Chapter 23: Return
Izuku didn't even know why he was surprised when he once again opened a single eye to the smokey, featureless expanse that he recalled from the last time he dreamt about One For All. Today had already been so long that of course he'd be drawn into a waking dream instead of being able to get some needed sleep. He felt foolish for expecting anything different. There were differences this time, however. He had never really taken the time to look around the last time he had this dream, being too focused on panicking about why he couldn't move instead. This time, Izuku took a minute to appreciate the dreamscape in front of him.
On inspection, it was not quite featureless as he had assumed last time. It was still evenly lit despite the fact that there was no obvious light source, but the mist that was rolling through caused the lighting to wax and wane. The mist itself was something that he hadn't noticed last time, watching as it swirled around itself in increasingly intricate patterns. If Izuku didn't know better, he would say that the patterns weren't random, that they were repeating, but he couldn't pick out exactly what they were forming. Something about the motion tickled at the back of his mind, though.
The 'sky' in the dreamscape was similarly drab, with striated clouds drifting across it in much the same way the mist drifted across the ground. Every so often Izuku felt he could see some larger structure hiding behind the clouds, but whenever he tried to focus on it, it slipped away from him. It must have been a trick of his imagination combined with the lack of depth perception from only being able to open one eye. Once he returned his gaze to ground level, however, something had changed.
Namely, someone was standing directly in front of him.
If Izuku had had a mouth in his dream, he would have screamed. As it was, the one eye that he could control opened as wide as possible. Like he had previously, he tried as hard as he could to move anything else in his body, but it was steadfastly refusing him.
After a moment of sheer panic, however, Izuku realized that the man in front of him was not doing anything other than standing there watching, judging Izuku. The man's eyes were narrowed and the ends of his mouth downturned. It was obvious that he was not particularly happy with whatever he saw in Izuku.
At the same time, this was not one of the previous holders of One For All that Izuku was familiar with, and so he wanted to find out as much about the man as possible. He was a hard man, heavily muscled and scarred, with a nose that had been broken at least twice. His long, light hair was tied up in a pony-tail and held back with a wide bandana. What captured Izuku's interest, though, were his eyes: a sharp and icy blue, quickly scanning Izuku, measuring, weighing and analyzing him in an instant.
Eventually though, the previous holder in front of him found whatever he was looking for, and relaxed infinitesimally. Had Izuku been able to, he would have let out a deep breath of relief, letting his eye drop to the ground for a moment.
"I suppose I owe you something of an explanation." His voice had not changed an iota from the USJ or Izuku's earlier dream, still deep and harsh like a landslide. Izuku's gaze shot back up towards the man in front of him. Whatever else he might have expected, he wasn't expecting the former holder to speak with him directly.
"You're a clever kid. You've figured out what this is and who I am, at least to some degree. I'm not gonna give you my name, but you can call me Third. I was the third user of One For All." Izuku's eye widened slightly at this. It was one thing to hypothesize that there was some remnant of the former users locked with One For All. It was another thing entirely to have it confirmed by one of said remnants (ghosts?).
"I wasn't exactly what you would call a 'hero.' Hell, I wasn't even what you would call a 'vigilante.' Me and Second lived in what you call the dawn of quirks, when society fell apart and got rebuilt. Governments were afraid of those of us with quirks. And governments attack what they are afraid of." The former holder paused for a moment to let that sink in, and Izuku had a sinking feeling as he figured out where this was going.
"Every single person with a quirk was targeted. And our families. And anyone who stuck their neck out to shelter us. We did what we had to do in order to survive. The governments at the time called us 'terrorists.' Fifth, Sixth, and especially Seventh call us 'villains.'"
The dawn of quirks wasn't something that was covered in any particular detail in school, nominally due to the lack of reliable sources from the era. Izuku, though, had taken it upon himself to do a little bit of research on his own, as part of his curiosity into quirks and where they had come from. He had been able to find that while there weren't manyreliable sources, they did exist. And they painted a grim picture of what the time period was like, something that was backed up by Third here. If Izuku had been able to speak or move significantly, he would have dozens of questions for Third as someone who had lived through the dawn of quirks.
"Society reorganized itself. Groups like the one that Second and I formed are the only reason that anything even remotely resembling a just society came out the other side. So no, I don't regret anything that I did. I'm happy to take on that responsibility. It's far better than what would have happened if Destro or one of the other warlords of the era had come out on top. But there have been forces working against that just society ever since that reorganization. Not just All For One and villainous forces, but what is now called the HPSC and so-called heroic forces."
Some amount of Izuku's confusion must have shown itself in his eye because Third suddenly paused, looking closely at him. "Wait, are you confused about the HPSC? Or is it that Eighth didn't tell you about All For One?" Izuku decided to move his one eye up and down in a semblance of a nod. Thankfully, Third seemed to understand, groaning and muttering under his breath before continuing. "I'm not touching that. Ask him yourself. Sooner rather than later." Izuku made a mental note of the name All For One, and its obvious relation to his own quirk.
"Anyway, you are in a unique position. Second and I fought for equal rights, equal treatment of quirked and quirkless. But now, as you well know, society has swung way too far in the opposite direction. Quirks, especially those seen as 'heroic,' determine far too much about how you're treated these days. From what I've seen in Seventh and Eighth's dealings with the commission, that's by design. I did not fight and kill and die for the exact opposite prejudice to take over. So. You. You will be in a position to do something about it." That made a surprising amount of sense to Izuku, although he was sure that even as brutally honest as Third had tried to sound, he was still glossing over a fair amount.
Still though, it didn't answer one of his most important questions, which was how he was here in the first place, and what that extra energy was. Third somehow seemed to pick up on this, as after a lengthy silence, he spoke again. "One for All is a strange quirk. It stores more than just power, as all of the previous users are here as vestiges. Thanks to Eighth, there is enough power stored up that now it can transfer quirks as well. You have been using mine: Fa Jin. You have the basics, I can help more, in time. First will come along and tell you more about One For All at some point, too. He's the one that knows the most. Hopefully you'll have developed a mouth by then." Izuku couldn't agree more with that last point.
"Anyway, just keep what I've said in mind. But don't just take my word for it. Do some research into the commission. Make your own judgment. I can't force you to do anything. I can only show you where to look."
With that last statement, Third turned and walked back into the mist flowing through the dreamscape. The further he got from Izuku, the more that his vision blurred and faded, eventually leaving awake in the gray hours of the early morning. Izuku turned Third's words over in his head as the sun rose that morning, mulling how he should feel about them.
The one thing that sat wrong in his stomach, a cold, heavy pit in his gut, was that through all of Third's explanations and justifications, he had never once mentioned the fact that he had forced Izuku to kill. He found himself dancing around that point, unwilling to face it directly.
Eventually though, Izuku decided to drag himself out of bed, planning to attempt some semblance of a morning workout with Kyoka. Even if they were somehow dating now, there was no reason to neglect their training. And maybe she could give him some suggestions for dealing with his mother when he got home.
---
A yawn cracked through Inko's jaw as she slowly worked her way through the kitchen making her breakfast. She had been up much later than normal the previous night, and had gotten a late start on her morning. Her anxiety had been acting up throughout her conversations with the other parents in the class and it had taken quite some time for her to calm down enough to be able to sleep.
Inko was proud, though. She had conquered her anxieties and actually gotten touch with all of the other sets of parents in the class (except for the Todorokis and Yaoyorozus), and most of them had been receptive to her! Admittedly, much of the receptiveness was likely due to the fact that their children had just been attacked by villains while under the supposed protection of U.A, but Inko would not refuse the support of anyone who was only recently convinced. Even beyond other parents being receptive to the idea of pushing U.A for more safety measures in a general sense, there were a surprising number who were additionally open to more direct action. Inko planned on trying to get in touch with Director Oh once again, possibly through Hisashi, so she could speak with the parents in 1-B as well.
Maybe she could get enough people together that a direct protest in front of U.A would be productive. It would certainly show U.A that they were serious, and would help the HPSC in the actual negotiations. Inko would run that idea by Director Oh, as well.
She had just sat down to her breakfast when she heard the lock click at the front door, followed by Izuku slipping inside quietly and skulking to his room. That spoiled Inko's good mood, but only a little. Given how long she had spent speaking with the other families, she hadn't had much time to think about Izuku's disappearing act. Part of that was by design: Inko knew that if she allowed herself to think too long on Izuku running off, she would work herself up over something that was already done and over with. Better to wait and let him explain himself.
"Mom." Apparently that would come sooner than she thought, just a few minutes after he had returned home. Izuku took a seat at the table as Inko finished off the last of her breakfast. "We need to talk." His face was set and determined, just like Hisashi would get whenever he got stubborn. It was so odd to see it on her son's face.
"You're right. Let's talk, then."
Izuku took a deep breath, obviously steeling himself for what he wanted to say. "I'm hurt that you would even consider pulling me out of U.A. Being a hero isn't something that I just want to do. It's something that I am going to do. It's something that I would do even if my quirk had never come in. It's who I am, and if you think otherwise, then you obviously don't know me as well as I thought you do." That was a bit of a low blow, but Inko couldn't find it within herself to argue with him on this point. He was right, though. Izuku had never wavered in his desire to be a hero, even through the worst of his treatment for being quirkless. Not once.
"I understand that, dear. But it still doesn't mean that you need to be going to school at U.A. There are dozens of other hero schools in the country. Ketsubetsu is well thought of and relatively close by as well, if you want to stay in the area." And maybe they wouldn't throw first year students into quirk assessments and battle trials that lead to serious injuries.
"Mom, U.A is by far the best place for me to get the education that I need to be the best hero I can be. Even dad knows that." Another low blow. It was roughly time for him to have a teenage rebellious phase, Inko supposed, so perhaps she should get used to these sorts of digs. "It blows every other school out of the water in terms of both student andalumni health and safety statistics. I can show you those, if you want."
"It's hard to trust statistics when I hear about you hurting yourself twice within the first week. And I didn't even hear about the first one from you, I had to hear it from the Urarakas." Izuku winced and looked away for the first time in the entire conversation at that point. Good. He wasn't the only one who could go for low blows when the situation called for it.
Once again, her son took a deep breath before continuing. "You're absolutely right." That was not what Inko had expected. She thought he'd keep being stubborn and obstinate, especially on this point. "I should have told you the first time we spoke, and I'm sorry that I didn't. I really am." He met her eyes again as he said this, and she saw nothing but honesty within them. "But I want you to answer me honestly. If I had told you that I had broken my arm before the first day of school had even begun, what would your response have been?"
"Well I would have made sure you were feeling better and been relieved that you told me and that you had such a powerful healing quirk on campus."
"Really?" Izuku stared into her eyes with a distinctly unimpressed expression on his face, happy to let the silence stretch as his question hung in the air.
Inko sighed, unable to keep up her confident facade at her son's disappointed stare. "No. I wouldn't have considered the possibility of you not telling me, and probably would have spiraled before hearing that Recovery Girl fixed you straight up." Considering that she spiraled even after hearing that he had been healed with no issues, this was likely an understatement. "I knew that Recovery Girl was the school nurse, but I wanted to believe so badly that you would never need to visit her for anything requiring her quirk."
"Can you understand why I didn't tell you, then?"
"I suppose." The words tasted bitter in her mouth, but he had been nothing but honest with her today. It was only fair to return the favor. "I'm still angry about it." Izuku simply nodded as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I know. I promise that I'll keep you more in the loop about what's happening at U.A. I'm not going to tell you every detail of what's happening in my classes and what practical exercises we're doing, but I'll tell you about the big ones, and I'll make sure to tell you if and when I get injured again. Because it will happen again, that's just part of being a hero and hero training."
"I guess I can't ask for much more than that." Well, she could, but not from him. She would make sure U.A did what a school should, and protected their students. "I should let you know that I'm talking with some other parents about trying to get more transparency from the administration and make sure they tighten up their own safety regulations."
Again, he seemed to have expected this, nodding placidly, although his mouth tightened. "I know. Mrs. Jirou told me."
"Good." The conversation died there, both content to let the silence to stretch on uncomfortably long before deciding that they were done. After five minutes, Izuku got up from the table and made to head back to his room. Inko had just one last thing to say to him. "Oh, and Izuku?"
"Yeah mom?"
"You're grounded until you go back to school. If you sneak out again, we'll be having a very different conversation." He didn't even look back as he nodded and retreated to his room, closing the door softly behind him.
It was only then that Inko realized that she had been crying, and she couldn't say for how long.
---
All things considered, the time off from U.A over the weekend passed relatively quickly. Kyoka managed to lose herself in her music for hours at a time, letting her mind drift away from the USJ and everything associated with it. It was only when she came up for air that the memories returned, somewhat dampened each time.
The only thing she found herself thinking about during her jam sessions aside from her music was Izuku. She couldn't deny it anymore: she was absolutely smitten with the boy, and had it worse than she had thought. But he was her boyfriend now, and wasn't that just amazing.
Unfortunately, all of this did make it rather difficult to sleep. Between nightmares about the USJ, eagerness to see Izuku again after his grounding was over, she found that sleep was one of the last things she ended up doing. She'd been keeping up with her workout routine as best she could, but it was nothing compared to what they had gone through over the lead-up to U.A, so she didn't even have bone weary exhaustion to fall back on to help her sleep.
Hence, why she was currently on the phone with a one Izuku Midoriya far past the time either of them would usually be asleep.
"I cannot wait to get back to the dorms tomorrow." Izuku's statement had broken a brief, companionable silence that had fallen over the two teens. They were both tired, but neither particularly wanted to be the one to hang up first.
"Don't you mean today?" A quick glance at the clock confirmed that it was sometime past one in the morning on Monday. Kyoka had given up on getting a good night of sleep some time earlier.
"Semantics."
"Pretty sure it's the literal definition of the words." The disgruntled huff from the other end of the call made Kyoka's smile just a little bit wider. "And aren't you supposed to be the shy one? Why are you so excited to get back to the dorms?"
"Well, most of our class seems alright. They're head and shoulders above my middle school, for sure. None of them even gave me grief when I told them about being a late-bloomer!" How could he sound so cheerful about basic human kindness?
Kyoka sighed. "That's an awfully low bar, Green."
"Yeah, you'd think so, wouldn't you. You'd really, really think so." His tone went flat for a moment, but jumped back to his excited cadence quickly enough. "But that's not really why I'm looking forward to being back at school."
"What, you're really looking forward to getting back to class? Eager to hit the books with Ectoplasm and Cementoss again?" Math was still looming in the back of Kyoka's mind, but with Izuku having agreed to help her, she was pretty sure she'd make it through fine.
"I mean kinda? They both make their classes really interesting." Her eyes rolled so hard Kyoka thought they might fall out of her head, but she restrained herself from a pithy comment. Barely. "I'm more just tired of being grounded." Really? That was all it was?
"So, you can't handle being grounded for two days?" Knowing Izuku, this was probably the first time he'd been grounded in his life. Still wasn't for very long, though.
"I can't handle not seeing you for two days." That… had not been what Kyoka was expecting. In retrospect, she probably should have considering she'd been feeling similar, but it still came out of left field for her. Given that Izuku said it in one of his more adorable tones of voice only made it hit harder.
"G-Green!" Kyoka was glad that they weren't on a video call so Izuku couldn't see her cheeks explode in red.
"What?" He had the gall to sound as if he had no idea what he had said.
"You can't just go and say things like that."
"I can't? But it's true." Oh and didn't that just make her blush even worse. "You can't tell me you're not looking forward to getting back together."
"Of course I am!"
"Then why can't I say it?" Kyoka sighed. Why did he have to go and be all 'logical' and shit right now?
"I… I… It's embarrassing, ok?"
"I get it, I think." That was good, Kyoka didn't exactly understand it herself. "I never thought I'd get a girlfriend, let alone one as awesome as you, so I'm just kinda riding things out right now, enjoying everything as it comes. Kinda feels like I'm playing with house money, you know?" And wasn't that heartbreaking?
"Izuku…"
"This actually has me thinking." Kyoka had been all ready to try and cheer the boy up, but he moved off in another conversational direction. Perhaps it was wiser to let the topic lie for now.
"Always dangerous, but go on."
"Hey! I'm not that bad." Despite his tone, Kyoka knew he wasn't actually offended.
"Eh…" She held her hand out palm down and waggled it back and forth in a so-so motion, even though she knew he couldn't see her. It was the principle of the matter.
"Anyway! When we get back to school, our classmates are probably going to be all over us because we're dating. At least Ashido and Tokage."
"And Uraraka, and Honenuki, and Yaoyorozu, and…" Honestly, the way things had been going at school, it might be easier to make a list of their classmates that wouldn't ask questions and be interested in their relationship. Koda and Kodai were the only ones that she felt absolutely certain about.
"Really? They all seemed a bit more level-headed to me."
"...Yes. One hundred percent." How had Izuku missed the teasing that Uraraka and Yaoyorozu had directed at her, or that Honenuki had directed at him?
"Huh, ok. I was just wondering how obvious we want to be about it when we get back. I imagine you aren't a huge fan of public displays of affection, and I'm not exactly super comfortable with social situations in general." Kyoka hummed for a minute in thought. He wasn't wrong; she wasn't the kind of person that loved PDAs and Izuku was being more than a bit generous about his own social difficulties. But that didn't really answer his question overall.
"I see what you're saying. I don't think we need to hide anything, but I don't want to go out of our way to tell people, either. Maybe we tell Uraraka, Yaoyorozu, Honenuki, and Shoji. Ashido and Tokage are going to give us grief regardless of when we tell them, but our friends will be upset if we don't tell them." A little pain now to avoid a lot of pain later. Plus, no matter how entertaining it would likely be to watch Izuku try and pretend he wasn't dating her, she'd much rather be able to hug him or hold his hand when she wanted and not have to worry about who might be watching.
"Makes sense. It'd certainly be easier than trying to sneak around in the dorms."
"Seriously." Again they sank into a comfortable silence, one that stretched much longer than the previous one. After some time, Kyoka noticed a change in Izuku's breathing pattern. "Green, are you falling asleep?"
"Huh, wha? Uh, no? Just, um, trying out meditation?" Kyoka couldn't quite resist the urge to snort in laughter.
"You are a terrible liar." Izuku made a few noises like he was about to argue with her, but ultimately decided to just agree with her. A wise choice.
"Sorry, didn't mean to fall asleep on you. I'm just really tired." He trailed off into a yawn before continuing. "I haven't been sleeping well the past few nights."
"Ah, yeah, me neither." Aside from the night Izuku had stayed over, she had barely slept more than an hour at a stretch since the USJ. "Bad dreams?" Given what they had been through, she would have been surprised if he hadn't been having them.
"Yeah. Real bad."
"Same here." That may have even been underselling it. She didn't even particularly remember the details of her last dream, just waking up in a panic with images of blood and mangled corpses in her mind. Despite it having been 3 am, she hadn't gone back to sleep after that. "Hey Green?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm tired too, but I don't want to hang up. Think you could just, I dunno, leave your phone on while we go to sleep? I haven't slept well since you were here and I could hear you across the hall. Maybe the phone would help." The thought had run through her head more than once, but it was only now, already embarrassed and fully sleep deprived that she had the courage to ask it.
"Of course, Kyoka." There wasn't a hint of hesitation as Izuku agreed in a soft voice. "You're thinking of sleep now?"
"I certainly wouldn't say no, and I don't think you would either." The two of them chuckled. They both knew how tired the other was, how out of sync with their normal sleep schedules they were.
"You're right." There was a moment of rustling as he presumably went to plug his phone in. "Well then, uh, good night, Kyoka. I hope you sleep well."
"You too, Green."
Kyoka slept well that night for the first time since Izuku's visit, without a single nightmare that she could recall.
---
Izuku had been so eager to get back to U.A, back on campus and to be able to see Kyoka once again, that he hadn't particularly considered what his mother might have to do that very same morning, or why she had to prepare and dash out of the house even before he did. She often had meetings or other obligations at work that would necessitate such behavior. Her not telling him one way or the other was out of the ordinary, but he brushed it off as him living away from home at high school making her not think to tell him.
He met Kyoka on the train towards U.A and was having a generally pleasant morning, quietly bantering with her as they approached school. It had only been a few days, but seeing her again gave him a rush of excitement and disbelief that he couldn't quite shake. Kyoka was his girlfriend! She actually wanted to date him! It had taken him some time to realize that they had started holding hands as soon as they met: it just felt as natural as breathing.
Of course, once he got to the front gates of U.A to find his mother leading a small group of parents in protest with a sizable media presence, all of that pleasantness turned more than a bit sour in his mouth. The main gates of U.A stood closed, with a handful of students entering through one of the smaller, side access doors. It looked like a few dozen parents, with at least as many reporters and camera people gathered around the main entrance, not blocking the way, but certainly making themselves known. The sight of his mother standing on a small elevated platform, obviously leading the crowd in some capacity, froze Izuku in his tracks.
Kyoka's hand had never left his own, and as her gaze followed his, she made a noise of understanding. A firmer grip on his hand reminded Izuku of exactly where he was, and that even if his mother was going to insane lengths to try to ensure that he was "safe," he still had people by his side who did believe in him. Kyoka being the most obvious, but All Might, Uraraka, Honenuki, Yaoyorozu, and Shoji also came immediately to mind.
Having been so reassured, Izuku allowed his gaze to drift over the crowd as he and Kyoka continued walking to one of the side gates. Mr. and Mrs. Jiro were nowhere to be seen, but he saw several adults who were almost certainly parents of others in his class. A woman in a smart suit who shared Honenuki's pale hair and lack of skin was almost certainly his mother. A couple wearing prominently displayed crosses were likely Shiozaki's parents. A grasshopper quirked parent of unclear gender seemed likely to be related to Kamakiri in some fashion.
As Izuku and Kyoka reached the entrance to U.A, however, the main gates shuddered and began to open. His mother seemed momentarily surprised by this, interrupting her speech to the gathered parents to turn and gawk along with them at the massive barrier sinking into the ground. She even backed away and off of her platform, making way for whatever was coming.
Behind the gate stood All Might in all his glory, unaccompanied by any other faculty, not even Principal Nezu. He wore not one of his many costumes, but rather a smartly tailored dark blue pinstriped suit with a bright red tie. The gathered parents fell silent at the sight of the man, although the media took this as a chance to call out questions of their own. Apparently they still felt slighted for not getting any answers the previous week.
Regardless of how the media felt, though, even they fell silent as All Might stood up on the platform his mother had occupied and raised his hands for silence. Izuku wasn't sure if it was out of respect, or desire to capture All Might's every word, but the end result was the same. When the hero spoke, it was not in his typical, deep, booming voice that he often used for media interviews, but rather in his more normal voice that he used for comforting victims away from the camera.
"I want to thank all of you for coming out this morning. It is heartening beyond measure that our students have parents that are so dedicated to their children's well-being. Each and every one of you can be proud of yourselves and your children." Izuku found himself stopping to listen to his mentor speak to the assembled group of parents, curious as to how he was planning on defusing the situation. Thankfully, Kyoka stopped with him, apparently just as curious to see how this played out.
"I would like to take this moment to sincerely apologize to each and everyone of you for the worry and torment that you must have gone through as a result of the USJ incident. The villains were there explicitly for me, and I doubly failed my students, your children, by not being on campus that day. I apologize, from the bottom of my heart." All Might bowed towards the crowd in front of him as he spoke. A direct apology and acceptance of blame from the number one hero himself was not what Izuku had been expecting. It hadn't been what any of the parents had been expecting either based on the number of dropped jaws and incredulous stares.
"First, the only reason the children were in danger is because the villains had hoped to use their suffering to draw me out, assuming correctly that I would come as quickly as possible once I heard what was happening. If I had been present from the beginning, this danger would have never come to your children."
"Second, had I been present from the beginning, I would have been able to engage and defeat the most dangerous villains from the beginning, not after nearly ten minutes of time where they could run amok. Our other faculty, Eraserhead and Thirteen, as well as Hawks who had thankfully been nearby, were able to stall the villains for long enough for me to arrive, and I am eternally grateful to their bravery and skill that helped ensure that the villains were ultimately unsuccessful." While it was true that all three had been essential in keeping them safe, Izuku would have highlighted the contributions of Eraserhead even more. The man threw himself into a massively unfavorable combat situation without any hope of backup or support and held his own for far longer than anyone could be expected to. Izuku was not particularly happy with the way the man acted as a teacher, but as a hero, he left little to be desired.
"I have no excuse for why I was not present, but I do have a reason. There were a variety of issues involving the HPSC at my agency headquarters at Might Tower that required my personal presence. I expected that what was required of me in Tokyo would not fundamentally interfere with either my teaching or my heroism duties here in Musutafu. I was wrong." That drew a small gasp from the crowd. All Might had worked so hard to cultivate an aura of infallibility that even this sort of admission of failure was seen as shocking.
"I will not attempt to pretend otherwise. Maintaining a presence in Tokyo while living and working here in Musutafu is untenable, and the USJ incident has thrown this into sharp relief. As such, I will be shutting down the majority of my agency work in Might Tower, and moving the remainder here, to Musutafu. Principal Nezu has been kind enough to provide a building on campus for my agency to relocate to so I can continue to work on both my teaching and heroism from here on campus." All Might paused briefly to allow this statement to sink in, and low murmurs began to raise from the crowd. It was only a brief pause, though, as he continued on, louder now, closer to his normal bombastic presence.
"Worry not, though, for Might Tower will not sit empty. I am proud to announce that in addition to teaching the next generation of heroes here at U.A, I will also nurture the next generation of hero agencies in Tokyo. I plan on freely offering the use of Might Tower and the talents of my highly experienced and professional staff to up and coming heroes and their agencies to help them find their place in the world without having to get bogged down in bureaucracy. I have already made my first offer to the agency of the Lurkers. You may know them better individually as Kamui Woods and Edgeshot, two young, promising heroes who plan to work together to increase their efficiency. As of this morning, they have accepted my offer. I look forward to the other young and upcoming hero agencies that I can help nurture in this manner."
"Now, unfortunately, I have class that I must prepare for and students to teach. I hope that you all accept my very humble apology, and believe me when I say that nothing like this will happen again as long as I am here! Thank you." The man strode back towards the school without a look behind him at the audience he left behind.
And just like that All Might had redirected the media towards an even newer and more exciting story. Izuku could see a handful already running off and speaking frantically into their cell phones, hoping that their network would be the first to break this story. The reaction of the parents was far more subdued. Most of them seemed heartened by the promised greater attention of the number one hero. Most of them.
His mother, on the other hand, looked torn, and Izuku was sure he knew why. Yes, having All Might on campus would nearly guarantee that there would not be another villain attack on the school. However, that had never really been his mother's true worry. She was worried about the day-to-day training and realities of being a hero, the injuries that came part and parcel of such a dangerous job. Izuku felt movement to his side, and saw Kyoka staring at his mother as well, a disappointed look on her face as she sighed and shook her head slightly.
"Let's get inside, Green. If we're late, you'll have Aizawa to answer to, and I bet he's worse than your mother." Izuku couldn't help but laugh at the truth in that statement, and allowed himself to be drawn on campus by Kyoka, ready to continue his training to be a hero.
---
Serendipity didn't often smile on Nezu, if only because he was always looking for opportunities to turn events to his own favor. By definition serendipity occurred only by chance, unexpected and unplanned. Nezu did not like leaving much, if anything, to chance and he was very rarely surprised on his own campus. Given the amount of focus he had given to securing the campus against warp quirks and determining the provenance of the multi-quirked nomu from the USJ, however, he had let a few things slip past him.
For example, the gathered assembly of parents on his very doorstep that morning, had been somewhat of a surprise. He knew that there would be a collection of reporters and press members banging on the gates on the first day back to school after the USJ incident, and would have even without his sources in the media giving him a heads-up. The worries of the first-year hero class parents were also on his radar, having heard from Endeavor alone several times over the weekend. Even if the rumors about what had happened to the hero's eldest son were false, he was still someone who knew better than anyone else the dangers associated with training to be a hero.
Thankfully, the fact that this was the first villain attack on U.A in Nezu's entire tenure as principal, and the immediate security improvements that the HPSC had provided were enough to placate the man. However, Nezu knew that many of the other parents would not necessarily be so easily comforted.
Their presence with the media amplifying their concerns, however, was an unexpected development. He had not predicted that any of his student's parents this year (aside from the Yaoyorozus, but this was not their style) would have had the savvy to use the recent attack and associated media presence to bolster their case. Perhaps he should have expected that Inko Midoriya would have put that together, given her son's sharp mind, but he had not.
All Might would not have been present to defuse the situation if not for the impromptu early morning meeting that he had scheduled with All Might and Detective Tsukauchi. The meeting had been thrown together at the last minute to discuss the alarming discovery of multiple quirk factors in the DNA of the two deceased nomus and the one captured one. This discovery unfortunately backed up the wild claims from Tomura Shigaraki about the nomus being designed to kill All Might by carrying multiple quirks. The three of them came to the unavoidable conclusion that All For One was involved with this attack in some capacity. Either directly, implying that he had survived All Might's final attack years ago, or indirectly, implying that someone new had found his work and was planning on taking his place.
Neither conclusion was particularly reassuring.
All Might and Tsukauchi had been in the middle of discussing who should know about the potential threat when the protest began to build outside. By the time they had settled on the absolute minimum of who to tell (to Nezu's thinking at least) of Izuku Midoriya and the U.A staff, the demonstration had built large enough to be somewhat worrisome.
All of which led to Toshinori's serendipitous decision to go out and speak with the assembled crowd. Not Nezu's first choice by any means, but it worked far beyond the principal's grandest expectations. All Might's decision to relocate to Musutafu permanently had been in the works for weeks now, but the timing of the announcement could not have been better.
Detective Tsukauchi also saw himself out as Principal Nezu prepared for his next meeting: Director Katashi Oh of the HPSC. He wanted to speak about improvements to school safety in advance of the sports festival. Of course, Nezu had wanted to cancel the sports festival entirely, but President Fujiwara had made it clear to him that that would not be happening. The presence of the parents outside, coupled with the media attention that just so happened to be focused on them, reeked of Director Oh's work.
And oh, wasn't Nezu looking forward to turning the man's handiwork against him.
With this latest ploy, some of the events surrounding the USJ started to make a bit more sense. Specifically, the presence of Hawks. The number three hero had a habit of pushing at the commission's hold on him, which Nezu had been told was the reason that he was in Musutafu instead of Tokyo on the day of the attack. Even before today that had seemed unlikely, but he hadn't had time to dwell on it. Now it was downright laughable.
The relationship between Katashi Oh and Hawks was not well-known outside of commission circles, but Nezu made it a point to know about the Director of Education and Training. Despite what they liked to believe, there were very few people in the commission who could truly force Hawks into compliance. Director Oh was one of them.
Nezu was now sure that the Director's insistence on All Might's presence in Tokyo on the same day as Hawks' presence in Musutafu and an attack on the USJ, followed by an attempted media firestorm about student safety immediately preceding a meeting with Nezu, was anything other than a coincidence. Katashi Oh was trying to play events to secure a greater negotiating position. It might even have worked if Hawks had been more successful, if the students had been less able to defend themselves, if All Might had not arrived at the USJ when he had or not defused the situation outside. As it was, though, Nezu had a good idea of what Oh's goals were, and how best to twist them to U.A's benefit. He would not allow his students to be infected with the same poisonous view of heroism that seemed rife at the HPSC.
A glance at the security camera feeds on one of his monitors showed that Director Oh was approaching his office just now, having ignored Nezu's secretary just outside. A tap at the keyboard and the doors to his office were swinging wide just before the man could knock. A small game, but Nezu enjoyed it all the more with those who thought they were too important to even deign to grace his secretary with their presence.
Nezu favored Director Oh with one of his most predatory smiles, one that often unnerved his employees whenever he deployed it. He was never entirely sure why though; it was a perfectly normal smile for any apex predator, a category that certainly included humans. There was no denying its effectiveness, though.
"Hello, Director Oh. I've been looking forward to the meeting. Please, let's begin." The doors had been timed to shut exactly as Nezu finished speaking. The barely disguised nervousness on the director's face made Nezu very happy indeed.
---
Director Katashi Oh was late, as he often was. Sometimes, Takako Fujiwara wondered exactly how he achieved his position. He was an average political operator at best, although he was more than willing to sacrifice morality in favor of practicality and expediency. Apparently that was enough to make it to the Director level of the HPSC. Recalling back across the years, Oh had a habit of taking large political risks and had never truly missed on any of them. Perhaps that was the sign of a savvier political sense than she gave him credit for, but to Takako it seemed more likely a sign of exceptional luck. One day that luck was going to run out, and she hoped that she wouldn't be involved in the fallout when it did.
Rather, Takako was fairly sure that his luck had just run out, and wondered if there was a way that she could salvage this situation. There hadn't been anything explicitly stated by the man, but it was obvious to anyone who looked that he had known about the attack on U.A in advance and tried to twist it to his advantage with Hawks.
Of course, that ended in disaster, with Hawks requiring emergency quirk-assisted surgery to repair his shattered spine and regain any sort of mobility, and All Might being credited with the save despite having been in Tokyo literally as the attack began. The justifications for All Might's presence in Tokyo had somehow not been leaked to the media before the man himself gave it as a 'reason' (not an excuse, of course) for why he was not present in the first place.
Hawks would recover physically, and rather rapidly at that thanks to the specialized quirks that had been used. Further, his assistance was likely the reason why none of the students had suffered any more than they had already, but it did not paint a fantastic picture of HPSC competence if the highest ranked hero most closely associated with the commission failed to resolve an attack of this magnitude. Beyond that, the fact that the commission itself had been the reason that All Might had not been present was just going to weigh them down heading to the future.
The shift of All Might's official agency headquarters from Tokyo to Musutafu was just another sign of the man putting more public weight on his relationship with U.A and less on his relationship with the commission. It wouldn't have immediate consequences, but the long-term consequences could be pernicious indeed. Him offering Might Tower as free real estate to hand-picked heroes was just the cherry on top of the shit sundae that Director Oh had put together, as it hinted at All Might finally realizing the cultural power that he possessed and beginning to use it.
Takako should have known that letting All Might interact too much with Principal Nezu could only end poorly for the commission.
The only thing preventing her from cutting all ties with the Director immediately was that the media had apparently not yet picked up on the subtext as to why Hawks was present in Musutafu, instead referring to it as a happy coincidence. If there had even been a whisper that anyone at the commission had known the attack was going to happen and not alerted U.A at all, the man would have been the sacrifice to show the media that they were taking things seriously.
Although that would have inevitably raised the question of why the Director of Education and Training was the fall person for this attack, which would raise other, further, unpleasant questions. Takako sighed and rubbed her temples to stave off her growing headache. This man was causing her no end of issues. And to top it all off he was growing later by the second.
As if summoned by her frustration, Oh took exactly this opportunity to strut into her office, unconcerned or unaware of his boss's irritation with him. A greasy smile was fixed on his face as he greeted Takako, and she had to restrain herself from calling him an idiot on the spot.
"Good afternoon, madam president. I apologize for my tardiness, but I was finishing up my negotiations with Principal Nezu. I think you'll be pleased with the results." If anything the man's voice was oilier than normal, a thick layer of obsequiousness on top of his normal, slightly nasal tones. Takako narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously.
"Explain." If he noticed her tone, he didn't show it.
"I managed to get Nezu to agree to HPSC advisors on the U.A campus directly speaking with the students." President Fujiwara's eyes widened a hair. That was quite a coup, and something they had been trying to achieve for years at this point. What had Oh given away in return? What were the limitations? Where was the catch? Because Nezu was in a better negotiating position now then he had been dozens of other times he had rejected HPSC advisors.
"Details?"
"Currently U.A students determine their own training programs for the Sports Festival. I managed to convince Nezu to accept a commission advisor for each year to 'provide structure and guidance for safe and effective self-directed training'." The PR justification for the presence of the advisors slid easily out of his mouth. As far as these things went, it really wasn't a bad idea on the face of it. Leaving first year high school students to their own devices for two weeks was just bad pedagogy, especially for something as important as the Sports Festival.
However, all of that raised an important question. "He agreed to run the Festival even given the recent attack? I told him it was non-negotiable, but I still expected him to be strongly against it."
Director Oh grimaced at the statement. "He was, claiming to be worried about security. I don't know what the fuss is about given how many heroes are generally in the audience anyway, but we came to an agreement that we would subsidize an increase in security this year." Of course he wouldn't understand the need for increased security. Also notable was his willingness to let Nezu of all people(?) have control over the make-up of the additional security.
"How much?" Might as well dive straight into the unpleasantness. And it must be rather unpleasant indeed, as Director Oh was distinctly uncomfortable at this turn in conversation. "How much, Director?"
"A factor of five in hero and police presence." There it was. The U.A Sports Festival was already a significant portion of the overall HPSC education budget, even factoring in what they made back through broadcasting deals. Such a spike in costs for security would be costly indeed.
"If we had the budget for this, which we don't and it's coming from your department, did you really think that it was a good idea to let Nezu have free reign over the heroes in charge of security? It would be very different if we could have our preferred heroes on campus in addition to your advisors."
"I believed this was an acceptable cost to get advisors onto campus. Now that we have our foot in the door, so to speak, we'll be able to expand our advisory program moving forward and start truly improving the culture at U.A. It'll be much harder to get them off of campus again then it was to get them there in the first place."
Once again, Director Oh was taking a massive risk. But Takako had to admit that she saw the potential for upside. Not her style, but it had worked for the man in front of her for years. And it was true that he was the first to succeed at penetrating Nezu's fortress to even a small extent. That had to count for something.
Regardless, she had learned long ago to never doubt the power of inertia. Once something started, it was orders of magnitude more difficult for it to be stopped. For now it might just be advisors for the Sports Festival, but it could certainly grow into something much larger.
"Very well, Director. We'll see how your plans proceed." The director seemed to understand the unspoken threat that if this plan proceeded poorly, he'd be out of a job very soon. Takako still didn't know exactly why Nezu had agreed to these advisors, and that worried her.
She was confident, though, that that same power of inertia would see the commission through any temporary setbacks from Oh, despite what the rat might be planning. All in all, for her it seemed a reasonable risk to take. If it worked, there would be only upside. If it didn't, Director Oh would bear the brunt of the consequences.