ATOMIC STRUGGLE

2「morning of」7

The day soon ended, and another began. Izak had training with Midoriya, school, then home on repeat for the next few days until finally, the sports festival began. The morning of, Midoriya showed up at the usual time for one last training session, but Izak never showed. Instead, he had slept in a bit, since he hadn't seen the point in another session with the greenette, especially with how much improvement there had been.

Bakugo texted him that morning while the maroonette and Mihoko were eating their breakfast. The gist was of it was that he'd see him at school, and wished him good luck in staying hidden, which in Bakugo terms meant to not get in his way. Izak respected that, so he replied and wished his classmate good luck, then switched off his phone as Mihoko finished her cup of hot chocolate, burped, then beamed at him.

"Ready to go?" She asked excitedly. The elementary didn't have school that day, and since the little girl wanted to go and watch her guardian in the sports festival, Mihoko was going with him that day. During the festival, she was going to be sitting with the faculty members, probably would have been with Aizawa if he hadn't been roped into commentating with his best friend.

"Yeah, make sure to bring your jacket just in case," Izak reminded her as he stood from his chair, causing her to leap from hers and rush to the front door. Opening the coat closet next to the front, Mihoko grabbed one of her sweaters, tying it around her waist before turning to present herself to the teen. Nodding in approval, Izak shoved a hand in his pocket, and then they were off.

The walk to school was normal, but almost a block away from UA was when things got a bit crowded. Instantly Izak was deadpanning at how many reporters there were, and how many people were wanting to get in. Deciding it wasn't worth the hassle, Izak took his charge into a nearby alleyway that was thankfully devoid of people, then squatted in front of her. "I'm going to transport us into the school, so don't be too surprised, alright?"

"Ooh, okay!" the seven year old was instantly on board, so with a snap of his fingers, the two disappeared from the alley and reappeared in the forest of UA, a few feet in so that no one would spot them. "Whoa, that was so cool!" She grinned, bouncing up and down like a joey having first gotten out of its mother's pouch. Humming, Izak patted her head.

"Glad you think so. Come on, let's go get you to your seat," He said, so with a nod of agreement, the two walked off towards the coliseums that had been constructed by Cementos for the occasion. Getting inside, Izak was directed to where the teachers were waiting and talking amongst themselves, which stopped when he stepped up in front of the group. "Hey."

"Ah, hello young Morgan," Small Might greeted, having stopped trying to keep up his 'fake body and muscles' pretense as Izak had elequently put it during the first training session with Midoriya. "Is this young Mihoko?" He smiled down at the little girl, who blinked nervously at him and the other pros.

She was a bit intimidated, considering almost all of them were in their hero costumes, and looked kind of scary to the seven year old who barely had any exposure to heroes. "Yes," Izak responded a few moments later, ruffling his charge's hair. "I'll be leaving her with you guys for a bit, so take care of her."

"Of course," Thirteen agreed, sounding absolutely thrilled as they moved and knelt in front of the kid. "Hello, it's nice to meet you Mihoko. I'm the space hero, Thirteen."

"Hello," Mihoko said, tilting her head slightly. "Your suit is pretty cool."

"Thank you," the space hero trilled. "I'm happy that you came today, it's going to be a lot of fun."

"Were you looking forward to it?" Snipe came around, peering at the little girl who instantly nodded.

"Mhm! I can't wait to see Izzy kick butt!" She beamed, causing a few of the other faculty members to exchange looks because they knew that wasn't going to happen.

"Well why don't we let young Morgan go get ready with the other students?" Small Might suggested, holding a hand out to Mihoko, who glanced up at Izak to make sure it was okay to go with the guy. Nodding once, he patted her back as she took the number one hero's hand, then the maroonette turned tail and left his kid with the teachers, who could more than handle anything she threw at them.

Arriving in the waiting room assigned to class 1A, Izak found a few people already there, even though he himself was quite early. "Izak!" Midoriya instantly shot up. "Where were you this morning?"

"Huh?" He deadpanned at the dude, shutting the door behind him in the process.

"We were supposed to have one last training session, right?" Midoriya pushed, frowning at the reaction he had gotten from his trainer.

"Uh, no," Izak furrowed his eyebrows. "I told you that you were ready last session, ad I told Aizawa that we were done with your one-on-one training too," He elaborated, making the greenette blink.

Ashido, Kaminari, Kota and Todoroki were watching intently, figures since it was quite entertaining. Almost like a soap opera or something.

"O-oh," Midoriya was instantly embarressed, rubbing the back of his neck as his cheeks flushed. "Sorry, guess I jumped to conclusions by myself, huh?"

"It's not like you aren't in need of improvement," Izak shrugged, "But where you are right now is good enough, plus trying to fit too much in with such a short amount of time is never a good idea. Remember, we have time, you don't have to be number one right this instant," He patted the boy on the shoulder as he passed him, going over to his locker to change into his gym clothes.

Midoriya looked down at his hand, feeling an excited smile spread across his face as he fisted his hand. Now he was even more motivated to show the world he was there, not just because All Might had told him to, but because Izak believed he was good enough. He would take the number one spot, look Izak in the eye, and thank him with all his heart for helping him reach that point.