Chapter 32: Confrontation
Kyoka might have expected the prep room for the medal ceremony to be a little livelier. After all, everyone in the room was about to be awarded a medal for placing in the top four in an internationally televised sporting event. They were all going to be minor celebrities, at least for the next few days. Beyond that, they had given themselves a strong first step into their future careers as heroes by demonstrating a solid base to build on.
They should have been celebrating. This was what all prospective hero students at U.A were supposed to dream about, after all.
Instead, however, the room was dead silent. Kyoka could hear the crowd simmering above, waiting for the medal ceremony to begin. She could hear staff running through the halls outside, finishing up last minute tasks. But there was nothing to be said between her and Kaibara.
It wasn't like they were close, more acquaintances than anything else. He had always been some odd combination of both too quiet and too intense. Kaibara didn't speak often in class, but when he did it was usually both brusque and expletive-laden.
The real issue was that neither Izuku nor Kaminari were in the room right now. Kaminari could talk to anybody, if his behavior throughout the tournament was any indication, and Kyoka really wanted to talk to Izuku.
Just to congratulate him. Nothing else. Certainly not to yell at him for going so hard against Kaminari. Certainly not.
Although, if she were to scold Izuku, she'd give just as much of a scolding to Kaminari. The two of them had egged each other on, each pushing themselves further and further just to win. The fact that they both needed medical robots to transport both of them to Recovery Girl's office after the fight was proof enough that they had pushed too hard.
The hour that they had already delayed the medal ceremony to wait for their top two finishers to be cleared by Recovery Girl was just the cherry on top.
The silence between her and Kaibara stretched longer and longer, and at this point it seemed like it would be more awkward to break the silence than to simply wait until whenever the medal ceremony started. That wasn't to say that quietly waiting with Kaibara was pleasant. On the contrary, it was one of the more uncomfortable social experiences that Kyoka had experienced since getting into U.A.
Thankfully, it was only a moment or two more before the door slammed open, breaking the silence. Recovery Girl stalked through the door, dragging both Izuku and Kaminari in by their ears. Neither boy looked particularly happy about the situation, but they also weren't doing anything to pull away from the nurse.
"Now, you two are going to stay here until it's time for you to go up." Recovery Girl spoke frostily to the top two finishers of the festival, finally letting go of their ears. "Do you think you can avoid breaking each other for the five minutes that will take?"
"Yes, Recovery Girl." Izuku and Kaminari intoned in sync.
Recovery Girl glared at the two of them, searching their faces for something. Whatever it was, she obviously didn't find it. She huffed and turned to Kyoka and Kaibara. "You two had better make sure these two fools don't hurt themselves before the medal ceremony." Her glare swung back towards Izuku and Kaminari. "If you hurt yourself after that, it's your own fault and I won't be helping you."
With that, the elderly nurse turned on her heel and slammed the door as she exited the room. For someone so old, she still had quite a bit of strength in her sinewy arms.
Izuku at least had the good grace to look embarrassed as he turned to look at Kyoka. Kaminari on the other hand popped back into a smile as soon as Recovery Girl had left the room and immediately started chatting with Izuku.
"Man, I didn't want to say anything while Recovery Girl was around, but that was a hell of a fight! I gotta know, how do you manage to use your electricity for so long without hurting yourself too much? When I try to do it, it hurts like a bitch!" Izuku's eyes swung back and forth between Kaminari and Kyoka as he tried to decide whether to answer the question or head over to talk with his girlfriend.
Kyoka simply rolled her eyes and waved her hand. She knew that Izuku would be at least a little distracted until he got to talk about quirks even if she tried to talk to him first.
"Well, I don't actually have a lightning quirk." Kaminari's face fell. "My quirk is strength stockpiling, and the lightning is just a visual effect, as far as anyone has been able to figure out. It still hurts when I pull too much of my quirk, but that's because my body isn't strong enough to deal with my quirk at full blast."
"Ah, rats. I was hoping you had figured something out. You were the one who figured out that I could use my lightning to speed myself up, after all."
"Well, I did have one idea." Of course Izuku had an idea. Kyoka was convinced that Izuku's muttering was due to having more ideas than could physically fit inside his head and having them leak out his mouth. "Depending on how fine your control is, you could try to excite only the muscle fibers and not the pain receptors running through them. It would only work briefly, until your muscles started generating lactic acid, but it would cut down on the initial pain, certainly."
Kaminari's face exploded in a grin as he shot Izuku a thumbs up. "Thanks man! I'm still trying to direct my lightning through my body faster. Guess I have to work on my precision too."
"Oh, is that why you didn't shock me when you touched me? I was wondering what was up with that."
"Yeah, it still takes some time to redirect everything in my body, which is weird because it's lightning!" Kaminari barked a laugh before glancing at Kyoka and quickly sobering. "I'll stop bothering you now. You should go talk to your girlfriend before she explodes."
Apparently, Kyoka was tapping her foot louder than she had thought. WIth an effort, she stopped the tapping and uncrossed her arms. Kaminari just kind of rubbed her the wrong way right now, although the logical side of her brain tried to convince her that she was still annoyed with him both for flirting in the middle of a fight and for zapping her hard enough that she had to watch Izuku's final fight from Recovery Girl's office.
Thankfully, Izuku took the hint and stepped closer to Kyoka, wrapping her in a hug once he got close.
Any residual annoyance that she had with her boyfriend immediately melted away.
"You did so well!" Izuku cheered as they broke the hug. "And here you were saying that you didn't know how you'd get past Kirishima!"
"Look who's talking Mr. 'Ashido might beat me'." Izuku chuckled and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. Kyoka took the moment to poke him in the forehead with one of her earjacks.
"Hey," Izuku flinched. "What was that for?"
"That was for being willing to just sit back and let Kaibara punch you." She hadn't seen it live, but the replays leading into the final match had shown clearly enough what had happened. Izuku opened his mouth to say something, but Kyoka preempted him and poked him in the forehead with an earjack a second time. "And that's for breaking yourself so badly against Kaminari."
"Well it was that or get electrocuted by him." Izuku replied. "How did that turn out for you?"
"It sucked." Kyoka admitted. "But probably not as much as breaking both my arms." She paused for a moment before continuing. "It was pretty badass seeing you rip the floor of the ring up, though. Badass, and kind of hot."
Izuku's face exploded into a blush once again, but he didn't look away. "Then it was worth the pain." Kyoka felt her own face begin to heat up.
Thankfully, she was spared from any further embarrassment by the door opening and one of Ectoplasm's clones entering the room. It was time for the medal ceremony.
---
Not for the first time, Toshinori found himself grumbling about the lengths that he found himself going to just for effect. Sitting on the roof of the U.A arena, waiting for his cue to leap down and present the awards to the top finishers, part of Toshinori wanted to just walk out with Midnight for the ceremony. However, he had long ago made his peace with the necessity for some level of showmanship. Or so he had thought.
There were any number of heroes out there that kept their heads down and worked at least as hard as Toshinori did, but none of them could be a Symbol of Peace. A symbol needed to be visible to be effective, and while Toshinori was both grateful and supportive of the efforts of hard-working heroes, he needed to go beyond. That was the justification he had used each and every time he had forced himself into the spotlight; that a little discomfort on his part would pay dividends as the entire country knew that he was there.
And it had worked. Toshinori had unambiguously succeeded at becoming the Symbol of Peace, with over two decades of the unofficial title under his belt. He had even believed that he had defeated All For One once and for all, ending his menace for good. Beyond that he had taken down The Elements, The Wolf Pack, more one-of villains than he could remember, and even brought down a yakuza family or two, back in his early days.
To look at the statistics, crime in Japan was lower than ever. Public opinion of the hero system was higher than ever, and every single public safety statistic was the best it had been since before quirks developed, where they had records to compare at least.
But more and more Toshinori felt he was seeing flaws with his plan to be the symbol of peace. When he was working and patrolling at all hours of the day and night, he didn't have time for such thoughts. But now that he was pulling back on his patrols and spending more time teaching, and more time as Toshinori Yagi, he had more time to think.
Toshinori was not a stupid man, although some people certainly jumped to that conclusion from his public appearances. The decrease in crime in Japan, especially that over the last five years, since his showdown with All For One, did not necessarily mean that there were fewer criminals and villains overall. In fact, Toshinori was growing increasingly convinced that more and more villains were lying low, waiting for his inevitable retirement. If anything, it seemed like even All For One was doing that, if the presence of the multiple quirked nomu at the USJ was anything to go by.
On the other side of the equation was the HPSC and their machinations. Toshinori had always held them at arm's length, using his platform and reputation as the number one hero to try to lead by example. He didn't want to mandate behavior, but rather to show other heroes the right way to act.
It wasn't working, judging by the quality of most younger heroes these days. Looking through them to find the right sort of moral fortitude to offer a spot in Might Tower was depressing in how long it took. Further, seeing just how much the HPSC had interfered with U.A and their teaching methods just because he had taken a position at the school, as well as the way the Sports Festival had changed since his own time at U.A, cast their behavior in a very different light.
How different would things have been if he had taken more of an interest in the political side of heroism earlier on? How much of the HPSC's behavior was he still unaware of? How much could be begin to put a stop to in the time he had left? What would be the best way to do so?
Toshinori needed to speak with someone he trusted on the matter. He was in the middle of debating who to talk with to get a better understanding of the HPSC when he remembered exactly where he was and what he was doing: standing atop the U.A arena roof, waiting to leap down and present awards to the top four finishers.
Squinting down towards the center of the field, he could spot Midnight gesturing enthusiastically towards the sky while the four winners stood on the podium next to her. He hadn't heard his cue to jump down, but he hadn't been listening for it at all. Was it possible he had missed his prompt?
He tapped at the comm piece in his ear only to realize that he wasn't hearing anything at all out of it. Not even a background hiss of white noise. It must have broken at some point during the day. On reflection, the white noise had cut out after Hatsume had hijacked the communications system during her finals match. There must have been some type of feedback that had broken his communicator.
Looking down at the field, Midnight was still gesticulating wildly, so Toshinori made the call to jump down now. Better to be early than late, after all. Bulking up into his All Might form, he leapt from above, and let out his signature laugh as he plummeted towards the field.
" A-HA-HA-HA-HA! I am here! With the medals!" Toshinori timed his catch phrase to perfectly match his landing. Unfortunately, as he landed he realized that he could hear exactly what Midnight had been saying.
"And to present the awards is everyone's hero…" Midnight had trailed off, just seconds away from introducing All Might. Apparently he had been a bit early. The two heroes exchanged a quick glance, wordlessly agreeing to simply move on from the faux pas and hand out the medals.
All four of the students on the podium were students that he had personally chosen for scouting and extra training. While it was entirely possible that it was the extra training alone that had propelled these four to the top, Toshinori preferred to think of this result as reinforcing that he had managed to find the students with the most potential.
Unfortunately, only two of the students in front of him knew that it had been All Might who had chosen them for scouting. To the others, he was their heroics teacher, and nothing more personal than that. That didn't mean that he couldn't speak to them from that perspective, of course.
He picked up one of the bronze medals and stepped forward towards Kaibara. "Young Kaibara, in this festival you have displayed creativity and fine control of your quirk, as well as outstanding perseverance, all traits that will serve you well in your future career!"
Toshinori slipped the medal over young Kaibara's neck and was heartened to see a small smile on his face as he straightened. It was good to know that the boy could smile outside of battle. He pulled young Kaibara into a short hug before moving on.
"Young Jiro," Toshinori grabbed the other bronze medal as he stepped over to the young woman. "Today you have shown that you are not just a one trick pony. You showed more versatility and strength with your quirk than I have ever seen from you before. If you keep that up, I see only bright things in your future."
As Toshinori placed the medal on young Jiro's neck, she was the very image of a calm, composed hero student. The barely controlled twitches and spasms in her earjacks, though, gave away the lie. Again he pulled young Jiro into a hug, politely ignoring how her earjacks went crazy, before stepping over to the second place finisher.
"Young Kaminari, while you could have tried to coast by on a powerful quirk, you instead devised clever tactics that played to your strengths and showed an admirable willingness to improvise when plan A failed. Congratulations on your well-deserved second place finish."
Toshinori deeply hoped that the buzzing around young Kaminari was just his excitement on display, and not his quirk simmering just under the surface. Thankfully, placing the silver medal on young Kaminari's neck and hugging him did not electrocute him. It would have been quite embarrassing for All Might to be felled by a student at an award ceremony.
Finally, Toshinori found himself in front of young Midoriya, his successor, the winner of the sports festival. "Young Midoriya. I cannot overstate both how impressed and proud I am of your performance during this sports festival." Already the tears in young Midoriya's eyes were threatening to spill over and flood the winner's podium, but he was restraining himself for now. "You showed every sort of quality that I would want to see in a hero today. If you continue on the upward trajectory you've had over the time I've known you, there is no limit to what you can accomplish. Aim high, young Midoriya."
Toshinori went for a hug, and was unsurprised to feel his shoulder dampen from young Midoriya's tears. The fact that his boots weren't drenched was a credit to Midoriya beginning to get a handle on his volatile emotions. He let Midoriya hang on to the hug for a moment longer than any of the other finishers, giving him time to compose himself.
Eventually, though, Toshinori turned back towards the crowd. " Let's celebrate all of our contestants today. Each and every one of them exemplified U.A's motto. All together now! "
" Plus Ultra! " The entire stadium erupted in the cheer, and Toshinori swelled with pride at the praise for his students. They were going to be some of the best heroes of all time.
---
It had been a long, dehydrating day for Inko. At the end of it, though, she couldn't have been prouder to see her soon standing atop the podium at the end of the sports festival. Somehow her sweet baby boy had grown up into a hero student that others could look up to. There had been times during the festival that she almost hadn't recognized the confident, powerful student that had dominated almost all of his competition as her own son.
Her pride in her son was tinged with a large helping of self-deprecation on the side. Izuku had managed to grow up so much, and into such a fine young man, over the past year. But at the same time, the two of them had grown apart. And no matter how much Inko wanted to deny it, a large portion of the blame lay on her shoulders.
After all, while she hadn't forbid Izuku from training with Mr. Yagi the year before U.A, she hadn't been anywhere near as supportive as she could have been. Even worse, she had come dangerously close to canceling the entire program after Izuku broke some bones during a random run in with a villain.
Seeing how far he had come made her realize exactly how bad of a decision that would have been. The best case scenario would have been Izuku simply accepting her decree, which almost certainly would have led to him sinking into a depression. He had wanted to be a hero all of his life, and to have it dangled in front of him before being suddenly ripped away, could have sent him spiraling down.
A much worse case scenario would have been Izuku deciding to prioritize becoming a hero over her. Knowing how close he had become with the Jiros and the level of support U.A was already giving him as a scouted student, he certainly could have managed to keep afloat without any support from her. If Inko were honest with herself, this was the most likely outcome. She shied away from the many potential even worse outcomes.
So much of her life had been watching out for possible dangers to Izuku that she hadn't realized just how strong and capable he had become. She had internalized the idea that quirkless people needed more support, more protection, more help, just because they lacked a quirk. All she had seen were the downsides of him training to be a hero, while seeing none of the upsides, such as his new found confidence.
While it was true that Izuku had a quirk now, over the course of the festival it had become more and more obvious to Inko that the reason he did so well was not because of an overpowering quirk. No, it was his enthusiasm to throw his entire self into becoming a hero that helped him overcome every obstacle before him in the festival.
While she hadn't been happy to watch his quirk hurt himself in the finals, it had proven to her once and for all that Izuku was far tougher than she had ever given him credit for in the past. The fact that he had a quirk now didn't hurt, but nothing about his quirk helped him deal with injuries. That was all his own innate toughness and pain tolerance.
All in all Inko had only flooded the apartment five times and passed out once from dehydration. She was relatively proud of those numbers, having expected each of them to be higher by at least double.
Now, though, with the first day of the festival over, she was missing Izuku. He had taken to dormitory life much more readily than Inko had expected. He shared much of her anxiety, including the social anxiety that had dominated her younger years, and so Inko expected him to have some trouble adjusting to living away from home.
Instead, as far as she understood, Izuku already had a solid friend group, a girlfriend (she was fairly sure that he and Jiro were dating, even if Izuku hadn't told her as much, yet), and didn't seem to have any measure of homesickness. In fact, Izuku had only returned home once since beginning school: in the aftermath of the attack on U.A.
That was another situation that Inko could admit, in retrospect, that she had dealt with rather poorly. It would be easy to blame it all on Hisashi and him barging his way into a family that he had all but abandoned years ago, but that wasn't entirely true.
It hadn't been Hisashi that had threatened to pull Izuku out of U.A, after all.
The rest of that weekend had been incredibly tense. Inko hadn't realized it at the time as she had been too busy trying to organize a protest at U.A. A protest that had gone nowhere due to All Might's impromptu press conference, giving her nothing to show for a weekend of tension and awkwardness.
Izuku had done the bare minimum since then to keep in contact with her, staying in the dorms even on weekends and calling only infrequently. It was all just because of the lead up to the sports festival, he had said, but Inko knew that wasn't it. And she had let it happen, preferring to blame U.A for pulling her son away from her than herself for pushing him away.
Well, that was going to change tonight. While the commentary and analysis of the first day of the sports festival continued to play out muted on the television, along with previews of the second and third days to come, Inko figured that Izuku should be free enough to speak with his own mother calling to congratulate him. She dialed his number and was surprised but pleased when he picked up after just one ring.
"H-Hi, mom." Inko's heart sank to hear him stutter with nerves just at receiving a call from his mother. "I'm g-guessing you saw the festival?" If only Inko had listened to her son earlier, things might not have gotten to the point where he assumed the worst about her calling after the festival.
"My baby boy did so well!" There were any number of other things that Inko wanted to say, but she couldn't prevent herself from blurting out what was at the forefront in her mind.
"W-wait a minute. You're not upset at how hurt I got in the finals? Or how Todoroki could have hurt me? Or anything like that?" Oh, Inko was certainly upset at both of those. More generally, she was upset that the final round was essentially a ruleless bloodsport, but that wasn't something that she could blame on Izuku. It would instead be a part of one of her future complaints to U.A, whenever that might be.
"It was hard to watch at times, but I'm just so proud of how far you've come!" It seemed like a better idea to focus on the positives, at least for now.
"Oh. T-Thanks, mom." Inko's heart broke to hear the surprise in Izuku's voice. Was it really that rare for her to offer him positive feedback?
"I wanted to see if you could come over for dinner tonight. As a celebration I was going to make your favorite: katsudon!" That had been Izuku's favorite food since he was eight. It was as good a place as any to start to make amends.
"I'd love to, mom, but… um… one second." It sounded like someone was talking to him just off the phone. By the sound of their voice, it was probably Jiro, but Inko couldn't make out anything specific. "What? Are you sure? But I was… Ok, ok, I get it." Izuku returned his attention to his conversation with his mother. "I'll be there tonight, mom. I'll have to be back by curfew, but it'll be nice to catch up." There was a short pause before he added, in a subdued tone, "Is, uh, is dad going to be there?"
"No, I was hoping this would be just the two of us." Inko hadn't answered any of Hisashi's calls since the night after the USJ, and thankfully he hadn't gone so far as to try showing up at the apartment unannounced. She wasn't sure when she would answer his calls, but it wasn't going to be anytime soon. "We haven't had much of a chance to talk much at all, even over the phone, lately."
"Ok, I'll see you soon, then. Bye mom."
"Bye honey." Inko knew that she had to get a lot ready for dinner soon, and wanted everything to be as perfect as possible.
Obviously she wasn't going to be able to repair her entire relationship with Izuku over one night of dinner, no matter how perfect it was. However, she was going to put everything she had into it if it meant that she could start making things right. And if it meant that she would have to put off her planned conversation with Katashi Oh, so be it. After all, with the skills Izuku had displayed in the festival, Inko wouldn't need to worry about him as much.
She'd still worry, but not quite as much.
---
As Izuku changed into his pajamas for bed, he thought back on what an utterly long and emotionally draining day it had been. The physical and emotional exhaustion that came from winning the sports festival was more or less what he had expected. He hadn't expected for his mother to call and invite him to dinner, instead planning on going over to Kyoka's house for dinner with her parents.
In the moment, he had been less than happy about his changing plans, but Kyoka had kind of pushed him into it. She'd been worried about his relationship with his mother at least since the USJ and the aftermath, but normally she wasn't so forceful.
This time though, he had to admit that Kyoka had been right. Dinner with his mother had been … nice. Her food was as good as ever, comforting in a way that Lunch Rush's food never could be. And when they talked, it wasn't the same sort of back and forth of worry and reassurance that it had been for the past several months. It hadn't even had the aura of protectiveness that their conversations had had for years before then.
No, this time she hadn't spoken to him as a fragile nor delusional child, but as his own person. It was refreshing in a way he hadn't realized he had needed. While it was possible that she was back to paying lip service to his dream of being a hero, it rang true to him at least. She hadn't even given him (too much) grief over breaking his arms against Kaminari.
There'd been some grief, but it was couched more in terms of her trying to figure out how he was doing with his quirk, how much of it he could use at this point, and what U.A was doing to help him with his quirk control. She seemed slightly disappointed that they were letting him continue on with just All Might as a teacher for his quirk, but she didn't press him on it. The fact that Izuku was increasing the amount he could safely use so quickly seemed to make her happy, at least.
It hadn't been perfect by any means, and Izuku was still wary of his mother slipping back to her earlier overprotective self, but it felt like a step in the right direction.
On the whole, Izuku was more than happy to sink into his bed after getting back to campus, only taking enough time to use the bathroom and change into his pajamas. His entire body was begging for sleep, and he knew he wouldn't be in a good place to fully come to terms with the fact that he had just won the sports festival(!) until tomorrow at the earliest. So exhausted was Izuku that he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
So of course, of course tonight would be the night that the previous holders of One For All would choose to contact him once again. Izuku was glad that his mouth still hadn't manifested in this dream realm, because it saved him the trouble of having to suppress a groan upon realizing what was happening.
This time, however, instead of the third user or Nana Shimura standing in front of him, this time it was a man with stark white hair and piercing green eyes. Izuku was somewhat taken aback, unable to tell exactly how old the man was. He appeared at first blush to be relatively young, but there was something in his eyes that spoke of a wealth of age.
"Hello, little ninth." The man's voice was weak and high pitched, but warm underneath all of it. "I had meant to visit you earlier, but Third seems to have preempted me. As you might have guessed, I am the first wielder of One For All, the brother of All For One. My name is Yoichi Shigaraki."
Izuku stiffened somewhat at the reveal of the family name. "Yes, I thought that name would cause that sort of reaction. Please, when you can speak here, call me Yoichi. And worry not. I do not believe that Tomura Shigaraki is related to my brother by blood. I can say for certain that he is not related to me."
Unable to speak, Izuku tilted his head in confusion. "The illness that ravaged my body for most of my life left me completely infertile. My brother, on the other hand, has never been one for sharing anything. He saw the risk of a child receiving a quirk even somewhat similar to his as far too great." Izuku didn't have anything to say to that, even if he could.
After a moment, the first wielder began to speak again. "However, that is not why I brought you here tonight. We will talk more about my brother once we have confirmed that he is alive and active." Izuku nodded. It made sense after all. There was still a chance that Toshinori was wrong about where the multi-quirked nomu came from.
"As Third and Seventh told you to some extent, One For All has passed the singularity point. What this means in practical terms for you is that you will eventually receive all six additional quirks in addition to One For All. You already know four of the quirks. Fourth and Second will tell you about their quirks in good time.
"However, the quirks you get will be enhanced by their interaction with One For All. For example, Fa Jin alone would not stockpile anywhere near as much, nor for as long." That made sense. Izuku had always wondered in the back of his mind why none of the kinetic energy that he stored up ever seemed to drain away.
"You will also have us vestiges along for the ride. We may not be able to provide anything material to you, but you will have our wealth of experience to draw on. Experience both about combating All For One, and, for the other six, about their quirks." Izuku cocked his head to the side. After a moment, Yoichi seemed to understand that he was asking a question and cast about to figure out what it might be.
"Ah, is this about the Eighth? And if he exists here?" Izuku nodded. "This is, of course, all still new for us. One For All just recently reached singularity. There is the precursor to a vestige here that is in place of the Eighth, but he will not fully join us here until he either uses the last embers of One For All within himself or when he dies. We'll figure out exactly which in the future. Either way, he has no way of contacting us on his own, nor can we share anything with him. Everything that happens here is something for you and you alone." It was good to know that even having seven sets of eyes riding along with him, they wouldn't be able to tell Toshinori.
"However, just because we all support you in your endeavors does not mean we are all of one mind on all topics." Yoichi paused for a moment, looking like he was collecting his thoughts. "You may have heard comments to this effect in one of your earlier trips here." Izuku nodded again, vaguely recalling the sniping back and forth between Nana and the third user. Yoichi grimaced. "I had hoped death would temper their disagreements some, but it has not."
"When I gave this quirk to Second, society was in the process of disintegrating." It was true that there was precious little historical information about the Dawn of Quirks. What existed made it sound like a very unpleasant time to live through. "Second and Third were high ranking members of an anti-government organization. They did their best to fight against all of the many forms of quirkism that existed at the time, both pro- and anti-quirkists."
"I passed One For All on to Second because I found their idealism inspiring." Yoichi paused, before adding quickly, "Also, they rescued me from my brother, which may have played a rather major role in my decision. However," He resumed his normal speaking cadence. "their organization was rather … unyielding in its philosophy. They fought against the government at the time for being quirkist against those with quirks, against the Meta-Liberation Army for being quirkist against those without quirks, against my brother for his general, for lack of a better word, assholishness, and… well, you get the point."
That didn't sound too bad to Izuku. In fact, that sounded pretty good to him overall. Something about his feelings must have shown in his body language, however, as Yoichi continued. "That, however, is not what led Fifth and Seventh to their disagreements. Second and Third were more than willing, eager in some cases, to kill for what they believed in. I cannot guarantee that everyone they killed deserved it, and I don't think either would claim as much."
Ah. That would explain why there was such a divide. The later holders had been heroes under a similar sort of hero system as All Might and Izuku, one where killing was strongly discouraged in all but the most extreme circumstances, even if that taboo had been lessening over the past few years. It was an ethical issue that Izuku had admittedly not deeply considered.
"This is not something that need affect you. You should pursue your vision of justice as you see fit. I mean this only as background so you can understand where the advice may be coming from." Something rippled in the dream world, and Yoichi looked around, surprised. "Ah, your time here is coming to an end, I see."
As the dreamscape began to fade away and Izuku dropped back into a normal sleep, he deeply hoped that he would not have to make such decisions for a long, long time, if ever.
---
Rain fell heavily on Hosu, dampening the footsteps of the sidekick in the alley below. For three days Stain had been tracking the movements of Team Idaten from the rooftops, inspecting them for any signs of Falsity. Initially, targeting Team Idaten had been borne out of necessity, in order to avoid their sudden increase in hero patrols in the city.
As time bore on, though, it became more and more obvious that at least one of the many sidekicks on the team was abusing his position. Their patrols were tightly scripted affairs, designed to efficiently cover ground without leaving any gaps in their coverage. This made it all the more obvious when one sidekick in particular, Agent Red, decided to loiter in a particular alleyway day after day at the expense of his overall patrol route.
While at first he had followed all members of Team Idaten, today Stain had focused entirely on Agent Red. Four hours of unremarkable patrol later, and once again Agent Red found his way to this particular alleyway and left a gaping hole in the team's overall patrol route. Already that was a strike against the man, but the real question was why. From the top of one of the buildings abutting the alleyway, Stain watched.
For the third day in a row, five minutes of loitering was all that the sidekick allowed himself, before he moved on to the rest of his patrol. Despite Stain's efforts, it seemed as if Agent Red was not doing anything at all while in the alleyway, simply pacing back and forth. He wasn't waiting for anyone, looking for anything, or doing anything even remotely illegal. No drug deal, no information brokering, nothing of the sort.
Unfortunately, that did not mean that it wasn't immoral, and unbecoming of a hero. Heroes were meant to be always on guard, always prepared to right the wrongs of society. Patrols were meant to be a sign of strength, an indication that no matter where or when tragedy struck, someone would be there to help them.
A True Hero should never take a break during patrol! True Heroes should never display weakness to the public. And True Heroes should certainly neverendanger a larger effort to apprehend a dangerous criminal in order to take time for themselves.
The fact that Stain was, himself, said dangerous criminal never entered into the equation.
As Agent Red moved to exit the alley, Stain came to a decision. This sidekick was a False Hero. There was no choice but to Cull him.
Stain drew a small knife from his side; nothing more would be needed to deal with this Fake. Then he stepped off of the building he had been perched on, falling with the rain onto the sidekick beneath him.
He fell onto Agent Red knife point first, driving it deep into the man's right shoulder. Blood spurted the wound, mixing into the rain in a fine spray. Stain opened his mouth and cast about with his long tongue, searching out the familiar metallic taste of blood. Enough landed on his tongue for him to swallow and paralyze the fake beneath him, bringing an end to the man's weak attempts to escape.
In the process of reaching to pull the knife from the wound and finish the job, Stain realized that the ever present sound of falling rain had altered slightly. Glancing around it quickly became obvious that Agent Red had managed to catch him with a quirk before Stain's paralysis had taken effect. Outside of a small sphere centered on Agent Red, everything was blurred, as if he was watching a sped-up video.
This was a trap!
Stain's instincts flared and he pushed away from Agent Red as quickly as he could, bracing for impact with the edge of the sphere. The transition was painfully unpleasant, and left him on his hands and knees, with his ears ringing, retching onto the ground of the alleyway. Again on instinct, Stain rolled to his left just in time as an armored form crashed onto the ground where he had just been.
Ingenium rose from a crouch in front of Stain, standing between him and the still paralyzed Agent Red. Two more sidekicks, Enigma and Bigshot, stood on either side of Agent Red, just outside of his quirk's area of effect. When could they have gotten there? Ingenium was supposed to be on the other side of the city right now. Stain narrowed his eyes at the quirk that Agent Red was using.
Rain striking the sphere around the sidekick behaved oddly. Any drop that approached the surface at a sharp angle would rebound off in a seemingly random direction, but those that approached it head-on simply slowed down, adjusting smoothly to nearly halt their fall.
So that's how it was. Agent Red's quirk could slow down time in a small volume. Useless in a great many situations, but very useful for holding someone like Stain in place. A clever usage.
Regardless, Agent Red still agreed to a plan that would leave his segment of the patrol unguarded on the off chance it would snare Stain. He was no True Hero, and would need to be Purged.
"Stand down, Hero Killer." Ingenium spoke with authority in his voice. "Your reign of terror will end tonight."
"No." Stain straightened, unsheathing his katana. Behind Ingenium, Agent Red released his quirk and the two sidekicks next to him rushed to his side. Enigma started applying first aid to the stab wound, leaving the knife in place for the time being, while Bigshot tried to help the wounded hero to his feet. "I will see Justice done tonight. That Fake must die." Stain pointed his sword directly at the wounded hero, and watched with some satisfaction as Enigma and Bigshot both momentarily froze.
Ingenium, however, did not seem frightened by the display, simply moving one step closer. "Six more sidekicks will be here within two minutes. You will be surrounded and arrested. Give up, Stain."
"Then I'll have to work quickly." Stain leapt to his right, seeking purchase on the wall to make his way around the turbo hero to the paralyzed fake hero. Unfortunately, Ingenium was just as fast as the rumors stated, easily moving to intercept him. Stain just barely dodged a rocket powered punch, dancing away from Ingenium. He threw a knife while off-balance, just to watch as it bounced uselessly off of Ingenium's costume.
Apparently that armor was for more than just show.
"Get Agent Red out of here!" Ingenium roared to his sidekicks. "I'll last until backup gets here!" Bigshot was the first to shake out of his momentary stupor, hoisting the injured sidekick onto his wide shoulders and leading Enigma away quickly. As the three sidekicks disappeared out of the alley, Enigma called back. "Red is paralyzed, hypothesized blood ingestion quirk." And then they were gone.
Stain roared in frustration. Not only had his prey gotten away, but now Ingenium had a lead on his quirk. Even though all signs pointed towards Ingenium being a True Hero, he would now have to die. Stain had far too much Work to do for his quirk to become public knowledge now.
"Blood based paralysis quirk, eh?" Ingenium mused out loud while parrying Stain's katana using his heavily armored arms. Despite the hero's speed, he wasn't actually trying too hard to strike back, merely keep Stain in place. Of course, he had the advantage of backup on its way. "I seem to recall a vigilante with a quirk like that, roughly five years ago."
Stain said nothing, but redoubled his efforts to draw blood from the hero. He stomped his foot to release the spring-loaded knife in the sole, but Ingenium was able to step on the blade, snapping it at its base before he could use it.
Ingenium struck, finally, landing a quirk-boosted punch to Stain's ribs and sending the villain reeling. "I had my suspicions, but I would say that clinches it, Stain. Or should I say, Stendhal?" Stain's breath caught in his throat. "Or… Chizome Akaguro?"
"No…" Stain hissed the word, and Ingenium paused in confusion. "That is not my name!" Anger flooded through him at the thought that someone would think that he was still Chizome Akaguro. "I and I alone will Stain my hands for the sake of society. Not Stendhal! And certainly not Chizome Akaguro!" Stain reached to his side to pull out a serrated hunting knife with his off hand, ready to resume combat with Ingenium, only to pause himself as Ingenium removed his helmet.
The blue-haired man facing him had both kindness and determination written on his face, and Stain again found himself despairing of having to kill a True Hero. But it was even more inevitable at this point. After all, not only did Ingenium know his quirk, but also knew his previous identities. That meant Stain's lairs, safehouses, contacts, all could be in danger.
"But I know that Chizome Akaguro does not want for you to have to stain your hands." Ingenium spoke softly. "You are striving for justice, and you know you're going about it the wrong way."
Oh, is this what was happening?
"You'll need to be punished, but if you turn yourself in you will receive leniency. And, perhaps, once you have served your debt to society, you can work to change it lawfully."
Did Ingenium really think this would work? That Stain hadn't already tried everything in his power to do so?
"Of the heroes you've killed, my agency already has evidence linking seven of them to serious crimes. Evidence that has been ignored in favor of ending your killing spree. If you turn yourself in, you have my word that any additional evidence you have about any other heroes will be treated as it should and they will get their day in court."
Ingenium was really trying to talk him into surrendering, trying to bargain with a villain, a remorseless killer.
What a shame.
Stain had rather liked Ingenium, too. What a tragedy that he happened to be just another Fake. No True Hero would ever let such a dangerous criminal off lightly in exchange for information. Ingenium reached a hand out to Stain, a hopeful smile pulling at the sides of his mouth.
Knowing now that he was not fighting a True Hero, but yet another Fake gave Stain a sudden burst of strength and speed. Ingenium was able to block the katana with one arm and angle his body such that the hunting knife deflected off of his armored torso. Stain, however, was more than willing to drop the katana and fling a throwing knife at Ingenium's head.
This time, his aim was true and the knife carved a line across Ingenium's cheek. Both combatant's eyes snapped to where the knife fell, blood coating the blade but washing away in the rain.
Ingenium launched himself towards the knife, aiming to keep Stain from using his quirk on the blood on the blade. Stain, however, anticipated that, and leapt towards Ingenium instead. Either way, the rain would wash the blood off the knife in a matter of moments. Using the hunting knife again as a decoy, Stain managed to cling to Ingenium's back, and his long tongue snaked out to lick Ingenium's cheek.
In an instant Ingenium collapsed under Stain's weight, paralyzed.
"You … don't have to do this." Ingenium managed to speak despite the terribly awkward position that he had landed in. "You can … still turn back." Stain didn't even bother to respond, even with the harsh laugh that he wanted to bark. He simply retrieved his katana from the ground before returning to the still paralyzed Ingenium.
"There is still Work to be done! I will not rest until my Task is complete!" Stain spat the words before bringing the katana down, stabbing Ingenium through a gap in his armored torso. He twisted the sword harshly before sliding it free, flicking the blood off of it, and returning it to his scabbard. Moving quickly to avoid the incoming sidekicks, Stain returned to the rooftops and sped away.
Another Fake was dead, or close enough to it. It had been a productive night after all.
---
Nezu often wondered exactly what was going through the minds of the top members of the HPSC. He was well aware that they had a strong antipathy for U.A in general and him in particular that bounded on the unhinged, but that feeling was mutual.
The previous several months of increased jockeying for control over U.A's educational policies had been notable in their intensity, however. Perhaps it could be partly attributed to All Might's decision to join the teaching faculty at U.A, or perhaps this was simply the culmination of years worth of back and forth between the HPSC and U.A. Either way, Nezu found himself frustrated by the constant tug of war over who would get to decide how his students would be educated.
It wasn't even like the HPSC was particularly subtle about their plots or goals. Nezu knew that he didn't always fully understand humans and their emotions, but he could usually predict behaviors within reason. The HPSC always fell within reason, and even their attempts to be underhanded were generally laughably obvious.
For example, Nezu was currently doing what was supposed to be a quick review of the internship offers that had been made to his students after the Sports Festival. However, it quickly became obvious that there were some irregularities in the distribution of offers to the first year students.
For example, while most of the top sixteen finishers generally got some offers, it was uncommon for each and every member of the final round to receive at least one offer. Similarly, it was rare, but not unheard of, for a few students each year to get offers from a top twenty hero whose eye they had caught.
Therefore, finding out that every single student who had made it to the final round of the first year sports festival had at least one offer from a top 15 hero was unusual, to say the least. Even Mei Hatsume, the support course student who had explicitly used her time in the finals to advertise herself to the top support companies in the country, had received an internship offer from Wash, of all heroes.
Izuku Midoriya receiving invitations from eight of the top fifteen heroes was slightly unusual, but not so far out of the realm of possibility to be unreasonable on its own. Endeavor would certainly be interested in the student who defeated his son, and there were certainly arguments for why Best Jeanist, Crust, Shishido, and Yoroi Musha might be interested in the boy. Nezu could even come up with reasons why Hawks, Gang Orca, and Wash would want to have him as an intern. Not as many, and not as solid, but reasons nonetheless.
If Nezu thought that any of them had even an inkling that Midoriya held All Might's quirk, he would raise the alarm immediately. Thankfully, there was no sign of that in any of their internship requests.
It didn't matter, anyway, because Nezu was nearly certain that Midoriya would end up interning for Gran Torino. Midoriya, despite his emotions, often tried to be logical about his goal of heroism, and Gran Torino was by far the most logical option for him. Who could be better to learn how to use One For All from than a teacher who had already taught two previous wielders.
Most of those heroes that were suddenly sending out internship requests hadn't invited any first years over the past several years. It was understandable for Endeavor, for example, to invite his own son to intern with him, and Midoriya as the one who defeated his son.
But why would he also invite Kaminari as well, when he had passed on dozens of equally impressive students over the years? Why would Crust invite eleven students in total, all from the top sixteen of the festival? Why would Hawks decide to take his first interns of any sort ever by inviting four students, including two that didn't even finish in the top sixteen?
Why would Shishido invite Shinso?
Nezu had been certain that that invitation in particular had been a typo of some sort, but he had managed to confirm it with Shishido's agency.
It did not escape Nezu's notice that the eight heroes who behaved most oddly all had close ties with the HPSC. Endeavor, Hawks, Best Jeanist, Crust, Wash, Gang Orca, Shishido, and Yoroi Musha all had their own reasons, but each could be reliably counted on to dance to the HPSC's tune when needed.
Outside of those eight, there had only been a single offer from another top ten hero: Edgeshot offering an internship to Hagakure. That made sense thematically, at least, and Nezu would be glad to have closer ties between U.A and the Lurkers. He agreed with All Might that they were among the most upstanding young hero groups, and wanted to support them as much as possible.
Now that he had identified the irregularity it became far clearer what the HPSC's goal was: they were aiming to use heroes that fundamentally agreed with them to propagate their philosophies, using the prestige of interning with highly ranked heroes as an incentive.
Nezu laughed. Not one of his chuckles or polite laughs that he used when surrounded by humans. No, he laughed deep from within, letting his bestial side wild for a moment, cackling loudly.
He'd clean up the tea he spilled later.
If the HPSC thought that a week with their hand-picked heroes was going to be enough to change the path of his students, they had another thing coming. Only one of the students in question gave him even the slightest pause.
Well, it wouldn't hurt to make sure Eraserhead and Vlad King emphasized picking a hero that you are compatible with to their classes. It would certainly prevent the worst match-ups from happening just because of rankings (seriously, what could Shishido teach Shinso?).
Aside from that, if his students wanted to intern for the HPSC's heroes, Nezu wouldn't stop them. He would trust them.