Miraculous Academia part 6 (and analysis)

As I mentioned before, this chapter isn't yet finished... I need to go over and review the conversations once more, flesh a few of them out a bit, and I feel that the ending is lacking... I need one more scene. Maybe from Nooroo's and Tikki's perspective... But, I said I would let you guys see what I've gotten thus far, and here it is. 

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Izuku stared at the door to the homeroom, butterflies on his shoulders and in his stomach. At least the ones on his shoulders were trying to calm him down.

He was delaying. He knew he was delaying the moment of walking down the hall and into the classroom. That knowledge also did nothing to help him.

How was this worse than his first day?!

Sure, the other day he had been all for talking to Ashido. He wanted to get Kirishima’s number, to make sure he was all right, to make sure he didn’t hate Izuku for getting him hurt... Which meant he would be initiating the conversation. He knew that.

It was only once entered the school that he remembered he had anxiety, no experience socializing outside of his mom, and he was planning on asking somebody for a phone number.

Cue panic attack.

He took a deep breath and tried to psych himself to walk to the classroom -

“Hey Midori!“

-and almost died from a heart attack.

Ashido grinned mischievously at him, the pink haired girl watching his reaction, and he scolded himself for being so distracted he didn’t notice her bright emotions.

“G-good morning Ashido,” he stammered while getting his heart under control.

“Awe, after everything we went through at USJ, you don’t need to be so formal. just call me Mina.” She offered cheerfully, bouncing on her heels a bit, “we all saw what you and these cuties did!” She cooed at his butterflies.

“I, uh, w-well, it wasn’t just us,” he protested as the butterflies began flying around him cheerfully, more than happy to soak in the cheerful emotions.

He’d probably be doing the same if he didn’t actually have to talk.

“Yeah yeah, I know the drill. ‘I didn’t do all that much’, ‘everybody else helped as well’, ‘Sensei did the majority of the fighting’…” The pink haired girl recited before snickering, “Iida, Momo, and Kiri are all saying the same. Did I get them all?”

His face flushed as he tried to think of something to say. The laughing butterflies around him weren’t helping.

He hadn’t even realized that butterflies could laugh. You couldn’t tell just by looking at them, but that’s totally what they were doing.

She sighed dramatically after watching him struggle, “I get that we’re training to be heroes, but we’re still, like, in-training, right? The fact that you and the others were kicking villain butt despite that was super impressive!”

He wanted to protest - he really didn’t feel comfortable with all the praise - sure, he couldn’t really deny that he had saved Momo from being hurt, and had kept the teleporter villain distracted. But in comparison, Momo had kept the Cat villain distracted, Sensei had taken on an army by himself, and Kirishima had held off that same army as well as the villain’s super-weapon. And that was before blocking the Cat’s disintegrating ability at the expense of his own health!

Honestly, at most he’d been the fourth ‘impressive’ one in that group. And that wasn’t including what the others in the other areas had done.

He just… wasn’t quite sure how to explain all that in the face of Mina’s confidence.

“You can’t, so you shouldn’t try.” Mina replied cheerfully to his mumbling.

… Gah, why was socializing so hard?!

Thankfully Nooroo and the butterflies seemed to sense he needed a distraction, and they immediately flew up from his shoulders and flew around him and Mina in a dizzying pattern, several of them landing on her, causing her to squeal at the sight.

He relaxed a bit as her emotions lifted back up.

“I, um, still think most of the credit should go to Kirishima,” he stammered with a shaky smile, getting her attention again. “Speaking of, I was wondering if you had his number. I wanted to make sure he was alright after… Everything.”

There. He did it. He could relax now.

“Sure! Toru and I were actually thinking about getting everybody’s numbers so we could start a group chat for our class.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “C’mon! You can ask him about it yourself.”

Wait, what?

She grabbed his hand and before he knew it she had dragged him into the classroom.

Thanks to his indecision, he wasn’t surprised to see everybody else already there. Hagakure was talking excitedly while gesturing to Todoroki, who looked like he wasn’t quite sure what to do with her attention. Bakugo was scowling in his chair. He could see Uraraka talking animatedly with Iida and -

“Midoriya!” Izuku blinked in shock as he saw Kirishima there with a big smile on his face.

Uraraka snickered, “Don’t you mean Vice-Zu -“

“Ahh! Uraraka! You said you wouldn’t mention that!”

“Did I? I don’t recall such a thing.”

“K-Kirishima?! What are you doing here, shouldn’t you be in the hospital or something?!” Izuku rushed forward, half tempted to drag him back to the nurse. Last he had seen, there had been so much blood…

The red-head gave a boisterous laugh, “Of course I’m fine! Since I was a UA student, Recovery Girl came and used her quirk to heal me. She helped patch me right up!”

That actually helped ease him quite a bit. Except…

“Recovery Girl’s quirk uses the patient’s own energy to heal, which usually means she has to heal in stages if the damage is severe enough.” He recalled, his brow furrowed in concentration, “Your back looked, uhm, bad…” and what an understatement that was. “Without having much time to rest in between, I’m surprised she was able to heal that much at once.”

Uraraka leaned forward on her desk to give the redhead a pointed look, “yeah, it wouldn’t be manly to come to class if you were still injured, would it?”

“Nope! It wouldn’t be manly at all!” Mina looked more than happy to stir the pot.

“Ok, that is enough,” Iida cut in, chopping his hand down. “I’m sure Kirishima received permission from the proper authorities to return to class, and we should respect their knowledge on the subject.”

They relented, but the way Kirishima’s feelings turned a bit guilty made Izuku more than a little suspicious.

But that was soon buried as Mina launched into a conversation with him, the two’s positivity seeming to bounce off of each other, with Uraraka occasionally jumping in to tease Kirishima about something, something that Mina capitalized on each time with an evil grin.

Huh. He didn’t realize Uraraka and Kirishima knew each other that well.

Izuku was relieved to feel that the red head didn’t seem to hold him responsible for being injured. He didn’t seem to have any resentment at all towards Izuku, surprisingly.

He still wanted to talk, but that could wait until later.

As grateful as he was, he was even more so when he felt a pool of calm emotions walk up next to him, offsetting the excited emotions. He turned and gave a shaky smile to Momo as she stood next to him. “Good morning, Momo.” He greeted.

The whole ‘feeling the emotions of others’ was way more daunting when he actually had friends to feel the emotions of.

It wasn’t unpleasant, quite the opposite actually.

It’s just… very easily overwhelming to somebody that wasn’t used to it. Like him. Positive/excited emotions like this were kinda new

Which was why he was becoming more and more grateful that Momo was in this class.

N-not that she didn’t feel emotions - because she absolutely did! - but they were definitely more sedate(?) then most of their other classmates. Like an ocean compared to the sky. Or, something… regardless, It helped balance the more excitable nature of most of his classmates. (He might have to reach out to  Asiu, she seemed pretty composed as well.)

“Good morning Izuku,” Momo returned warmly before quickly giving him a quick once-over. “I’m glad you're alright. You were pretty exhausted after everything that happened, and you didn’t answer any of my texts afterwards.”

“Ah, s-sorry,” he winced apologetically. “I spent most of the night t-trying to calm down my mom. She was pretty freaked out over everything.”

And after that was the whole thought of having to start a conversation with Mina, which apparently he didn’t need to worry about since Kirishima was already in class.

He felt kinda cheated about that, considering how much panic the whole thing caused him.

“Understandable.” Iida said while observing the others teasing Kirishima. “My own brother was quite disturbed as well. It was an incredibly bold move to attack U.A. as the villains did, but I can’t imagine how they thought they’d get away with it.”

Izuku couldn’t help but nod at that. Even if they had managed to kill All-Might, it would have put a huge target on their backs. Every hero in Japan, as well as many around the world, would have been after them.

Most villains that went after All-Might like that already had an established group, and were prepared (so they hoped) but the group that had attacked the USJ seemed… Well, with the exception of the leaders, they were all pretty lackluster.

He was about to answer Iida when he felt the familiar crawl of emotions come close to the door.

“Sensei’s coming,” he called out, and everybody promptly made their way to their respective seats.

By the time the door opened, everybody was in their seats and looking at the door.

“You’re learning.” Aizawa murmured in approval as he walked in. He looked over the class, and when he spotted Kirishima he stared hard for several seconds before letting out a grunt. “I don’t usually have to give this speech till later, but so be it. You all are old enough that I trust you all to be aware of your own limits. If you believe you are well enough to come into class, so be it. If you don’t, call or email and we can discuss it. But Kirishima?” The red head straightened in his seat. “If I see as much as a flinch of pain, I’m sending you to Recovery Girl. Understood?”

Kirishima gulped, but managed a tight grin. “Yes sensei.”

“Good. We’ll get started then. You all handled yourselves well at the USJ, but the fight isn’t over yet...” Izuku practically felt a wall of tension and foreboding hit him from everybody.

“… The UA Sports Festival is in several weeks.”

Aaaand now he sagged as the tension in the room was replaced by overpowering relief. If Aizawa kept this up, Izuku didn’t know if his nerves could take it.

There was the faintest hint of a smirk on Aizawa’s face before he continued. “As I’m sure you all know, around the start of the school year we host an event called the Sport’s Festival.” That got several nods throughout the room. “While there was some debate as to whether it would actually happen this year, Principal Nezu wants to use this as an opportunity to show our strength and resolve despite the attack.”

“A-are we sure it will be safe?” Izuku asked with a frown, even as he hated having to ask. He was the last person that wanted it canceled.

He had videos of each and every past Festival in his room after all, some even recorded by himself. Each sorted and placed with their own small notebook of his observations.

But never had UA been attacked so publicly before. What if the villains were to try again?

“Security has already been increased,” Aizawa stated tiredly. “And remember, many pros will be using this opportunity to offer you internships. While it provides all of you the opportunity to be noticed, it also means that if anything happens there will be a large amount of heroes on-site already.”

Izuku could feel that some people were still hesitant, but the mention of being noticed by a pro seemed to excite the majority of them.

“The events in the Festival are determined at random, so you’ll need to prepare yourself for anything.” Aizawa continued. “With that in mind, since we were unable to do any rescue training at the USJ, that is what we will be focusing on for the next couple of class periods. If any of you would like to schedule the facilities for personal training, I recommend you do so sooner rather than later. Any questions?”

When nobody said anything, he nodded. “Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get class started.”

There was a crowd at the door…

It was nearly lunch, class just about done, and Izuku could sense a large mass of emotions at the door. Curiosity seemed to be the main driving force, but he could also sense the tang of bitterness and envy here and there.

He had no idea what that crowd was waiting for, but he really didn’t want to walk out there just yet.

So when class ended, he quickly stood up. “E-excuse me?” He called out nervously, walking up to the front of the class. “B-b-before anybody leaves, I have a quick announcement.”

Bakugou scoffed, but he stayed, so he would consider that a win. Everybody else looked at him curiously.

He licked his lips nervously, “We, Yaoyorozu and I, wanted to set up a multi-class activity. Something we could do to get to know each other better, and some people from Class B. If we were to set up some community work in the next couple of weeks, who would be interested?”

A classmate with a tail (Ojiro?) raised his hand. “In the next couple weeks? Won’t we be busy with preparing for the Sport’s Festival?”

“This isn’t required.” Momo replied smoothly as she stepped next to Izuku. “But it is an opportunity for us to do some good in the community while getting to know our classmates a bit better.”

Izuku nodded rapidly, “S-since this will be through the school, so long as we have a teacher present, w-we’d be allowed to use quirk.”

They talked about it some more, but eventually about half the class committed and said they’d be willing. [This needs to be fleshed out more. More conversation/interaction.]

Taking down their names, Izuku turned towards Aizawa, who was wrapped up in his sleeping bag. Inwardly he practically whimpered. He had been really really hoping the teacher would leave and confront the crowd (which still hadn’t shrunk!) while he was setting this up.

Time for plan B.

“Sensei?” He called out hesitantly, “who would we have to talk to in order to set this up through the school? And is there anything else we’d need to do?”

Aizawa peeked out of the sleeping bag with a frown, “That would be me.” He grumbled reluctantly. “There’s some stuff that you’ll have to sign as well.”

Sweet, he hoped that was the case.

“Could you show us?” He quickly asked, “If we do this, I want to make sure everything is good on our end.”

He probably sounded way too eager, but he didn’t care.

School Survival 101, something Izuku had had to double down on after Nooroo started threatening to tell his mom. You kept your head down, took the shortest path in between classes, and pretended you couldn’t hear what anybody said. Don’t make eye contact, stick close to one of the few responsible teachers, and try to make it through the day.

Above all else, avoid mobs of students.

Aizawa stared at him for a moment before getting up with a groan. With a mutter of “problem child,” under his breath, he gestured for Izuku to follow him while everybody else started getting their things gathered up.

Upon opening the door, Aizawa was immediately faced with a large crowd of students crowding the door.

“What are you all doing here?” He asked in an irritated tone.

The crowd immediately wilted under his stare, but aside from a few scattered mumbles nobody seemed willing to speak up.

The dark-haired teacher gave a long-suffering groan, “you’re curious. But harassing students that have just been through a traumatic experience is neither logical nor appropriate. It makes you no better than the press.” He levied a glare at them. “Leave.”

Izuku couldn’t help but marvel at how fast the crowd dissipated.

(“So manly!” A voice whispered back in the classroom.)

With a grunt, Aizawa gestured for Izuku to follow him, but paused after they turned a corner. “Did you really want those papers? Or did you just want the crowd dispersed?” He asked dryly.

Ah… Oops? At least he wasn’t feeling annoyed. At least, not at him.

“S-s-sorry,” he mumbled, his gaze burning holes in the floor. “I d-do want those papers though.”

He sighed once more before walking once more. “Next time, just ask.”

He bit his lip and nodded quickly while following.

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“You coming Kirishima?”

Kirishima gave a bright grin to the sorta friend he had made, “Yep! But, uh, first, is Sensei gone?”

Ochaco glanced out the door. “No teacher in sight.” She reported while Mina looked at him in concern.

“Good,” he stated before letting the smile slide off while groaning in pain, finally allowing himself to grimace. If he could have slouched without his back hurting, he totally would have. “Uh, could you two help me up?”

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Momo’s POV

Momo carefully went through the motions as she struck her sparring partner. “You need to widen your stance,” she instructed, putting more pressure on her staff, “Good footwork is needed to stabilize yourself.”

A little more pressure caused Izuku to stumble until he readjusted himself. “Like this?” He asked, his brow furrowed in concentration.

She hummed as she looked him over. “You’re shorter than me, so not as wide… There.”  She smiled as he shifted his legs closer.

She hadn’t been expecting this after inviting Izuku to her place. He clearly hadn’t expected her house to be as… Large, as it was. She had given him a quick tour of the place, and when they passed the training room, he had asked her if she had much practice with any of the weapons in there.

One thing led to another, and she was giving an impromptu lesson.

“I usually use staves,” she explained as she got back into a stance and went through the motions once more. “Though I’ve been practicing with the yo-yo ever since Tikki chose me.”

That had been an interesting weekend. She had been baffled at the idea of a yo-yo being an offensive weapon, Miraculous or not.  She hesitated for a moment. “Does Nooroo give you any familiarity with any weapons?”

Izuku readjusted his stance as he blocked her strike. “N-not really,” he replied in a distracted tone. “When we merge he gives me a cane, but I don’t know that it’s much of a weapon, though I do know how to fight defensively with it and that kinda feels like the other instincts he gives me, but not really how to attack…”

“That’s because you shouldn’t be attacking.” Nooroo spoke up from where he was watching the exchange with Tikki, his voice suggesting this was a subject they’d talked about before. “If you’re found, the best thing for a Butterfly to do is to get away. If they’re taken out, it puts the Champion at risk.”

“But what if I don’t have any other option?” He immediately asked.

Momo, however, focused on something else he mentioned.

“Nooroo gives you ‘instincts’ as well?” She asked, lowering her staff.

Izuku turned red and coughed violently amidst a jumble of mumbling.

“What sort of instincts?” She asked intently.

The word jumble that came out next was difficult for even her to understand. The only word she really got was ‘flowers’.

It wasn’t a hard leap of logic to make from there.

“You’re attracted to flowers as well?” She asked, feeling a bit relieved that she wasn’t the only one.

Izuku blinked. “As well?” He parroted before his eyes widened in realization. He rubbed the back of his head, “I got a bunch for Nooroo and his butterflies at first.” he admitted. “Most of my room has flowers now.”

Ah, so it was just their presence he liked. That made sense.

“What about the temperature?” She asked.

He groaned and hid his face. “My mom still reminds me of when I launched myself away from the freezer because I wasn’t prepared for the cold.”

Momo couldn’t help but giggle at that image, “my butler definitely noticed that I was more reluctant to go outside this last winter.” She was just grateful that he didn’t question why she had the heat set higher than usual, or the extra blankets she asked for.

They shared a look of shared misery at the cold, and Momo felt relieved that she could finally talk about it. Tikki was always apologetic about the instincts Momo inherited, but she couldn’t really understand.

Izuku’s eyes suddenly narrowed, “what about food?” He asked curiously. “I know I’ve developed more of a sweet tooth, but I’m not sure if that is because of Nooroo or not. And don’t ladybugs usually eat -“

Momo stiffened in panic, “I don’t want to talk about that!” She rushed, mortification filling her.

Yes, she had eaten aphids before she could stop herself. No, she refused to talk about it.

Izuku had frozen, giving her an apologetic look before he coughed and looked around. “So, um, what do you plan on doing for the Festival?

It was a blatant attempt at changing the subject, but she grabbed onto it.

“What do you mean?” She asked as she got her thoughts in order.

He fidgeted a bit, “I know I can make a Champion for it, but some challenges might not let me make one, and that would put me at a pretty big disadvantage so… C-could I train with you?”

Oh! “Of course!” She smiled happily at the prospect. “We don’t have a lot of time till the Festival, but I’d love to have you over more often. And there are various exercises you can do even if you don’t come over.”

She’d have agreed to anything to get away from the previous conversation honestly, but this was still good!

“So let’s go over what you’d like to do.” Her thoughts shifted into lecture mode.

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Author's Analysis and Ramblings

This chapter has been an absolute menace to write... Now, there are a couple of scenes that had to be there - It's practically a requirement to have the class scene after USJ, and the confrontation with the other students outside the class. Not only did I want to do it a different way (such as Aizawa actually being a teacher and getting rid of the crowd, avoiding a confrontation) but I wanted to write more than just that. 

I've written out so many scenes and deleted them; a cafe scene, a class hangout scene, Plagg making the villain's life unpleasant... None of it actually felt like it worked out very well. What you see here is what eventually survived, and even if it still needs work, I think it works alright... It's so painful, having writers block like this. I have future scenes written out, but I can't ever get to them if I cant. Get. Past. This. Chapter!

Next chapter will probably contain them doing the inter-class service project at the Beach, with perspectives from various teachers on the students. Another rather short chapter as filler before I get to the Festival. 

As for the Festival - I have the Champions ironed out I think. First we're going to have Tokoyami for the first part, as the champion 'Revelry'. His power is to animate other people's shadows. Any shadow he interacts with gains sentience and is under his control. The shadow becomes like a shadow clone of the person they came from, and while they are weaker in every category (including their quirk) they're able to work together under Revelry's guidance. 

The second Champion will be Mei, as the champion 'Pinnacle'. Her power... Does anybody remember Sky High? 2005 superhero film? The main antagonist had an ability that allowed her to instantly assemble electronics. That's what inspired Pinnacle for me. She is a technomancer that is able to dismantle and reassemble electronics with ease. In conjunction with Momo, those two will dominate the second round of the Festival. 

For the third part, I want to make it clear that Izuku will not make it past his first fight. In this fic, Izuku is not a powerhouse like he is in other stories, and I'm really trying to make sure that that shows. However, he'll give it his best shot. 

Because he isn't like All-Might, Todoroki doesn't seek him out as a rival. However, Izuku can sense his pain and sadness, and is able to convince him to talk a bit about his past and why he doesn't want to use his fire. Knowing some of that, Izuku convinces Momo to hold back and try to force him to use his fire. She does, but she eventually succumbs to the cold since that is a weakness she inherited. 

I'm not sure who Momo will end up interning with... But Izuku will definitely go with the Wild Wild Pussycats, since the empath version of his 'quirk' is similar to search, and they feel he would be amazing as a rescue hero. 

The Hero Killer still attacks Iida's brother, and Iida goes off for revenge. When the Nomu attack happens Izuku sees it on the news, and he sends a butterfly over at the instruction of the Pussycat's (which, let's face it, he would do it anyways.) he recognizes Iida, but can't make him a Champion due to the overwhelming negative feelings (Note: It's not that he can't, its that he really doesn't want to. It feels sick. If he were to do that, he wouldn't make a Champion, but an Akuma, which is what Hawkmoth did. The results would be more negative. I suppose I could still do it, and then use it as a lesson as to why Izuku doesn't want to make a Champion of those with negative feelings... But I'll think on that.) Instead, he makes a Champion out of Native, becoming 'Shaman'. Shapeshifter with weather control. 

After that, we'll have a gap in time that I'll need to think about... I'm debating on having Izuku make Recovery Girl a Champion to heal Iida's brother, but thats still a WIP. I need to have scenes with Nino and Alya, and I'm even thinking about having Nino apply to become an official hero so he can officially mentor Izuku and Momo. And Everybody here already knows my plans with 'Alien Queen' and the Finals. I doubt I'll change much, if anything, of the pairings. 

I'm curious as to what I'm going to do with the summer camp. The whole purpose of it is to push the students and help them improve, but how will Izuku and Momo improve? And how will they keep things secret? I do have ideas, but I'm not sure which route I'll take...  

The villains still take Bakugo. Once more, Nooroo and Momo have to really push to prevent a guilty feeling Izuku from bodily going over to save him. Eventually, Izuku acquiesces, but sends a butterfly over to make somebody a Champion just in case. Just as they do so, Shigaraki and his troops come and attack, hoping to get the Miraculous Jewels from them. 

All-Might eventually faces off against All-For-One, and Izuku ends up making All-Might the Champion 'Apex' (not sold on the name... Need to work on that...). It doesn't make All-Might any stronger, and All-For-One is confused for a bit. Its real power is how it interacts with One-For-All. For as long as All-Might is Apex, the previous wielders of One-For-All are all reincarnated. Suddenly, All-For-One is facing not one hero, but eight. Each with a huge grudge against him. 

Meanwhile, Momo is up against Shigaraki, doing her best to defend Izuku. I haven't gotten this fight scene planned very much at all, but by the end Shigaraki ends up losing his finger (and ring). he runs away, and Momo and Izuku do their best to search for the ring but are unable to find it. 

The last scene in that chapter will be Himiko Toga going off to her room in the villain's base and opening her hand to reveal both finger and ring, with Plagg asking her what's next. 

That's my plan for the foreseeable future with this fic... What do you think? Coming up with ideas like this is the easy part, but actually getting them down on paper is much much harder... I think it'll be easier once I reach the Sport's Festival. 

Anyways, any input you guys give would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much for becoming patrons of mine, and I'll talk to you later!

-Shdowstep