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Midoriya wasn’t registering what the man in front of him was saying, though he knows he should listen.
The entire second year class at UA was stuffed into an auditorium so they could be educated on different types of discrimination. Of course, the school decided to focus on quirk discrimination, sexism, racism, ablism.
All good things to be aware of, true. And almost every one of the presentations covered something new that Izuku wasn’t aware of and he would thank Kami that he was able to become a Daylight Hero, because he would soon have a platform to speak from and hopefully help the world become a bit more equal.
And then, on the last day of discrimination awareness week, Nedzu brought in a new speaker. This speaker intrigued Izuku. Not for any exciting or good reason. But because the speaker’s shoulders were hunched up in a nervous gesture with his hands tapping along his thigh, even though he looked confident. He tried to smile sadly but the emotion just wasn’t behind it.
Then. Well, then he introduced himself as Quirkless and started presenting.
And Izuku could only feel rage as he used misleading and incorrect but widely recognized statistics. He listened for the first part, only to hear him utter the words, “minor bullying” and he mentally checked out from the speech.
Izuku let himself dig his hands into his thighs as the man droned on about a life Quirkless people would kill to have. Sure, the statstics and discrimination was still bad but it wasn’t nearly as bad as what it was for them.
And the cherry on top? Bakugou, who was sitting next to him, nudged him with his elbow and pointed to the man’s shoes. Shoes that were commonly associated with someone who had a passive or ‘weak’ emitter quirk. Shoes that Quirkless people can’t wear because their feet are much wider than most of the population. Shoes that aren’t associated with anyone Quirkless because they know that if they were found to be quirkless and not be wearing the atrocious red shoes made for them? They’d be as good as dead.
Because if there was one thing quirkests hate more than the Quirkless? It was quirkless people not ‘knowing their place’ and ‘trying to trick’ the average commoner.
They didn’t want quirkless people to have more than one option for shoes. They needed to know who they could publicly humiliate and belittle without consequences. They needed to know who was the correct person they were trying to discriminate against.
Once, when Izuku was much younger, he had tried to fit into the average shoe designed for people with passive or emitter quirks only to find his feet hurting a couple hours after putting them on.
And…in that moment, he realized no one had looked at him or his mother weirdly. No one stopped to explain to his mother how much better off in an orphanage he would be. No one stopped to give Izuku some friendly ‘advice’ or anything of that sort.
That’s when he realized what kind of life he was missing out on, all because he wasn’t born with some insane superpower. That’s when he realized how much better life was when people couldn’t identify him.
But then a man who had spotted his red shoes in his mother’s hand came up to them and scolded her for not forcing Izuku into his ‘markers’ so that the general population knew who they should ignore and hurt. He yelled at Izuku and told him he didn’t deserve something as simple as a different pair of shoes.
And it hurt so much worse than what his bullies would say or do to him.
The man even slapped him before his mother stepped in completely and forced him to leave them alone. So with that in mind, he decided he would never wear the wrong shoes again. It was too dangerous and when he found the RSC (the Red Shoe Community) he learned that almost every quirkless child had had an experience like his.
All because of their shoes.
So when he saw the speaker, pretending to be nervous even though his posture was self-assured, wearing the wrong shoes and speaking about the tales of someone who was born with a power and obviously had no understanding of what exactly is happening to the Quirkless population?
Well, Izuku just grit his teeth, clenched his hands and did his absolute best not to outright glare at the man who was still talking.
At least Izuku had some form of reprieve. After Bakugou had apologized and the two had made up, Izuku started teaching Bakugou about quirkless people. Afterall, Bakugou already knew more than most since he grew up with Izuku. Why not tell him everything?
At least, there would be one more person in this world that would understand and actually help a quirkless person. At least someone else would stand right along-side Izuku and fight for their rights and for their voices to be heard. At least someone else would be shedding light on the true statistics and working with the people of Japan to promote true equity and equality.
So, both Bakugou and Midoriya sat there, silently seething in their seats at the amount of bullshit that was being shown, wondering how Nedzu didn’t know what was happening, and trying to calm down. They didn’t need extra attention. They didn’t want people to see them and get the wrong idea. They certainly didn’t want to be confronted about their palpable hatred towards the speaker.
Izuku ever so carefully opened the camera setting on his phone and passed it to Bakugou. He was always the more subtler one out of the two. And he knew that Izuku would be running his details and face through the quirk database to make sure they aren’t hating on the wrong person.
With the picture taken and the phone back in Izuku’s hand, he pulled up the program he may or may not have hacked into and began running the facial recognition on their speaker.
Two minutes later, after trying to remain patient, Izuku’s phone vibrated in his hand and both boys whipped their heads towards it to get a better look at the person. The speaker’s real name was Fujikai Benjiro. And his quirk was a relatively simple one; Plant Whisperer.
There was no quirk description but neither of the boys needed one. They already knew enough. Izuku saved the information to his phone and shut his phone off.
And the two went back to pretending to listen to this idiot on the stage, going by a fake name and faking the loss of a quirk for the sake of it, and kept their mouths shut.
Finally, finally, they were granted a reprieve from the disgusting man and the presentation was over. Their classmates were excitedly talking and stretching in their seats about the informative presentation. They said that they had never known the Quirkless had it so bad. Izuku almost laughed.
And, as the rest of the classes were filling out, Aizawa-sensei gave Iida a command to lead them out as well until he called out, “Midoriya. Bakugou. Stay behind for a moment.”
Their classmates looked over at them awkwardly or physically shrugged it off and kept walking away. Once most of the students were away and wouldn’t overhear them, Aizawa spoke.
“I understand the statistics are hard to digest but the way you were looking at the speaker implied that you didn’t like them?”
And, without thinking, Bakugou scoffed and grunted, “Why would we?”
It was silent for a few moments until Bakugou figured out what Aizawa-sensei thought he meant. Before he could say anything or Izuku could come to his defense, Aizawa sighed. “I see. I hadn’t expected this behavior from either of you, if I’m honest. You two are expected to present, to me, your own presentation on the Quirkless and the discrimination they face. Sound fair?”
Bakugou let out a bark of a laugh as Izuku stood still, almost letting himself smile at the opportunity that the man had unknowingly given them. “Sensei? Can we p-present it to the speaker too? I don’t think we were very fair to him.” After a few moments, Izuku added, “I-I mean, we could speak to the second years too, with him there in the crowd as an apology of sorts.”
Aizawa-sensei seemed to be mulling it over and eventually nodded. “Have it ready to go by Monday. I will be reviewing your presentation beforehand and we’ll speak to Nedzu about the additional assembly.”
All Izuku could bring himself to do was nod and grasp onto Bakugou’s arm to lead the both of them out of the stands and away from the auditorium. And once they were sure they were out of sight from their teachers, they shared a smirk.
Because, as Bakugou had learned early on in life, Midoriya Izuku takes no prisoners when his family has been wronged.
Shouta didn’t know what to think as he watched both Midoriya and Bakugou glance at something on Midoriya’s phone and then continue to stare at the quirkless guest speaker that was still up on the stage with something close to disdain.
He shouldn’t have been as shocked as he was. Both boys had incredibly powerful quirks and had probably never seen the Quirkless as someone to care for and protect.
Since Shouta already knew most, if not all, of the statistics on the screen (working in the underground has made it so that Shouta can’t forget what he’s learned about the Quirkless) he spent his time looking their speaker up and down and analyzing him.
He seemed nervous but had the self-assurance of someone who did guest lectures and speeches for a living. He had pale green hair and brown eyes and wore the same shade of green on a button shirt, black dress pants, and nicer black dress shoes.
Hiroki-san was very informative with the data he was showing and explaining to the students, although it was obvious that Midoriya and Bakugou weren’t listening to a word he was saying. In all honesty, the longer the presentation went on the more annoyed they seemed to be.
And it stung a little that the students he had grown to care for had such prejudice lurking around in their minds. So he held them back and made sure to get confirmation on their hatred before dishing out a punishment. Honestly, it would probably hurt their pride to have to present about the very people they seemed to hold a dislike for. And then Midoriya asked if they could present their own speech as an apology towards the man, probably feeling guilty about how he had acted.
Shouta saw no issue with it, so he agreed with the condition that both he and Nedzu would approve and sent them on their way, not thinking twice about the alarming laugh that came from Bakugou or the grin that seemed to be forcefully held back by Midoriya.
Perhaps the mess that followed could’ve been prevented if Shouta had just dug a little more or asked them to write an essay instead.
“What’s the plan, nerd?” Bakugou asked once they were locked away in Izuku’s room.
Izuku just hummed and went rifling through his bottom desk drawer, pulling out a few papers before opening up his laptop. “I’m thinking we hit them where it hurts.” He responded with a grin.
Initially, Izuku was a bit pissed that his little investigation on Fujikai would be put on the back-burner since they had to do a presentation about the most sensitive subject for them and present it to both Aizawa and Nedzu in two days. But now, he’s starting to think that he could just make it all everyone else's problem.
It wouldn’t be too hard either. They just have to make sure Nedzu is on board.
Bakugou took one look at Izuku’s grin and grabbed Izuku’s phone. Smirk in place, he seemed to be texting someone. Izuku just ignored him and went back to his laptop, pulling open the real statistics that he knew by heart. He got started on a presentation only for Bakugou to shove Izuku’s phone in his face with a wild grin.
Izuku quickly read through the text thread and grinned at the last message.
Nedzu was on board.
Izuku’s heart was beating so hard, he half-expected it to fall out of his chest.
He was lucky that Aizawa had approved of their shitty fake presentation and then left as soon as Nedzu said he wanted to talk to Izuku and Bakugou. As soon as the man left, Izuku handed over all of the information they found on Fujikai to Nedzu and cackled along with him. The beautiful thing was that Nedzu was a bit more vindictive than Izuku expected and was whole-heartly on board with the rest of their plan. Bakugou had smirked confidently when Nedzu gave the complete go ahead for their real presentation as well as the promise that Fujikai would be in the audience on Tuesday.
And now it’s Tuesday.
He knew what he was signing up for when he proposed the idea of presenting this to the entire second year class. He knew he’d have to deal with public speaking and drawing attention to himself during his time both here and out in the field.
But, Kami is he nervous. A silver lining was that he had Bakugou here with him. The other boy hates public speaking almost as much as Izuku does but they both know how important it is to help everyone understand what is happening in Japan.
The speaker that they had last week spoke of inaccurate statistics only and didn’t give anyone real insight into the lives that they’re forced to live. The speaker didn’t tell anyone how bad it had gotten. They didn’t mention the ‘markers for the quirkless’ and the reasons why they even stayed in Japan because of this.
So Izuku knew what he had to do and he could feel his resolve strengthen as he thought about the previous speaker.
…he’s still nervous about talking in front of his peers and teachers like this though.
He listened as Nedzu walked up on stage and talked about the homeroom announcements for the day before introducing the both of them and their presentation. There were a few questioning cries from the crowd but they were short-lived.
“Take care of them.” He heard Nedzu say and Bakugou nudged Izuku as they walked out onto the stage. Izuku took a shaky breath and flexed his hands as he wandered over to Nedzu.
“Thank you, Nedzu.” Izuku said, shaking slightly as he took the mic from the podium. He took measured breaths and spoke as commandingly as he could when Bakugou finally got the presentation slides opened and projected on the screen.
“We actually wanted to tell you all a story before we got started today. A story from when we were younger. You see, we were about five? six? And we were in the mall, walking around, keeping our mothers on their toes and being general menaces when we could.” Izuku smiled at the few laughs that had gotten. “We were going shoe shopping that day. That’s always exciting, especially as a kid. It’s always fun to choose different colors and styles and laces.”
Izuku took a step back from the podium and started walking across the stage slowly. He was pleased to see that he had their attention. “We waltzed inside and raced down the aisles before we ran into a kid our age. He was in the back corner, all alone, crying over a shoe box. Now, us at six years old didn’t have too much tact but we still wanted to know what was wrong. And this kid said that he couldn’t wear any other shoes except for these,” Izuku heard Bakugou click the screen and he knew an image of the shoes he wore on a daily basis would be up there. Kami, this was going to get hard.
“Now, obviously we didn’t understand why he couldn’t wear different shoes so we brought him some that we thought he might like. He tried them on without complaint but we could see him starting to limp so we stopped. And then he told us that he didn’t have a quirk.” Izuku could practically feel the questioning gazes on him now but continued to force himself to keep walking around. “As kids, we’re taught the importance of power very early on in life but we’re also taught that all life has worth. So neither of us really knew what the issue was. But he continued to explain that he could only ever have these shoes and nothing else or he would either a) get into trouble or b) his feet would hurt.”
Izuku let himself glare in the direction of their guest-of-honor before taking another deep breath. If people were smart enough to get into UA, they’ll probably be able to put two and two together from the stories Izuku is about to tell as he walks around the stage in his red high-tops.
But this needed to be done. So he pushed on.
“Now, something important to remember before I continue is that everyone who wears these shoes has a pinky toe-joint but not everyone who has a pinky toe-joint is Quirkless.” Izuku took a deep breath and clicked to the next slide. “Since the pinky toe-joint theory was disproved almost a decade ago, the toe-joint should be more commonly associated with late bloomers, even though it’s not. Let’s take a look at one example.” He clicked to the next slide and glanced nervously over at Bakugou once gasps and whispers started up. “This is obviously an extreme example but it gets my point across. This kid that we had met in that shoe store was diagnosed Quirkless at the age of four with only an x-ray of their foot done in Japan. No one bothered to look for anything else because of this. Until recently, they had always thought they were Quirkless. And when they were 15, an accident happened which caused 3 of their limbs to shatter with the force of their quirk activating for the first time.”
Izuku took a deep breath and let his eyes rove around the crowd, though he couldn’t see anything because of how bright the stage lights were. That was one blessing. Bakugou clicked to the next slide and sharp gasps were heard, along with cries of disbelief. Good. “We’re not here to discuss what happened after they got their quirk, however. We’re here to talk about what they went through while they were presumed Quirkless, all because of a pinky toe-joint.”
“These statistics are obviously different from the ones you were presented last week,” Bakugou said gruffly, slowly pacing his way around the stage with his hands shoved into his pockets, glaring over to the area where they knew their guest-of-honor was sitting. “While those weren’t necessarily wrong, they were horribly out of date.”
“What you’re looking at are the statistics for this year.” A few murmurs broke through Bakugou’s speech and he scowled but closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “As some of you have noticed, this data isn’t provided by the government or the census and there’s good reason for this.” Bakugou’s voice rose as he ended his sentence, since some of the students were getting louder.
Izuku glared into the crowd and raised his hand slightly. The murmurs petered out at the movement and he gestured back towards Bakugou. He clicked to the next slide and the murmurs almost started up once more but Izuku raised his hand higher.
“The census stopped tracking quirkless people as a whole eight years ago. This means that not only are they providing outdated statistics and using denounced theories to ‘diagnose’ them, they’ve also taken away many different resorcuses from them and turned an entire minority population into dependents for the rest of their lives.”
“WHAT?!” Someone shouted from the crowd. The murmurs and shouts picked up again and Izuku tapped his mic, creating enough feedback so they would shut up.
“I understand your shock and concern. But please hold your questions and comments until the end.” Izuku pleaded with the student body. He wasn’t sure if he would make it through this presentation without crying if they questioned him too much.
“WHY ARE YOU CALLING THEM DEPENDENTS THEN? THEY’RE PEOPLE TOO!”
Bakugou scoffed into the mic, which made the students settle into shocked silence. “If you think we don’t know that everyone has autonomy, you’re an idiot.” There was a protest cry but Bakugou ignored it. “As I was saying and about to explain, the census is important in many different aspects. The most obvious one is that none of us have a reliable way to get the correct information on the quirkless. If you thought you knew how the quirkless are treated and how many there are in Japan, you were wrong. On top of this, though, not being tracked by the census means the government no longer sees them as people.”
“Without the census tracking them, the government is not required to treat them as citizens.” Izuku clicked the slide and showed everything that people lose when they aren’t thought of as citizens. He refused to look at it though and instead spent his time staring at the wall as Bakugou spoke over the murmurs starting up again. “Let me explain this slide, since you don’t seem to understand. They cannot vote for themselves because they are not given a citizen’s card. The quirkless are considered full-functioning adults by the time they turn twelve, and are treated as roommates by their family if their family was kind enough to let them stay. Because they are considered adults at this age, they can be married off. They can be denied middle and high school education. Getting into college or university would take either a miracle or absurd amounts of money. They can enter the work-force at twelve and are encouraged to do so but that’s riding on the extremely slim chance that anyone would hire them.”
“Now, just because they are considered full-functioning adults doesn’t mean that they have any autonomy. For their taxes, they will always be required to write themselves as a dependent to their family. If they have a job, the taxes for that will go towards either their parents or spouse. If they have a child then that child will only be a dependent of their spouse or parents. Quirkless people are not allowed to have dependents of their own, since they will only ever be seen as a dependent themselves. Does this make sense so far, idiot who wanted to interrupt me?”
Bakugou stared out, an angry scowl in place, into the shocked crowd and waited for an answer. When no one answered, Bakugou rolled his eyes and huffed out, “Good.”
The slide clicked again and there were sudden cries of shock, disbelief, anger, and confusion. Wonderful. They’re getting the reaction they wanted. Izuku cleared his throat in the mic and spoke above the noise. “Although quirkless people in Japan are seen as both adults and dependents at such a young age, there are a few schools that will let them in. This doesn’t mean that this is a good thing though.” Izuku took a deep breath and glanced at the statistics before he stared out into the crowd and started pacing along the stage. “In order to get a basic or sub par education, they will be subjected to some pretty terrible things. Bullying is a given. Sucide-baiting is common enough that most quirkless people can’t remember when it first started for them.”
Izuku heard the shocked gasps and confused outcries but continued on. “There are also a few schools who understand what it means to have a quirkless person within their walls and know what they can get away with. In this case, with this kid that we had gotten to know, teachers and faculty alike would provoke bullies, encourage the other students when spider-lilies were sat upon their desk, taught young kids (no older than 6) how to use a quirkless person to practice their own quirks, and sabotaged their student’s grades and disciplinary reports.”
He took a shaky breath and looked over to Bakugou, who nodded seriously.
“In this case, teachers taught students where was best to aim, how close they should get, what they should do to this quirkless kid. Instead of standard quirk counseling, students were encouraged to use them as a means to discover more about their quirks.” He clicked the slide again and breathed out. “This is not the only case to happen but it was extreme. Most schools that let anyone quirkless study there have had reports filed against them and multiple warnings given out for the extreme cases of bullying, assaults, property damages, suicide-baitings, report fraud, and more. Of course, it’s standard for police to check and double-check the information given, especially if a quirkless person gave it to them, but often enough, these issues would be brushed under the rug, even with the evidence sitting in front of them.”
Izuku clicked to the next slide and listened as Bakugou started pacing around the stage as well, although his footsteps were a bit louder than Izukus. “Quirkless people have figured out how to live within a society that doesn’t want them. The police don’t take action against the issue? They file an anonymous tip, call an emergency line pretending to be a concerned neighbor, or report the bullying being done to another student who has a quirk. Because the shoes they wear are widely recognized as quirkless shoes at this point, they have to be more careful about things.”
Bakugou clicked his tongue in annoyance as the crowd started up again. “That’s not to say they are powerless, or less than anyone else, but they have a target painted bright neon on their back everytime they walk outside. There are hate-groups who lynch anyone they see that could be quirkless. There are hospitals that won’t help them because they’re quirkless. There are creepy cults who worship and kidnap anyone quirkless. Many businesses, including parks, museums, arcades, movie theaters, grocery stores, and more reserve the right to kick out anyone they think is quirkless.”
“So yes,” Bakugou said, answering the silent question after his mini-rant. “Anyone quirkless has to learn the art of being careful. Because this country is not a safe space for them.”
“WAIT!” Someone called out. “IS IT THIS BAD IN OTHER COUNTRIES TOO?!”
Izuku sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. “If you’re suggesting that they should just move out of Japan, I will scream into this mic.”
He heard a few nervous laughs but most of the crowd just shifted uncomfortably and Izuku sighed again. “Let me ask you this, since it seems to be question time again, do you have enough money to pick up and move your life to a new country? Not your parents, because they won’t be coming with you, but could you even get to another country?”
Izuku waited for the person to shout out, “OF COURSE NOT.”
Bakugou barked out a bitter laugh and Izuku nodded his head, whole-heartedly agreeing with the sentiment. “If they can’t make it out of this country, what makes you think they could pack up and just move? It takes a lot to move. They’ll need job security as soon as they get to whatever country they moved to. They’ll need to put down a downpayment for an apartment before they go. They can’t just move their groceries via plane ride, so they’ll need to have enough pocket money to do that. They’d need enough knowledge about the country’s first language and cultural differences to move and live comfortably somewhere else. Since Japan doesn’t see the quirkless as citizens, they aren’t qualified to have credit of their own. Without credit getting a car is almost impossible and getting approved for an apartment or house is even more so. If you want to be realistic, I’m not even sure if quirkless people can get passports since they don’t even have access to a citizen’s card.”
Izuku sighed again and looked around at the crowd that was shocked silent once again. “Look. It doesn’t matter if it’s this bad in other countries. What matters is that it’s this bad here. It matters that quirkless people have to live like this. It matters that it’s more likely that they’ve never been shown basic human kindness and respect than if they have. It matters that this world has told them they don’t matter so many times, they won’t believe anything else. It matters that an entire group of people have been dictated as useless by the government and society itself.”
“You’ve seen the correct statistics at this point (and the presentation is on the UA site and will be updated annually should you want to see them again) so you all understand that there is a problem. A large problem. Because this goes beyond discrimination.” Izuku waited and listened as the crowd silently waited for the rest of his speech and gave a small, determined smile. “We are all here at UA to find our futures and help others. Each and every one of you has something special to offer this world and I believe in that. We want you to think about how you’re going to use your career to help others. Obviously the quirkless have it bad, yes, but think about ways to change it.”
“Girls, most of you are going into a male-dominated industry. Think of ways to bring attention to this. Think of ways to use the platform you will have soon to stand up for all of the other young girls out there and offer them hope. There are those of you who want to stand up for other people and fight against discrimination as a whole. Figure out how you want to do that. This presentation is not meant for you to have a pity party for the quirkless. They don’t need that. They need change. This was shown to you because we all need to be aware of what’s happening to Japan in order to change it for the better.”
“So, if you leave this auditorium today with only one thought in mind, we want it to be this; What are you going to do to make sure you never have to look at statistics like these again? And how will you make sure that you never have to listen to a story like the one we just told you?”
At the end, Izuku clicked to the last slide that showed off the four different sources that the boys used and bowed in time with Bakugou, letting himself smirk a bit when he caught the other’s eye.
No one but them would know exactly where the statistics came from if he could help it.
And besides, now the information is up on UA’s website for all to see and access. Just because the quirkless keep tabs on their community doesn’t mean others can’t read and learn about them too. Izuku was happy that the community had given him the go-ahead to share the statistics with the world.
If anyone deserved the right kind of attention and change, it would be his family.
Izuku startled a bit when his peers started clapping and cheering. He found it odd, since they hadn’t done that with any of the other speakers that came last week but just brushed it off as he stood back up to his full height. It wouldn’t do him any good to try and figure out what they were so happy about.
“Oh.” Bakugou said into the mic, looking directly at the guest speaker, who seemed to be sweating. He waited until the crowd had quieted down before speaking again. “And we’ll need you to stick around for your own presentation on why impersonating a quirkless person is fuc- messed up.”
The speaker stood and looked like he was going to leave when the crowd started freaking out. “Fujikai Benjiro.” Izuku called out over the noise with a grin. “He means you, sir. Or do you prefer Hiroki-san?”
The guy glanced behind them and paled as he sat back down heavily, the teachers near him glaring daggers into his head and Nedzu, no doubt, giving him a look that had forced him back into his seat. It was beautiful to watch.
At that, Nedzu waltzed back up to the podium with the smile he wears for the press and used the small stairs off to the side to climb it. Once he had done so, Izuku handed him the mic he had taken from the podium sometime during his speech and grinned sheepishly as Nedzu looked at him knowingly.
Izuku tuned out Nedzu’s finishing speech, although he did stand and pretend to be attentive right next to Bakugou, who was looking more fidgety than Izuku was. He probably wasn’t registering a thing Nedzu was saying too.
Izuku glanced over at Nedzu and nudged Bakugou with his elbow when the chimera tilted his head to signal their departure.
One by one, the classes reluctantly left the auditorium, leaving behind Nedzu, Izuku, and Bakugou. He’s almost positive a few classes stayed behind to listen through the doors, but Izuku didn’t mind. He just didn’t need to see them as he ripped into this fraud of a man.
“Please, Fujikai Benjiro, join us.” Nedzu said, paws clasped together as he smiled.
The man gulped and came closer to the stage, obviously worried.
“We just have one question; why?” Izuku asked.
The man seemed to mull it over before glancing over at Nedzu and sighing. “This was my gig. People loved me for being different. And it wasn’t that hard to do, either. Until you three.” He muttered out the last bit but Izuku heard it all the same.
“You did this, spread false statistics and stories around like candy, all because you wanted some attention?” Bakugou scoffed, crossing his arms as he glared down at the man.
The man just scoffed back. “Like you wouldn’t do the same!”
“I think if you recall correctly, we literally didn’t do that just now.” Izuku exasperatedly pointed out.
“Right.” Benjiro scoffed again, rolling his eyes. “You were in front of peers and teachers you know. The world is much harsher than that, especially about the quirkless.”
“You think we don’t know that?” Bakugou gritted out.
“Obviously not! Those statistics- I’ve never seen them in my life ! I would know which ones to use! I’ve been doing this for much longer than you children have.”
“If you haven’t seen them in your lifetime,” Izuku pondered out loud. “Then obviously you’re not quirkless, have never been quirkless, and will never be quirkless.”
“I- what?!” He shouted, full of outrage. What a strange reaction for a fraud. Perhaps they didn’t like being called out.
“Now, because you failed (under Nedzu’s watch, no less) then I think it’s only fair to give you a warning here and now.” Izuku said, smiling sickly sweet towards him. “ Never speak about the quirkless like you’ve lived through their hardships again.”
“You can’t just take away my fucking job you little-”
“Yes.” Nedzu piped up, silencing the man. “Actually I can. Do not expect to do much with the rest of your life. Quite frankly, you don’t deserve the light sentence you’ve been granted.”
“Sentence?” Benjiro breathed out, whipping his head around towards the auditorium doors when they creaked open, showing off Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa, otherwise known as Detective True Man.
The speaker sharply took a breath in, before glaring at the three of them. Bakugou smugly looked at him and Benjiro’s eyes filled with rage as he jumped towards the boy. Izuku let One for All flow around his skin as he intercepted the man, his own eyes filled with rage.
“Do not touch him.” Izuku growled out, tightening his hold on the man’s wrists. Bakugou just continued to look at the scene smugly, as if he knew he had his own personal guard ready at a moment’s notice.
Quickly, the detective made his way over and secured the man in handcuffs before bidding the trio polite goodbyes. Izuku duffed off his outfit, more than upset that the man made him use One for All today. He wasn’t exactly in the mood to think about his own fraudulent behavior right now.
“I could’ve handled that, you know.” Bakugou gritted out.
Izuku just sighed as they got off the stage. “I know.”
Finally, they left the loud auditorium out the stage door and both boys sighed in relief at the peace and quiet they were granted back here, ready to get back to the dorms and ignore everyone as they watched an old All Might movie in peace.
“How would you two like to present during UA’s discrimination week next year?” Nedzu asked lightly.
Izuku and Bakugou both sent him a look of utter despair and resignation at the suggestion. They both groaned as Nedzu cackled all the way back to his office after they had reluctantly given their agreement.
They should’ve never made a deal with the rat.