Chapter 27: Picking from the PicksNotes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
That Monday afternoon Itsuka had prepared herself for a tranquil exchange of ideas with her friends as they went through their internship offers. She hadn't expected her plans to go awry as easily as they would after the door was opened.
Setsuna grinned and raised a hand to welcome the newcomers. "Hey Pinky! Something wrong-"
Ashido let out a groan of frustration, throwing her papers in the air as she launched herself straight into one of the couches in the lounge.
"Ashido, you shouldn't leave your materials on the floor!" Ida's voice echoed as he, and pretty much the rest of 1-A, entered the building. Most seemed okay, but a few seemed as tired-looking as the pink-haired girl had been before meeting the soft cushioning.
"Let her vent, Ida," Uraraka, trying to calm her friend's usual inflexibility, nudged his arm with her elbow, as her hands were completely full with a stack of papers. "I know I want to scream too."
"I'll just opt for death," Shinso proclaimed, falling on the sofa next to Ashido's grunting form.
"Leave me some space." Kaminari made three.
"You all are making a bigger deal out of this than you'd need to," Jiro shook her head as she and Yaoyorozu headed to the kitchen's counter.
"Come on, you were jumping in excitement a second ago," Sero quipped, half-laughing at his friends.
Their remaining dormmates welcomed the scene with worried looks and questioning stares.
"What's got you down?" Itsuka, ever the good soul, asked to the girls.
"Yeah, she's always so high energy!" Setsuna added, pointing at her fellow chaos-maker.
"Homework has that effect on her," Mineta explained, shrugging as he sat with his neat folder before him.
"They're playing the drama queens, ribbit," Asui stated, deadpan, while doing the same thing.
Yaoyorozu sighed, shaking her head gently as her palm cupped her cheek. "Some of us have started feeling prematurely tired simply by looking at the number of their internships offers."
- What? -
Itsuka exchanged a couple of glances with her classmates, finding little to no understanding. She'd gotten one hundred and three herself, so she could acknowledge how the screening process could be tiresome, but this was a bit too much.
"I'm sorry for the inquiry..." Reiko started, getting immediately cut off by Tetsutetsu.
"What the hell?! How can you feel down about that?!"
"That's what I've been telling them!" Kirishima joined his shouting. Those boys were really two peas in a pod.
"Come on, it's not that bad guys," the tailed martial-artist guy—Ojiro probably—tried to keep up their morale.
"We're mostly fine," Shoji, mostly silent and as big as Shishida, confirmed.
"Why is she still screaming then?" Awase pointed to Ashido's corpse, still sprawled upside-down.
"She feels that reading through seventy-three offers will take ages," Hagakure, practically appearing from nowhere, spoke giddily.
"S-Seventy-three?" Shoda exclaimed, wording their shock.
"My. Congratulations, Ashido." Reiko spoke amicably.
"Damn, that's impressive!" Tetsutetsu said, catching his own fist in his hand. "You should be proud of that and get to reading!"
Jiro snickered, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, she should. I mean, it's not like she has hundreds..."
"Bullies... Just let me die here..." the pink girl breathed out as Kirishima tried to catch her kicking feet and get her to sit up.
Kaminari just let out a high-pitch wail.
"Did some of you get more?" Itsuka asked, curious.
"She's ninth, ribbit," Asui stated, starting to raise her fingers as she called her classmates' names. "Shinso, Kaminari, Tokoyami, Ida, Ochaco, Bakugo, Yaomomo, and Todoroki got more."
"H-How many more?" Awase, now sweating a little, inquired.
"Them? Hundreds." Jiro moved her jacks. "Yaomomo got almost two thousand offers."
"Holy shit."
Itsuka elbowed Setsuna lightly. "Don't let Ibara hear that."
"Sorry," she grinned, not showing a hint of regret.
"Now, that's what I can imagine being a damn hassle to examine," Awase agreed. "Most of our class didn't even get any."
"It's not like it's the end of the world." Itsuka turned as Midoriya's voice came from the entrance, the boy carrying a pile of folders and tablets. "The forty agencies to choose from are really good ones. I think some are probably better than ninety percent of the offers, since those can come literally from any Hero in the country, while only the best get to work directly and continuously with U.A."
Awase showed a big smile. "Ah! Thanks, Midoriya, it's nice to hear that nobody's being forgotten."
"Do you need some help with those?" Shoda asked, but the greenette simply shook his head.
"I'm fine, thanks. Just giving Todoroki and Momo a hand with carrying their stuff, plus tablets for the whole class. Mr. Aizawa had us go get them directly in the teachers' office." He placed the pile on a table as the two-toned boy entered with the other half of the mountain of data.
"'You get that many, you handle the moving yourselves,'" Jiro copied the man's tone.
"Seems on brand," Awase nodded, knowing that Vlad King hadn't faced nearly the same amount of paperwork.
"Monoma's gonna have a heart attack when he sees that," Setsuna commented, and Itsuka felt it hard to disagree.
Midoriya moved his eyes around the room, catching's Ashido still "fighting" with Kirishima, and huffing slightly with a head shake.
"Ashido, get up. I can help you to look through your offers."
Izuku must have been a saint or a wizard at some point in his life, because the pinkette's body sprung up as she'd never fallen in the first place.
"Yes! Thanks Midori!"
"Me too!" The electric blonde jumped at the idea, clearly being in Ashido's condition, if not worse.
Uraraka and Shinso didn't take much longer, and in a few seconds the whole class was gathering around the boy.
"Let Green breathe! Just sit, man," Jiro made the others settle orderly, the group listening without a whine.
"I'll get some snacks," Sato, another giant, moved to the kitchen as the "study" group piled up around a couple of tables.
- 1-A is fucking strange, - Itsuka thought once again, forgetting for a moment how her own classmates weren't anything less than bottled chaos.
Still, when Izuku offered them one more opinion on their offers, they certainly didn't refuse.
Izuku, standing at the head of the table and being surrounded by friendly but worried faces, finished handing out his classmates' stuff.
"Okay, before we start, a couple of things. One: I don't want to be making the choice for you, so take anything I say as suggestions, not orders. I'm a Hero nerd, not an all-seeing god."
"Bullshit," Daigoro called out, "I'm sure you know everything about any Hero in the top fifty by heart."
- Top hundred by heart, bits and pieces for the rest. -
"Called it," En whispered.
"Two: don't just take the first Hero that looks good. You've got options, so we're here to find the best ones."
Better make that clear, or some would just end up taking whatever was closer to the top of the list.
"Third: higher on the chart does not necessarily mean better for you. There are some names I wouldn't recommend, even if they're high rated. Now, let's get to it. You can look for information on your tablets and hit me with any question if something's not there."
He got a few minutes of relative silence, hearing only the song of turned pages and fingers on screens.
His family had gotten some good picks this time. Nezu had sent him the whole file as to let him prepare the night before, so he had spent a bit of his time to make sure which combinations were possible.
Izuku was pleased as to how things had turned out. Getting that many top Heroes to be present for the Sports Festival had certainly increased their interest. It wouldn't be the strangest turn of events, but he'd seen a couple of incredibly interesting picks.
As soon as one hand got up to call for him, Izuku got to work.
"No, Ashido, Mixture may be good in relation to your acids, but he's more of a tank type. He takes hits and retaliates hard."
Mina didn't look certain. "Maybe I could learn some of that," she tried.
"Ashido, you're not Kirishima, and that's fine. You move like a panther and have great technique, don't waste it." He moved his finger, scanning the list. "Here. I think you've got two very good options. One: Figure, the Ice-Skates Hero. His moves remind me a lot of yours when you're sliding over acid, and he has his own skating-based fighting style, which you could learn."
"Mm, not bad, not bad." She nodded theatrically, weighting the idea while keeping a hand on her chin, then turned to question him. "What's option two?"
"Well..." he chuckled a bit. "It may seem a bit redundant, but you've received a request from Midnight herself."
"Miss Midnight?" Mina's eyes opened wide.
"Are teachers even allowed to take interns?" Denki, taking whatever excuse to stop his search, asked.
"They can. Every Hero Course in Japan provides this opportunity during the same week, as to leave a window for their teachers to take a more direct approach with some interns," Momo explained, not looking up from her folder or breaking her concentration.
"Precisely." Izuku nodded, turning to Mina with a smile. "Midnight may not be able to slide around with her Quirk, but she knows how to fight and has many tricks up her sleeve that we haven't seen yet. I think you'd enjoy a week with her."
Oh, would she like it.
"Tough choice," Hanta commented, being immediately shot down.
"Nope! I'm going with Midnight!" Mina exclaimed, writing down her first choice, then adding the second one below after a second of thought. "But I'll keep Figure as backup, just to be safe."
"Smart." Kirishima grinned. "Hey Midobro, wanna help me choose?"
"Narrowed down the choice?"
"Yeah," the red-haired teen nodded, showing three circled names: Fourth Kind, Fat Gum, and Crust.
- Look at that, Eijiro has already found the best picks on his own. -
"You've got three good ones... Fourth Kind is great, but the only good things he has in common with you are resilience and brawling prowess. Fat Gum may be better, as his Quirk also depends heavily on his body, and he'd certainly train you well. But you've got a request from Crust, Kirishima, those do not appear every day."
"Crust?!" Tetsutetsu shot up. "You got one from the Shield Hero? I'm so jealous!"
"That's a Top Ten name!" Setsuna yelled. "Why are you still thinking about it?!"
"Well, Midobro said that higher doesn't necessarily mean better, so..."
Izuku let a small chuckle escape. "True, it doesn't, but that's not the case for you. I'll say, don't let the chance to work with Crust go. He's a good Hero, very noble. I think you'll like him."
"Will do then! Thanks, Midobro." Eijiro patted his back as he got to writing.
Setsuna shook her head as if the idea of not taking the offer had been sheer madness. "Damn, lucky him. Must be a miracle to get an offer from the top of the chart."
Izuku looked at her with a smirk. "Then miracles must have been on discount today."
The lizard girl blinked twice. "What?"
"Guys, how many of you got offers from the Top Ten?"
He could almost hear Setsuna's mandible fall off as seven of his classmates shakily raised their hands. Eijiro was first, as they'd already seen, but he was soon followed by Shoto, Fumikage, Ochaco, Momo, Tsuyu, and Toru.
"WHAT?!" the other chorused.
"I-I mean, it's not that big of a deal, is it?" Ochaco tried to deflect.
"It is!" Yosetsu reiterated.
"And it's well deserved, really," Izuku added. "You all did great during the festival, and I haven't seen you slack off during training. It's only fair."
"Thank you, ribbit," Tsu replied, followed by a couple more.
"Whose attention did you manage to catch?" Nirengeki asked, putting a momentary stop to his own work.
"We all know that Todoroki got his from Endeavor," Minoru pointed out, receiving a small nod from the two-toned boy on the other side of the table.
"My father certainly did ask. I believe I will take him up on it, if only to improve my use of my left side."
Izuku nodded at Shoto with a bright smile.
For all the difficulties that father and son would face, this was the best choice for Shoto's future. Endeavor might not have been a good parent, but he was a good Hero. He couldn't be a beacon of hope, but he knew how to be efficient, and worked harder than anybody else. Nobody in the Hero business was better at handling flames, and Shoto required the best to fill a years-wide gap.
And, even if it would be hard, managing the mess in Hosu would be another little step on the path to reconciliation, or something resembling that. Shoto's family would be able to smile again, in time.
"Too intimidating for my tastes, but you know him better than most for sure," Denki shrugged. "I'm sure you'll do great!"
Shoto responded with a curt "Thank you." before the interest moved on.
"What about you, Hagakure?" Kyoka asked.
The girl seemed unable to sit still, shaking uncontrollably for excitement or panic.
"E-E-Ed-Edgeshot."
Another name, another chorus of exclamations.
"Toru! That's amazing!" Mina supported her friend.
"B-But why would he take me?" Panic. She was shaking in panic. "I didn't even last one round! It must be a mistake-"
"Do not disparage yourself so easily," Fumikage interjected, crossing his arms and frowning at her. "Your move would have settled our match, had it not been for a fortuitous condition on my part."
"Yeah, you got me good too," Hanta nodded with a grin.
"I know that Ibara feels the same way," Itsuka added, "she was truly grateful for your plan back there."
"And you've done a lot since the first battle trial!" Ochaco said, remembering the moment in awe.
"I was completely fooled," Shoto nodded, deadpan.
"But... why me?"
"Why would the Ninja Hero seek someone with complete invisibility and a flashbang move? Geez, who knows," Setsuna teased, rolling her eyes playfully.
"And, if you're really curious, why don't you ask him directly?" Izuku finished, pointing to Toru's paper.
Getting noticed by Edgeshot wasn't that hard for Toru. She only needed to be able to show her moves and some of her agility. It was a fine first pick, as none had the knowledge necessary to help the girl in her light-bending journey anyway. Toru would come back deadlier and sharper, with new skills that she wouldn't have ever picked up otherwise.
The pen levitated in her invisible hand, writing down her pick. "Y-Yeah, I think I will. Thanks guys!"
Toru's uniform got tighter around the arms as Mina hugged her.
"What about you, Uraraka?" Reiko asked the girl she'd shared the second event with.
"Ah, uh, I got one from Ryukyu!" Ochaco replied, slightly embarrassed, but mostly proud.
"The Dragon Hero!" Setsuna cooed. "She's great!"
"She must have been impressed by your flying, ribbit," Tsu praised her friend.
"Oh, come on, I'm still no good at that..."
"I disagree," Momo said with a smile, "you've improved a lot since our first day. Your fights during the tournament were very inspirational."
"It was a spectacle to behold," Reiko agreed, the two making the girl's face only become redder.
"You're lucky, Ochaco, her Silver Dragon Agency has gotten a lot of fame as of late," Izuku said, hoping for someone to take the hint. His target didn't, but the girl next to her did.
"Mm," Yui nodded, nudging Itsuka lightly.
"What?" The redhead looked down to the name pinpointed by her friend, widening her eyes. "Did you say Silver Dragon Agency?"
At his confirmation, Itsuka raised her own paper. "I've got one too!"
"How did you not notice?!" Tetsutetsu screamed, making Nirengeki cover his hears.
"I was going in alphabetical order!"
Setsuna started laughing like a madwoman. "Guys! They both got chosen because of their clumsiest two-minutes!"
"You can't prove that! And don't call it that !" the other shouted over the cackling.
"I coined it, I'll use it!" Setsuna smirked.
Itsuka tried and failed to catch the greenette, who split and jumped off to evade her grip.
"Kendo! Let's go together!" Ochaco interrupted the girl's attempt at murder.
"...Sure, why not?" Itsuka said, deciding to let Setsuna off the hook. "At least it'll be fun, and I won't be stuck with Tokage."
"Hey!"
Koji, trying to deflect the attention from the shouting match, turned to his bird-headed classmate. "Tokoyami, what about you?"
[Dark Shadow] answered for him. "We got one from Hawks!"
"Wow! You impressed the Number 3!" Denki congratulated.
"I dare say I was fortunate," Fumikage nodded, showing a silent appreciation.
"Nah, he can just see how strong you two are," Hitoshi tiredly pointed out, making [Dark Shadow] cackle.
"Your match with Bakugo was a great show of resilience, I was quite inspired by it," Tenya admitted. "Quite similarly as I was against Jiro and Shishida. Their strategy caught me by surprise."
"Shishida was quite proud of it," Nirengeki agreed.
Kyoka waved her hand to cover the embarrassment of being the center of attention. "Please, we didn't even win."
"Don't sell yourself short, you did great." Momo smiled.
"Yeah, ribbit, you almost got Bakugo a few times."
As Jiro continued to downplay her part, Izuku went for a question. "Did you get any interesting requests?"
"Oh, yeah. I don't know about some of them, but I know about Death Arms, and I even got one from Present Mic!"
Izuku showed a smile, but he was screaming inside. Present Mic was great, but she was missing something crucial.
"Mind if I take a look at those names?"
She let him get closer with a "Sure," watching as the boy faked surprise as he reached a name around the middle of the list.
"Jiro, you don't know about the Aquarium Agency?"
"Should I?" She raised an eyebrow. "I don't think I'd be able to do much in aquatic terrain and stuff, with my gear being electrical and all, so I skipped it."
"Well, for one, sound travels really well underwater, so you should look into that. It's easy to waterproof gear nowadays. But, more importantly, that's Gang Orca's agency."
"It's what?!" the punkette got up, slamming her hands on the table.
"Ah, so I wasn't the only one," Mezo commented, turning his already-compiled paper, which showed the same name on it.
"Shoji too?" Hanta spoke, following his words with a whistle.
"Why would he choose me?!" Kyoka stared at the page.
"Hey, Toru, she's doing your impression," Mina giggled, receiving a "Meanie," from her friend.
"Seeing as he wants both you and Shoji, I imagine he would like to train you in recon and fighting," he offered. "Gang Orca may be well known for being strong and scary, but his echolocation and hypersonic waves have a lot in common with what you can do."
"You both were great at fighting too," Eijiro added. "I think it's a great choice!"
Mezo nodded in agreement, while Kyoka took a couple more second before spouting a "Oh, what the hell," and writing down the name.
"Hey! We still haven't asked Asui and Yaoyorozu about their Top Ten picks!" Setsuna, reassembling, reiterated.
"Mirko, ribbit." Tsu replied, deadpan.
"Oh," Momo looked up at her classmate with a bit of surprise, "me too."
The "WHAT?!" liberated from the group could have broken Kyoka's eardrums had she not been ready.
"Please, lower your voices!" Tenya chastised, matching the volume himself.
"Please, I don't want to explain to Mr. Aizawa how we broke the windows by screaming," Izuku pleaded.
"Not now Midori! Did you just say Mirko?" Mina, halfway over the table, stared directly at the two girls.
"Yes, ribbit."
"Indeed."
"Girls, this is huge," Itsuka pointed out. "Mirko has never taken an intern before, let alone two. She's well known as a lone wolf."
"Or lone rabb- Ouch!" Yui interrupted Yosetsu's terrible attempt at a joke by pinching his arm.
"You'd be the first she's ever taught to," Reiko added.
"That's amazing!" Ochaco seemed very happy for her friends.
"Not to steal your thunder," Hitoshi interjected, serious, "but would she even be a good teacher then?"
"I'm not sure myself," Momo admitted. "Had you asked me some time ago, I would have probably chosen something less risky, especially since I also received a request from Yoroi Musha..."
Izuku contained a frown. He didn't dislike the Hero per se and didn't blame him too much for his "convenient" retirement, but he wasn't what he would call an inspiring mentor. Yoroi Musha could teach a lot about weapons, but his solid beliefs in the absolute righteousness of the current system wasn't something they could agree on.
Thankfully Mirko had relieved Izuku of having to tell Momo to refuse him altogether.
"But I think I'd like to see what Mirko has to offer. If she's as interested in fighting as her persona leads us to believe, I may be able to improve myself considerably."
- She's way more interested than any of you could imagine, - Izuku thought, mentally sighing.
His times with Mirko had been... A lot to digest. Sometimes he wondered how he'd made it out alive.
Okay, he hadn't, but that was hardly the Rabbit Hero's fault.
The Heroine had a lot to offer, if one was able to make it through her hellish training. Her Luna style was great, and the battle instincts she could instill in her pupils were otherworldly. She'd gotten two good ones this time.
"Good reasoning," Hitoshi cut his reply short, agreeing.
"What about you, Tsu?" Toru asked. "I thought you wanted something water related."
"I did, but I wouldn't refuse this anyway, ribbit." Tsu shrugged, having already written her choice. "I will have every chance to experience everything else later on, but Mirko seems like a one-of-a-kind deal, ribbit. Her fighting style suits me, as it's mostly about legs. I won't let this chance slip by."
"Oh, yeah, I can't wait to see how you'll use that!" Mina clapped excitedly.
"Just be sure not to die out there, I've heard she's a battle-junkie with no care for personal limits," Setsuna snickered, making the group worry a tad.
Izuku agreed. "She might be hard to keep up with at first, but I think you two will manage with no problems. Just remember that she usually aims high."
His head surely wouldn't forget.
"Noted, ribbit."
"So, who's left?" he asked, turning to the rest of the table. "Ida?"
"Oh, you do not have to worry about me," the bluenette raised his neatly compiled paper. "I have decided to intern with my brother, Ingenium. I believe that on the field I may partake in lessons which he wouldn't impart onto me at home."
"It's not like there is somebody better to ask about your Quirk," Ochaco giggled, making Izuku turn up his nose ever so slightly.
"I had a couple of interesting offers, but I think I'll go with Rock Lock," Minoru said, looking decidedly sure of his choice. "Nobody else has quite the same apprehension capability as he does."
Indeed, by going with Rock Lock Minoru could learn some new tricks he desperately needed to apply to his Quirk's new abilities. And he'd also avoid being used as an errand boy by Mount Lady, who still had to pick up her slack.
"Oh, I've got one from him too!" Yosetsu rejoiced. "I think I'll go with him!"
"A good choice, he has some of the highest rates of no-damages captures," Izuku added, confirming the decision for the duo.
On the side, Hanta grinned, proudly showing his own pick. "I'll go with Kamui Woods! His way of moving around the city, swinging from building to building, is a lot like the one I'd like for myself. I can't wait to steal it!"
"Oh, I think Ibara might have gotten one from him too," Reiko thought aloud.
They were making a good choice. Kamui Woods wasn't a bad Hero and, looking at his work in the last year, the Slime Villain incident had awoken something in him. He'd been steadily rising by putting his all in his job, and despite being young he had a lot to teach. He deserved his spot in the next ranking.
"What about you, Ojiro?" Izuku asked.
"I got a request from Gunhead, but I don't really know," Mashirao sighed, crossing his arms. "I still have much to learn regarding martial arts, but incorporating something new out of the blue might just worsen my focus. Do you think I've got anyone else as good here?"
Izuku took the offered list, scanning it and showing a curious expression before speaking. "... How would you feel about the Wild Wild Pussycats?" He saw Koji perk up in the corner of his eye.
"The Rescue Team? I know them, but they're not exactly my jam," the blonde admitted.
"Well, their member Tiger has an interesting way of fighting: he uses his elongated limbs to hit from blind spots and restrain his opponents. I think it could be applied to your tail too... Look up some videos about him, it'll give you a better idea."
"Mm, will do," Mashirao nodded, now intrigued.
Izuku turned, gesturing. "Did you want to ask something, Koda?"
"Yes." The other teen nodded. "Would they be good for me too?"
"Oh, definitely." He returned to speaking aloud, as the info could be useful to everybody else too. "The Wild Wild Pussycats are a good well-rounded team, and are probably some of the best Rescue Heroes out there. They're the go-to in most cases of natural disaster nowadays, especially in rural areas, so they would probably be the best choice for you."
"They must have been impressed by your show of kindness," Momo nodded.
"You'll do great Koda!" Toru encouraged the shy boy, who was barely hiding his embarrassment behind his big hands.
"What about you, charge-dolt?" Kyoka asked with a small grin, looking at the boy scrambling between his hundreds of offers.
"I don't knoooow!" Denki groaned, holding his head between his hands. "There's just too many of them!"
"Let me have a look," Izuku offered, immediately receiving every piece of Denki's folder. He spent some minutes carefully looking through it, as it would have looked too suspicious if he just pinpointed the best one out of the blue, coming up with two possibilities.
"Okay, I think the best options for you would be either Eel Boy or the Sand Hero: Snatch."
"Why those two?" Mina, having nothing better to do, interjected.
"Yeah, I don't know about Eel, but isn't Snatch like, the complete opposite Kaminari's Quirk?" Setsuna added.
"Nah, Snatch is great!" Hanta interjected. "He seems like the type to charge in headfirst, but I've heard he takes up a lot of escort missions for the police."
"He does," Izuku confirmed. "His Quirk, Sandstorm, makes him highly resistant to damage, so he's incredibly good at keeping people safe and criminals bonded." He turned to Denki. "I suggested him because he's known to be practically immune to electricity-based attacks. He won't have a problem with you going all-out. Plus, he revealed in an interview some years ago that he has had problems with his Quirk's potency in his early years, so he could give you a hand with that."
"Oh, that's cool," Denki nodded, interested. "What about Eel Boy?"
"He'd be much more congenial to your electricity, since he's part electric eel. Mostly a countryside guy. He's good at stealth operations and recon, but he mostly avoids direct fights."
The blonde looked thoughtful, but Izuku wasn't worried. Both options were really good for him, and Izuku would be able to teach him anything he'd miss out on. Snatch would kickstart his power spike early on, Eel Boy would make it much better at thinking on his feet, and both would improve his attitude. He couldn't go wrong.
"Mm, I think I'll go with Snatch," he finally said, "I want to see what it's like in the big city first."
- Not the best reason, but sure, - Izuku chuckled to himself.
"And you, Shinso?" Itsuka moved on, looking at how the lavender-haired boy was just resting on his chair.
"I've given them a look," Hitoshi yawned, "but none of them caught my interest. I think I'll go with Mr. Aizawa's recommendation."
"He told you what to pick?" Nirengeki questioned, curious since Vlad King hadn't directly offered any advice to anyone.
"More like 'suggested,'" he moved a paper out of his folder. It read: "The Smile Hero: Ms. Joke."
Izuku appreciated the fact that their teacher had listened to him.
"Never heard of her. Who's she?" Tetsutetsu scratched his head.
"Apparently, she's a teacher at Ketsubutsu. There's not much about her online."
"Of course not," Izuku chimed in. "She's a Twilight Hero. Not as obscure as Eraser Head, but still not fully Limelight. "
"How does that work?" Reiko asked, tilting her head.
"Some prefer to keep their Quirks hidden, so they rarely appear on television or on official reports, and never on billboard rankings. She's one of such cases, and she's kept herself afloat for a good while."
Mina looked between him and Hitoshi with a grin. "But why 'Ms. Joke'? Do you know?"
He smiled back and shook his head. "I do, but I don't want to spoil his fun."
"Oh gods," Hitoshi groaned. "I'm screwed, aren't I?"
"You'll survive and come back stronger," Izuku joked, patting his friend's back. He also barely caught Yui's eyes moving quickly back to her paper, deciding to keep the information for later.
The others weren't really a surprise anymore.
Yuga and Rikido hadn't received any drafts, so they'd chosen from the school's list, as many of 1-B had. X-Less and Death Arms weren't that bad if compared to many others, at least at the moment.
Bakugo had, as always, just gone for the highest-ranking hero on the list. Best Jeanist was sure to make his permanence a nerve-cracking torture of fashion and well-styled hair.
Izuku let out a relaxed breath as the group slowly moved on to other tasks, adapting to their new home little by little. He knew that some more dinner parties and a couple more training sessions would bridge the gap between them all... But the day could never come soon enough.
He still had a week before his almost-assured meeting with Gran, and he was really looking forward to that. Nana couldn't wait.
Notes:
A bit of an interlude to get some more exchanges in play.
I hope the picks seem interesting, because the internships are going to be fun.
Up next, interns- oh, is that Kamakiri breaking the door and shouting?
Would you look at that...
I love interacting in the comments, so feel free to leave