Hunting for a Hero

A Leader's Resolve

Team RWBY had always known Izuku was normally tense. From when they'd first met him to now he had gotten much better, but this was something new.

When they walked into class, they saw him sitting down at the front of the class. His eyes remained forward, slightly narrowed, and occasionally his right eye would twitch just ever so slightly. His fists were clenched and his posture was hunched over.

The girls looked at each other, confused. They'd gotten good at telling how Izuku was feeling just by looking at him, but they'd never seen him look like this. They moved closer to him in a group. Normally he'd look up at them and greet them, but he didn't even acknowledge their existence.

"Hey Izuku, what's up?" Yang asked, flopping into the chair next to him.

Izuku did not not turn to face her. He just continued staring forward. On closer inspection, Team RWBY could see his body was tense, as he was a robot and someone had wound his springs too tightly. His mouth opened, but he did not talk, instead he whispered only one sentence

"He wants to hurt me"

That sentence and the way he said it sent shivers down the girl's spines. They looked around the room, trying to find who he was talking about, but the search was quickly over when they saw Cardin staring at Izuku with a dark smile, as if plotting something

"What makes you say that, Izuku?" Weiss asked, making sure to watch Cardin's actions. She watched as he leaned back, his arms disappearing beneath his desk.

Izuku's eyes slightly widened, as if he had just realized what he said before shaking his head. He stayed silent, not opening his mouth. He slowly shook his head side to side, as if to tell them to not worry.

Of course, they didn't listen.

Blake watched as Cardin sat up straighter and closed his right eye. While anyone would've assumed he was winking, his eye remained closed for much longer than what would've been a normal wink. She nudged the other girls and subtly nodded to Cardin. They watched as he opened his eye, and then in the blink of an eye, he raised his arm and threw a plastic bottle filled to the brim with water at Izuku.

"Izuku!" Ruby tried to warn him.

Without even looking, Izuku leaned his head to the right, causing the water bottle to fly past his head and bounce heavily on the ground a few times before rolling harmlessly on the floor

"Who threw that bottle?!" Professor Port ordered.

Blake opened her mouth to answer, but Cardin was one step ahead of her "It was Izuku, professor!" He told the man

"Mr. Midoriya, I do not appreciate you interrupting the class." The man scolded the boy "Please do not pull another stunt like this again, or there will be consequences"

The girls were about to protest, but before they could he told them all to be silent as he started the lesson. Team RWBY sat down with a frown on their faces, clearly unhappy with how the professor handled the situation.

For some reason, Izuku didn't look fazed by the scolding, instead he only turned his head to look at Cardin, who gave him a cocky smile. Their friend looked back towards the professor and then down to his book "Don't make a scene" He silently told them "He wants me, not you. So please, don't try to provoke him" The girls followed what he said, albeit unhappily. And so the lesson dragged on, thankfully with no further disruptions.

——

Pyrrha stared out at the stars with a solemn look. Jaune wasn't back yet, and she wasn't sure when he'd return. She turned her head towards her teammates. Nora was jumping on the bed like a young child before bed, and Ren was cleaning StormFlower. The room still had its nice and energetic energy, but it didn't feel the same for her without Jaune. But whilst she was sad, she was also angry. He wasn't accepting her help and was stubbornly pushing her away and it was starting to drive her nuts.