Once More (My Hero Academia)

26: Hero Agency Internships

Yeah, I definitely should've taken a different path to school.

"Midoriya Izuku!"

"Hey, it's the winner of the U.A. sports festival!"

"I saw that kid on TV!"

"Great job!"

And after that it got even worse because someone started clapping and everyone else in the train car followed, leaving Izuku standing awkwardly in the middle.

The ride to school seemed to take an eternity, but finally, Izuku made it to U.A., still stiff from the encounters. When Izuku made it to the 1-A classroom and sat down, Mineta leaned forward in his seat with wide eyes and a curious grin.

"How was your post-festival experience, number one?"

Izuku shook his head, "Petrifying."

"I'd expect that," Kaminari laughed, "Even some of us who got eliminated early got recognized. You're basically a celebrity now."

"Morning, everyone," Aizawa stepped into the classroom and everyone returned to their seats.

"Today, we'll be picking hero names. This is related to the hero drafting program, where you'll be interning with pro heroes for a week. Based on your performance in the sports festival, some of you got offers from agencies," the teacher turned on the screen, "Here are the total offers 1-A received."

Izuku gasped.

He had the highest amount of offers, with well over three thousand.

Bakugo's offers were in the high two thousand range.

Todoroki, despite only making it to the quarterfinals, had the third highest of around one thousand -- much higher than Tokoyami and Iida, who were the actual third-place winners.

"Woah!!! Look at you!" Mineta leaned forward and screeched in Izuku's ear.

Izuku watched as Bakugo tensed, but thankfully, there was no murderous intent.

Then, Midnight came into the classroom and 1-A started choosing their hero names. From Asui's name of "Froppy" to Bakugo's rejected name of "Explosion Murder King," everyone's choices were exactly as Izuku expected, which gave him a warm sense of familiarity.

However, that familiarity soon vanished as he received his offer list. It was multiple pages long, with the names of agencies sprawled across the sheets of paper.

"Geez, that's a lot," Kaminari peeked over Izuku's shoulder, "Do you have an agency in mind?"

"Well, there was one, but..." Izuku muttered as he skipped to the agencies that started with G. His eyebrows scrunched together when he realized that Gran Torino's agency wasn't on the list. "I didn't get an offer from there."

"Hey, that's ok!" Uraraka comforted, "You had thousands of offers! I'm sure you'll find one that you like!"

"But now that I don't know where to go, how should I even start?" Izuku flipped to a random page and sighed.

"Dude, you're overthinking this," Kaminari said, "Just pick an agency with a hero that you like and go for it."

"I guess..." Izuku said as he skimmed over the page. But right when he was about to return to the front, something caught his eye.

"Wait... This can't be..."

"What is it?" Uraraka asked curiously.

Memories resurfaced, and ideas that only briefly crossed his mind since he time traveled -- ideas that seemed so far-fetched that Izuku had dismissed them immediately -- suddenly felt as if they were in reach.