Chapter 47: Reactions
Izuku had lost all sense of time at some point during the press conference. It could have lasted an hour, or it could have lasted five; he couldn't have said. He was deeply thankful, however, that All Might and Nezu had been there to help him answer the questions that weren't directly aimed at him.
There had been enough questions that only Izuku could answer, though, that his throat was tired and scratchy from having talked so much. He had no idea how he had come off, falling back on Midnight's last minute instructions to "say as little as possible while still answering the question" whenever he could. Given that only a bare handful of reporters had requested a follow-up question, he supposed that was a good sign, and it was certainly better than trailing off into a long-winded muttering response.
All Might and Nezu had handled the majority of the questions, including all of those about the details of One For All. Thankfully, they had avoided explaining the finer details of the quirk, including how it could be passed on, the exact identities of the other holders, and the details of the quirks that Izuku could awaken. The fewer specifics that were publicly known about One For All, the better, Izuku figured.
As Izuku finally stumbled off the stage with All Might and Nezu close behind him, he was somewhat surprised to find that he had only been out there for slightly more than an hour. All of the questions had run together, to the point that Izuku wouldn't have been able to say what topics he had or hadn't talked about.
Kyoka was eagerly waiting for Izuku just off stage, while Midnight stood next to her still looking somewhat taken aback by the revelations of the last hour. Aizawa was also waiting off stage, somewhat apart from the other two, and somehow made it seem as if he just happened to be in the area. The occasional glances he stole towards Izuku as he left the stage betrayed his interest, however.
Unsurprisingly, Kyoka was the first one to meet Izuku, pulling him into a hug as soon as he was out of sight of the press. Izuku eagerly reciprocated, using the contact of her body on his and the smell of her hair to pull him back towards awareness. He realized that he had gotten a little dissociated during the interview, his attention narrowing to just the questions asked of him so he could manage an answer.
"This explains a lot, problem child." Aizawa had approached while Izuku hadn't been paying attention, anger burning in his eyes. Part of Izuku wanted to shy away from that anger, but it quickly became clear that it wasn't aimed at him.
"Do either of you want to explain why I wasn't informed about Midoriya's quirk the moment he was placed in my class?" Aizawa turned towards All Might and Nezu, face stormy. "Had I known the details of his quirk, I would have trained him differently. This directly sabotaged my efforts as his homeroom teacher."
Neither All Might nor Nezu appeared moved by Aizawa's frustration. With a raised eyebrow, Nezu replied first. "With all due respect, Aizawa, but you were given the most pertinent piece of information in Izuku's file; namely, the fact that he had only possessed the quirk for a scant few weeks when he began here at U.A. If I remember correctly, you ignored this information, thinking that nothing in the students' files could be useful to you."
Aizawa's mouth curled in distaste, as if he had bitten into something sour. "Something of this magnitude shouldn't be relegated to a throwaway line in a student file. As Midoriya's homeroom teacher, we should have had a meeting about this well in advance of the school year."
"Once I had given young Midoriya the quirk," All Might interjected, "It was entirely up to him who to tell, when, and why."
"Do not try to blame this on Midoriya!" Aizawa rounded on All Might, voice quiet enough that it couldn't be heard by the press, but still intense. "Teaching a student with a stockpiling enhancement quirk is worlds apart from a student with not one, but two emitter quirks! And who knows what else." Izuku wasn't sure exactly what he was seeing. Even after a semester at U.A, he still wasn't entirely used to teachers worrying about him and his safety, aside from All Might, at least. It was odd, to say the least, to see Aizawa of all people trying to claim the moral high ground around his safety.
"Then let us be glad that he was only able to access one of those other quirks before today." Nezu stated, a sly smile on his face. For a moment, Aizawa could only blink at the chimera, trying to fit that statement into his own mental model of the situation.
"Ugh, the kinetic energy stockpiling." Aizawa looked to the ceiling and took a deep breath, running his hand down his face. Eventually he looked back towards Izuku. "The kinetic energy stockpiling was one of your bonus quirks, right?"
"Uh, yes?" Izuku cursed the fact that it came out more like a question than anything else. Kyoka squeezed her arm a little tighter around him in support. "It was the quirk of the third user. It's called Fa Jin."
Aizawa's gaze swung back towards All Might and Nezu. "So you do know the other quirks and holders. I…" The man trailed off as Midnight's hand landed on his shoulder.
"Sho, give the kid some room." Aizawa took a glance at Izuku before clenching his jaw and straightening his posture.
"This has been a lot of new information to take in all at once." Aizawa's jaw tightened even further. "I'm sorry. The details can wait."
Despite himself, Izuku stared for a moment. While Aizawa had apologized for his behavior during his quirk assessment test, much of the rest of the semester had included other 'rational deceptions' and 'logical ruses.' Izuku didn't know how to deal with his teacher suddenly being much more on his side than normal.
"You're right, they can." Midnight continued. "While it's a lot of information for you, I'm sure it's also a big change for Midoriya, isn't that right?" Izuku could tell that Midnight was just as thrown by the revelations as Aizawa, but she still gave him a warm smile with the question.
"Uh, yes? I mean, before it was just All Might, Nezu, and Recovery Girl on campus, and Detective Tsukauchi, Sir Nighteye, and Gran Torino off campus. And then I told Kyoka which was a big help, but no one else knew." Kyoka gave him a small kiss on the cheek for that, which caused him to blush a bit. Unfortunately, thinking of everyone who knew about One For All now formed a pit in the center of his stomach.
"Oh no… All of our classmates know now! I hope they won't hate me for not telling them. Or hate me for getting this quirk instead of them. Or that I'm going to be developing more quirks. Or…"
"Green!" Kyoka had apparently been trying to get his attention. Her raised voice was enough to cut through his anxiety. "You know our classmates and our friends. No one is going to hate you. If anything, I think most of them are going to be impressed. I know that when I found out, that was how I felt. And I can say that I certainly don't want to be in your shoes of having to work out six new quirks. The one I have is more than enough, thank you."
Izuku huffed a laugh, something he regretted almost instantly. "She's right, problem child. Once All Might and Nezu fill me in on the details, I'll be expecting even more out of you. I will not let you graduate with sloppy control over any of your quirks." A shiver of terror shot down Izuku's spine at the look on Aizawa's face as he said that.
"Why don't we head back to the dorm." Kyoka said. "I think it'll help to chat with our friends about this. It's certainly better than putting it off and just worrying about what they'll think, right?"
Izuku grimaced, but couldn't exactly argue with his girlfriend. "You're right. At least let me take a shower first. I didn't get a chance to do that before passing out last night." Kyoka, at least, agreed to that point. He could have done without her waving her hand in front of his nose as if he stunk, though.
"I'll walk you two back." Aizawa announced, before leveling a flat look at All Might and Nezu. "We will need to have a talk later today about the details of Midoriya's quirk. I don't want any more surprises like yesterday."
"Completely understandable!" Nezu chirped far too cheerfully for Izuku's taste. "Stop by my office this afternoon, and we can share everything we know."
As he left the press conference hand in hand with Kyoka with Aizawa leading the way back to the dorms, Izuku ran through how he was going to explain everything to his friends. As they neared the dorms, however, his panic returned for a moment as the enormity of telling his classmates loomed in front of him.
Before he could have a chance to spiral too far, however, Kyoka dragged him inside.
---
After receiving an administration of Recovery Girl's healing the day before, Momo had slept in much later than she normally did. Beyond just physical exhaustion, she had collapsed earlier and slept in later than normal in part due to mental exhaustion.
Her exam against Yoroi Musha had been revelatory as to the sort of hero that her parents considered one of their best customers. While part of her wanted to believe that her parents would never support a hero that acted with the level of cruelty and brutality that Yoroi Musha seemed comfortable with, a much larger part of her reasoned that that was exactly the sort of hero that her mother, at least, would gravitate towards.
Beyond that, it strained credulity that her parents would not make sure they knew as much as could be known about any hero that used their support equipment, especially one as high profile as Yoroi Musha. The man had been in and out of the top ten for years, and a consistent presence in the top twenty for decades. If his behavior in public was even remotely similar to his behavior in the exam, and based on her earlier discussions with Uraraka it was, then her parents must have known about it.
And yet, they still supplied him with support gear and armor for decades, letting their brand name be associated with some distinctly unheroic behavior. Momo had been told all too many times that her parents were not heroes, that they were running a company and couldn't be held to the same standards, but she was still disappointed in her parents nonetheless.
Despite her exhaustion, both physical and mental, Momo's sleep had been restless. Every time that she had managed to fall asleep, she would dream of the exam from earlier in the day with something going wrong. Once it was Momo being unable to create the detonator in time and losing her team the battle, once it was Uraraka losing a hand to Yoroi Musha's spectral weaponry, and once it was Awase's skull caving in from Yoroi Musha's final attack.
That last dream had woken her up at seven in the morning, head pounding and eyes aching, but knowing that she would not be able to get back to sleep. Even as the details faded from her memory, the dread she had felt in the dream stayed with her. The best way she could think to deal with her unease was to get up and go about her morning as normal, letting routine wash away her night of poor sleep.
Unfortunately, her morning routine involved keeping abreast of the news in the country. Given the fact that she attended U.A and was training to be a hero, she gave more attention to news centered around heroics than other topics. Her favorite source was one that her parents had always preferred: Hero News Network.
Today, the very first thing that she saw when accessing their website was a still from what appeared to be an encounter between Endeavor and some villains. Smoke covered a large swathe of a vaguely familiar cityscape, the familiar orange fire from Endeavor's quirk forming a column in the center. At the same time, a similar, if smaller, column of blue fire stood near Endeavor's own, while a mass of nearly black tentacles, just barely tinted green, rampaged elsewhere. Multiple buildings had already been demolished, another one caught mid-collapse by the photographer.
The headline accompanying the image, "Villain Enrolled at U.A?" struck Momo in the gut nearly as hard as Yoroi Musha had the day before. She now recognized the city as being from Training Ground Beta and the blue fire as belonging to Todoroki. She'd had some time to speak with Honenuki and Shoji after she had awoken, and they had told her about Midoriya apparently awakening a new part to his quirk. While she hadn't been conscious to see it in person, the image in front of her neatly matched the description from her friends.
But nothing her friends had told her said anything about a villain on campus. Clicking through to the main article, Momo's eyes widened as she moved quickly through the article. Apparently, going entirely off of footage from the exam (how they got access to it was never explained), they had decided that Midoriya must be a villain enrolled undercover.
To listen to the writer lay it out, it was the only explanation for his sudden manifestation of multiple quirks. The kidnapping that had worried everyone in the class was recast as a successful master plan to end All Might's career. They even had one of their reporters dig into the quirk registries to find that Midoriya was a late bloomer, twisting even that to somehow fit their narrative.
Unable to believe the words in front of her, Momo went searching for other sources. The national networks NHK and the Japan News Network were being a bit more careful in their wording when describing Midoriya, but were still raising questions about the wisdom of keeping him at U.A. Of the more hero oriented media, reactions were mixed, with some outlets like Parago using this as yet another example of the hero system being rotten from the inside, while others, like Cape, were explicitly waiting for more information before even raising questions, let alone coming to conclusions.
Midoriya was one of the most purely heroic people that Momo had ever met. While she could (unfortunately) believe that some people might accuse him of being a villain based on limited information, seeing such accusations come directly from the media itself was disconcerting. She wondered why apparently none of these news organizations had attempted to reach out to U.A or to the Midoriyas themselves.
It was true that there were a number of questions about exactly how Midoriya's energy stockpiling quirk had apparently awakened to include the smoke and tentacles that had been on display yesterday. But Momo, despite her knowledge of chemistry needed for her quirk, knew that she was nowhere near qualified as a quirk scientist to posit the answers to any of those questions.
Before she had realized it, she had lost well over an hour to reading articles on yesterday's exam. Some were hyperbolic, some were carefully reserved, some were in the middle, and it left Momo frustrated more than anything else. Only a bare handful even attempted a mild defense of Midoriya.
Thankfully, the more recently updated articles stated that there would be an official HPSC press conference on the issue soon, as well as an official U.A press conference explaining the incident. Oddly, they were going to be occurring at the same time, competing with each other. One would think the two would cooperate to provide as complete an explanation as possible.
Momo quickly made her way downstairs where a handful of her classmates were already in the common area, TV tuned to one news station while at least two laptops were muted, streaming other media outlets. Kendo, Shoji, and Todoroki were all watching the main television which was tuned to NHK, the most neutral of the major networks that Momo had found. Meanwhile, Rin was navigating on a third laptop to what appeared to be an international news station, one based primarily out of China.
Shoji and Todoroki nodded towards Momo as she sat down to join them. Her stomach rumbled slightly, but she was in no mood for breakfast at the moment. "Hey Yaomomo," Kendo greeted her. "Good timing, the U.A press conference is about to start. You just hear about this?"
"Good morning, Kendo." Momo replied. "I've been reading about it for the past hour. It is disappointing how many outlets are ready to decry Midoriya as a villain without ever hearing from anyone involved with the situation."
"Disappointing? Yes." Rin spoke up from his laptop, not even looking away from his screen. "Surprising? No. I'm assuming you're talking about Japanese media."
"I am." Momo said, a hair more frostily than she wanted to. Ever since their study session, she found herself with mixed feelings about Rin and his politics. The self-assured and slightly condescending way he spoke about the Japanese system didn't help her opinion of her classmate, no matter how accurate much of what he said was. "It makes sense to follow Japanese media for information on Japanese news."
"At times. But when it's something touching on the hero system, sometimes international news can be the best option." The webpage he was navigating to finally loaded, showing a stream of a Chinese newscaster surprisingly speaking about the issue. While it had been a while since she had had to read Chinese, Momo could make out the chyron below the newscaster as being more supportive of Midoriya than any of the Japanese media she had seen. "From inside a country, it can be harder to express 'unacceptable' opinions, harder to see when that's happening."
Kendo hushed the boy, as the U.A press conference was starting. While Rin left a window with the HPSC press conference open from another site, he muted it, and the five watched in rapt silence as Nezu, All Might, and Midoriya launched into an almost unbelievable story that began at the birth of quirks.
While Momo would normally dismiss such a tale out of hand, the facts that it came from three people that she highly respected and that it explained so much of Midoriya's quirk that had always rubbed her the wrong way made her think it was the truth. The question and answer session went by relatively smoothly, with Nezu and All Might handling the harder questions with sure-handedness that came with experience. Midoriya only answered questions directly aimed at him, but displayed a confidence and moral certitude that normally only emerged when he was involved in hero exercises.
Even after the conferences ended and the network coverage of the news devolved into panel discussions with self-appointed experts, the students in the common room remained silent, digesting what they had just heard.
Momo didn't need to think long or hard to determine that Midoriya was the best choice for a bearer of One For All that she could think of. He had the heart and soul of a hero, and the work ethic and determination to take a brand new quirk and truly master it. Even in the few months that he'd had the quirk, he was already one of the strongest and most flexible students in their class during hero exercises. Once he'd had it for a few years, he would be completely unstoppable.
What she was worried about was how this news would affect him. For as long as she had known him (which was admittedly not very long), he had always had an anxious streak. If Kyoka was to be believed, it had been so much worse when she had first met him. Suddenly letting the world know that he was All Might's chosen successor, with All Might's quirk to boot, would put an immense amount of pressure on Midoriya. He had managed so far, but everyone had a breaking point. Momo just hoped they wouldn't find out exactly where Midoriya's was.
Momo was drawn from her thoughts at the sound of the front door closing. She turned to see a flash of green racing up the stairs, Aizawa and Kyoka standing in the entryway.
"Where is Midoriya going?" Todoroki asked, as blunt as ever, but with a hint of worry in his voice. "I have questions for him."
Kyoka grimaced at Todoroki's statement, but it was Aizawa who responded. "Midoriya has had a very busy morning. Give him space until he is ready to talk." With that, their teacher slipped back out through the door.
"Don't worry, Green will be down soon. He just needs a chance to cool off after the press conference." Kyoka added.
That made sense. Momo knew that she would need time to unwind if she had just gone through an ordeal like Midoriya. And his trials were just beginning.
---
Juzo sat in the common room, picking at his lunch, trying to ignore the commotion surrounding Midoriya in the kitchen area. After reading some of the snap reactions to their exam the previous day and the associated press conferences, Juzo didn't want to burden him any more at the moment. Even as someone only tangentially related, Juzo wasn't totally pleased with his schooling being broadcast for the entire country to see, much less his classmate being called a villain.
Thankfully, the combination of All Might and Midoriya's mother had put a rest to that particular accusation, although now the usual suspects online were debating if Izuku was 'truly worthy' of All Might's quirk. Some were arguing for it to have been transferred to an older successor, someone who could immediately step in and take over for All Might.
Hawks and Kamui Woods were common suggestions, due to their age and prominence in the hero scene. Suggestions for Edgeshot and Mirko were not uncommon either. A select few argued in favor of Endeavor, although they weren't getting much traction.
All of them, however, ignored one of the most important points that All Might had made: that transferring his quirk to a successor that already had a quirk was a death sentence. Juzo didn't know how true that was; possessing more than one quirk was already so far afield from established quirk science that the experts were essentially throwing up their hands in defeat. The nomu from the League of Villains, however, seemed to imply that mixing quirks would only have dangerous effects on the recipient.
Either way, Juzo was all too happy not to be in Midoriya's shoes right now. While there was always a certain amount of media scrutiny over heroes, it was typically worst on the top ranked heroes, and almost never focused on brand new ones. Here, Midoriya would be dealing with the strongest possible spotlight on him during his schooling and training.
Any slip up, no matter how understandable or common would be magnified and amplified beyond all reason. Any utterance that didn't meet a particular media group's standards for heroic behavior would be torn apart, investigated for any potentially unheroic undertones. Anything and everything would be measured against an imaginary, idealized version of All Might. Nothing would ever be good enough.
So Juzo made a decision. He was going to do his best not to add to that incoming wave of second-guessing and scrutiny. While Juzo had a number of outstanding questions about One For All, All For One, Midorya's childhood as quirkless, the details of why All Might chose him, and any number of other topics, he also recognized that none of that was really his business. If Midoriya wanted him to know something, he would tell him. If not, then Juzo asking wouldn't help at all.
Beyond that, he wanted to be there to support Midoriya. They'd only known each other for a semester, just a few months, but Midoriya had proven himself to be as good a friend as Juzo had ever had. If Juzo could help support him, he wanted to.
His classmates didn't seem to agree with him on the first point, as they were gathered in a knot of eight or so people around Midoriya, bombarding him with questions while Jiro stood nearby with her earjacks out, making sure they gave him at least a little bit of space. They all at least had come to the same conclusion Juzo had about supporting Midoriya, at least judging from the snippets of overheard conversation that floated by Juzo.
His friend was in the middle of explaining to Todoroki (not for the first time) that All Might had been literal, not metaphorical, when saying that he had given Midoriya his quirk, something that Todoroki just couldn't seem to grasp. Kirishima didn't seem to have any questions in particular, instead periodically proclaiming Midoriya as 'manly.' Ashido, Kendo, and Kaibara seemed most interested in what training All Might had put Midoriya through, and how it had differed from their own. There were other questions about what other quirks he might develop, when he found out he would get multiple quirks, what it was like being kidnapped by All For One, and more. Most of them, Midoriya avoided answering directly, often saying that he'd have to check with All Might or Nezu about what he could say. No one seemed off put by this, however.
Juzo had nearly finished his lunch when Uraraka finally descended the stairs. She had returned to the dorms sometime after Midoriya the night before, having spent all of her afternoon and evening in Recovery Girl's office healing as much as she could. Her right arm was still in a sling, as she hadn't had enough stamina to heal her ribs, the associated damage to her internal organs, and her shattered arm all at once.
After giving the common room a brief glance, Uraraka's eyes brightened when she saw Juzo and waved with her good arm before bouncing off into the warzone of a kitchen to fix herself lunch. A few moments later, she emerged from the kitchen dragging Midoriya and Jiro along with her. She seated Midoriya and Jiro across from Juzo before grabbing her own plate of food and slipping into the seat next to him. As far as Juzo knew, she hadn't eaten since breakfast the day before. The speed with which she was eating did nothing to dissuade that notion.
Midoriya and Jiro also had plates of food with them that they had been trying to find a chance to eat for the past twenty minutes of interrogation. After a few seconds of blank stares and blinking at Uraraka, they shrugged and began to eat as well. It was actually kind of impressive how in sync their motions were even without looking at each other.
"Do you think there's any chance we'd be able to get the recordings of our exams from yesterday?" Uraraka asked after she'd already demolished a third of her meal, nearly as much as Juzo had eaten in total.
That hadn't been what Juzo had been expecting. Given the topics floating around the common room, he'd been expecting her to ask a question about Midoriya. Based on the raised eyebrow from Jiro and the mild shock from Midoriya, they had been expecting that as well. "Um… maybe?" Juzo replied intelligently.
"It'd be good if I could get that." Uraraka said after downing half of her drink. "I didn't get to see the last two exams, after all. Also, seeing my form from my exam would help me see how I could make sure this doesn't happen again." She gestured wryly towards her sling-bound arm with a grin.
Juzo blinked. "Well, in case you haven't seen the news, you could probably see most of the last exam there."
Uraraka leveled a deadpan stare at Juzo. "You really think I hadn't heard about…" She gestured broadly at the entire room, making sure to encompass Midoriya.
"It's alright, Uraraka." Midoriya said, with more than a hint of exhaustion in his voice. "If you have any questions, I'm happy to try to answer them."
"Oh, no, I'm good!" Uraraka chirped before turning back to her meal.
"Seriously?" Jiro asked, obviously unconvinced.
"You heard what Midoriya's mother said. Just like her, I trust All Might and I trust Midoriya. I don't think anything else needs to be said."
"Same here." Juzo took the opportunity to throw in his opinion.
All of a sudden, Uraraka looked up at Midoriya with a fierce look on her face, pointing a utensil at him. "But don't think this means you automatically get to be the strongest in the class. We're all coming for you." She broke into a smile. "But for now, take a break."
Midoriya's eyes went wide, a sheen of moisture over them that threatened tears, as he let out a sigh and slumped in his seat, relieved. "Thank you guys. Today has been a lot already. A break would be nice." He turned back to his food, fork halfway to his mouth before he froze. "Wait. What was that about my mother? What did she say?"
"While you were giving your press conference, the HPSC held one and invited your parents." Juzo answered for Uraraka who had a mouth full of rice and meat. "It looked like they were bringing them out to argue that you were a villain, but your mother just backed you up all the way. It's been a big part of the whole thing."
Midoriya just blinked at Juzo for a second, before shooting to his feet, his chair toppling behind him. "I have to go call her!" In a flash of green lightning, he was gone, rushing back up the stairs.
"I should go, too." Jiro stood up in a far more controlled fashion than Midoriya. "And bring him the rest of his lunch. Thanks for being chill about this, you two." She shot a thumbs up toward Juzo and Uraraka. "It means a lot to him, I promise."
With that, Jiro picked up her and Midoriya's plates before following him up the stairs. There was a moment of silence as Uraraka finished demolishing her lunch. "Anyway, back to finals. It would be nice to watch your exam from a neutral viewpoint. There's only a handful of shots that all the networks are running with, after all. And I haven't heard anything at all about the match against Hawks. But what I really want is a good view of me punching Yoroi Musha."
"You said you wanted to improve your form, right?" Juzo knew that Uraraka had been practicing her martial arts form using an app on her phone. Even if she couldn't apply that app directly to the recording, she'd probably find an outside view very useful.
"Well, yeah. But more than that I want to take the moment of impact and make it my phone's wallpaper." Uraraka gave a fierce, strangely attractive grin. "You know why."
Before Juzo could reply beyond a chuckle, both his and Uraraka's phones pinged with a new email. This was odd, because Juzo kept his phone on silent as a rule. Based on the surprise on Uraraka's face, she did too.
Cautiously, the two of them checked their phones, only to find a fresh email from Nezu in both of their inboxes. They had been asked to join the principal in his office the next day, despite the fact that it was a Sunday, with the only reason being given as 'Yoroi Musha'.
Well.
That was ominous.
For the first time that morning, something other than Midoriya was at the forefront in Juzo's mind.
---
Kyoka swallowed deeply, as she stared up at the apartment complex that Izuku had grown up in. The sun was just beginning to set to the west, ducking down behind the row of five story buildings. Midnight sat in a car behind them, acting as an escort and chaperone. U.A had figured that due to the intense media focus on Izuku, it would be best to avoid public transit for the time being. "Hey Green. Remind me again what's going on."
To her left, Izuku gave her a strange look, but humored her. "We're going to my mother's for dinner. She wanted to apologize for things in person, and after what she did this morning, I thought it was only reasonable."
"Yeah. Right." Kyoka nodded. "But why am I here again?"
Izuku turned so he was facing Kyoka directly. "You asked to come. You thought it would be a good idea to get to know her better."
"Yeah, well, that was then." Honestly, Kyoka didn't know what she had been thinking. She had wanted to be here to support Izuku, true, but the idea of putting herself out there with his mother was far more daunting now than it was a few hours ago.
"You've already met her. More than once, even."
"But I've never seen her outside of a hospital environment." The fact that Kyoka could say that at all was all that needed to be said about Izuku's sense of self-preservation. "She's always been more focused on your injuries than on me. Now she'll be able to focus on me. What if she doesn't like me?" After all, Izuku's relationship with his mother had been bad enough. It had been getting a little better after the sports festival and having his mother reach out like this now was a good sign. Kyoka didn't want to be the reason that their relationship suffered again.
"I promise that she will like you. And if she doesn't, well, then this apology won't mean much. C'mon." That was exactly what Kyoka had been worried about. Unfortunately, Izuku was already climbing the stairs to his apartment, so she had nothing to do but follow along behind him.
Before the two of them could even reach the door, Mrs. Midoriya had thrown it open and was waving them in. From there, it was a whirlwind of formal introductions and Kyoka being shown around the small apartment. It wasn't as large as her parents house, but it had a homey, lived-in feel that was comforting. Pictures of Izuku and his mother dotted the walls, although Kyoka found it odd that the only picture that showed Izuku's father was an old wedding photo.
Looking at it for a moment, Kyoka could certainly see the family resemblance. Izuku had obviously gotten his hair, nose, and freckles from his father but the coloring and softness of face from his mother. His father, in contrast, had a narrow face, sharp chin, and tilted eyebrows that gave him a dour impression, even on his wedding day. Kyoka was very glad that Izuku hadn't inherited those particular traits from his father.
Izuku's room was a time capsule from a younger Izuku, filled to the brim with hero merchandise of all sorts. Appropriately enough, most of it depicted All Might, although Kyoka recognized a handful of other heroes amongst the figures and posters. There were also obvious gaps where he had brought some of his favorites to school. She tried to tease him about having a shrine to All Might hidden in the closet, but he was surprisingly resistant to the gentle prodding. She'd just have to up her game.
On the other hand, she was very glad that his current dorm room wasn't quite so singularly focused on hero merchandise. She would probably feel very different about spending nights in his room if she felt like she were being watched by All Might from every angle all night.
Dinner came quickly enough and Izuku's mother called the two of them to sit at the table. She'd made katsudon, and Kyoka knew enough of Izuku to know that was his favorite. After taking just a single bite of the food, Kyoka could see why.
For a little while, the three of them ate in silence. Perhaps it was to be expected, as it was the first time that Izuku had had his mother's cooking since just after the sports festival. But the silence dragged on longer and longer, and before too long, it had become an awkward cloud over the dinner. Izuku obviously didn't want to talk, simply staring at his plate as he worked away at the food. Not knowing what else to do, Kyoka decided to at least try to get some conversation going.
"This food is fantastic, Mrs. Midoriya." To Kyoka, most food was just fuel to keep her moving. If all of Mrs. Midoriya's food was like this, though, she might have to revise her opinion. "I can see why it's Izuku's favorite."
"Thank you, dear. But you can just call me Inko." First name basis with the parents already. Kyoka was relieved that Inko didn't hate her, at least. "And this is just a little something that I picked up over the years."
There was a short silence again before something akin to mischief twinkled in Inko's eyes. "You know, Jiro, if you really like it that much, I could teach you the recipe."
Izuku jerked up at that. "What?! You never want to teach anyone this recipe! You wouldn't even teach Auntie Mitsuki, and I know she bothers you about it every time you meet up."
"Oh, she wouldn't know what to do with the recipe even if I gave it to her." Inko replied with a smile on her face. "You know how much spice they put on everything. I swear their taste buds were burned off years ago. But I just get the feeling that Jiro is going to be around for a while." She punctuated her sentence with a wink that had Kyoka's cheeks burning.
Izuku was suffering from a similar ailment at the moment. All he could choke out was a sputtered, "W-What?"
Inko's smile in return was the picture of angelic innocence. "If she's going to be around for a while, it makes sense for her to know how to cook your favorite food, after all."
No matter how red Kyoka's cheeks burned at the moment, Inko had a point. This was an opportunity that she didn't want to pass up. "I'd like that, Inko. Thank you very much." She gave a very small bow in Inko's direction.
"Oh, no need to thank me." Inko waved her hand dismissively. "Just make sure you're still cooking it like this once you're both heroes."
"Moooom," Izuku came very close to whining. "You said you weren't going to embarrass me tonight."
"I said I wasn't going to break out the baby pictures on my own." Inko replied, still affecting innocence. "Although if Jiro wants to see them, I can still tell her where to find them." Kyoka snuck a glance at Izuku who was turning new and exciting shades of red. While she was interested in seeing those pictures, perhaps she could wait a little while. Izuku had enough on his plate this evening already.
Apparently Inko also realized that Izuku was nearing his limit for teasing. "I'm sorry, Izuku, I don't mean to tease. And I'm sorry to you, too, Jiro." Kyoka restrained herself from openly gaping at the woman. What was there to apologize to her about? "I don't want to put any pressure on you or your relationship. However, if you are in fact around for a long time, I would be more than happy to welcome you into our family."
Kyoka's own cheeks began to burn up, but Inko continued on, unabated. "But the real reason that I want to give you this recipe is that you have made Izuku happy, truly happy, for the first time in a long time. While All Might gave Izuku the hope that he could become a hero, you gave him hope that he could be a person .
"I know Izuku. If it weren't for you he would have thrown himself even deeper into being a hero. He probably would have overworked himself chasing his dream." Inko paused for just a second, mischief flashing again in her eyes. "He probably would have hurt himself even more than he already has."
While Izuku was busy sputtering out objections, Kyoka recognized that Inko was likely correct. Even while the two of them had been training their butts off to All Might's incredibly intense training plans, Izuku had always been pushing to do more, to stretch his body even further. Kyoka had even given in to join Izuku in martial arts training before they started at U.A. It hadn't come back to bite them at the time, but only because Kyoka had convinced Izuku to tell All Might about their idea, and he had reworked their training programs appropriately.
And then there was the USJ. Even with a shattered leg and two weakened arms, Izuku had been looking for an opportunity to jump back into the fray to support All Might. While all of their friends had ultimately come back to look after him, it had been Kyoka that had gotten him to agree to stay back. If he had jumped down to try to protect All Might, which he very well may have left to his own devices, who knew how badly he could have been injured in the end.
"Either way, you have been nothing but good for Izuku, especially at a time when I… wasn't acting as well as I should have. You gave him the support and encouragement that I should have been giving him." Izuku's earlier protestations faded away as his mother continued to speak. Inko herself appeared to have tears in her eyes, but nothing was stopping her flow of monologue.
"Izuku, I'm sorry. I'm still going to worry about your health, that's part of being a parent, but I'm done trying to push you away from being a hero. I can see how much it means to you. I know how much it has always meant to you. And honestly, at this point, if I forced you to choose between me and being a hero, I'm pretty sure I know which you would choose." Izuku winced at the comment, but didn't gainsay her. "I've only ever wanted the best for you Izuku, and I only hope that we can get back to the way we used to be."
By now, both Midoriyas were openly crying. Izuku got up from his seat to walk around the table and wrap his mother in a hug. While Kyoka felt her own eyes welling up slightly at the raw emotion of the scene, she hung back. She felt awkward intruding on a family moment like this one.
Eventually, though, the two Midoriyas separated and managed to finish crying before flooding too much of the kitchen. The rest of the meal passed by smoothly, with conversation flowing easily between the three of them. Even when topics like U.A and training came up, neither Izuku nor Inko shied away from them.
Kyoka smiled to herself. It was good to see Inko and Izuku acting like mother and son should act. Not everything was perfect, she could see Inko tense at some of their descriptions of Gran Torino's training and could tell that Izuku was putting as positive spin on things as possible, but it was definitely another big step in the right direction.
---
Late at night in the vice-principal's office at U.A, Shota sat in the dark, illuminated only by the glow of his laptop. He massaged his eyes trying to ward off the inevitable migraine that was building after an entire day of dealing with the revelations of the problem child's quirk.
He was trying to organize his thoughts in a logical, straight-forward manner, planning out the changes that he needed to make to his curriculum to ensure that Midoriya got the training he needed over the remainder of his time at U.A. Unfortunately, it felt like everytime Shota got halfway through writing out a note to himself about one adjustment, another three came to mind. If it wasn't working on fine control of an overpowered quirk, it was media relations. If it wasn't three-dimensional thinking for combat, it was strength modulation to prevent collateral damage.
Not for the first time, Shota was thankful that U.A employed heroes with a variety of backgrounds that could help teach some of the finer points that he was able to think of. Perhaps for the first time, Shota was thankful that one of those teachers was All Might. Between his own experience with the quirk and his deep list of contacts in the industry, Midoriya would have all of the expert level advice on using his quirk that he would need.
What Shota found himself returning to time and again, though, were the other parts of being a hero that Midoriya would need to work on. The sheer pressure that he was sure to be under would be difficult for anyone to handle, let alone a fifteen year old kid. Appointments with Inui, or another approved therapist, were something that Shota wanted to require, although he knew he couldn't. The best he could do was strongly encourage them. Perhaps he could get All Might to push for them as well. For reasons that suddenly made much more sense, Midoriya seemed to listen to the man's opinions far more readily than Shota's own.
Today had also shown that Midoriya would need work in dealing with the media. All hero students at U.A took a full-fledged media relations course with Midnight in their third year, although Midoriya would certainly need to have his moved up to the second year at the latest. Honestly, his whole class could use the course as soon as they got their provisional licenses, because they'd all be asked about Midoriya at the earliest opportunity.
Sighing, Shota flipped to yet another of the documents he had open to make a note about fitting media relations into 1-A's schedule for next semester. And then, almost as an afterthought, he included 1-B in the note as well. The class separation was not well-known outside of U.A, so they would likely encounter the same sorts of questions as 1-A.
Now that his thoughts were on 1-B, however, Shota realized that he would have to completely redesign the quirk training plans for the standard first-year summer camp that he had put together. Back when he had thought that Midoriya's quirk was just a standard stockpiling enhancement quirk, he'd had him penciled in for combat training against Tiger for part of the time, testing the limits of his kinetic energy stockpiling the rest.
Now, though, he had to rethink everything. The Problem Child had no fewer than four quirks now, even if apparently he (or one of the vestiges that was within One For All? Shota was refusing to contemplate the implications of that for the time being) was refusing to use one of them. It would likely be in Midoriya's best interest to work on controlling his two new quirks, especially given the wild and violent way they had first manifested themselves.
Unfortunately, due to the Problem Child's unique circumstances, Shota's typical approach to summer camp training would not work here. Normally, the summer camp was all about pushing quirks to their limits, trying to force students outside of their comfort zones to improve their strength, stamina, adaptability, and overall utility of their quirks.
Midoriya didn't need that. His quirk was more than strong enough on his own, especially if All Might's comment about One For All strengthening its inherited quirks was true. What Midoriya needed instead was basic, fundamental control of his new quirks. That meant that his training didn't necessarily overlap well with many other students that would be at summer camp.
Thankfully, Shota noted, if only to himself, the Problem Child was a very fast learner. By the end of summer camp, it wouldn't be surprising if he had mastered both of his new quirks.
Between the two quirks, Shota felt far more comfortable making lesson plans for Blackwhip. After all, it was functionally very similar to his own capture weapon. Although part of Shota was jealous of the ability to create multiple strands all at once. Beyond that, he already had a plan of action for teaching about his capture weapon written up at the request of Snipe for one of his students, Hitoshi Shinso. Apparently, Eraserhead had a fan (although how that had happened was one of the great mysteries of life).
Partway through typing out the very rough outline of a plan to train Smokescreen, however, Shota narrowed his eyes at something on his monitor that should not have been there. In the bottom right hand corner of his screen, a small window containing the U.A intranet chat feature sat with a new message blinking for him.
Shota, as a rule, never opened the U.A intranet chat. He had opened it exactly once, when Nezu and Powerloader had first introduced it to the rest of the faculty. The nonsense that Hizashi and Nemuri flooded the chat with was more than enough to put him off of it indefinitely.
Nevertheless, the window sat on his screen, notification blinking at him. In fact, it was the sort of notification that one would receive if they had a private message. He had received a few of those from Nezu before the principal realized that it would be far faster and more efficient to simply tell Shota in person whatever needed to be said.
Maybe there had been a software update recently, one that forced the program open when there was an unread message. It seemed like the sort of feature that Nezu and Powerloader would think would make things more 'efficient.' If anything, it would just give Nemuri and Hizashi more opportunities to waste Shota's time.
Sighing to himself once again, he clicked into the app to see what nonsense was disturbing his work. The initial message, "Hey Sho!" could have been either of his so-called friends, but the name associated with the message was unfamiliar: DarkCloud. Less than five seconds after opening the program, it notified him that whoever was on the other end once again began typing.
Thoughts swirled through Shota's head. All of the faculty used their hero names as their monikers in the program, and there was no hero by the name of DarkCloud, let alone faculty at U.A. That, the program opening on its own, and the immediate response to him reading the message told him that this was the work of a hacker. A particularly skilled one at that, if they had managed to get through Nezu's firewalls.
Shota went to close the program, not willing to give the hacker any opening on his end to exploit. Before he could, text filled the window.
Information about Toru Hagakure and a handful of other names that Shota vaguely recognized flitted by. An instant later, a detailed description of exactly what had been done to create their current student followed, accompanied by a location for where all of this had happened: a secret sub-basement in a medical practice once run by a Doctor Fumio Tsubasa. The building even happened to be in Musutafu itself.
Whoever this hacker was was very good at getting Shota's attention.
DarkCloud signed off with a "More to come soon! Give Sushi scratches for me!" before dropping offline. Shota ground his jaw together. Not only was this hacker dropping an absurd amount of information on All For One's activities on him, they were also casually letting him know that they knew a dangerous amount about Shota himself. The number of people who knew that Shota had a cat named Sushi was very small.
Regardless, there was only one thing to be done now. Shota pulled out his phone and called Nezu's emergency line, resigning himself to yet another night without any sleep.
The lesson planning could wait until tomorrow.
---
Far away from Japan, ensconced deep within his mountain stronghold, a man who had forgotten the touch of another human laughed deep and loud. While the news in Otheon naturally didn't cover much of what happened in Japan, every country in the world was at least somewhat curious as to the reveal of what All Might's quirk was.
Or had been, as the case turned out.
All in all, the news had been everything that Flect Turn had been looking for, even if he hadn't realized it while watching it come in. This quirk, One For All, was by itself a perfect manifestation of Quirk Doomsday Theory. It was already powerful enough that it could barely be controlled by the latest user, and would only continue to grow more and more powerful over time.
All Might had already been so powerful as to be nearly incomprehensible, able to alter weather patterns with just the air pressure from his punches. If the newest user would be even more powerful, growing stronger and stronger over time, how much longer before entire cities could be crushed by the power of the quirk?
But the quirk was perfect in another way. It could only be safely used by the quirkless. By the pure. A power of that magnitude in the hands of an enlightened, pure human could give Humarise the power they needed to finally wipe out all quirks across the globe.
With it, they could save humanity itself!
It truly would be One For All: One quirk to save All of humanity!
But first, they would have to find a way to secure the quirk for themselves. While Humarise had a branch office open in Tokyo, it was one of their smaller offices. The entire country of Japan was fully in the thrall of quirks, after all. There were precious few unsullied to be found within their borders.
That wasn't to say their branch office would be useless, of course. They kept an ear out for anything that might be of interest to the broader Humarise mission. One thing that had come up recently was the development of a new form of Trigger: one that, instead of boosting someone's quirk, instead removed it entirely for a period of time.
While Flect Turn had been planning on killing as many quirked humans as possible with a stronger variant of Trigger, he was, at heart, a merciful man. If there existed a way to permanently remove a quirk, to purify someone for life, he would take that in a heartbeat.
The question, of course, was whether the developers of said quirk removing Trigger would be amenable to reason. Knowing the culture of Japan, it was unlikely, but not impossible. Perhaps they would find new allies in the most unlikely of places.
Flect Turn decided to send two of his most trusted agents, Beros and Rogone, to Japan to see what they could turn up. If they could find some trace of the group developing the quirk removal drug, they would make contact. If they could find any information on the newest bearer of One For All, whether he would be partial to Humarise (having been quirkless himself for his entire childhood), that would also be important to know.
And if neither plan worked, well, Flect Turn had already come to terms with being separate from humanity. Of everyone in the world, he was the most suited to be drenched in the blood of all of the quirked.
It was to save the whole of humanity, after all.