All the Light That Can't Be Seen: A My Hero Academia Fanfiction

Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO.

WALKING into the Yuuei for the first time as an official student is nothing less than terrifying, but at the same time, it's completely earthshattering in a quiet, subtle sort of way.

His classes are hard. Harder than anything he's ever done in his life, but he signed up for this, so he breathes through the panicky feeling of never having enough time to complete everything and tries his best. Of course, that doesn't stop Sensei Aizawa's quirk application test from being any less terrifying, and his heart did stop for a moment when he came last on the placement, but it was a logical ruse, he's not going to be expelled.

So. He's still a student.

His classmates are rambunctious and welcoming and wild in all the right ways. It's strange to him. He's never had friends before, and nobody's ever really liked him, but now he has Uraraka and Iida, and nobody has gone and told him to his face that he's less than them or worthless, like the other kids in his old school. Even with Kacchan sitting in the chair in front of him, nobody singles him out.

But then, even Kacchan's been quiet—which is strange to consider, since Kacchan is still as violently angry as ever provoked. But that's what he means. Unprovoked, Kacchan leaves him alone, and nobody approaches him, except for Kirishima, who doesn't seem to have a sense of self-preservation.

It's strange. A good, wonderful, terrifying strange.

He doesn't think he'll ever get used to not being constantly mocked because of his quirklessness. More than that, he doesn't think he'll get used to being praised for the power in his inherited quirk, raw and untamed as it is. Nobody had really told him that yes, he can succeed, yes, he's worth something, until he met All Might and All Might believed in him and gave him chance after chance after chance.

He's happy here. And yes, he always has had his mom, but she never really supported his dream of heroics. Which he does here—feel supported, that is, and that makes a world of difference.

[***]

"Deku, Deku, Deku." Uraraka is bouncy and lively, while Iida is sincerely and rigid, and the contrast between his two best friends is startling and funny at the same time. Uraraka finally settles into a stance where her feet are touching the ground, and she fixes him with a serious, intense stare that makes cold shivers drop down the back of his neck. "Do you understand English?"

Blinking, Izuku slowly nods. He thinks of All Might, who has nearly flawless Japanese, but occasionally lapses into English when he can't remember a word he wants to say. His English had improved thanks to that, along with the stuttering conversations All Might patiently coaxes out of him when Izuku feels brave enough to attempt to speak in his idol's native tongue. "A little. A family member speaks it, so I try to keep up with him."

Uraraka sighs gustily. "You know that reading assignment due on Thursday? The one where we have to read a passage out loud. Can you listen to my pronunciation to make sure it's correct?"

"Well, yeah. Sure. But I'm not a native speaker, so I'm just as likely to be wrong as you are."

"Impossible," she says with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I'm really, really bad at it. Trust me."

Izuku doesn't believe her at first, but it turns out that she is really, really bad at it.

[***]

"Bakugou's crazy," Uraraka says, after All Might's test, on Saturday afternoon, a couple hours after school let out. They're sitting at the local frozen yogurt store that they found while walking around. "Going after you like that, guns blazing. You got hurt enough that you had to go to Recovery Girl to get healed."