Chapter Text
The next day was much less eventful than the previous, no confessions of being secret spies for an age old super villain. Everyone had a good time, and it was nice to watch their seniors compete. The only bad news was that Iida’s brother, Ingenium, had been grievously injured by the Hero Killer, Stain. UA gave them a day to rest and relax before school started back up again. They were thankful for this because their return was anything but relaxing.
“For the next two weeks, you will be interning at a pro hero’s agency to learn the ropes.” Aizawa explained “You have received offers from various heroes that watched you during the Sports Festival and figured that you would make good additions to their teams.”
The pro pressed a button and on the screen behind him a bar graph appeared with their names on it. He pressed a second button and the bars of the graph grew to include their internship offers. Most had anywhere from five to ten, but three of the bars continued to grow larger, drowning out the rest. Bakugo got a few hundred offers, Todoroki received a little over 2,000 offers, and finally Izuku was revealed to have received almost 2,500 offers.
“Now you will all be able to pick from these offers.” Aizawa continued. “If you find that you are without offers or that the offers are unsatisfactory, UA has several hero agencies that are willing to take any of our students. I believe you will all find at least one or two that are up to snuff in your offers, but this is an option if you are unhappy with any of them.”
With that the scruffy hero passed around stacks of papers detailing each of their possible internship opportunities. Izuku chuckled a bit when he saw the monstrous size of his pile. He had a few ideas already, but it was Iida who made his ultimate decision. Iida tore through his mound of offers before grabbing one and filling it out quickly.
Izuku knew there was something off about the way that he had chosen his internship, so he nodded to Frankie. The skeleton returned the nod and walked over to the podium under the guise of going to talk to Kirishima. While he was talking with the teen, he glanced over and saw that Iida had picked to intern with the hero Manual.
“Manual works in Hosu. Hosu was where Ingenium was attacked and wounded.” Izuku said, beginning to thumb through his internship opportunities at a fast rate.
“ Why would Iida want to go there? Wouldn’t he be afraid of suffering the same fate as his brother? ” Frankie asked, keeping an eye on the bespeckled boy.
Izuku hummed. “He would, if he wasn’t planning on getting revenge.” As Frankie and Roberto stared in confusion, Izuku filled out his information and signed on one of the offers. “Take the rest home and file them away for later. These connections could be useful.” Roberto scooped them up and Izuku waltzed to the front of the room to turn in his forms.
“Where are you interning Midoriya, Kero?” Tsu asked. A few of their classmates leaned in to listen as well.
Izuku spoke loudly, making sure that Iida could hear him. “Oh I decided to go with the hero Manual. I’ve got some business and friends in Hosu and I felt that it would be best to kill two birds with one stone.”
Iida’s head whipped to look at Izuku in bewilderment. Izuku pretended not to notice as he continued to talk to Tsu and the others. As the class went to lunch, Iida stopped Izuku. “Midoriya, we need to talk. Now.”
Frankie was about to say something, likely to treat Izuku with more respect, but the teen in question cut him off. “Sure Iida. What would you like?”
“Why did you pick Manual?” The blue haired boy asked with a scowl.
Izuku shrugged. “I could have sworn you heard me, but I have business in Hosu and a friend in need. I figured that interning there would give me an opportunity to handle that.”
“We both know that you’re lying.”
Izuku lifted his chin and gave Iida a glare. “And we both know why YOU’RE interning with Manual. I wasn’t lying, it’s simply that the friend in need is you and the business that I need to deal with is you getting yourself killed.” It was clear that Iida was fuming. “I’m not letting you get yourself killed. You do realize that is what will happen if you confront Stain right? He’s a serial hero murderer. If those heroes couldn’t deal with him, what makes you, a child who has barely begun his hero training, think you can take him down. What you are doing is foolish. That’s why I’m going to keep an eye on you.”
Iida growled “Why? Why are you stopping me from taking my revenge?”
Izuku rolled his eyes. “You’re my friend Iida. I need no excuse to help my friend.”
“If you wanted to help me, you’d stay out of my way!” Iida hissed, looming over Izuku. The Giuseppe brothers moved to intimidate the teen, but Izuku gave them the signal to back off.
“Fine.” Izuku turned away from Iida and started to walk towards the cafeteria. “I’ll let you get your ass kicked and THEN I’ll help you. Maybe that will teach you a lesson or two.”
The rest of the day went off without any more confrontations, but Izuku could feel Iida’s eyes on him. The next few days passed in a blur. The only event that broke up the relative monotony was when Aizawa called in Midnight to help them choose their hero names.
“My hero name is Froppy, kero. I’ve had it in mind since I was young.” Tsu announced, holding up her whiteboard. The class murmured in approval. Slowly more and more of the students got up and displayed their hero names. Only a few were told to change their names, Aoyama, Bakugo, and Ashido specifically. Izuku thought that Ashido’s hero name was fun and would have been fine. Bakugo and Aoyama’s names on the other hand he was in total agreement with. They needed to change.
Izuku was a bit stumped on what he wanted to call himself. There were just so many things he could go with, but he wanted something that would capture the spirit of his quirk as well as strike fear into the hearts of villains. Finally he thought of something that he liked.
He walked to the front of the class and set his board down for all to see. “I am the skeleton emperor: Lich King.” He stated.
“That’s… a bit scary I think.” Midnight objected. “Can you elaborate on why you want this name?”
“Well my quirk works most with my skeletons, so my name needed to reflect that. I figured that if I went with a name like this I would inspire confidence in civilians who would hear that I am the king of the potentially scary creatures that are swarming a crime scene. It would also scare any villains who decide to go against me as they would be reminded that I have a whole army behind me, not to mention my own powers.” Izuku explained. “Besides, Present Mic already called me the skeleton king and ruler of the undead during the sports festival. I felt like it would be a good idea to lean into that idea.”
Midnight thought for a second. “Alright. I guess I can understand that. Sure, I’ll approve that name.”
“Before I sit back down-” Izuku interrupted “-I feel like Ashido’s original name was totally fine. Sure some people will make the connection, but I feel like they would like the name even more then. That’s all.”
Midnight sighed and scratched the back of her neck. “Alright, I guess I’ll allow the previous name Ashido. Just remember not to go too far when using inspiration from horror movies.”
“YAY!!!” Ashido lept from her seat and launched herself to hug Izuku. “Thank you thank you thank you, Midori!!” The class laughed, but Izuku could see that Tsu was pouting a little. Something to deal with later he decided, watching Iida write his own name on his board, for now he had other matters to take care of.