as if most contestants have already become trapped in his ice! However- Huh ?!”

Aizawa leans forward, his eyes staring through the narrow gap in his bandages. “He really did it, huh?”, he mutters.

Unmistakably, a familiar white-haired figure is walking out of the tunnel with the finishing line, without a care in the world, throwing the audience into confused murmurs.

“IT’S GOJO SATORU FROM CLASS 1A!!!”, present mic screams, his voice ten times louder in excitement. Aizawa sighs, mourning his poor abused hearing.

“WITH HIS QUIRK, HE BYPASSED EVERYONE ELSE AND TELEPORTED PAST THE FINISHING LINE!!! EVERYONE, IT SEEMS WE ALREADY HAVE A WINNER BARELY A MINUTE AFTER THE FIRST EVENT STARTED!”

The crowd’s hesitant and confused mutterings quickly turn into surprise, and then, a deafening cheer.

“THIS IS THE FIRST TIME SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENED IN THE HISTORY OF UA!”

The crowd, and present mic, are extacic, eyes fixed on Satoru, who stands in the center of attention with his hands in his pockets.

“BUT! THE QUESTION IS SURELY POSED IN EVERY ONE OF YOUR MINDS, DEAR LISTENERS! IS THIS EVEN ALLOWED?!”

All eyes turn to Midnight, still atop the posium, just as dumbfounded as everyone else. “Well… He didn’t leave the course, technically… I’ll allow it!”

The stadium erupts into deafening noise, roaring applause rising from the ranks. Satoru just smirks.

In the obstacle course, many have stopped what they wre doing to listen to present mics announcement.

Todoroki’s face is contorted in surprise, eyes wide as he understands what just happened.

“That fucker…”, Bakugo growls, his hands smoking and releasing small explosions.

“I would’ve never thought he woud actually do something like this…”, Mina says, a fond smile on her face.

“He’s just made himself the number one enemy of a lot of people, kero”, Asui agrees.

Next to her, Midoriya falls into anxious mutters. “A winner in the first seconds of the first event? Something like this has never happened in the entire history of UA! This will be remembered forever- ugh!”

“Focus, Midoriya-chan!”, Asui calls over. Around them, more and more students have started to break out from Todoroki’s ice.

“Just because Gojo-kun won doesn’t mean the fight is over for us!”

“R-right!”

“So… what do I do until the others finish?”, Satoru scratches his head, looking at Midnight on the podium. She blinks at him, before shrugging. “No one has ever done something like you”, she answers. “Just sit down somewhere… where you can cause least trouble” she mutters the last part, partially drowned out by present mic picking up his commentary duties again.

“Now, after this mind-blowing display, let’s focus back to the rest of the contesters! We have class 1A at the top…!”

“I’ll take five servings of your Sakura mochi, please!”

“Sure… Although isn’t five serving a bit much…? W-wait a minute!” The vendor looks up, taking in the snow white hair and black blindfold in front of him.

“Hm?”, Satoru cocks his head to the side.

“A-aren’t you…? What are you even doing outside the stadium?!”

Satoru shrugs. “Midnight said I shouldn’t cause any trouble… but it’s fine if i just get a few snacks, right? Now, the mochi?”

“Ah, of course…”

Satoru waits patiently for the vendor to pack the sweets up, handing him the money, when present mic’s voice cuts through the air.

“AND WE HAVE A WINNER! I mean… SECOND PLACE! MIDORIYA IZUKU FROM CLASS 1A!”

“Ah, right on cue…”, Satoru says. “See ya!”, he says to the vendor and then he’s gone.

“Ohmygod… I did it… I really did it…”, Midoriya pants, hands on his knees, as the stadium cheers around him.

“Maa, don’t be such a crybaby, Midoriya-chan!”

He flinches to the side, coming face to face with Satoru, mouth full of sweets.

“G-gojo! Ah, congrats on first place! …Where did you even get that Mochi, though?”

“Thanks!”, Satoru smiles, completely ignoring the second question. “You weren’t too bad either! That thing with the mines… smart, really smart, Midori-chan!”

“Ah, thank you… though I really only made it up on the fly… I was just lucky, really…”

“Nonsense!”, Satoru grins, ruffling his fluffy green hair. “Who else would have had the same insane idea as you? Give yourself some credit!”

One after the other, every other qualifying contestant makes their way into the stadium, until all 42 slots are filled.

“Alright everyone! The top 42 contestants made it into the second round!”, Midnight announces, her whip flying through the air with every other word. “After the qualifier, the real competition begins now!”

The lucky wheel turns up behind her again, turning and turning, until-!

“Cavalry battle!”

Huh. A cavalry battle? Well, it’s UA, so everything will be a little unusual. What’s more, it’s a teamwork event. Now, students who fought tooth and nail to beat each other now have to work together… interesting. Already Satoru can feel dozens of eyes on his back, many contemplating if it could be worth it banding together with him.

Well, Satoru works best alone, but if he really has to… yeah, probably those three .

“Let’s explain the rules!”, Midnight announces, silencing the mutterings rising in the crowd.

“You’re going to band together in groups from two to four, just like a regular cavalry battle! However…” Her smile turns evil. “This one will be a little different! Based on your place in the first event, each person gets assigned a certain number of points!”

That seems… pretty basic. Satoru doubts that it will be the same as the entrance exam- no, UA probably built in a certain twist… Something that will disadvantage whoever is at the top. Satoru just grins. Let them do their worst. He can handle whatever they throw at him.

“Shut up! I’m not done!”, Midnight says as the crows starts chattering. “The points go up by five, starting from the bottom, so 41st place has five points, 42nd ten and so on! But!”, she grins, and Satoru braces himself. “The point value assigned to first place… is ten million!”

A suurprised grin spreads over Satoru’s face, and he feels the eyes of every contestant glued to his back. If they can take him down, they automatically win.

Satoru can’t help it. He laughs.

Satoru’s still giggling by the time the students band together to form teams. Most of them had turned their back on him immediately, and Satoru gets it. They’ve all seen his quirk- or part of it, to be exact- and think that’s all he can do. Teleporting isn’t very useful when you’re disqualified the moment you leave your team. However, many of class 1A throw him contemplating gazes. They’ve all seen him at USJ- though only Midoriya and Asui have ever seen his infinity in action. And coincidentally, those are the first two that approach him.

“Tsu-chan! Midori-chan!”, he grins, “You wanna team up with me?” Tsuyu nods, while Midoriya wrings his hand nervously. “I- I want to win this.”, he says determinately. His gaze flickers briefly up into the ranks, and Satoru doesn’t have to turn to know that he’s looking at All Might. His green eyes settle back onto Satoru. “And you’re my best chance.”

“Most of the others think your quirk is teleporting, kero.”, Tsuyu croaks. “But we know what else you’re capable of. The other groups might think they have a chance at getting your headband, but they can’t touch you if you don’t want to, right?”

Satoru grins. They’re both so clever! He’s so proud.

“And why would I want you in my team?”, he asks, and Midoriya immediately freezes. Seems like he hadn’t considered the fact that Satoru could chose not to team up with him as well.

Midoriya was very smart- and resourceful, what the results of the first event had shown. But in battle? Not so much. His quirk was more likely to hurt him rather than his opponent, and he didn’t really have any training to compensate that. As the one that placed second in the cavalry race, Midoriya also had a target on his back, if not one as big as Satoru. Without a proper team, he was going to fail.

Asui, in contrast to Midoriya, just blinked. “My tongue has a very wide range. In case we lose our points, I can get them back, kero. Also, I don’t want to sound mean, but there aren’t a lot of people willing to team up with you.”

Satoru grins. She’s right- considering the latter at least. As long as Satoru’s the rider, no one will be able to take their headbands off him. But, there really is no one else wanting to team up with him- he considered Shinso, but he seems dead-set on pulling through on his own, already amassing a squad of not-so willing teammates.

They briefly make eye contact, before he turns away. They aren’t on bad terms, and Satoru would even consider him a friend, but Shinso has something to prove, and he wants to prove it on his own. Satoru can respect that.

“G-Gojo-kun?” Satoru turns back to Midoriya. He fidgets slightly, but his eyes are determined. “I may not be of much use with my quirk, but I’m strong. If you plan on being the rider, Asui-san can’t crary you on her own.”

Asui nods. “He’s right. You’re heavy, kero. And I told you to call me Tsu-chan!”

Satoru has to bite back a grin. “That’s right, but if we’re lucky, you won’t really need to carry me for long, so that argument’s useless, Haha! But, fortunately for you, I do want you on my team, Midori, even if you’re kinda useless. There has to be something you can do! You didn’t place second in the race for nothing!”

“W-well, I just got really lucky, that’s all. And w-wait, what y´do you mean by that? Of course we’ll have to carry you!”

“Don’t sell yourself too short, Midoriya. Only a fool would attempt something like that, but only a genius would actually succeed. And, as I said, if we’re lucky. Now-”

“Gojo-kun!”

Satoru turns in the direction of the bubbly voice, a smile on his face. “Uraraka-chan!”

The girl runs up to them excitedly, bumping her fist. “Everyone, wanna team up?”

“Of course!”, Satoru grins. “We were just waiting for you! Now, here’s the plan…”

“Ready?”, Satoru asks a while later. He ties the headband around his head, tugging it down until it rests right over his blindfold. The blaring red one followed by seven zeroes is a stark contrast to the white cloth underneath.

“Ready!”, three voices beneath him answer. Uraraka and Midoriya are carrying most of his weight, being stronger than Asui who relied more on mobility in a fight

Satoru eyes slide over the different teams as Midnight starts the countdown, some having the potential to be really powerful, and some… not. As if sensing his gaze, Todoroki’s eyes snap over to him. Satoru grins at him.

“Start!”, Midnight calls out, her whip flying through the air, and immediately every single team hones in on Satoru.

He smiles crookedly, remembering what they had discussed.

“We have enough points”, Uraraka contemplates, “Which means we just have to evade attacks for fifteen minutes.”

“It doesn’t seem like a long time, but a lot can happen in fifteen minutes…”, Midoriya mutters. “And while no one will be able to touch you , Gojo, doesn’t mean they can’t attack us .”

“And if the rider touches the ground, the team is out”, Asui sums up.

“And besides me, none of you really has an offensive quirk”, Satoru hums.

“W-well I can use mine if it really comes down to it”, Midoriya butts in, “But I’ll have to break my finger. And I only have so many fingers, a-and also i wanted to save it up for the third event-”

“Yeah, you really have to find a way around that”, Satoru says. He’s honestly surprised Midoriya hasn’t found a method which would leave his bones sane, he seemed pretty smart. Anyways.

“I’m pretty sure I can hold them off, I just have to make sure not to injure them too much”, Satoru says. Blue would be a pretty good option, when he places it in a non-lethal space it would just drag them back, but red might be a little over the top. He’ll have to play this right. “Tsu-chan, try to take their headbands if you can”, he instructs.

“But isn’t that a little risky”, Midoriya asks. “We already have enough points, and taking their headbands will just make them come after us more.”

“Not necessarily.”, Uraraka answers, chin in her hand as she thinks. “They might realize that they have no chance and try going after the smaller teams- in fact, only the top three or four teams will go after us, I think. The rest will probably try to get just enough points to pass. But Todoroki and Bakugo have a personal grudge.”

Satoru nods. “I think so, too. In summary, just leave attacking and defending mostly to me- with Uraraka, we will have increased mobility as well. In fact- how about this?” He rubs his hands together, an evil grin spreading over his face as a plan begins to form in his mind. “With my quirk, I can keep us in the air if Uraraka uses hers on all of us- which means most teams won’t even have a chance to catch up to us!” He grins, hoping it comes over as reassuring.

Tsuyu cocks her head to the side, contemplating his idea. “Well, it can’t really go wrong. And it might be a really solid tactic.”

Satoru grins at his team. “We’ve got this, don’t worry!”

Okay, they might not have got it, Satoru thinks as the ground starts to soften beneath them. Uraraka, Midoriya and Asui are already sinking in to their knees before any of them really register what is happening, and Satoru curses under his breath. He looks up, eyes honing in on one particular student, maybe from 1B? What a powerful quirk.

A shouting boy sits atop his shoulders, already lunging for his head. Satoru grins in his face as his hand stops inches before his headband. The other’s eyes widen in confusion, but Satoru just laughs and reels his fist back. His knuckles meet the boy’s face, but he isn’t being knocked back as far as he expected.

He turns his face again, revealing metallic shining skin. A quirk similar to Kirishima’s, then. Well, no matter.

Satoru raises his hand in front of him, two fingers outstretched as a ball of fluctuating red forms at his fingertips. Vines rush at his head, suspended in the air by his infinity before he can let it loose.

“See ya”, he grins, and the group is being forced back by red. It’s not as strong as it could be, obviously, not even enough to knock them down, but it does the trick. “Gojo-chan”, Asui alerts him, a shiny new headband in her grasp. “Oh you’re devious ”, he giggles in response, reaching up to shake the headband in the 1B group’s direction in victory. He watches as the metal skin guy reaches up to his head in confusion, then settling realisation, and finally anger as he instructs his group to charge forward again. But Satoru has other plans.

He raises his hand high above his head, his finegrs pointing upwards, and a blue sphere materializes above their heads, its pull so strong he can feel it pulling at his core.

“Now, Uraraka”, he says, and she nods, pressing her fingertips together. Instantly, his body feels incredibly light, and he hastily cancels blue before they get sucked in. However, the pull upwards still lingers, catapulting their group into the air.

Satoru laughs at the feeling of lightness, almost like when he uses his infinity to float. He smirks down at the other teams gaping up at them, sticking his tongue out at them.

“How’re you holding up, Uraraka?”, He asks.

“Good”, she says, her face only mildly contorted in effort. “I can hold this for ten minutes, but then I’ll be out for a while.”

“No, it’s fine”, Satoru says. As they are now, they are slowly but surely starting to gently float down. Without either blue or red pushing them in one direction or the other, they’ll touch the ground again eventually. But in their weightless state, using either in close vicinity might be dangerous.

Sudden explosions make him look up. It seems their team aren’t the only ones that can fight in the air. The angry face of one Bakugo Katsuki is making its way closer and closer, propelled by the explosions coming from his hands.

“YOU THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN ME, BLINDFOLD FREAK?”, he screams, aiming right for Satoru’s head.

“Uraraka”, he mutters and she immediately puts her fingertips back together. “On it!”

And then, weight settles into Satoru’s bones again as they plummet down, right under Bakugo’s swing, sending him careening over them.

Immediately, Uraraka activates her quirk again, and their fall stops. Satoru can hear her pant, and he knows such a fast maneuver took a lot out of her.

The nearing explosions also signal that Bakugo isn’t quite done yet.

“I’ll handle this”, he mutters, and Uraraka recognizes the signal for what it is. As Bakugo comes back for round two, he feels himself become heavier again as Uraraka gently guides the group back to the ground. Meanwhile, when Bakugo goes careening into Satoru, Satoru goes flying with him.

“Having fun, Bakugo?”, He giggles, floating in midair with Bakugo struggling in his infinity. “How-?!”, he starts shouting, realizing his team is back on the ground. Satoru laughs, and without much fanfare kicks Bakugo right into the gut. The boy’s eyes widen as the air rushes out of his lungs, and the steady explosions in his hands falter as he plummets down. Satoru watches him get caught by Sero’s tape, settling back onto his team’s shoulders.

“IT LOOKS LIKE THE BATTLE AROUND THE TEN MILLION HAS EVOLVED INTO A HEADS ON CONFRONTATION IN MID-AIR!”, Present mic’ voice sounds through the air. “But is their separation from their teams really allowed?!”

Satoru grins down at the angry Bakugo, watching him fumble for balance as he floats through the sky, unbothered. Surely many think it’s still the influence from Uraraka’s quirk, but this is alone his doing. He couldn’t explain all the math he has to do every second even if he wanted to- floating like this takes an insane amount of control of the space around him.

“As long as they don’t touch the ground it’s fine!”, Midnight answers back to present mic, and Satoru sighs. Of course, he could simply float up here for the entire fifteen minutes, fending off the occasional attack that makes it up here, leaving his team back on the ground, but that would be no fun, would it?

With one last wave, he teleports back onto his teammate’s backs, assessing the situation.

“Let’s take a look at everybody’s points!”, present mic shouts, and their rankings appear on a big screen at the top of the stadium. Satoru’s mouth opens in a smile as he sees Bakugo’s group with zero points.

“Hehehe”, he giggles full of glee, watching Bakugo get played by some other 1B kid. It quickly cuts off when he makes eye contact with a very disgruntled Toforoki charging towards him. Ah shit , he thinks, frantically taping Uraraka on the shoulder as he watches Kaminari charge up. “Up, up, up!”

Concentrating, the graphs and formulas for limitless run through his head, he has to time this just right. With his right, he materializes red right in between them and Todoroki’s team, watching his eyes widen as the force starts to push him back. WIth his left, he thows another blue high above them, feeling the magnetic pull right after red started pushing them away. That was the risk at aiming it so close to his team. If it wasn’t for blue, they would have been blasted out of bounds. Thankfully, now they are high above the other teams again, watching them get stunned by Kaminari’s electricity and then quickly frozen by Todoroki’s ice. Satoru watches the boy look up at them, a light frown on his usually neutral face. Satoru grins back.

“SIX MINUTES LEFT EVERYBODY!”, announces present mic.

“Alrght, let’s stay in the air for the time being”, Satoru decides. “I’ll keep us up somehow.”

“I can do that!”, Uraraka grins. “I’ve been training for this, after all!”

“There just might be an issue…”, Midoriya alerts, eyes fixed on Bakugo below them. It seems he has managed to get his points back from the 1B team and is now readying himself for round two.

Already Satoru hears the sound of explosions coming closer and closer, the trail of smoke from below parting to reveal Bakugo’s figure, anger clear on his face. “Gojo-chan, leave this to me, kero!”, Asui says, her mouth bulging as she prepares to spit her tongue out. “Alright!”, Satoru answers.

“I’LL GET THE TEN MILLION NO MATTER WHAT!”, Bakugo shouts. “I’LL FUCKING KILL Y- Urgh!”

Without him noticing, Asui’s tongue has wrapped around his ankle, pulling him down and releasing him befre he can notice, making him plummet toward the floor. Satoru laughs in delight and even Uraraka and Asui giggle.

I’M NOT DONE!”, shouts Bakugo again, catching his fall and rising upwards explosively again.

“He’s just not giving up, huh?”, says Uraraka in frustration. Satoru hums. “This will be fun”, he says, and within one moment and the other he teleports straight into the air, catching Bakugo by the scruff of his neck.

“HEY!”, he shouts, struggling in his grip as he tries to explode him, but as the smoke clears Satoru hasn’t even a speck of dust on him. “LET ME GO!”

“But you’re being so annoying!”, Satoru pouts. “I think I’m gonna throw you out of bounds.”

“DON’T YOU DARE!”, he screams, and with an impressive feat of strength, he turns in Satoru’s grip, using his feet as leverage to rip free from him.

“Huh”, Satoru says as he looks at the piece of fabric caught between his fingers, then at Bakugo falling downwards. “Oh well”, he shrugs and teleports himself back to his team.

“Todoroki’s planning something”, Midoriya alerts him immediately, pointing down to where the dual haired boy is talking hastily with Yaoyorozu. By now, less than three minutes are left. She nods, and out of her stomach materializes… a grappling hook? With growing curiosity Satoru watches as Todoroki attaches it to himself, before shakily standing up on his teammate’s shoulders and leaping down.

No, not down, he never touches the ground. Beneath his feet, a giant wave of ice spreads upwards, growing with Todoroki as he sprints alongside it, climbing higher and higher. “Gojo!”, Midoriya calls out, but he doesn’t move. Not yet. After another few seconds, the Ice has reached Midoriya, climbing up his arm and halting just before Satoru’s infinity. Clever, Satoru thinks. It would have worked with anyone else, but unfortunately for Todoroki, he was up against Gojo Satoru. Todoroki comes close enough that he can look him in the eyes, see the look of desperate determination on his face, but suddenly his nearing arm is thrown to the side. Satoru blinks, surprised, and looks down at Midoriya. The boy has turned in his icy prison, aiming one arm at Todoroki, his quirk pulsating golden in his fist. Although- not as strong as usually. He must have worked on regulating his strenght.

Lightning fast, Todoroki’s arm comes up to block, and Satoru’s eyes widen as flames blossom from the boy’s arm. He feels the heat of the fire on his skin even through his infinity. Todoroki seems just as shocked as him, halting his movements, but his and Mirodiya’s quirks are already clashing against each other, creating a shockwave so massive that it would have blasted them all back would it have not been for Todoroki’s ice still holding them in place.

“ONE MINUTE LEFT!”

Todoroki falls back, just so halting his tumble off his ice platform by enceasing his feet in ice. He looks up, surprised but still determined, readying himself to jump at them again.

Sorry Todoroki, Satoru thinks as he raises his hand. Not this time.

The ice structure supporting Todoroki explodes inward, pulling itself together into the three black holes of blue that Satoru had materialized inside the ice. In a matter of seconds, it falls away in chunks, quite literally pulling the floor away beneath Todoroki. He looks up, surprise on his face as he starts to fall. The last Satoru sees of his face is a grim expression of bitter acceptance before it is hidden by the falling ice chunks.

“AND TIME IS… OUT!”

Notes:

Btw, I've been thinking about also taking lyrics from other songs than queen songs as titles, so if you wanna leave song recs or lyrics you think fit the fic in the comments feel free! :)

Chapter 12: Behind the curtain

Summary:

Satoru keeps quiet. He doesn’t really have many memories of his own mother. In his old world, that is. The six eyes never forget anything, but it’s hard having memories of a person there wasn’t much to remember of.

Notes:

Here's the conclusion of the second event! Short chapter this time, sorry, but I wanted to have a clear cut before the start of the 1v1 matches

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“There, there… It’s going to be alright, Uraraka-chan!”

Satoru cheerfully pats Uraraka’s back as she hunches over with a green face, trying not to lose her breakfast on live television.

“Ugh… I thought my tolerance was better than this…”, she grumbles taking a few deep breaths. Satoru just shrugs. “I think you improved! Just think about it, a few weeks ago you would have puked your guts out! And on live television, too! Imagine that, your mistake being immortalized forever…”

Uraraka turns more and more green at his words, pressing her hands on her mouth. “Gojo-chan! You’re making it worse!”, chastises Asui next to him.

“Whoops!”

“We really managed to stay first place, huh”, Midoriya says, still dazed. “I never would have thought…”

“Are you doubting my abilities, Midori-chan?”, Satoru teases.

“N-no, of course not! I just-”

“Midoriya.”

Satoru and Midoriya look up at Todoroki, who looks at the green haired boy with an unreadable expression. Satoru notices how his left hand seems to tremble slightly.

“Can I… talk to you for a second?”

I wonder what that’s all about , Satoru thinks as he watches them leave. He itches to follow them, maybe uncover one secret or two, but that has to wait a bit as he’s approached by an excited pink-haired girl with mechanical goggles on her face.

“Hi! Ten-million-kun!”, she grins, hopping over to him. Her eyes seem to have little crosshairs in them that zoom continuously in and out.

“...Hi?”, Satoru smiles back, eyeing the stranger machinations strapped to her back and feet doubtfully.

“I’m Hatsume Mei! Just call me Hatsume! Say, would you be interested in making advertisement for my babies!?”

Satoru blinks slowly. “Your… what?”

“My babies!”, She answers again, taking off her backpack and shoving it in his face. “Like this baby right here! It’s a jetpack! You can fly with this! I’ll lend it to you! If you credit me, of course!”

So… she means her gear? She calls those babies ?

“Well? Would you? I’ll even throw in these super cool heat-vision goggles!”, Hatsume insists, rocking on the soles of her feet.

“Thank you, but… no thank you. I don’t really need support gear, you know?”, Satoru smiles crookedly at her.

Hatsume’s face falls, an exaggerated pout appearing on her face. “Aw… But you’ll come visit me in the support department, yeah? I’ll make you lots of babies!”

“Sure”, Satoru laughs. He makes a mental note to stay very, very far away from this girl.

Then, he suddenly notices a bunch of familiar signatures rather far away, Mirosiya, Todoroki, and… He frowns.

“Sorry, I’ll talk to you later”, he says to Hatsume and teleports away before he can hear her reply.

He appears behind Bakugo, hidden in an alley, head tilted to the side as the blonde tries to hear snippets of another conversation.

“Midoriya…”, he hears Todoroki’s voice drift by. Suddenly he is reminded of a very uncomfortable conversation a few weeks prior. Please don’t say it , Satoru begs, please just don’t…

“...Are you All Might’s secret love child, or something?”

He said it, Satoru sighs. “What an idiot”, he mutters, hiding his face in his hands in embarrassment.

“Yeah”, Bakugo agrees. Then he freezes. He whips around so fast Satoru is worried about his neck, pointing an accusing finger at him.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” , he whisper-yells.

“I could ask you the same thing! And keep quiet, or they’ll hear you!”

Bakugo glowers at him, but complies as the conversation picks up again. Like two peas in a pod they press against the wall, Satoru’s taller frame hovering over the other as they do their best to spy on look out for their classmates.

“...Have you ever heard of quirk marriages?”, Satoru hears Todoroki’s voice, and suddenly a lot about him and Endeavour makes sense.

“Damn”, Satoru mutters. “That must be rough.”

“Shut it!”, Bakugo hisses.

Satoru’s not a stranger to quirk marriages- or at least, their equivalent in his old world. Especially in the three great clans- Gojo, Zenin, Kamo- marrying for the sake of a child with a powerful technique wasn’t uncommon. God knows how long the Gojo clan tried to find the perfect match for a child with both limitless and the six eyes before he came along. He vaguely recalls there being various six eyes or limitless users in the four hundred years since there last was someone like him, but most of those died young before they had the chance to make any lasting impact in the world of Jujutsu. Satoru’s father had been a descendant of the last six eyes user, while his mother has been a descendant of the last limitless user. Both had had cursed energy, though neither ever developed a technique. In the end, the countless years of inbreeding and arranged marriages paid off, and Satoru was born.

In the Zenin clan, there had been a large feud over who would inherit the position as clan head, and the results heavily depended on their techniques and cursed energy levels. Satoru barely remembers it, too uninterested in clan conflicts at the time, but Maki and Mai’s father, Zenin Ogi, and Zenin Naobito, Naoya’s father, had both been candidates, up until one fathered female ‘cursed’ twins and the other produced an heir with one of the inherited clan techniques. A person with a Technique was worshipped, one with cursed energy tolerated, and one without treated like a vermin. In a way, these two worlds weren’t that different in that regard.

Satoru snaps back as Todoroki continues his little speech.

“In my memories, my mother was always crying”, he states. “She burned the left half of my face, because I looked so much like him .”

Satoru keeps quiet. He doesn’t really have many memories of his own mother. In his old world, that is. The six eyes never forget anything, but it’s hard having memories of a person there wasn’t much to remember of.

Sure, when he was just a baby she was there, but as he got older he saw her less and less. He hadn’t really been upset or anything. She had simply faded into the background as one of the many servants that tended to him, to the point where the only acknowledgement Satoru would feel when he saw her was: Oh right, that’s my mother . Nothing more. She treated him just like any other servant would, with a small smile and creased eyes, bowing and practically kissing his feet just like everyone else. The last time Satoru had seen her was when he was eleven. He doesn’t even know if she had been alive during the shibuya incident and then later the Shinjuku showdown. And he hadn’t cared. Still doesn’t, to be honest. His father was much the same.

Satoru’s father had been one of the sons of the clan head, but having never developed an inherent cursed technique, he had simply faded into the background. Sure, when Satoru was born he was more present, but only really at important meetings or gatherings when the Gojo clan wanted to show off Satoru. He would always sit on Satoru’s right, a silent presence the entire time, barely conversating or talking to him except when it was necessary.

Sometimes, he would check up on him, ask how his education was going, and leave. Being Satoru’s father had secured him a place in the council of the Gojo clan, at least, so Satoru saw him often. However, he had never received more than a nod of approval of him.

No, Satoru can’t say that he had the best of relationship with his parents, but at least he didn’t have to deal with whatever was Todoroki’s disaster of a family. And from what Satoru is hearing, Todoroki is carrying a lot of repressed trauma with him.

“I was created to surpass All Might”, he says. “The perfect weapon, the perfect combination of two quirks. Since my old man couldn’t become number one himself, he wanted someone else to do it for him.”

That sounds… pretty fucked up. But Satoru can’t help but frown when Todoroki says he wants to win the sports festival without using his father’s quirk. Quirks cannot be passed down (usually. Satoru hasn’t forgotten whatever is going on with All Might and Mirodiya, and there’s also All for one to worry about…) and Satoru thinks Endeavour is not one of the few who can. With Midoriya and All Might, their quirk looks exactly the same. Mirodiya is growing stronger day by day, while All Might’s core is clearly weakening. Todoroki’s quirk factor on the other hand is very unique, the fire and ice unmistakable interwoven with each other. Todoroki doesn’t have his father’s or mother’s quirk, he has his own quirk, and it’s time he understood that.

Quietly, Satoru teleports back, leaving Bakugo shell-shocked in the alley. That talk gave him a lot to think about, but there are other things to focus on.

“Okay everyone!”, Midnight announces on the podium. “Now that lunch is over, let’s proceed with the final event!” Ah, right, lunch. Satoru skipped that. Whatever, he already had his mochi, that should be enough sugar for the third event. Midnight is making it into another mystery again, but everybody knows that the third event is always one-on-one battles, with the winner coming on top. To get a decent internship, you don’t have to win the event, the battles are mostly there so the students can show off as much as possible. Sure, the winner got the most attention, but as long as you made it to the final event you could catch the eyes of at least a few ranking heroes.

“Let’s draw lots to determine the starting battles, and then everyone still has a few minutes to prepare themselves! First-”

“Wait.” All eyes turn to Ojiro, who has his hand raised with an ashamed expression on his face. “I would like to withdraw.”

Satoru raises an eyebrow as everyone around them gasps in disbelief. Ife he recalls it correctly, Ojiro was on Shinso’s team. Was he disoriented because he was under the influence of his quirk? Satoru has long suspected that Shinso had some kind of brainwashing quirk. It was easy to guess, since most other students from gen ed tended to avoid him, and eye him as if he might lash out at them any minute. Combined with the way his quirk factor pooled around his mouth and brain, Satoru guessed it had a vocal condition that had to be met to activate it. A villainous, mental quirk that made everyone that knew about it keep their distance… probably brainwashing. His demonstration in the first two events just confirmed it. If Satoru was in his shoes, he would have taken care to disguise his activation conditions better. Like this, he wouldn’t get very far in the festival. If the boy would have opened up more to Satoru, maybe they would have found a way around that together, but Satoru understands why he didn’t. After all, they were still rivals. He just hopes their training was enough that Shinso will at least pass the first round.
Still, Satoru can’t help but notice the thigtness of his shoulders as another student from 1B also withdraws.

To be honest, Satoru doesn’t understand them. They made it this far, and have the opportunity to prove themselves in the festival regardless of how they made it here. Pride, or some other reason, wouldn’t help them much against real villains. Regardless, he doesn’t say anything as Ojiro and the 1B kid walk off the field. Their loss, after all. Less competition for him that way.

Satoru waits impatiently until the replacements for the two have been decided, eyes trained on the screen that would announce the brackets. He hopes he wouldn’t have to fight Shinso or Uraraka in the first round, that would be rather disappointing. He wanted his friends to succeed yes, but he was still going to win this festival no matter what.

“Whitout further ado… unless anyone else wants to withdraw…” Midnight glared into the crowd, and Satoru saw a few students break out into cold sweat.
“Now, the alignments for the one-on one fights!”

The screen turns on, showcasing a pyramid-like scheme with sixteen names written at the bottom. At the end of the day, Satoru’s name would stand at the top. But for now, his next opponent was… Huh. Interesting. Not really what Satoru would call a good fight, but at least it would be fun! With a grin, he turns towards his opponent, waving excitedly, and smiling as they wave back.

Notes:

Hehe I'm not revealing who Satoru will fight yet :3 but feel free to guess in the comments! Or to guess the other brackets, I wanna see who has the best ideas :)

Chapter 13: Make a big noise

Summary:

“I’m going to win this festival, and I’m going to beat Shoto.” God, Satoru wishes he wasn’t wearing his blindfold right now. The six eyes were amazing for intimidation attempts. “And you’re gonna have to live with the fact that despite all your training and whatnot… I’m simply better. I’ll stand at the top. Not All Might, not Shoto, and certainly not you.”

Notes:

Hi! :D
It’s been a little while! I think that was the longest time between updates until now lol
I’ve been pretty busy, but life is still pretty alright despite the chaos haha
I also took a little time to focus on my other fanfic, but I’ve finally finished this chapter and I hope you’ll like it :)

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“Yo! Midoriya!”, Satoru says, poking his head into the prep room.

Midoriya jumps with a comical squeal and turns around with wide eyes. “Gojo-san! What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be in the prep room!”

“Jeez, chil!”, Satoru says as he slides into the room, closing the door behind him. “I just wanted to see how you’re doing! Excited for your first match?”

Midoriya slumps, drumming his fingers on the table next to his open notebook. “I- well I think I’ve prepared as much as possible, and I got really lucky that I’m up against someone from 1A since I already know their quirk and also there are about a dozen different things he could do but I’m pretty sure he’s trying to go all out right away but that also means-”

“Okay, that’s great, but you need to relax a little”, Satoru cuts his muttering session short. He leans over him, eyeing the notebook before Midoriya hastily slams it shut. He grins.

“How much did you even write in that thing about the sports festival? Did you write about me too?”

“Umm…”, Midoriya mutters, embarassed. “It’s almost full… And I’m not telling you that!”

Satoru pouts. “Aw. Don’t you trust me? Your favorite member of 1A?”

Midoriya sends him a deadpan glare. “Well, wouldn’t you rather be surprised by what my plan is rather than be spoiled right away?”

Satoru leans back in his chair. “I guess you’re right… Not that you could beat me anyways, haha!”

Midoriya just stares at him, before sighing. “We’ll see…”, he mutters. How cute. Satoru grins to himself. His hand shots out to ruffle Midoriya’s fluffy green hair. “I’m sure you’re going to do well! I mean, it wouldn’t be an issue for me, but I bet you cooked up a decent strategy in that big brain of yours.” He grins assuringly. “Just don’t think too much about it, or you’ll lose in the first round! That would be embarrassing!”

“If you say so…”, Midoriya says doubtfully, trying to smooth his hair back down. “I can do this”, he says, taking a deep breath.

“I’m sure”, Satoru grins. “Just remember…” He leans forward, a cocky grin spreading over his face. “If you win this match, next you’re up against me.”

Midoriya swallows, but doesn’t look away, which is an improvement, if Satoru can say so.

Then, there’s a knock on the door, and Midoriya flinches and looks away. “A-ah, yes, I’m coming! Uh, Gojo-san, are you-?” But when he turns his head, Satoru is already gone.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND EVERYONE IN BETWEEN AND ON THE OUTSIDE! WELCOME TO THE THIRD EVENT OF THE SPORTS FESTIVAL!!!”

The crowd cheers, amped up by present mic, all eyes on the arena below. A smooth rectangle of concrete has been carved out of the ground by cementoss, marked by a white line, with torches in all four corners that light up with fire. A little over the top, if you ask Satoru, but this is UA, after all, and the crowd at least seems to love it.

“Hey, can I have some of that?”, Satoru asks Sero, who is holding a bag of popcorn.

“Huh? Yeah sure, knock yourself out, man- wait.”, Sero turns fully. “When did you get here? I swear that seat was empty two seconds ago…”

Satoru just grins. “Magic!”, he says, waggling his fingers. He snatches up a piece of popcorn to throw in his mouth only to grimace. “It’s salty…”, he pouts. He doesn’t have much time to lament though, because present Mic is already announcing the first match. With much fanfare and commentary, Satoru watches with mild interest as Midoriya and Kaminari step out on opposite sides of the arena, walking into the ring until they stand face to face, Midnight above them as the referent.

Midoriya is basically shaking in his shoes, but he squares his shoulders and stares traight ahead. Kaminari on the other hand looks relaxed, bathing in the attention and excited cheers of the audience. It’s obvious that he thinks this will be an easy win. From what Satoru knows about the two, he predicts Kaminari will immediately use a hundred percent of his quirk in hopes of knocking Midoriya out, probably leaving him temporarily brain-dead unless he somehow figured out a way around it (Which Satoru doubts). He’s pretty arrogant, so he probably thinks Midoriya won’t be able to do anything in the short time before Kaminari’s quirk activates. And this underestimation will ultimately be his downfall.

“Are you both ready?”, Midnight says, glancing at both boys.

“Born ready”, Kaminari smirks, while Midoriya just nods. Midnight raises her whip, counting down from three.

“...And GO!”, she shouts, bringing it down, signaling the start of the first match. Immediately, Satoru sees electricity building up inside Kaminari, blindingly bright.

“One million…!”, he calls out- but never gets to finish his sentence before a fist clocks him right in the jaw.

Satoru laughs at his dumbfounded expression as the crowd cheers, watching him stumble as the building electricity fades out.

The boy opens his mouth in surprise, but Midoriya barely leaves him time to think as he has to dodge under the next punch. All sings of nervousness are gone from the green haired boy as he relentlessly attacks his opponent. He wants to win, and he’s going to prove it to the world.

Kaminari recovers from his initial shock relatively quickly, switching from defense to offense as he gets used to Midoriya’s fighting style. Contrary to his grades in class, Kaminari is actually not that bad in hand to hand combat- but to win, you just gotta catch him off guard. Which Midoriya did, initially. It’s just a matter of if he can manage to use that move to his advantage.

Satoru sees Kaminari charge up again, but not that big of an attack as initially attempted. instead, he seems to be releasing small shocks of electricity continuously, shocking Midoriya when he makes contact with him.

Satoru sees Midoriya recoil at first, but then he grits his teeth and bears it, fighting through the pain. Satoru guesses the continuing shocks have numbed his limbs somewhat.

Satoru leans forward in his seat. If the fight continues on like this, Midoriya will get overwhelmed and lose.

The audience in the stadium gasps dramatically as a particular harsh punch from kaminari sends Midoriya dangerously close to the border line, but Midoriya doesn’t seem very disoriented. Instead, he squares his shoulders and holds up a hand.

With growing interest and excitement, Satoru watches Midoriya’s quirk build up in his finger- it’s a dangerous, volatile power, but it’s not as uncontrolled as it was at the USJ- about forty percent, Satoru would say.

Kaminari halts, confused, but it’s already too late. Midoriya flicks his finger releasing his quirk, and the resulting shockwave blasts Kaminari right out the ring.

There’s a small pause of silence, Midoriya breathing hard, staring at the downed Kaminari, before Midnight speaks up. “Kaminari is out of bounds! The Winner is Midoriya!”, and the crowd erupts into cheers.

Satoru politely claps with everyone else, a small smile playing around his lips as he watches Midoriya practically collapse in relief, looking at the place amidst the teachers where he knows All Might is sitting in his deflated form.

Not bad. He’s definitely seeing the type of hero Midoriya could shape up to be.

Satoru’s match is next, so he starts making his way down to the prep room, intentionally choosing a flight of stairs Midoriya is currently walking up. The boy seems tired, a new bandage around his middle finger, but he freezes to ice as he makes eye contact with Satoru. Satoru smirks.

“Good job!”, he says, clapping Midoriya on the shoulder. “Really clever, that opening move.”

“Thanks…”, Midoriya says skeptically, eyeing Satoru as if he might attack him any second. “Good luck to you, I guess.”, he says.

“I don’t need it”, Satoru grins, as if they both didn’t already know that. “But thanks anyway.”

“Ahem! Silence!”, Midnight announces, and the crowd quiets down from their chatter.

“Now, onto match number two!” Midnight’s whip slashes through the air. “Kirishima vs Gojo!”
The stadium cheers as Kirishima starts to walk out onto the arena, but because Satoru is a drama queen and he can’t help himself, he teleports right into the ring, smirking as the cheering picks up.

Kirishima grins at him as he stops before him, his sharp shark teeth on full display. “Let’s do our best, yeah?”, he calls out to him, beashing his fists together.

“Of course”, Satoru smiles.

“Three, two, one! And… go!”

Almost immediately, Satoru has to dodge under Kirishima’s punch. The boy is fast, and strong, Satoru thinks as he stays on the defensive, dodging multiple kicks, punches and elbows to his face. With his hardening quirk on top, Kirishima would be a more than decent opponent for almost everyone in the third stage- not for Satoru, though.

He could obviously end this quickly, using blue or red or any other non-lethal technique he has (which… aren’t many, he starts to realise) and throw him out of bounds or straight up knock him out, but that would be no fun, would it?

Satoru grins has he blocks another attack from the redhead, before spinning and landing a right hook right in his opponent’s jaw. Kirishima stumbles back, but only slightly. Satoru shakes his hand out- his hardening quirk is no joke, he has to admit. Even with his infinity he feels almost no difference between him and a brick wall.

Kirishima grins, turning his head back again. “You hit hard”, he says. “I would hope so”, Satoru laughs, and they’re jumping back to sparring. Now that Satoru is fighting back, it becomes immediately clear on who is the better fighter. Kirishima is not bad per se, he has good koordination and knows how to punch ahrd and fast, but Satoru has trained for far longer than Kirishima has. He dodges effortlessly, using every opportunity to land his own attacks, which Kirishima rarely has a chance to block. Satoru sees the way Kirishima’s heart contracts and expands, pumping blood and adrenaline through his veins faster and faster, he spies into Kirishima’s lungs and sees the way they filter oxygen into his blood. He almost anticipates the other’s moves, dodging under kicks that aren’t quite formed yet and blocking punches Kirishima doesn’t know he’s making. Satoru sees the way his quirk spreads out over his entire body, making his skin as hard as stone- or rather, almost his entire body.

It would be obvious of him to go for the weak spot right under Kirishima’s chin, so he doesn’t. No, instead Satoru aims for the eyes.

Lightning fast, Satoru jams two fingers of his hand into Kirishima’s red lrises, merciless at how he cries out.

Kirishima tumbles back, a hand flying up to cover his eyes instinctively, and Satoru uses that opportunity to swipe his legs under him. Disoriented like he is, it’s easy for Satoru to grip his arm and throw him over his shoulder and out of bounds in a practiced move.

“Kirishima out of bounds! The winner is Gojo!”, Midnight announces immediately and Satoru exhales. He rolls his shoulders, walking up to Kirishima who’s starting to get up, offering him a hand.

The boy blinks up at him, a few tears still gathering in his eyes, before grasping his offered hand.

“Good fight”, Satoru murmurs to him over the sound of the stadium, relieved as Kirishima smiles back. “Thanks! You too man!” Satoru grins. “Let’s get you to recovery girl, alright?”

Satoru hums, skipping down the hallway after leaving the still somewhat disoritnzed Kirishima with the nurses. He hears the cheering and excitement of the audience from the outside, watching the next match already, but isn’t particularly inclined to join and see for himself. Instead, he steadily makes his way towards a familiar signature.

“You will see reason one day, boy”, he catches the end of a conversation, and quickens his pace.

“Yo!”, he calls out, turning the corner, coming face to face with an extremely angry Todoroki. The boy looks up to him, his expression smoothing out temporarily. “Gojo?”, he says surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“Just bringing Kirishima to recovery girl”, Satoru answers, eyeing the huge… flaming… man behind him. The scowl on his face is almost obscured by his flaming mustache, but is still very impressive. Pity Satoru doesn’t feel very impressed.

“Who’s this? Do you know him?”, Satoru asks, tilting his head innocently, even though he does know who he is facing this time. Vaguely.

The man freezes, confusion spreading over his face and making him look kinda constipated. Ah, Satoru loves messing with people.

“Gojo, my old man. Old man, Gojo”, Todoroki says briskly, and leaves without another word. Huh. Satoru supposes he does have a match to fight still.

Perfectly relaxed, he turns back to the flaming man. “So you’re Shoto’s dad, huh?”, Satoru grins. “You don’t look a lot alike”, he says, to add fuel to the literal fire.

Shoto’s father- Todoroki senior? Yeah let’s go with that- just stares at him, and Satoru has the impression the man doesn’t quite know what to do with him. In the end he just grunts. “Gojo Satoru, I assume?”, he says, and something shifts in his eyes. Satoru doesn’t like the way he’s looking at him now.

“Yep!”, he says, popping the p, keeping the slowly building animosity off his face. “I don’t know your name though!”

Todoroki senior doesn’t answer. “You’ve got a very powerful quirk”, he says, and Satoru feels as if he’s being ignored now. Very rude.

“It will be good training for Shoto to fight you”, the man continues. “Maybe he will actually use my quirk to win that fight.”

Satoru tilts his head. He grins, with too many teeth. “So confident in your son, are you?”

Cold blue eyes stare him down, unimpressed. “Shoto was made to be the perfect weapon. You have no chance against him.”

Satoru’s grin widens. “You know”, he starts, “it really pisses me off when you talk about Shoto as if he’s not even human.”

The man’s eyes widen tighten in anger, and his mustache flares up.

“You dare talking to me like that boy-“

But Satoru’s not done. “I can’t believe I have to tell you this, but Shoto is his own person. Not your weapon, not your quirk; and certainly not some kind of twisted device to achieve the things you never could! No wonder he hates you so much if this is how you treat him.” Satoru laughs, ignoring the way the temperature is steadily getting warmer around him. “I’ll tell you what”, he says, talking a step towards the furious man. He’s not worried- no one can touch him, after all. He could kill endeavor before the man had the chance to lift a finger. “I’m going to win this festival, and I’m going to beat Shoto.” God, Satoru wishes he wasn’t wearing his blindfold right now. The six eyes were amazing for intimidation attempts. “And you’re gonna have to live with the fact that despite all your training and whatnot… I’m simply better. I’ll stand at the top. Not All Might, not Shoto, and certainly not you.”

His borderline feral grin turns into something more childish, and he leans back from where he’d started leaning forward into the man’s personal space. “Have a nice day~!”, he sing-songs, skipping away before the hero had any chance to react.


“What did I miss?”, Satoru says a while later, appearing into his seat again.

Sero jumps next to him, head snapping to face him. “You gotta stop doing that, dude”, he hisses. “Nothing much though. Just one match, Yaomomo against that girl from 1B with the vines. Shio-something. It was pretty cool to watch though…”

Satoru listens as Sero describes Yaoyorozu fighting off vine girl with a pole at first, before pulling a fucking flamethrower out of her stomach and lighting her hair on fire. Satoru can’t help but laugh as he hears it, imagining the chaos. “I don’t know what I expected, to be honest”, he says between giggles. “Not that”, Sero throws in with a light grin. “Well, wish me luck”, he says, making a move to stand up. “I’m up next.”

“Ah right. Against Todoroki, yeah?” Satoru almost feels sorry for him. Sero had almost no chance against Todoroki and everybody knew that.

“Yeah”, Sero responds with a grimace. “Let’s hope I’m not a human popsicle after this”, he mutters and Satoru watches him walk off.

Jesus christ, Satoru thinks, watching the giant fucking glacier that covers half of the arena. Someone’s in a mood…

Poor Sero, Satoru thinks as he watches Todoroki walk toward his creation, placing a hand on it to melt it. But he gets it. Todoroki wanted to make a point. He flicks a glance towards the west half of the stadium, to where a burning presence stands out from his surroundings.

He has something to prove, mainly to himself. Too bad for him that Satoru does too.

The next match was one Satoru was excited for, for once. With a proud grin, he watches Uraraka step into the ring, opposite of Aoyama. In his mind, there was no question who he was rooting for.

Midnight started the match, and Satoru cheered loudly along everyone else. Both members of 1A waste no time in attacking, Aoyama firing his laser beam and Uraraka ducking under it in a skilled move. The girl is truly relentless, taking every chance she gets to get up close and personal to the blonde, and Aoyama has his hands full with dodging her fast kicks and punches. He knows that it’s over the moment she touches him, so he stays on the defensive, occasionally trying to get her with his beam. Rather smart of him. Though Aoyama seems to be getting more and more nervous as the time passes, while Uraraka seems to be perfectly calm.

Eventually, Aoyama oversteps his limits, getting himself a stomachache after using his quirk too much, and Uraraka slaps him hard enough to send him flying right out of the ring, with help of her quirk.

She seems tired but happy as Midnight announces her the winner, taking in the cheers of the audience with slight embarrassment. Satoru makes sure to cheer the loudest. All those weeks of training had finally paid off. That’s my student, Satoru thinks proudly, immediately rushing off to the medical ward.

“Uraraka!”, he grins, throwing the door open.

“Gojo!”, she grins, eyes sparkling in excitement. “I did it!”

“You did! Congratulations!”, Satoru replies, meeting her hand in a high five. “I knew you would.”, he smiles. “We’ve been training a lot, after all.”

“Yeah”, she smiles back shakily, though her face morphs into thinly veiled nervousness as she takes a steadying breath.

“Oh.”, Satoru says as he realizes. “You’re up against Bakugo next, aren’t you?”

“Yeah”, Uraraka replies, twisting her fingers together anxiously. Satoru gives her a moment to collect herself, keeping quiet.

“I-“ Uraraka pauses. “I don’t know if I can do it”, she admits finally, her face contouring into a worried grimace.

“I don’t know either”, Satoru answers honestly. She looks up at him, surprised. “What?”, Satoru says. “I’m being honest. I don’t think you’d want me to lie to you, so I didn’t.”

“No, I just-“ she looks down. “You said-“

“I know what I said”, Satoru interrupts her gently. “And I meant it. You’re strong, Uraraka. And Bakugo is, too. If Todoroki and Bakugo fought, who do you think would win?”

Uraraka mouth opens and closes, her eyes wide as she contemplates in her answer “I- I don’t know.”

“Exactly. That’s what I think about Bakugo and you. I’m not trying to discourage you, that’s just how it is. Bakugo’s strong, a capable fighter, smart- but I still think you have a more than decent chance.” Satoru smiles. “If anyone paid any real attention during the rest of the festival, they’d know better than to underestimate you. Go out and kick ass, alright?”

Uraraka laughs relieved, looking far more relaxed than earlier. “Alright! I’ll do my best!”

“That’s right!”, Satoru grins, ruffling her hair. “I think it’s Shinso’s turn soon, do you wanna watch?”

“Of course!”, Uraraka laughs. “I’m still really curious about his quirk, you know?”

“Oh, you mean you haven’t figured it out yet?”, Satoru grins.

“Oh, and you have?”, Uraraka rolls her eyes. “Wait, did you really? That’s not fair!” She lunches him playfully in the shoulder. “You’re too smart for your own good, Gojo.”

“Come on, you’re just jealous.”


The earlier match- Bakugo vs Iida- had gone predictably in Bakugo’s favor, so now there were two matches left before they would advance to the second round.

Satoru watches warily how Shinso and the Kirishima-double from class 1B step onto the field. He seemed like a pretty talkative, punch-first-ask-questions-later kind of guy, so Satoru didn’t think Shinso would have much difficulties in getting him to talk.

Still, he was somewhat nervous for his pseudo-student as Midnight started the match. He really hoped all yhe hand-to-hand training they’d done has paid out.

The 1B guy (Tetsu Tetsu? Tetsutetsu Tetsu? Te tsu?) immediately rushed forward, his skin tone morphing into shining metal as his quirk activated. Satoru saw shinso’s mouth moving, saying something he couldn’t hear, but he still managed to dodge under Tetsu’s first punch. The other seemed slightly confused, but chose to continue attacking instead of answering. Shit, had that other 1B guy that dropped out said something to him? That would complicate things. Shinso’s eyes narrow, and he seems to come to the same realization as he continues dodging. Attacking wouldn’t bring Shinso anything other than a broken hand, unless Tetsutetsu had a similar weak spot to Kirishima, but Shinso had no way of knowing that. Instead, he seemed to focus on the talking part of his quirk, though the fight was starting to stretch out to a dangerous degree. Then, Shinso slipped up.

Satoru winces as a fist buries itself deep into Shinso’s gut, the boy practically folding in half. However, still hunched over, Shinso straightens out, spitting out a short sentence, and Tetsutetsu’s head snaps around. Satoru hears him yelling something, which cuts off as he suddenly goes rigid. Got him, Satoru thinks.

With bathed breath, Satoru watches as Tetsutetsu’s skin turns light again, just in time for Shinso to ram his foot into his solar plexus. Smart, very smart, Satoru is very proud of him. Instead of making him walk out of the ring, he mad it seem as if Shinso simply won in a hand to hand fight, keeping his quirk a mystery. The change occurred fast enough that not many would notice, or they could assume the punch was somehow the trigger. Satoru’s grin gets bigger and bigger as he watches Shinso punt his disoriented opponent right out of the ring.

The crowd goes wild as Midnight announces the winner, especially the gen ed section. Satoru is sure that almost no one expected a hero course student to be beat by someone in general education, and it kind of seems as if Shinso didn’t really expect that either.

He still stands there dumbfounded, looking at Tetsutetsu on the ground before slowly looking up into the cheering faces if the audience. Satoru grins as a slight smile starts to build on his face. Having made it to the second round of the sports festival, his transfer into the hero course was almost certain

Notes:

And to everyone who guessed Monoma… I’m so sorry that would have been SUCH a good match I’m such an idiot, why didn’t I think if that
But I think there’ll be an opportunity in the future to write interactions between monoma and Satoru, so I hope you’ll forgive me :>

Live and Let die - Veronero - 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia (2024)

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