It's Not a Muskateers Reference!

Paradoxical

Izuku stood in front of the door to class 1-A, easily hearing the conversations happening within the room. He couldn't make out what was being said, of course, but he could hear the chatter, could see how happy they all seemed to be hanging out with each other through the window.

The moment he opened the door, though, everything seemed to freeze in time. You could hear a pen drop, it was so quiet.

Izuku shouldn't have been surprised - He had threatened to take the number 2 hero's quirk! Of course they'd be scared, nervous, surprised that he was still here...

But when Recovery Girl told him that he wasn't in trouble, he sort of figured that it would be the end of it. Of course it wasn't, though! Why would it be the end of it, he should've expected that the UA staff was just the exception to the rule, the fact that everyone hated him.

Before he could spiral too far into his thoughts, though, Kirishima spoke up, "Midoribro, there you are! I was really worried when you confronted Endeavour. I mean, don't get me wrong, I know you can handle yourself, but still, that's the number 2 hero right there!"

Izuku blinked slowly, "I'm sorry, I d-didn't mean to worry you.."

"You don't have to apalogize, bro! It was pretty cool!" Kirishima reassured, "And standing up for Todoroki like that was super manly!"

Todoroki nodded, "Thanks for that, by the way. And for helping me realize that this isn't what I want to do."

"No p-problem..." Izuku replied, and Todoroki gave a nod in response.

They were allowed to leave not too long after that, since there wasn't enough time left in the day to start any lessons.

++++++

It was the day after the Sports Festival, and the entire class was oddly silent, like they were waiting to find out what was going to happen.

Todoroki's seat was empty, which, while it wasn't surprising, it was a bit strange. Todoroki always had been at school, whether he got sick or not. Seeing him in the seat was a typical thing. Now that it was empty, though, it felt odd, even though they knew that Todoroki had switched to General Studies.

Apparently, Endeavour had also been arrested for child abuse, according to the news, and Todoroki was staying with one of the teachers at UA. Which one, Izuku didn't know. Definitely not All Might, though. People might know about One for All and All for One, but they didn't know about All Might's small form, and Izuku doubted that he'd let Todoroki see that form.

Plus, with the way Todoroki was raised, it was unlikely that he'd want to live with All Might.

It didn't really matter to Izuku who Todoroki was currently living with, though. He didn't care, as long as Todoroki was doing better than he had been before.

As soon as the bell rang, Aizawa walked into the room, stopping in front of the podium.

"Now that the Sports Festival is over, it's time to pick your internships. The internships will be throughout the entirety of the next week. But first, you need codenames. I'm not really the person to help with that, though, so-"

Aizawa was cut off by Midnight, running up to him, "Hellooo, kiddies!! I'm here to rate your hero names!!"

Aizawa sighed, "While you do that, I'm taking a nap."

He then curled up into his sleeping bag, and Midnight pulled out a stack of whiteboards, which she began passing out too everyone. "Alright, kids, here's the deal. I'll give you all, say, ten minutes? Yeah, that seems like a good amount of time. I'll give you all ten minutes to come up with your hero names, and you can talk to each other if it helps you come up with something. Once the ten minutes are up, I'll start calling people up to present their names. Then, I'll either aprove of it, or you'll have to come up with a new one. Got it?"

A chorus of aproval rang out from his classmates, and Izuku found himself staring at the whiteboard. It was rather surprising, but he hadn't really thought of a hero name before. Sure, it had been his life goal since he knew the word hero, but the only names he had come up with were themed off of All Might, and... he'd rather not do that.

How was he supposed to come up with a hero name?

Well, lots of heroes themed their names off of their quirks, which Izuku had two of. One for All, and All for One. The number one hero's quirk, and the number one villain's quirk. Honestly, it seemed sorta paradoxical now that he thought about it.

That's it!! Paradox! It was perfect!

He hastily scribbled the word down on his whiteboard, smiling to himself.

Like she said, Midnight started calling people up randomly after ten minutes. Some of their names were approved of instantly, like Froppy, while others like King Explosion Murder and Alien Queen were shot down. Nervousness started to creep up in his chest as he watched. They all had such good hero names, even the ones that Midnight turned down. How was he supposed to expect that she'd approve of his?

"Midoriya, it's your turn!" Midnight called abruptly, and Izuku shot up out of his seat.

Hesitantly, he picked up the whiteboard on his desk, walking up to the front. The rest of the class watched intently, as if they were waiting to see if he had picked a villainous seeming name, or if he had chosen to keep acting heroic. He gave a long exhale when he came to a stop, deliberately keeping his eyes closed so he wouldn't see all of them looking at him and watching and waiting and judging-

He held the whiteboard up, the same way the rest of them had.

"Paradox?" Midnight's voice hummed, "That's a good one! Rolls off the toungue."

Surprised, Izuku opened his eyes up, staring at Midnight, who was giving him a grin of approval.

"R-Really? Y-you.. you actually th-think it's good?" Izuku questioned, pulling the whiteboard close to his chest.

Midnight nodded, "Yep! Now, why don't you go sit down so we can continue?"

"R-Right!!" He responded, rushing to get back to his seat.

Internally, he was smiling brightly.

She actually liked his name. And better yet, no one had laughed at it, which meant that she hadn't just been saying that so she wouldn't hurt his feelings.

And now, Izuku was also Paradox.