Chapter 89 - 20-24

Chapter 20: Discovery and Denial

When Izuku arrived back at home, he was completely ready to spend the rest of the day resting. He didn't have any school today, because it was Saturday evening. His classmates had gotten off on Friday because of Thursday's attack, but Izuku had slept through all of that. 

He was pretty sure the rest of his questioning with the police had gone well, at least comparative to the first part. At the very least, there had been no more horrified reactions, except Nedzu giving Izuku a worried frown when Izuku explained both Kurogiri and Shigaraki's quirks had tags. Part of Izuku wanted to press him over what that meant (since it seemed to mean something to Nedzu) but he still felt a little embarrassed about bringing it earlier when he was trying to hide his quirk earlier. 

"Oh, are you feeling okay? Do you want anything to eat?" his mom fretted. 

"I'm fine!" Izuku insisted. "Um, do you have the ingredients for katsudon?"

"I do," his mom said, seeming relieved there was a concrete action she could take. "Why don't I make some for dinner? It's your favorite, isn't it?" 

"Yeah, that would taste delicious," Izuku said. He brought out his homework in the living room. He didn't have anything due soon, but he wanted to work ahead for his third-year math class. His mom, though she started getting out pots and pans, didn't take her eyes off him. 

Izuku didn't like it when she worried, so hopefully his mom could be quickly reassured that he was fine. 

Tsukauchi clicked through the pages on the adoption registry, trying to suppress a sense of creeping unease. 

It's got to be a coincidence, Tsukauchi thought to himself. Shimura isn't that uncommon of a name. In all of Japan, you could probably find a few thousand Shimuras. 

Tsukauchi found what he was looking for. Kotaro Shimura, Nana's son. 

Nana, not wanting All for One to target her family (and trying to steel herself for making the decision) had strictly forbidden All Might and Gran Torino from looking into what was going on with Kotaro. They'd both obeyed her wishes, but Tsukauchi was forced to contradict them considering this new information.

Tsukauchi quickly found what he was looking for. With the records of what family he went to, and his individual number, it wasn't too hard to track down Kotaro and figure out what had gone on with him through the years. Employment history, marriage certificate, news articles… 

SHIMURA FAMILY MISSING; PRESUMED DEAD 

Shimura Kotaro and Nao, along with their two children, have vanished from their family home, leaving behind only piles of ash as evidence. Police have struggled to find leads amidst-- 

Horrified, Tsukauchi quickly read the rest of the article, looking for more information.

He didn't like what he found. Their son's name was Shimura Tenko. 

It could still be a coincidence, Tsukauchi thought, but the hope fell flat. The piles of ash that had been all that was left behind of the family was frighteningly reminiscent of the way the UA gate had been reduced to dust. 

Had someone kidnapped Tenko, turned his family to dust, and then groomed him into a villain? Had that same person taken down the UA gates to facilitate his invasion of UA?

And is that person All for One, or working for him, Tsukauchi thought. That's the most concerning question right now. 

Nana's attempt to protect her family had failed after all. 

I can't tell Toshinori, part of Tsukauchi thought. He would be heartbroken. 

But did All Might not deserve to know the truth? 

Wouldn't it be better for him to think that somewhere, out there, that Nana's family is living in peace? 

Tsukauchi shook his head. He couldn't be thinking like this. He couldn't justify not telling All Might just because it would be awkward or uncomfortable for him, no matter how much he wanted to. And… 

He was going to need to talk to Nedzu about this. The principal was probably already aware of the situation, though, or at the very least, he would be soon. It wouldn't take him long to investigate the connection to Shimura. 

Tsukauchi couldn't help but idly wonder what Nedzu would do with this information. Would he tell All Might, maybe launch some sort of investigation? Usually Nedzu liked to keep his cards close to his chest, but with a situation this serious and this personal, Tsukauchi couldn't know for sure whether or not Nedzu would insist on telling All Might right away. 

He stilled hoped, as he dialled Nedzu's number, that Nedzu would politely tell him he was being stupid, and that the Shimura Tenko of the USJ attack was completely separate to Nana's grandson. That he'd been looking into it too much. 

He was not that lucky. 

After dinner, Izuku went up to his room, and decided to finally update his stats. 

I need seven more stat points to unlock spells. I'll save the last three for later in case I need them. "Seven stat points to intelligence," Izuku said. "Stats." 

VIT: 28, STR: 18, DEX: 20, INT: 50, WIS: 45, CHA: 22 

Unallotted Stat Points: 3 

"Spells," Izuku said. 

Spellcasting, Heart Magic

Skill Points: 28 

Mana Points: 28/28 

Known Spells: None 

Izuku glanced at the page, a bit stumped. "Um… learn spells?" he said. Nothing popped up, and Izuku was beginning to regret skipping that tutorial now, even if the situation had been a crisis. "Magic instructions?" he tried. "Explanation, magic."

That seemed to do the trick. 

Using the Spell Skill Tree. Say "spell skill tree" aloud to look at the spells you are capable of learning, but don't know yet. You can unlock new spells using skill points. Say "unlock [name of spell]" to obtain the spell. More magic skill points can be gained by practicing known spells, or by gaining more of your source stat. To learn what an unknown spell does, say "[name of spell] description." 

Monitoring Spellcasting Progress. Say "spells" aloud on the Profile page to see your skill points, mana points, and known spells. 

Casting Spells. Say "cast [name of spell]" to cast a spell. 

Mana Points. Mana points (MP) fuel your spells. Your maximum MP can be increased by gaining more of your source stat. MP will regenerate back over time. The speed at which it does is dependent on your INT. (Current MP Regeneration Rate: 5MP/hr.) 

Additional Note. Some spells must be learned in order. Say "[name of spell] requirements" aloud to learn about prerequisites. 

As had become habit, Izuku scribbled down everything his quirk said about the topic. He didn't want to lose any information. In particular, he paid attention to the commands: 'spell skill tree', 'unlock spell', 'cast spell', 'spell requirements', and 'spell description'. It was a little complicated, definitely a lot more commands than he was used to, but so long as he was careful in his record-keeping he was pretty sure he would be fine. 

"Spell skill tree," Izuku said. 

Level One: Heat (Unlock: 3 points) 

Level Two: Spark (5), Tiny Flame (5), Relieve Minor Pain (5) 

Level Three: Jolt (10), Flame (10), Relieve Pain (10), Inflict Pain (10) 

Level Four: Zap (20), Fireball (20), Heal Minor Wound (20), Inflict Minor Wound (20) 

Level Five: Arcing Bolt (40), Fire Wall (40), Healing Flame (40), Heal Major Wound (40), Inflict Major Wound (40) 

Level Six: Lightning Strike (60), Electrical Fire (60), Flame Strike (60), Healing Flames Burst (60), Minor Regeneration (60), Necrotic Touch (60) 

Level Seven: Chain Lightning (80), Firestorm (80), Cleansing Fire (80), Major Regeneration (80), Death Touch (80) 

Level Eight: Invocation of the Storm (100), Phoenix's Blessing (100), Agelessness (100) 

NOTE: The user may only learn ONE of the three level 8 spells. 

Izuku blinked at the wide variety of spells. He started writing down all the names. And judging by the first spell… "It looks like the number next to them is how many skill points it takes to unlock them," he said. He winced a little bit upon learning that. Considering he only had 28 skill points, those upper-level spells sure looked expensive. Oh well. It did say I could gather more by practicing, so I'll just have to grind for them. And by gaining more of my source stat… actually, what's my source stat? What does that mean? 

Izuku was considering this question, but was stopped in his tracks when he saw the level eight spell called Agelessness. Was that what he thought it was? 

"Agelessness, description," he said. 

Agelessness: Once this spell is cast, the user of the spell stops aging, and will not suffer the negative effects of old age. 

Izuku gaped. 

If… if he managed to cast this spell, and if he got his VIT high enough, he could make himself functionally immortal, because he wouldn't age and he would have too much HP to die. Now that was worth saving up points for. He could live for literally hundreds of years! And no one could stop him! Okay, how did he check the prerequisites again? 

"Agelessness, requirements," Izuku said. 

Agelessness [requirements]: Heat, Relieve Minor Pain, Heal Minor Wound, Heal Major Wound, Minor Regeneration, Major Regeneration 

"So I'd need to learn all those spells first," Izuku said to himself. Quickly glancing at the spells in front of him, Izuku realized it would take well over three hundred skill points to get to Agelessness, and that was if he only ever invested skill points into the specific ones Agelessness required. 

He started mapping out the skill tree based on what requirements there were, and it quickly became apparent that it really was like a traditional skill tree, his quirk simply didn't map out the branches for him. There were three or four main 'pathways'. Lightning, fire, healing, and necrotic. To learn a lightning spell of level four, you'd need to learn the level three lightning spell, and to learn that you needed the level two lightning spell, and to learn that you would need to know Heat, the first level one spell. The same went for the fire spells, and the healing spells. 

As such, Izuku would need to work his way up through the lower-level spells if he ever wanted to get to the upper-level spells. Agelessness, for example, required going through seven different healing spells before you could properly get to it. 

Necrotic was a little weird, seeming to be a strange offshoot of healing. You needed to know a few lower-level healing spells to unlock death, but once you did, you could just follow the necrotic track by choosing only death spells. Not that Izuku was really keen on learning that stuff. He would much more like healing, or something cool like electricity or fire. 

Not to mention the combination spells, like Healing Flame. Izuku checked, and to learn Healing Flame, you had to know all the lower-level fire and healing spells to get it. The same thing went for Electrical Fire, a level six spell which required the user to know all the lightning and fire spells up to level five. That meant combination spells were going to be kind of complicated and expensive to get. 

The last thing Izuku found interesting was the note at the bottom. He could only learn one level eight spell? Was it because they were too powerful? That meant he would have to make a decision about them eventually, and if the other two spells were anything as tempting as Agelessness, he would have to be careful in his consideration. 

Oh well, he had time. It wasn't exactly urgent. If he wanted to pick Agelessness, he would probably have to wait until he was like 25 to cast the spell, because human brain development ended at around age 24 and he didn't want to accidentally stunt his growth. So he needed to wait. He also needed to do a bunch of research on each of every spell, and carefully consider where he wanted to invest his skill points. 

But first… 

All the subsequent spells required knowing Heat first, as it was the only level one spell. It was the prerequisite for literally everything. So that's where Izuku was going to be forced to put his first points in, no matter what strategy he decided to use. And if that was the case, he might as well start now. "Unlock Heat," Izuku said. 

[Alert! You have learned Spell: Heat!] 

"Heat description," Izuku said. 

Heat: When this spell is cast, the user's hands heat up and get warmer. The effect wears off in one minute or by the user's intention. 

"Okay," Izuku muttered. "Let's see… cast Heat." 

[Alert! You have gained 1 spellcasting skill point by practicing!] 

It worked instantly. His hands, which had been a little cold before, now felt comfortably warm. In awe, he pressed them to his face, but quickly pulled them away. While his hands felt nice and warm, they felt almost too hot to touch when pressed against the skin of his face. He tentatively touched his arm with his finger, and yes, his hands definitely felt very hot to his arm. Was the spell stopping his hands from burning? 

Regardless, he was definitely giving off a decent amount of heat, to the point where the spell might actually be a decent utility spell in cold areas. 

He grabbed a pencil to write this down, but stopped once he realized his hands were still very hot. Remembering the spell description (wears off in time or by user intention), he purposefully thought about his hand getting colder and it worked! The Heat spell wore off quickly, leaving his hands just as they'd been before. 

Huh, that worked… It's very convenient that Heat can be deactivated like that. But wait, if my quirk can sense my intentions, why doesn't it just do that for everything? Why do I have to literally say 'Observe' or 'Detect Enemies' or 'cast spell' every time? Is it just being arbitrary or is there some reason for that? 

There was no answer from his quirk, of course. Izuku sighed. "Spells," Izuku said.

Spellcasting, Heart Magic

Skill Points: 26

Mana Points: 27/28 

Known Spells: Heat [Lvl. 1] 

Hm, so it looked like Heat only took one mana point to cast. Was that true for all spells, or only for lower-level spells? 

He wasn't sure. But, on the bright side, he had a full day ahead of him on Sunday to experiment with Heat and his new skill Stealth, as well as do in-depth research on the remaining spells he had. Which was good, because he certainly felt like he had a lot to learn. 

Nedzu gave Aizawa a look from across the room. "You should tell him."

"I can't," Aizawa said. "What if we're wrong? What if Kurogiri is just some villain, and I bring back all these horrible memories for him for nothing?" 

Nedzu was becoming increasingly sure that they weren't wrong, between the 'combined' tag on Kurogiri's quirk (cloud, when combined with a teleportation quirk or two, could have easily become that black mist) and the simple fact Midoriya hadn't been lying about the name. He didn't bring that up to Aizawa, though. 

"Doesn't he deserve to know?" Nedzu asked. 

"I don't want to hurt Hizashi," Aizawa said. 

"You shouldn't hide things from your husband," Nedzu countered. "Really, we should probably tell Kayama too." 

Aizawa grumbled at that. "Fine. I'll tell Hizashi," he said. "But I don't want to drag Nemuri into it until we have more evidence." 

Nedzu resisted the urge to sigh in relief. "Good! Tell him I'll have more details about it in the future." 

"You will?" Aizawa asked. "From where?"

Nedzu's smile got a little bit stiffer. 

"Nedzu, what are you thinking?" Aizawa demanded, sensing that he was hiding something. 

"The next logical course of action-- would be to check Shirakumo's body for tampering," Nedzu said. He braced himself for sharp anger, and maybe even accusations of grave desecration, but instead Aizawa just shuddered and laid his head down on the table in front of him, looking defeated. 

And this is why Nedzu had wanted to tell Yamada. Aizawa had never really… gotten over Shirakumo, but even if he had, this situation would have been difficult. Emotionally burdening multiple staff members instead of one wasn't exactly ideal, but Aizawa needed some kind of support right now, and Nedzu knew that he wasn't going to cut it. Yamada would help. Kayama would help too, but trying to get Aizawa to share his problems with anyone was like pulling teeth. 

Aizawa sat up a little bit. "I'm--" he swallowed, trying to banish the sadness in his voice, "I'm going to go let Hizashi know." 

"Okay," Nedzu said. "I'll be here if you need me." 

"I know," Aizawa said, and he stood up, and left the room. 

Izuku stood back and looked at his giant spell map with a grin. 

He'd looked over the description of every spell, exactly what they did, what their requirements were, and how many skill points he would need to reach them. It had taken all day, but he had it, and now he was thrilled. 

Because he had a plan. 

Chapter 21: Hidden Stones

Izuku had decided he loved magic. It was incredibly versatile. 

He'd scoured his spells, and had found some truly interesting standouts. 

There was Death Touch, which would allow him to kill someone by touching them for twenty seconds with the spell activated. Necrotic Touch was similar but a bit scaled-down, causing progressively more serious tissue necrosis the longer the spellcaster touched the person they were attacking. Chain Lightning, similarly destructive, would allow him to hit someone or something with lightning, and then shoot morelightning from the spot he'd just hit! Firestorm was just like it sounded, but if Izuku was guessing its scale correctly it had the capacity to cause massive harm and damage. 

And of course, some of the most impressive spells were the level eights. Invocation of the Storm, the lightning capstone, would allow him to imbue his being with the essence of a thunderstorm. This would give him total lightning immunity, plus the ability to fly and cast Arcing Bolt without expending any mana. Phoenix's Blessing, the fire capstone, gave him the ability to 'resurrect himself in the essence of ash and flame' one time after he died, which was another grand ability. 

Izuku was a bit torn. Invocation of the Storm would give him flight, something he'd dreamed of having since he was a kid, but it seemed silly to pick it just for that when the other options were so powerful they could cheat death. Phoenix's Blessing would be super helpful if he died unexpectedly, but it only worked once. Agelessness, on the other hand, had the potential to let him live a very extended lifespan, but it wouldn't protect him from external threats. Whatever the case, he had plenty of time to choose.

While the idea of being immortal and living forever sounded potentially very scary, the fact that Agelessness only protected him from the effects of old age would ultimately work out in his favor on that front. If living for that long actually sucked, it wouldn't be too much of a problem to check out of life.

Wow, that was dark. He was going to stop thinking about that now. Whatever the case, he had plenty of time to choose.

There were a few spells that caught his attention even more than the level eight spells, and these were healing spells. 

Three of them in particular were intensely interesting to Izuku. 

Minor Regeneration: When this spell is cast, it regenerates minor wounds. Suitable for healing minor loss of limb, such as fingers or toes. 

Major Regeneration: When this spell is cast, it regenerates major wounds. Suitable for healing major loss of limbs, such as arms or legs, as well as organ regeneration. 

Cleansing Flame: When this spell is cast, it creates a giant flame that heals healthy cells, but destroys unhealthy cells and pathogens. 

It would take hundreds of skill points to unlock these abilities, especially Cleansing Flame, because that spell required all the way up to level six for both fire and healing. But if he could get these, in theory he could regenerate people's limbs back and destroy tumors! If Cleansing Flame healed healthy cells and killed unhealthy cells, then Izuku should be able to. At the very least he would be able to shoot sicknesses away with a fireball, something beyond even regeneration's reach. 

All these healing spells appealed to Izuku deeply. 

He wanted them, a lot. 

His dream was to be a hero, of course--

--but wouldn't he be so much of a greater hero if he could heal injured civilians? He could be just like Recovery Girl! 

He would go forward on the healing track, but since he'd also need fire to get Cleansing Flame, he'd also work on unlocking some fire spells. He still wasn't completely sure about which level eight spell he wanted to go for, but he'd try to get ahead in healing and fire. He planned to emphasize healing the most, though, so he could get to those regeneration spells very quickly. But in the meantime, the fire spells would act as excellent self-defense, which was especially important as his offensive capabilities were low. 

"Unlock Relieve Minor Pain," Izuku said. "Unlock Tiny Flame. Unlock Relieve Pain." 

[Alert! You have learned Spell: Relieve Minor Pain!] 

[Alert! You have learned Spell: Tiny Flame!] 

[Alert! You have learned Spell: Relieve Pain!] 

"Spells." 

Spellcasting, Heart Magic

Skill Points: 6 

Mana Points: 28/28 

Known Spells: Heat, Relieve Minor Pain, Tiny Flame, Relieve Pain 

"Cast Tiny Flame," Izuku said, and like he'd hoped, a little flame appeared in his palm. He looked at it gleefully. He'd made that fire! It was his! It was… everything he'd wished for since he was a kid, when he'd been desperately hoping some fire would manifest from his father's quirk. 

Huh. Thinking about that made him feel a little sad. 

He willed the flame to vanish, and it did. Glancing up, he noticed that his mana had dropped from 28 to 26, meaning that the spell had cost two mana. 

"Heat only cost one mana," Izuku pondered. "Maybe the difference is because Tiny Flame is a level two spell?" 

Regardless, he'd get his mana back soon. He had a mana regeneration rate of 5 MP/hr, so he'd get that back in no time. "Cast Tiny Flame," Izuku said again, watching the little flame flicker to life in his hand. 

Nemuri knew that something was off. 

Shouta and Hizashi were hiding something from her. At the very least, there was something they weren't telling her, and she could deduce that it was something bad. 

She got the sense that Shouta was crumbling from the inside out beneath that stoic facade. Muted sadness was leaking out from his expression, even when he was trying to keep a straight face. Sometimes she'd see him looking at her, eyes full of an odd melancholy she couldn't place. He refused to tell her what was wrong. 

Hizashi wasn't doing much better. He was trying to act cheerful all the time, but the effort was clearly exhausting him. He was probably trying to just act like himself, but watching him go through so much effort to pretend to be happy was almost painful. Towards the end of each day, he'd get very quiet, so emotionally drained he could barely carry a conversation. 

Nemuri had started looking to Nedzu for his reaction. He was very smart, so Nemuri figured maybe he would know what was wrong with them, but the only thing she figured out is that there was something wrong with him, too. Nedzu seemed unfocused, keyed up and a dose more anxious than usual. Nemuri was vaguely reminded of a bottle of soda that someone had shaken without taking the cap off. 

"Everyone seems off, don't you think?" Nemuri said, glancing at Thirteen, who'd become an increasingly good friend to her in the past few weeks. Now, the two of them were sitting at Nemuri's apartment for 'post-work drinks', though Thirteen rarely ever indulged in anything alcoholic. 

"Agreed," Thirteen sighed, popping off the cap of a ginger beer. "Nedzu looks like he's about to explode. I'm not sure how to tell him nicely that he should sign up for therapy." 

"Honestly, yeah," Nemuri said. "Do you think this was caused by the USJ attack?" 

Thirteen shrugged. "I don't know. It started around the same time, but… if it was that, why wouldn't they just say that they weren't feeling great after the attack?" Thirteen said. "They're acting awfully shifty for it being about that." 

"Yeah, there's no reason to hide something that we already know happened," Nemuri said, frustrated. She took a long sip of her sake-vodka mix. "It's been such a weird week. Is anyone else acting weird or is it just those three?"

"Well, Yagi was acting normal until this morning," Thirteen noted. "But then he went into a meeting with Nedzu and came out acting all subdued, and didn't cheer up for the whole day. I think he got some kind of bad news." 

Nemuri grimaced. "Any idea if it's the same bad news as everyone else has apparently gotten?"

"Nope," Thirteen said. "Still a mystery to me."

Izuku stretched, waking up to another beautiful morning. 

Well, it was beautiful, but Izuku wished he could keep sleeping because he'd had an incredibly hard time falling asleep. He'd been so excited about the spells that he'd spent most of the night playing with them, managing to rack up eight spell points, bringing him to fourteen total, almost enough to unlock Heal Minor Wound. He also tested out Stealth, managing to get it to Lvl. 4. It was hard to tell how sneaky he was at this point, with no one to test it around (his mom was fast asleep at that point) but Izuku was satisfied just watching the skill reach a higher level. 

Izuku rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and started getting dressed for school today. 

He'd been thinking last night about how he'd explain his healing and fire spells, and he came to the conclusion that he'd probably have to say he was put in life-threatening danger twice to explain both of them. They were too separate, and his previous 'Regeneration' ability was just for himself, so he'd need something new to explain these two things to others. But he needed to wait until he could actually do something impressive with fire and healing before he pulled out the explanation, so he had some time to almost get killed, or (more safely) pretend he almost got killed. 

He waved his mom goodbye and got on the train, mind still spinning with the thoughts of all his spells. He strolled into school, ready for a regular day of taking notes. 

"Midoriya!" Ashido greeted him loudly as he entered the classroom. 

"Oh… hi," Midoriya said, a bit shyly. 

"Here! This is for you!" Ashido handed him an envelope. 

Midoriya looked down. It was a plain white envelope except for a sparkly pink YOU'RE AMAZING sticker that had been haphazardly stuck to the back. He opened it carefully. Inside was a card, and written on the front of it in cursive blue was 'Get Well Soon.' The card was decorated with little flower images, and when he opened the card, he saw that the get-well card had been signed by everyone in the class, with the exception of Bakugou. 

Izuku broke into a big smile. "Thank you!" 

"We wanted to give it to you sooner but we didn't know where you lived!" Kirishima said, grinning from his desk. "It was Uraraka's idea! Very manly of her!"

"Well, everyone helped," Uraraka said, blushing. 

"I really appreciate it," Izuku said, and he did. He tucked it into his folder, careful not to bend or fold it out of shape. It was precious. Did his classmates at UA actually like him? 

"Are you doing well, Midoriya?" Yaoyorozu asked.

"I'm just fine! Recovery Girl fixed me right up," Izuku said. 

He spent a few more minutes chatting with his classmates. Iida and Uraraka both seemed quite relieved that he was okay. Izuku felt a little bit bad, he hadn't even thought about them and they seemed like they'd been sick with worry about him. For some reason he hadn't anticipated them caring so much. 

"Let's exchange numbers, okay?" Uraraka said. Just then, Aizawa entered, so she quickly added, "--after class." 

Everyone sat down in their seats and looked up at Aizawa, waiting for him to speak. Izuku heard a murmur or two commenting on Aizawa's changed appearance, the short hair in particular, but Aizawa ignored those students resolutely. Izuku tried to peer under his capture weapon to get a look at his neck, but he couldn't really see anything underneath it. There were no stark-white bandages there any longer, so Izuku guessed that Aizawa was fully healed now. He had no idea how bad the damage or scarring was… oh well. Izuku wanted to know to make sure he was okay, but it really wasn't his business when he thought about it. 

"Alright everyone, let's talk about the Sports Festival," Aizawa said. 

The Sports Festival! I forgot about that! 

"It's scheduled in two weeks, so that's how long you have to prepare," Aizawa said, and Izuku frowned to himself. Two weeks? I don't have time to pick up more abilities by then, like fire or strength, so I don't have anything flashy for the Sports Festival! Let alone explaining how I got those flashy powers… 

Izuku winced as Aizawa talked up the Sports Festival's potential for career advancement for heroes, which he would not be able to take part in very well because of the state his quirk was in right now. At least he'd get two more chances? 

Once homeroom was over, Uraraka grinned with excitement about the Sports Festival. "I'm so excited! Let's all do our best, everyone!" 

"I'll certainly do my best," Izuku mumbled, and Iida clapped him on the back good-naturedly. "I'm sure you'll come up with an excellent strategy to win the Festival, Midoriya!" Iida said. 

"You think I could win?" Izuku said. "I don't really have anything flashy to win it right now." 

"You won the first training exercise despite Bakugou's firepower, didn't you?" Iida said. "I have faith you'll come up with something, and-- do not fear! We have next year as well! So long as you do your best, your efforts will be more than heroic!" 

Izuku smiled at his friends. "Yeah, alright. I'll try." 

Who knows? Maybe he'd win. 

SPELL TREE BY PATHING

Lightning Path

HEAT --> SPARK --> JOLT --> ZAP --> ARCING BOLT --> LIGHTNING STRIKE --> CHAIN LIGHTNING --> INVOCATION OF THE STORM

Fire Path

HEAT --> TINY FLAME --> FLAME --> FIREBALL --> FIRE WALL --> FLAME STRIKE --> FIRESTORM --> PHOENIX'S BLESSING

Healing Path

HEAT --> RELIEVE MINOR PAIN --> RELIEVE PAIN --> HEAL MINOR WOUND --> HEAL MAJOR WOUND --> MINOR REGENERATION --> MAJOR REGENERATION --> AGELESSNESS

Necrotic Path 

HEAT --> RELIEVE MINOR PAIN --> INFLICT PAIN --> INFLICT MINOR WOUND --> INFLICT MAJOR WOUND --> NECROTIC TOUCH --> DEATH TOUCH

Combination Spells (Learn both 'ingredient' spells for the opportunity to learn the new spell) 

ARCING BOLT + FIRE WALL = ELECTRICAL FIRE 

FIREBALL + HEAL MINOR WOUND = HEALING FLAME

HEALING FLAME + FIRE WALL + HEAL MAJOR WOUND --> HEALING FLAMES BURST 

FLAME STRIKE + MINOR REGENERATION = CLEANSING FLAME

Chapter 22: The Big Three

Izuku had to split up with his classmates to go over to his math class, where he sat next to Mirio out of habit. He got out his notebook and started working through the chapter six practice problems. 

"Wow, you're pretty far ahead!" Mirio said, peering over his shoulder. 

"I sort of work on it when I'm stressed," Izuku said, sheepishly. The rest of the class was still on chapter two. "Got a lot done over the weekend." 

"What's stressing you out?" Mirio asked, swinging himself into his seat. 

"I'm a bit worried about the Sports Festival," Izuku confessed. "I want to do well, but my quirk's not that flashy." 

"Aww," Mirio said, creasing his brow. "Hey Midoriya, how about you train with us?"

Izuku jerked in surprise. "With you?" 

"Me and my friends!" Mirio said, grinning. "It would be fun!

"Really? You're sure they wouldn't mind?" Izuku asked. He didn't want to make enemies of Mirio's friends by spoiling their training. He wanted to make a good impression! 

"They'd love you!" Mirio insisted. "Besides, it's not like you'd be competition! The third years have their own Sports Festival."

Izuku was still hesitant. But… he glanced over to Mirio, who was giving him a hopeful look. He definitely didn't want to disappoint Mirio, and it seemed like a legitimately good training opportunity… 

"I'll come, but only if you're sure your friends won't mind," Izuku said. 

"They won't!" Mirio said cheerfully. "Oh this'll be great! Meet me after school today by the entrance and I'll show you where we're meeting!"

"I will," Izuku said, but he was suddenly stricken by anxiety. Shoot why did I say yes what if his friends hate me what if I look stupid in front of them-- Izuku picked up his pencil and worked on his math homework more fervently than ever. 

The school day was over more quickly than he would have liked. After giving his 1-A classmates a wave (and thanking them for his card again) he walked tentatively towards the entrance, looking for Mirio. 

Mirio was there, easy to spot and giving him a cheerful wave. With a nervous sigh Izuku jogged over to where he was. "We're in the gyms near Field Beta, I'll show you!" Mirio said, essentially vibrating with excitement. 

At least Mirio's enjoying himself, Izuku thought to himself, shaking his head. 

He followed Mirio, and finally thought to say, "Hey, how many other people will there be?" Izuku glanced up at Mirio. 

"Just two!" Mirio said, and Izuku was glad. At least that wasn't very many. 

"And here we are!" Mirio threw open the doors to the gym. 

The gym had high ceilings and equipment in the back, but most of this gym just seemed to be open space, reinforced with concrete and steel. It was probably meant to be a place where students could throw around powerful quirks without having to worry, which made Izuku a little worried about what kind of quirks Mirio's friends were packing. Well, he'd soon find out. 

Standing in the middle of the gym were two students, one of them a girl with lilac-blue curls, and the other a boy with ruffled hair and pointed ears. Upon seeing him, the girl bounced on her feet and gave him a peppy grin, while the boy just averted his eyes. 

"This is Amajiki Tamaki, and Hado Nejire! They're two friends of mine!" Mirio said. 

"Oh wow it's so nice to meet you," Nejire said, face split in a smile. "You're the freshman that sits next to Mirio in math! He's been talking about you! What's your name? Ooh, what about quirk? We've gotta know what we're training with!"

Izuku felt a little bit blinded in the face of her enthusiasm. "Umm… Midoriya Izuku. And my quirk is Analysis, it lets me know someone's name and quirk just by looking at them." 

Izuku narrowly missed Mirio's look of horror, too busy talking with Nejire. 

"Ooh! Tell us what our quirks are, then," Nejire challenged. "I wanna see you show off!" 

"Observe," Izuku muttered, glancing at Nejire. 

Hado Nejire -- Lvl. 42 -- Top Student

Quirk: Wave Motion

[See Stats & Skills]

"Your quirk is Wave Motion," Izuku said, a little bit in awe of how high of a level she was. She was over level forty! That was nearly at the level of some full-blown pros! Remembering that she'd wanted him to do all of them, Izuku glanced at Tamaki. "Observe." 

Amajiki Tamaki -- Lvl. 41 -- Versatile

Quirk: Manifest

[See Stats & Skills]

"Your quirk is Manifest!" Izuku said. Then, he turned to Mirio, who was paling rapidly. 

"Um, I don't think you need to--" Mirio started. 

"Observe," Izuku said quietly. 

Toogata Mirio -- Lvl. 44 -- LeMillion

Quirk: Permeation, One for All [transferred]

[See Stats & Skills]

ACTIVE DEBUFF: Multi-Quirked (-VIT over time)

"Um," Izuku said. "You have… more than one?" 

"More than one?" Nejire asked. "Don't be ridiculous! His quirk's just Permeation!" 

Well, that was just factually incorrect. "Permeation and One for All," Izuku said, tilting his head. "Hey, isn't that the same quirk as-" 

"Ahhh I have an explanation!" Mirio interrupted, loudly. 

Everyone in the room turned to look at Mirio. 

"Um, my quirk 'mutated' recently," Mirio said, puffing out a nervous breath. "But I don't think it was a regular mutation. In fact, the doctor said it might just be me awakening a secondary-type quirk from my mother's side of the family! It gives me super-strength! That's probably what you're getting as the 'One for All' quirk." 

Nejire snapped her fingers in recognition. "That weird spark thing you've been doing that makes you stronger! So that's not an extension of Permeation like I thought!?" 

Izuku was still kind of confused. "Then why is it the same quirk that Al- I mean, as that person has?"Izuku said, deciding not to reveal that his quirk was the same as All Might's in front of his friends. Just in case it was some kind of private thing. Luckily, Mirio seemed to know what he was talking about. 

"He's…" Mirio winced visibly. "He's my uncle." 

Izuku gasped. Mirio was All Might's nephew!? 

He looked Mirio head to toe, and… well, he sort of saw the resemblance! The tall height, the straw-like blonde hair, the bright blue eyes… he looked just like All Might! It was still weird that he had two quirks, he was pretty sure that was supposed to be a scientific impossibility, but… Izuku didn't really have a better explanation. 

Wait, could that somehow be related to that strange creature that had multiple quirks?

"Wait, who's your uncle?" Nejire asked, puzzled. 

"Um, the situation is kind of sensitive," Mirio said. "So I can't really tell you." 

"I promise I'll keep it a secret!" Izuku said earnestly. The fact that Mirio was related to All Might was probably something top-secret, and not something he'd wanted to share, so he'd be sure to be quiet about it. 

"Didn't realize you had an uncle, Mirio," Tamaki said, a bit quietly. 

"It's not something I advertise," Mirio said, sounding on the edge of a nervous hysterical laugh. "But it's nothing to really worry about! Really minor thing, honest." 

"Well if that's the case," Nejire said. She didn't seem completely convinced that this was just a 'minor thing', but she shrugged her shoulders and decided to move on. "We should get to training. We can't let you go to the Sports Festival with an untrained strength quirk, can we Mirio?" 

"Of course not," Mirio said, wilting with relief that the conversation was leading away from this topic. "Let's get to it--what did we have planned today?"

Mirio and Tamaki were sparring with each other. It was practice for Mirio to use his 'new strength quirk' (in the spar, he was limited to only using it) while Tamaki was practicing quickly switching between the animals he manifested with his quirk. That meant Izuku was paired up with Nejire, and they were practicing hand-to-hand combat. 

They seemed to be going in cycles. Nejire would teach Izuku a move, they would have a few 'baby spars' in which she would let Izuku try the move on her a couple times, and then they would have a couple of 'real spars', in which they both went at each other in an actual spar in an attempt to win. Nejire won all the real spars, of course, and Izuku was usually thrown to the ground by the end of each one. 

"Are you sure this is really good practice for you?" Izuku huffed, pulling himself up off the ground. Nejire was relatively gentle in taking him down, but it sucked to lose so many times in a row. "I can't think that I'm that much of a challenge…" 

"Maybe not, but it's still good practice," Nejire said. "Some of the hardest people to fight sometimes are newbies, since they're so unpredictable! You're giving me some good practice for dealing with erratic fighters who don't do much hand-to-hand for the Sports Festival, so basically all of the Gen Ed students who really go at it."

"At least that's good," Izuku said. He would feel a bit bad if this was just her tutoring him. He was starting to pick up some of her combat moves, so he felt like he was learning a lot. He returned to his fighting stance, completely exhausted and legs sore, but ready to have another go. 

"It's getting a bit late," Tamaki said quietly. 

"Oh, you're right," Mirio said, glancing at the clock in the gym. "Hey Nejire, want to call it good for today?" 

Nejire wiped some sweat off her brow. "Yeah, sounds good! You alright with that, Midoriya?"

"That's fine! I'm tired," Izuku said, and Nejire gave a good-natured grin. "Thank you for being my sparring partner today," she said. "We usually have to switch between the three of us, so this was way more efficient! If you want to join us tomorrow, you could be paired up with one of those two," Nejire said, pointing to Tamaki and Mirio. "So that way you have a chance to fight everyone!"

"Thank you!" Izuku said, a bit flattered that she was implying he'd been useful. He was only a first-year, so he wasn't sure he was worth more than a warm body to practice moves on to them, but he appreciated that she was being nice about it. "I would love to come tomorrow." 

"Catch!" Mirio said, lightly tossing Izuku a water bottle. He caught it and took a big drink, which tasted great. He was parched. 

"Oh, um, Mirio?" Izuku asked. He hated to say this, but there was one more thing he needed to bring up with Mirio. "Could I talk with you for a second in private?"

Mirio immediately looked pale and worried again, which made Izuku feel a little bad, but he nodded in agreement. "Do you two wanna go up ahead?" Mirio offered. 

Tamaki and Nejire both looked a little bit suspicious at Izuku's need for a private conversation with Mirio (in a what aren't you telling us kind of way, which made sense after the weird conversation about the uncle they'd had before the training session) but they agreed, heading back toward the school to pick up their things while Mirio and Izuku stayed standing by the gym. 

Once they were gone, Izuku started talking. "Um, so you know how I said you have multiple quirks?"

"Uh… yeah?" Mirio said. 

"I'm worried it might be causing you health problems," Izuku said. 

Mirio blinked in surprise. That clearly hadn't been what he'd expected to hear. "What?"

"My quirk lets me see some of the effects that other people's quirks can have in them, but only in a very limited extent," Izuku rushed to explain. "But I can see that having two quirks is having a negative effect on you." 

"... Negative how?" Mirio asked, crease in his forehead. 

"Um, it's draining your vitality over time?" Izuku said. 

"Vitality? Like what, stamina?" Mirio said. 

Stamina was technically right, since VIT was related to exhaustion, but Izuku didn't miss the fact that VIT was also related to one's HP. "Um, kind of. More like… your life force? It's like how healthy you are," Izuku said. "Low vitality will make you easier to injure. And it will probably make your health worse." 

"So… having two quirks is going to make me have health problems?" Mirio said.

"Maybe," Izuku said. "I'm really sorry--I know it's not something that you can control, and this is horrible news… oh, I'm so sorry for delivering it like this, I probably should have had you sit down--"

"No, no, it's fine, I'm glad to know," Mirio said, looking disturbed. "Um, thanks for letting me know." 

"I'm very sorry," Izuku said. 

Mirio gave a bit of a forced smile. "I'll see what I can do, right? Now that we know, maybe we can come up with something to counteract it. Always better to know early, right?" 

"Right," Izuku said. "Well… um, best of luck?"

"Thank you," Mirio said. "I'm… going to go grab my stuff." 

As Mirio walked away, Izuku felt a strange mix of feelings. The training exercise had gone exceedingly well and Mirio's friends had been nice, but… 

Whatever was going on with Mirio was definitely bad, and it sucked that Izuku had needed to give him bad news. Hopefully whatever it was was an easily fixable condition, considering modern medicine.

And if it wasn't… 

Well, Izuku was going down the healing track for a reason. Maybe he would eventually be able to do something about it?

"I am such a failure," Mirio said, pacing in place. "I completely froze up and came up the stupidest lie--I can't believe he believed me," he said, burying his face in his hands. 

"Don't fret, young Toogata," Yagi said. "You did what you could." 

"I agree," Nedzu said. "You came up with a fairly convincing lie considering it was on the spot. You and Yagi do share a resemblance." 

He knew Nedzu was just teasing, but Mirio's face still lit up bright red in embarrassment. "Do you think he knew that I was lying?" Mirio asked. 

Nedzu hummed. "Maybe."

"Aghhhhh," Mirio said, flopping down in a nearby seat. 

"You mentioned he said something else about your quirk?" Yagi prodded gently. 

"He said that having two quirks was draining my vitality," Mirio said. 

"Vitality?" Yagi questioned. 

"It's kind of confusing, since Nejire uses the word 'vitality' to talk about how her quirk makes her tired sometimes, but this is different. Vitality is like, my health or my life force or something. According to Midoriya, having two quirks is damaging me," Mirio said. 

Yagi looked at Mirio sharply, with new concern in his eyes. "Damaging you? Wait, how would he know that?"

"He just said it was another facet of Analysis," Mirio said. "Do you think it's true? Maybe he's just mistaken?" 

"It's worth investigating," Nedzu said, and when Mirio glanced at him, Nedzu now looked a bit worried as well. "You might want Recovery Girl to take a look at you." 

"I'll do more research on the past users," Yagi volunteered. "I'll see if this ever came up with any of them, since they had multiple quirks as well." 

"Good," Nedzu said. 

"... Do you think having One for All is bad for me?" Mirio asked, not really wanting an answer. 

"I don't know," Nedzu said. "But you can never be too careful." 

Chapter 23: A Case for Mistakes

Izuku held his hand over one of the bruises. "Cast relieve pain," he said. Then, he poked the bruise, but he felt nothing. According to the spell description, the pain relief would last for five minutes. It seemed useful, though Izuku couldn't really test how potent it was (he was never hurt worse than scrapes, so he couldn't test how strong the pain relief was) and the fact it only lasted a short amount of time. Izuku would have to keep reapplying it to make it work. He wasn't sure if the time would get longer if he levelled up the spell, but he hoped so. Casting 'relieve pain' cost 4 mana, and since he had 28 total points… that meant he could cast Relieve Pain for 35 minutes max. He should probably try to level up his maximum amount of mana in that case. 

He also got a few more skill points! He was up to 18 now (almost enough for Heal Minor Wound) which he'd gotten by practicing further with his new spells. It seemed like he got extra points when practicing with new spells, as opposed to the old one. Slowly, as he practiced more, he got less and less skill points, until he started practicing with a new spell. This would make it easy to snatch low-level spells, but it would be incredibly hard to get higher-level spells if things kept up at this rate. He'd definitely need lots of time to get Major Regeneration… maybe he needed to look at increasing his 'source stat' if he wanted to improve faster. 

He remembered picking his source, the Heart. What stat related to the heart? Was it even related to his original stats? 

He remembered some of his other options. The Soul, the Mind, the Muscles, and the Lungs? And what was the last one? Voice?

Those five, plus the Heart, were six different options. Izuku had six different stats. Things were adding up so far. 

The Mind probably corresponded with INT, and the Muscle with STR. Was the Heart CHA? Or was the Voice CHA? And what represented DEX? Was it the Lungs? Or were the Lungs vitality? 

It probably wasn't INT or STR. So that left… CHA, DEX, VIT and WIS, if he was interpreting his quirk right. Izuku could sort of cross some of them out. The Lungs were probably not CHA, the Soul was probably not VIT or DEX. He was guessing that the Heart, his magic, was VIT or CHA. 

"Spells," Izuku said. 

Spellcasting, Heart Magic

Skill Points: 18 

Mana Points: 24/28 

Izuku peered at the information he had. This didn't really tell him anything… wait. Twenty-eight mana points? "Stats," Izuku said. 

VIT: 28, STR: 18, DEX: 20, INT: 50, WIS: 45, CHA: 22 

Unallotted Stat Points: 3 

Izuku remembered from the magic instructions that the amount of mana points he had were supposed to correspond with his source stat. So if he had twenty-eight VIT… 

Well, there was only one way to test it for sure. And he had been thinking of increasing his VIT lately, so there'd be no harm if he was wrong. "One stat point to vitality," Izuku said. "Spells." 

Spellcasting, Heart Magic

Skill Points: 19 

Mana Points: 25/29 

Izuku grinned. That meant his source stat was vitality! It was a shame it wasn't INT or WIS, which were things he was already high in, but it was lucky that it was a stat he was already planning to increase. And he'd gained one skill point! So 'strengthening his source stat' meant that with every point he added to VIT, he'd get an extra skill point. 

Izuku looked at the nineteen stat points. So close to twenty. "One stat point to vitality," Izuku said. "Unlock Heal Minor Wound." 

[Alert! You have learned Spell: Heal Minor Wound!] 

Excellent. Izuku put his hand on his bruise. "Heal Minor Wound." 

With a gentle glow, the skin on Izuku's knee slowly returned to normal, healing the bruise. Grinning, Izuku checked the amount of mana that had taken. 

Eight points?! For a bruise?!

Geez. He needed to increase his mana capacity… 

Izuku had spent the last few days working hard in his spells, with Mirio, and in chemistry and math. With the Sports Festival coming up, Izuku felt bad wasting too much time, so he tried to work hard in a variety of areas. Sure, he couldn't do too much exercise without injuring his muscles, but he could work on his spells. And when he was out of mana and his muscles were sore, Izuku worked ahead in the more academic areas. It's not like he thought calculus would really help him with the Sports Festival, but it was against his nature to do nothing. 

Which led him here. 

"Ectoplasm tells me you've been working ahead during class time," Nedzu said. 

Izuku winced. He was guilty as charged. He usually tried to pay attention but it had gotten so… boring. Especially since he knew everything Ectoplasm was talking about already. "I'm sorry," Izuku said. Nedzu was probably angry with him. He'd put in a lot of effort to get him an advanced schedule, and Izuku had disregarded it. Even though Nedzu had called this meeting a check-in, Izuku wouldn't be surprised if Nedzu in reality was planning to chastise Izuku for his ungratefulness. 

"That's fine!" Nedzu said. The cheerfulness remained in his voice. "I took into account the fact that you might get through the material faster than usual. Feel free to ask Ectoplasm questions from whatever level you're at, he'd be happy to answer them." 

Izuku blinked. "Oh, alright." Izuku realized he'd forgotten how calm Nedzu usually was. His demeanor seemed sincere, so it looked like he really wasn't upset. "Thank you." 

"No problem!" Nedzu said. "Let me know if you need any extra materials once you finish the course." 

Izuku nodded. It would be useful to get more materials directly from the school than to try to put together a hodgepodge of them himself online. 

And so, with another strangely mild and inoffensive principal meeting under his belt, Izuku politely said his goodbyes and left. 

Nedzu wasn't sure why Midoriya had expected him to be upset. He was actually rather excited at how quickly Izuku could learn. This information was the perfect distraction from the bad news Recovery Girl had delivered about what her inspection of Toogata had revealed. 

"I was thinking of putting Midoriya through some simulations," Nedzu said to Snipe. "The most basic ones, of course…" he was more talking to himself than really talking with Snipe, but Snipe nodded. "It sounds like a good idea," he said. "Might give some interesting results." 

Nedzu grinned slightly at the vindication.

Izuku, after school, wandered over to the gym where the third-years would be. One week left until the Sports Festival. He felt a slight pang of sadness knowing that these meetings would be over after that. As he approached, he saw Mirio, standing by the gym's door. 

"Oh! Hey Midoriya," Mirio said. "I wanted to give you an update about my uh… health condition, that you accidentally discovered."

Izuku paused and glanced up at him, waiting with baited breath. 

"Recovery Girl did a tissue sample and found some cell death," Mirio explained. "It's tissue necrosis--slowly, and over time, of course, but that would explain the vitality drain. She thinks it's caused by multiple quirks too." 

"Oh no, Mirio, I'm so sorry," Izuku said. 

"Don't worry, it's okay," Mirio said. "Thanks to you, we caught it early. Recovery Girl said we can try to stave it off with her quirk." 

"Stave it off?" Izuku said, frowning. 

"She can't fix it completely," Mirio said, scratching his neck awkwardly. "But if I come in every night, she can heal me before I go to sleep and set it back a little bit. Um… it's really good that you caught this early. It's still bad, but…" 

"Is it… would it be rude if I asked how bad?" Izuku said. 

Mirio winced and sighed. "Without your warning, if we do nothing, I would have lived… maybe six seven years. With Recovery Girl's help, it's closer to sixteen." 

"Mirio, that's…" 

"Not that it's all completely hopeless!" Mirio quickly added. "We have sixteen years to figure it out, modern medicine, and UA's resources at my back. You shouldn't worry about me." 

Izuku thought Mirio was handling the news that he might not live past forty with a lot of grace, but he still felt really bad for him. "I hope that works out," Izuku said softly, giving Miro a pat on the arm. 

"Thanks," Mirio said, voice a bit tight. 

Major Regeneration can regrow arms--surely it has to help with this! 

Izuku needed to get Minor and Major Regeneration fast, as quickly as he could, before Mirio's condition got any worse. Grinding skill points is my new job. I am not letting Mirio die. 

Determination in his eyes, Izuku gave Mirio a firm nod. "Okay… let's work on training."

"We can't let Mirio keep the quirk," Sir Nighteye said. 

"I know that," Yagi said, tiredly. "He needs to pass it on. But who do we give it to? Of course you suggested Melissa… though she isn't planning on going into a Heroics career…" 

"It doesn't matter if she's planning to go into Heroics," Nighteye said. "If she's quirkless, she's good enough. Mirio will die if he doesn't get rid of the quirk." 

"And what if she refuses?" Yagi said. "We'd have to search for someone else. We might need to look outside of Japan, since the quirklessness rate is so low here." 

Nighteye frowned. "That would take too much time. Mirio is dying." 

"Shuzenji did say that Toogata had two years before the damage to his body was irreversible," Nedzu interjected. "So we do have a little time." 

"That's still not enough," Nighteye said. "Especially when it comes to vetting a person who we've never met and giving them Toshinori's greatest secret. We need to convince Melissa." 

"I'll set up a call with David," Yagi said. "Ask for a meeting. I'll see what I can do." 

"Good," Nighteye said, relieved. "I can't watch Mirio throw his life away." 

Izuku gathered his stuff back up in UA's main building, lost in thought. 

Normally he'd be thinking about how his Stealth Skill had been improving, or how he'd discovered and started levelling an entirely new skill (Unarmed Combat, now Lvl. 5) from his training with the Big Three, but his mind was stuck on Mirio. This just added extra priority to his eventual plan to follow the healing track. 

At first he'd been tempted to try out Heal Minor Wound on Mirio, but he knew it wouldn't work. If Recovery Girl's quirk didn't work on Mirio, then the spell only capable of fixing scrapes and bruises wouldn't do anything either. Even Heal Major Wound could fix things on a level less impressive than Recovery Girl. 

It was at Minor Regeneration that Izuku started being able to do things above Recovery Girl's jurisdiction. That's where he needed to be, or higher. Maybe Izuku and Recovery Girl in combination could heal Mirio completely, or at least extend his lifetime to a good fifty years or something of that nature. 

Izuku stuffed all his books in his backpack, lost in thought. Maybe if I have a quest related to the Sports Festival I can get some extra stat points, then, if I put them towards VIT, I could get a lot of magic skill points… 

"Midoriya," a voice said, and Izuku snapped out of his thoughts. He looked up, just to see a teacher who he hadn't had before, Snipe. 

"Oh, hello," Izuku said, wondering what Snipe could want. 

"Nedzu was wondering if you would be willing to spend maybe an hour after school today to run through a simulation," Snipe said. "It should help us figure out how fast you learn. If you don't have time tonight, you could do it some other day this week." 

Izuku felt a little bit curious, if nervous, at the idea of whatever this was. "Um, I have time now," he said. Better to get it out of the way so he didn't worry about it all week. 

"Follow me!" Snipe said. 

They stopped by the locker room, where Izuku ducked in for a few minutes and changed into his gym uniform. After that, Izuku followed Snipe to an area of the school he'd technically never been in before, the basement-level support department rooms. They were usually specialty rooms, with materials or equipment (like saws) that students needed additional permission or certification to access. Or, strange simulations, apparently. When they got to a certain room, Snipe scanned his ID and punched in an access code. "Alright, good luck, kid," Snipe said. 

Izuku walked tentatively into a gray-walled, tunnel-like room, wondering what he was supposed to be doing. 

[ALERT: EMERGENCY QUEST ACTIVATION!] 

Emergency Quest: A Deadly Test 

Goal: Survive until you are rescuedBonus: Escape by yourselfREWARDS: ??? 

BONUS REWARDS: ??? 

Um. What.

Nedzu poured his cup of jasmine tea, looking over a list of quirkless individuals in the area. There weren't many, and essentially all of them were above the age of sixty. Nedzu sighed looking. Yagi's point about looking outside of Japan might be true. 

"I started Midoriya on the simulations, figured you wouldn't mind," Snipe said. 

Nedzu paused, glancing up. "You already built a simulation for Midoriya?" Nedzu was pretty sure Snipe had never built anything like that before. Had he asked Majima for help? 

"No, I just used one of your old ones," Snipe said. 

"You… one of my old ones," Nedzu said, setting down his paper list. "You don't mean the simulations in the support basement, right?" 

"Yeah, it was one of those, why?" Snipe said. 

Nedzu shot up for his seat."Why? Because those were built for me! They're dangerous, and not suitable for human children!" 

"Well when you're talking about simulations, you only ever mean those!" Snipe defended. "They're the only ones there!" 

"THAT'S WHY WE WOULD BUILD NEW-- it doesn't matter. Where is he? Which one," Nedzu asked, suddenly realizing the urgency of the situation. 

"Um… I think it was B02," Snipe said, voice now nervous. 

Nedzu bolted from the teachers' lounge, swung around the bend, and sprinted the remaining fifty feet to his office. He fumbled with the cabinet, but managed to quickly open it to reveal his hidden control panel. 

He slammed the emergency stop on the mechanics of room B02, and on all the others for good measure, in case Snipe was wrong about which one he'd sent Midoriya into. The buttons for each turned a red color to indicate that the emergency stop had been employed. 

Then, he hit the Health Emergency button to automatically dial Recovery Girl, quickly putting down 'basement support hallway' for the location of the incident so she would know where she needed to go. 

The door behind him scraped the floor. Nedzu glanced behind him to see Snipe, who must have followed him during his frantic run. 

"Nedzu?" Snipe said. 

"Snipe," Nedzu said, turning toward him quickly. "If I open that simulation to find mangled remains, you're fired. Grab Aizawa, bring him down the support hallway. Recovery Girl is already on her way." A few other staff members would also be alerted, like Hound Dog for instance, about the emergency situation. They'd already be going straight for the site of the incident, so they could do preliminary first aid while Recovery Girl took time to get there. Aizawa wasn't included in their number, but as Midoriya's homeroom teacher, he deserved to be involved. 

Nedzu stalked down the stairs to join them. 

Chapter 24: Cyclical Danger

[ALERT: EMERGENCY QUEST ACTIVATION!] 

Emergency Quest: A Deadly Test 

Goal: Survive until you are rescuedBonus: Escape by yourselfREWARDS: ??? 

BONUS REWARDS: ??? 

Izuku panicked slightly upon seeing that terrifying message. He turned around and tried to pull open the door that Snipe-sensei had just shut. Unfortunately, it was locked. And unlike that time he got stuck in the closet, this door was a thick metal, with an electronic lock. There was no way to remove the hinge-pins from the door. 

Izuku heard a faint mechanical whirring noise. He spun around and looked at the slate-gray tunnel room with wide eyes. There was an odd clicking, but this time above him, and when Izuku glanced up he was treated to the sight of the ceiling folding backwards, revealing a mass of gears and machinery. Uh oh. 

Then, there was a loud, high-pitched beeping sound. 

Izuku's muscles tensed, just in time for a long piece of metal to swing down towards his face. He threw himself out of the way, barely managing to dodge in time. The metal missed his head by only a few inches. 

OH no I am in actual danger. Was this on purpose? Has something gone wrong with the exercise? 

The mechanical whirring noise returned. Izuku took a few steps forward out of the little alcove that housed the door in preparation. If something swung down at him again, he would have little room to dodge. He tentatively moved towards the right of the room. 

Another high-pitched beeping noise, and another large metal pole swung down at Izuku. He dodged more quickly this time, prepared for the attack. When Izuku heard a third noise, he was ready again to dodge, but he didn't see anything coming toward him. Confused, he glanced around and walked backwards a few steps, only for something to slam into his shoulder. Izuku yelped in surprise, tumbling forwards in a dizzying spin. 

[ALERT! Damage Taken! -27 HP] 

On the ground, and a bit dazed, Izuku saw the metal pole that had hit him swing back up towards the ceiling, towards the right. Which meant it had come from behind him at a diagonal left. Ouch… guess those can come from any direction… 

As Izuku got on his hands and knees, there was another loud beeping, and another metal pole swung above him, though this time strictly perpendicular, from right to left. But since he was so low to the ground, it missed him by a large margin. If I stay on the ground those metal poles can't hit me. They don't go low enough. But… 

He glanced down at the floor. The patterning of the floor looked like a giant grate, with a bunch of little holes in it. He wasn't sure what they were for, so he was loath to stay on the floor for too long. Another beeping sound, and two metal poles swung above him. More than one? And it looked like they were getting faster. On the bright side, there had been a beep before all the metal poles he'd seen, which could be useful, though he wasn't planning on standing back up. This was a comforting thought, until Izuku heard more odd clicking. 

Then there was another noise, this time another beep, but lower-pitched. The ground beneath Izuku began to emit light, probably from some kind of LED within the holes. He instinctively knew what to do. He quickly rolled away from the part of the floor that was lit-up to a part that wasn't, and seconds later, a bunch of miniature spikes shot up from the floor. Izuku's heart rate picked up. Those spikes wouldn't have killed him, but they could have been incredibly painful and probably would have speared straight through his hands. 

Izuku got up from the floor, hissing as his bruised shoulder throbbed. Ducking back down again upon hearing another high-pitched noise, an idea occurred to Izuku. He pressed a hand against his shoulder. "Cast heal minor wound," Izuku said. A gentle light enveloped his injury, but as it did, the ground lit up beneath Izuku again while high-pitched beeping indicated more swinging poles. He ran a few steps forward to a spot where the floor wasn't lit up, hand still pressed against his shoulder, just barely managing to successfully dodge the poles along the way. With the whoosh sound the poles made, it wasn't too difficult to figure out where they were coming from now. But, it was still hard to dodge regardless. They were exceedingly quick. 

Luckily, his shoulder healed quickly, and the light of the spell faded away. He stretched his arm experimentally, but it was still sore. Not as bad as before, but… Minor Healing must not be enough for severe bruising… I could only heal it part-way… 

He could try healing it again, but Minor Wound took eight mana and he only had 30 total. He needed to leave his shoulder as-is in case he developed some kind of emergent, life-threatening wound that needed multiple heals. 

There was more clicking, and the walls started to unfold. 

Well. That was not good. 

Two steps left. Duck. One step left. Three steps right. Duck again, hit the deck, roll away from danger. Stand up, jump backwards. Move diagonal, dodge the metal pole. 

[Practicing has made you faster! +1 DEX.] 

He'd sort of gotten into a routine now, though he was forced to adapt that routine every two seconds as the pattern changed and more traps came out of the woodworks. But there was some consistency. A high-pitched beep before the metal poles came down, a low-pitched beep before the spikes from the floor, and a mid-pitched beep before the flames sprouted from the walls. Mechanical whirring before the pattern changed. Clicking for the introduction of a new trap. And no matter what he did it kept getting faster. 

Izuku had stayed by the walls at first, excellent at dodging the flames and less so those metal poles, but then he'd gotten the sleeve of his gym uniform stuck in one of the gears. For a few brief, terrifying moments, he'd been afraid his whole hand would be pulled into the gears as well. He managed to pull himself free, though the mechanism tore half the sleeve of his uniform clean off, and it didn't do his injured arm any favors. 

Now he was closer to the middle, even though the spikes were more likely to appear there. Getting shredded by machinery would not help his case. 

The clicking started up again, and Izuku quickly glanced around the room, looking for a new trap. Nothing new was opening up, so he could guess--

A blade swept across the center of the room, having been ejected from the walls at high speeds. Izuku threw himself to the ground. And just in time. The blade only barely managed to nick the top of his left ear.

What?! There was no beep that time! 

Another blade flew above him, but Izuku was crouched down this time, so he was out of the way. All the same, he had to awkwardly crawl out of the way when the ground lit up below him so he wouldn't be injured by the spikes. And there was no beep for the blades again! Was this to make it harder?

That panicked Izuku. He'd been navigating this mostly via audio cues. How was he supposed to duck in time if he didn't know a blade was coming? 

It was hard to move couched down, so he was more vulnerable this way, but he couldn't stand up if he didn't get an audio warning for the blades. It was too risky. If the system kept getting faster at this rate, he was toast. 

Izuku glanced down the tunnel ahead of him, shrouded in darkness. 

He didn't want to go that way. 

He'd avoided going near there, in case it was more dangerous in that area, but he was forced to admit he couldn't do this much longer. He was exhausted, he had no idea when rescue was coming, and the blades were an untenable situation. He couldn't let this escalate much further. 

But the tunnel was pitch-black. He couldn't see what was up ahead. Risky. 

Stay here or escape through the tunnel? Izuku thought, dodging more spikes. If only I could shut these traps down somehow… 

Maybe… if I could get the gears stuck… 

But I don't have any tools, just my body and gym uniform! If I try to stop the gears without tools it's going to be like putting my hands through a meat grinder! So that leaves.. 

With that, an idea came to Izuku. He pulled off his shirt and rolled it up, holding it together tightly together in a bundle. Then, as one of the blades flew overhead, he swung his uniform at the blade as hard as he could. 

He heard the sound of ripping cloth, but his plan was a success. The blade, stopped by the cloth bundle, clattered to the ground. Now Izuku could get hold of it.

He grabbed the sharp object despite how it lacked a hilt, ignoring how it cut into his hand as he gripped it tightly. He snuck quickly towards the right wall, careful of obstacles. Quickly scanning the wall for weak points (what gear will stop all the other gears?) and pausing just enough to avoid getting hit by a burst of flames, he then lunged forward and jammed the blade into the gears of the wall as hard as he could. 

With a loud creak, some grinding noises, and some concerning sparks, the gear mechanisms on the wall began to screech to a halt. As he watched it slow down, he was forced to duck as a blade from one of the other walls flew toward him, but (as he'd hoped for) it simply clattered to the ground. Whatever mechanism had let the wall 'catch' the blade being thrown across the room was clearly no longer functional. And so, the right wall's gears slowed to a stop. No fire, blades, or metal poles sprung from the wall after that.

The rest of the traps were still working, but… 

This meant Izuku could stand back up, with his back to the wall. With his back to the fourth wall, he could actually see the blades coming at him without dying. 

Indeed, more blades were thrown his way, but Izuku saw them coming and dodged. All of them clattered against the ground. And what's more, this room will eventually run out of blades, Izuku thought, stepping out of the way of more ground spikes. This wall can't shoot them out, and with the pattern they have, they'll eventually throw them all at this wall and they'll end up on the floor. 

Of course the metal poles would stick around, since they came from the ceiling, and the ground spikes, but if he could jam these blades into the other walls… 

He could potentially make this room a bit safer… 

An ominous clicking noise overtook the room, filling Izuku with dread. Another obstacle. 

He needed to get this done quick. 

He snatched up another blade from the ground and ran towards the south wall, and jammed the blade into the same spot he'd done for the previous wall. He only needed to dodge one more flame, and one more metal pole, before the south wall also came screeching to a halt. And just in time for Izuku to see the new obstacle. 

It was some kind of metallic tripwires emerging from the floor, and Izuku was just about to race towards the left wall to sabotage that one too when he heard a creaking noise from the door alcove behind him. 

He snapped his head around, prepared for more danger. 

The door was open. 

What? 

Izuku ran through the door as quick as he could, and realized soon enough why he'd been freed. When there's a mechanical problem, sensors on the door will sometimes sense the shutdown and open up so people don't get stuck, Izuku realized. This UA door must be the same way--designed to open up in the event of a power failure! Maybe some kind of… reverse hydraulics system? Izuku couldn't remember how it worked but he was thankful for it. Getting rid of the south wall had been what had freed him. 

[ALERT! Emergency Quest has been completed! Collect rewards?] 

[ALERT! Emergency Bonus Quest has been completed! Collect rewards?] 

Izuku didn't even feel exceptionally excited about the bonus quest, only relieved. He spilled out into the hallway, got himself a good distance from the door and then flopped onto the ground, too exhausted to be properly worried about anything. He sat there, and waited. 

Hound Dog approached the hallway quickly. He'd received the news that there was some kind of health emergency in the area and immediately started going there, but he'd received an additional note from Nedzu that it might be bad. And when Nedzu said things were bad, he didn't joke. 

When Hound Dog came around the bend, he found his patient.

A young student (first-year?) sat in the middle of the hallway, shirtless, holding a long, sharp, piece of metal. He looked alert, if a little bit battered, and Hound Dog rushed over with his little first-aid kit to provide assistance. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, hello," the green-haired kid said. He didn't look too bad, only lightly injured at first glance, though whatever had just happened was clearly no walk in the park. He was panting, he looked exhausted, and he had lacerations in a few places. "I'm glad you're here," the student said. His whole body was trembling from exertion, but his voice was strong. 

"You might want to put that metal down," he said, trying to be gentle, and the kid's gaze flitted over to his hand, which was squeezing the sharp blade. Both his hands were oozing blood.

"Oh!" he said, dropping the metal. 

"Are you injured anywhere else?" Hound Dog asked, as he tightly wrapped the student's hands. The only other injury Hound Dog could directly see was a cut on the kid's ear and a little bit of bruising about the shoulder. The student winced and shook his head no. Hound Dog opened his mouth to say something else when he heard more footsteps coming up behind him. He turned around and saw Nedzu and Aizawa, with Snipe following just behind them.

"You're fine," Nedzu said. "Are you injured?"

"Just some cuts, I'm not hurt," the kid said. "But I don't want to do that again." The kid gave Nedzu a razor-sharp, discerning look, though Hound Dog wasn't sure why. 

Nedzu gave a deep frown. "There was a mistake. You were in the wrong room," Nedzu said. "This wasn't supposed to happen." 

The kid's face flickered with disbelief, but before he could say anything, more footsteps echoed down the hall. 

Recovery Girl turned the corner, walking closer to them with her can. "Who am I healing?" she said, rasp in her voice. Aizawa quickly pointed her to the first year. 

Shuzenji quickly examined the patient. Once she'd confirmed he didn't have any other injuries than the ones they could see, she gave him a light kiss on the forehead. The first-year's injuries healed instantaneously, and he suddenly looked even more tired, giving a yawn as Shuzenji stepped away. 

"Let's go back upstairs," Aizawa said. His worried and tense expression had left him once he saw his student was healed. Now he was back to business. 

"No," the student said, stubbornly. "I don't want to move, I want water." 

Wordlessly, Aizawa unhooked a miniature water bottle from his utility belt and handed it to the student, who immediately chugged the whole thing. He finished it in under a minute. 

"There's more water upstairs," Aizawa said. The green-haired student sighed, but picked himself off the ground with wobbly limbs, and let himself be ushered upstairs by Aizawa with Nedzu in tow. 

Hound Dog was left to accompany Recovery Girl, who seemed just as confused as he was on the exact circumstances behind the injuries. 

Well… they were in the lower support wing, so maybe the kid got caught in some support equipment? 

Oh well. It looked like Nedzu had it under control. 

Nedzu did not have the situation under control. 

On the bright side, Midoriya wasn't dead, nor was he critically injured. Nedzu had been very worried about that. That simulation would have been easy enough for himself, at least in the beginning stages, but the same couldn't be said for Midoriya. And for more reasons than that Nedzu had tuned his reflexes to be razor-sharp while Midoriya hadn't. For one, their differing sizes. Nedzu was small, half Midoriya's height. The simulation was fine-tuned for Nedzu, so any blade that was meant to miss Nedzu's head by a decent margin if he accidentally made a mistake was something capable of slicing Midoriya clean in half. In addition, each trap was meant to be accompanied by a beeping tone as a signal to dodge, but since this simulation was made for Nedzu, some of the pitches were out of human hearing range. Including the ones for the blades that could slice Midoriya clean in half. Nedzu had been EXTREMELY concerned about Midoriya getting sliced in half. 

Not to mention, Midoriya wouldn't have been able to see any of the traps in the dark tunnel due to his inferior vision as a human, so there was a good chance he would have been badly caught up in one if he'd tried to run that way. 

But no. Midoriya had survived past the blades, given how he'd been holding one, and he'd either survived in the tunnel or managed to tough out in the first room despite the increasing speed. Nedzu hadn't had time to check out the simulation room to see what Midoriya's survival strategy had been, even though he was interested. There was time for that later. He had a more urgent situation on his hands. 

So Midoriya wasn't hurt, not after a quick healing of those cuts by Recovery Girl, but he was very upset. With good reason, of course. Midoriya had been snappy and irritated in the past few minutes, which seemed unlike him. 'Maybe this is the first emergence of the personality I read about in the files' was an interpretation Nedzu could take, but he felt bad thinking that. Anyone would be angry after having their life endangered, and if this is what it took to upset Midoriya, then calling him short-tempered was a serious mischaracterization. 

Aizawa gave Midoriya another bottle of water, and Midoriya drank it quickly. Once he was done, he threw the water bottle on the ground and laid down on the couch in the office, curling up and ignoring the two teachers. 

Which… fair. 

Aizawa pulled a blanket out of one of the storage cabinets and gently placed it over his student, who grabbed the edges and wrapped it around himself. 

Satisfied, Aizawa suddenly looked up at Nedzu sharply. "What happened," he said, voice quiet but demanding.

Nedzu knew he had a lot of explaining to do. 

Izuku woke up in the office and noticed, according to the clock, that he'd been asleep for around an hour. Feeling groggy but somewhat refreshed, he noticed Aizawa sitting at the desk a short distance away. "Are you feeling better now?" Aizawa asked. 

"Yeah," Izuku said, feeling a bit shy. Most of the bitterness that he'd been feeling had been suppressed somewhat, but he still needed to know. For safety reasons. "Did Nedzu put me in there on purpose so I would get a new quirk?"

Aizawa's eyes widened slightly. 

"No."Aizawa took a few steps forward and crouched down in front of Izuku. "He wouldn't do that. This was the result of a mistake--one that he and Snipe will be held responsible for," Aizawa said, voice hardening slightly as he said that, "But I promise you that Nedzu would never hurt a student on purpose." 

And, perhaps a bit oddly, Izuku believed him. 

Maybe he wouldn't have in the past, but… 

Aizawa's eyes were deep and earnest. Izuku could tell he really believed what he was saying. Plus, knowing that Nedzu had the Protective tag on his relationship with him… 

… If he was really Protective, why would he put Izuku in danger? 

Izuku would check Nedzu's relationship status after this. If it was still Protective, he would believe Nedzu, and give him the benefit of the doubt. If it wasn't Protective… well, then Izuku was going to have to consider the alternatives. "Okay," Izuku said. 

Aizawa sighed. "Are you feeling better? No injuries?"

"Recovery Girl healed me, so I'm fine," Izuku said. 

"Better to ask," Aizawa said. "You were asleep for a little bit." 

Suddenly, Izuku realized how odd his tiredness had been earlier. And, as an extention, how frustrated he'd been. It was easy for him to get frustrated when he was tired.

"I only had a few cuts… I shouldn't have been so exhausted by Recovery Girl's healing…" he said.

"Keep in mind she heals muscle fiber, too," Aizawa grunted. "After an intense workout, your muscle breaks down, and requires stamina to heal. So it makes sense you were a little tired." 

"Oh," Izuku said, flexing one of his arms. It wasn't even sore. 

"Lunch Rush made you something to eat," Aizawa explained. "After, Nedzu was hoping to apologize, if that's okay with you."

Meeting up with Nedzu might shed some light on what exactly happened, Izuku decided. He gave a quick nod, and Aizawa briefly left the room to go grab Izuku's snacks. Izuku knew he'd only be gone a few minutes, but all the more opportunity to claim his rewards. 

"Collect rewards," Izuku said. "Collect bonus quest rewards." 

Emergency Quest Complete! 

Rewards [Hidden]: +10 stat points, +3000 XP 

[ALERT! Level up! You are now Lvl. 18!] 

Emergency Bonus Quest Complete! 

Rewards [Hidden]: +8 stat points, Title "Self-Sufficient" 

Yes! A level up! (He was getting closer and closer to that level 20 inventory.) Plus more stat points and a title. "Titles," Izuku said. "Self-Sufficient." 

Self-Sufficient: LOCKED: 50 WIS required. 

Izuku groaned. At least he was pretty close to fifty wisdom. Would this title be worth boosting it up to that? 

Well… he did get something cool at 50 INT, so it was possible that something similar would happen if he gained 50 WIS. He'd think about it. As for the rest of his stat points, he had… what, twenty-ish, considering the level-up? If he put all the ones he wasn't reserving for WIS into VIT, plus adding the points he had from practicing Heal Minor Wound, he'd have about two-thirds of the stat points he needed to get Heal Major Wound. He'd also be a lot more durable. Plus a mana increase. 

Which brought up one other question. This was definitely a life-threatening situation. What new quirk should he bring to the table?

His first thought was healing, but Izuku wasn't sure. At this point, he could only heal little bruises and cuts, and though maybe he'd get into 'major' healing soon enough, he was afraid that his healing quirk would be classed as very weak and then it would look weird when he could regenerate limbs. He was thinking he might want to wait on that. The same was true with fire, he could only spark a tiny flame. 

On the other hand… 

It would be useful if the others were to know of his hyper-durability. Since his VIT was so high, he was probably a lot harder to damage. Either that, or at the very least he could survive a lot more than regular people. He wasn't exactly sure which. But if it was the first, he should probably mention it, because surgeries involving those with enhanced durability had to involve different technology capable of actually cutting through their skin. Plus, it would look weird if he survived something crazy without a good explanation. 

Plus, it was a very heroics-oriented quirk. Izuku liked that, somehow. He'd save the healing for later on. At this rate, anyway, he was going to need to get into another life-threatening situation if he ever wanted to even get to the higher-level healing spells with how hard it was to grind VIT under regular circumstances regardless. 

"Stats," he said. 

VIT: 30, STR: 18, DEX: 21, INT: 50, WIS: 45, CHA: 22 

Unallotted Stat Points: 24 

"Five stat points to WIS," he said. "Nineteen stat points to VIT." 

VIT: 49, STR: 18, DEX: 21, INT: 50, WIS: 50, CHA: 22 

Unallotted Stat Points: 0 

[Alert! Ability: Silent Command Unlocked; Prerequisite: 50 WIS] 

[Open the Commands tab?] 

"Yes!" Izuku said. Fifty WIS did give him something cool!

Commands -- Available: 1 

Active: You have NO active commands! Say "Silent Command [command name]" to set a silent command! 

Silent command? Wait, did this mean he could do things silently? Finally!? Okay, think of one of his commands... 

"Silent command 'cast'," Izuku said. Then, in his mind, he imagined casting Tiny Flame. A little flame appeared in his hand, and Izuku grinned. 

What a practical gift for increasing his Wisdom.