Of the underground heroes of the Hell Class, only one of them bothered to hang out with the "daylight" heroes, and that was Hagakure. Not only was she more social by nature then Shinsou or Tokoyami, but her Quirk meant that she was one of the few underground heroes who actually could operate by daylight.

She was talkative and outgoing, which most suspected was her way of being "visible." That made sense to most people. After all, even though invisibility was far from being the worst Quirk out there, it must have been pretty hard for her to grow up with no one able to see her, so she developed her bright, cheery, impossible-to-miss personality to compensate.

Which is why Ojiro was so disturbed that Hagakure hadn't said a single word beyond a somewhat distracted "hey" this entire reunion.

The graduates of the Hell Class often did meet up from time to time, though usually not all at once, like that fateful Hero Ranking. This particular gathering, taking place at the Creati Hero Office, only had a few members present. It was more of a small lunch party than anything else. There were Ojiro and Hagakure, of course. Yaoyorozu was there since it was her agency after all. Sero, Kaminari, Shoji, and Jirou were also there.

Kaminari and Jirou were chatting it up, as were Sero and Shoji. But Hagakure was eerily silent, standing aloof from the others, a glass in hand.

Ojiro sighed and walked up to her, concerned for his friend and hoping it was nothing. "Tooru? Is everything okay?"

He couldn't really tell, but it looked and sounded like the invisible heroine was startled out of her thoughts. "Oh, hey Mashirao." Her voice lacked a lot of the pep it usually had.

"...Is something wrong?" the tailed martial artist asked, a little out of his depth. Even if he found out what was eating her, comforting people wasn't something he considered himself great at.

"I don't know…" Hagakure sighed, sitting down on a nearby chair, Ojiro following suit. "You don't mind listening?"

"Sure, I don't mind."

"All right... " Hagakure took a deep breath and downed a bit of her drink. "It's about… it's about what happened with Aizawa and Midoriya."

Ojiro raised an eyebrow. "Didn't we find out about all that a month ago?"

"We kinda did, but I learned something yesterday. It all started when me and a few other underground heroes were getting ready to sneak into a warehouse full of Trigger…"

"All right, Brave's getting into position. Remember the plan, Transparency?" Ms. Joke asked through Hagakure's (equally invisible) earpiece. Even though she was invisible, she instinctively hid behind a large bush near the back entrance of the large warehouse, hidden by the trees of the forest around it.

"Sneak up to the door, wait for you and Mr. Brave to cause a distraction, slip in while the guards are occupied, infiltrate the security room. Got it," she responded. "Again, I'm really glad to help. I've never worked on a job this big before."

"I'm sure you won't disappoint," the more experienced Underground Hero replied. "I'm just glad you were available on such short notice. Oh, and make sure you don't get caught. Some of these villains might have hopped themselves up on Trigger themselves."

"I understand," she nodded. She was already aware of the possibility of these guys having their Quirks enhanced with the drug they were shipping. But something didn't add up. "Actually, I know I wasn't here for the planning, but I have a question."

"Yeah?"

"If we might be dealing with super-strong Quirks, why isn't Eraserhead here?"

There was a brief pause.

"You didn't know?" Joke answered, her voice sounding uncharacteristically annoyed. "He's on probation."

"Wh-what?" Hagakure replied, shocked.

"This is Brave," the voice of the other hero cut in. "You all ready?"

"We're ready. Transparency, we can talk about this later. You know what to do."

"Right."

True to their word, Mr. Brave soon charged out of the trees, followed by Ms. Joke. The surprised guards took out their weapons but this was child's play to the two experienced Pro Heroes, who quickly began fighting them. Behind the scuffle, Hagakure quietly slipped into the back entrance and began softly walking through the dimly lit hallways.

Passing by a few guards who were none the wiser to her presence, she had time to think as she hunted the security room.

Aizawa-sensei? On probation? What could've happened?

She walked past a door in the hallway, before doubling back and looking inside. Within was a dark room full of monitors, a few people sitting and watching the security camera feed.

Hagakure got within striking range of the technicians and swiftly knocked them out, the second one panicking and being taken down before he could sound the alarm.

As she tied up the two unconscious villains and gagged them. After that, she took out a usb drive, inserted it, and began to work, so she had some more time to think.

His probation couldn't have had anything to do with Sleeper Hit, could it? He did that as a teacher, not as a Pro Hero. And besides, he didn't technically do anything he couldn't. Teachers at UA still had the power to expel students for any reason.

"This is Transparency. The security room is clear, sending you the feed now," she spoke, typing away on the keyboard. Outside the base, the security camera feed was transferred to their phones.

"Got it. Meet up with us at the rendezvous point," Brave instructed.

"Right." Hagakure left the room, making sure to lock the door behind her, and made her way to the others.

The rest of the raid went without incident. These villains were amateurs and went down fairly easily. Compared to the villains she'd fought during the school year, Hagakure didn't think they were all that tough. The police were in the process of arresting the villains when she finally decided to return to the earlier question.

"So what happened with Eraserhead?"

Ms. Joke sighed, then looked her in the eye. Or at least where she thought her eyes were. "I'm guessing you already know about how he expelled that Quirkless kid a few years ago for coming in last place on the Quirk Apprehension Test?"

"Uh-huh," Hagakure affirmed.

"Well, not too long ago, he admitted to the Hero Commission that he actually tampered with the results of that test," she explained. "He said he wanted an excuse to make room for another student he'd been preparing for the Hero Course."

Hagakure felt her heart stop. No… this can't mean what I think it means. "So Midoriya didn't get last place on it?"

"No. He purposely sabotaged one of his students. So he got into some hot water with both the Commission, and the faculty at UA. They didn't…" she kept explaining but Hagakure couldn't hear. The sound around her began to grow dull as the realization set in.

She had scored 19th on that test.

She had felt guilty about it at the time, but when she watched Midoriya walk dejectedly back to the locker, she had felt a profound sense of relief that she just barely made the cut, especially since she know knew that her teacher wasn't bluffing; she WOULD be expelled if she didn't measure up.

But now she knew.

She knew the only reason she was even still here was because her teacher had cheated.

Ojiro was stunned as Hagakure finished explaining, and even moreso when it sounded like she was beginning to cry.

"I just… I felt so proud of making it into UA, of becoming a hero. It was my dream, my way of being seen, I guess… and it turns out I'm only even here because of a fluke!"

Ojiro was at a loss. He had never seen Hagakure so despondent before. The two had usually stuck together throughout their time at UA and she had always been the more extroverted of the two, but now, it was honestly kind of scary.

"It's just… it feels wrong , you know? Like I stole the opportunity from someone else. Like I… I don't really deserve it." She sighed heavily, taking another drink. "I don't feel like a hero. I feel like an impostor. Someone who shouldn't even be here."

The tailed martial artist took a deep breath, not really knowing what to say. Of course, he couldn't just say nothing .

"I… I know a little what you're feeling," he confessed. "Back at that first Sports Festival. I dropped out because I spent the entire second round being… being controlled," he said with a shiver. To this day he was never able to look Shinsou in the eye. "I know how it feels to have something that doesn't feel earned. But this is a bit different… you still got here through your own effort. You didn't have anyone carry you. You just…"

He paused. He was about to say that she had merely had an obstacle removed her path, but referring to Midoriya as an obstacle felt very wrong.

Of course, Hagakure finished the thought herself. "I know I put in the effort. But if it wasn't Midoriya who got expelled, it would've been me."

"That's not true," Ojiro countered. "Remember all the trouble the class got into? Every time it happened, Aizawa would make a point not to expel anyone because 'our potential wasn't zero.' The man has… er, had the highest expulsion rate of any teacher at UA, so that restraint means something."

"A lot of good that did Midoriya," Hagakure said bitterly. "Aizawa specifically wanted a slot open for Shinsou. If Midoriya's spot had gone to, I dunno, Kendou from Class B, then I would've been on the chopping block."

Ojiro didn't really have an answer for that. "Well… you can't exactly drop out of being a hero like I dropped out of the Festival," he pointed out.

"You're right," she admitted. "But I can't help but feel I don't deserve to be one, if I only got here thanks to someone else's failure."

"Midoriya's hardly what I'd call unsuccessful though," Ojiro pointed out.

"That's true." She sighed. "I just haven't been able to concentrate on hero work, I keep feeling like I'm not good enough. Like I'm taking the place of someone who deserves it more. I know I'm not," she added as Ojiro opened his mouth to object, "I know Midoriya landed on his feet, but..." she didn't end that sentence, simply taking another sip of her drink.

There was silence between the two of them as they sat, the chatter of their former classmates little more than background noise.

Finally Ojiro spoke. "You know… for an impostor, that raid on the warehouse went really smoothly," he said.

"Huh?" Hagakure responded.

"I mean, you were up against a whole group of villains, but no one even knew you were there until after you'd already done your part of the plan."

"I'm sure they could've gotten someone else," she shrugged.

"But they didn't get someone else. They got you. And from what you told me, you were the reason it went so smoothly. Not only that, but during school, you fought all the same villains that the rest of the class did."

"I mean… I guess… I mean, I didn't really do much compared to Kirishima, or Todoroki…"

"Even still, even if the circumstances were questionable, you still became a hero. So regardless what could've been or what should've been, you're here now. You're a hero, and a good one at that."

"...You really think so?" Hagakure asked hopefully.

"Absolutely. You deserve to be here as much as any of us."

Hagakure sniffled a bit. "You're right. Thanks… you know, now that I got it all out in the open like that, I don't really feel so bad about it anymore. Thanks for listening," she said.

"It's what friends do," Ojiro answered simply, cracking a small smile as Hagakure got out of her chair and wrapped the tailed hero in an invisible hug.

I will be writing other side-stories and adding them as extra chapters. For all intents and purposes the original story can stand on its own, these are just extras.

I was having a conversation with another user about ideas for this AU, and they brought up the idea of Hagakure finding out about Aizawa rigging the test. Sorry if it's not terribly interesting, but it was an idea I wanted to get out there nonetheless. I have a few more ideas for stories, but again, don't expect them to be as frequent, or have the same level of quality as the base story.