Izuku blinked at the small crowd of students standing at his door.
"By my count, when we last spoke about this," he said, "there were to be eleven of us present today, thirteen if Ochako and I are included in that count. How exactly did that turn into all twenty? And without me being informed of this change?"
It was the morning following Rei's announcement that she had passed her exams, and all of 1-A, with the exception of Ochako and Tsuyu, who had showed up together earlier in the morning and were now watching him from the kitchen, were standing outside his front door. Out of all of them, only Iida and Yaoyorozu looked even the slightest bit ashamed.
He sighed. Screw it. It wasn't as if the change in numbers actually bothered him. He was more curious than anything else.
"Whatever." He said, backing away from the door a bit. "It's not like it matters. Come on in."
Izuku ignored the soft exclamations he heard from a few of his classmates as they entered and got a look at his apartment. Most of them, at least.
"Woah… You really live here, Etsumi?" Mineta asked.
"No." Sero responded, sarcasm heavy in his voice. "Obviously, he rented this place out just for today."
"I can't believe you and Uraraka live in a place like this." Ashido said. "It's like a penthouse!"
"It is a penthouse." Yaoyorozu corrected, beating Izuku to it. "This apartment takes up the entire top floor of the building."
Izuku shut the door once they all made it inside, before moving over towards the kitchen table, where they had all gathered.
"Alright," Izuku began, "before we get started, I suppose I should give a tour."
He gestured over towards the hallway that led to Ochako's room and Rei's office. "The hallway that was to your right as you entered leads to two rooms. On the right is Ochako's room. Whether or not any of you are allowed in there is up to her, and her alone. To the left is my sister Rei's office. Inside that office is an attached bathroom. That is the bathroom that you all are to use while you're here."
"That bathroom also connects to another office." He continued, turning to gesture at the short hallway that led to his room and office. "That one is mine, and you won't enter it. Nor will you enter the room on the other side of that hallway, or the room that you see connected to the living room. You're free to go out onto the balconies, if you want, just know that they connect to rooms that I've just mentioned are off-limits. And I'm trusting you all to not do anything stupid on a balcony eighty-three floors off the ground."
"My sister is currently on a nocturnal sleep schedule, and as such is currently sleeping. All the rooms are soundproofed, so you don't have to worry too much, but all the same, it would be appreciated if you do not go overboard, as she's liable to throw you off the building should you disrupt her sleep."
He looked around at all of them. "Any questions before we get started?"
"Yes." Yaoyorozu said, raising a hand. "How did you wish to go about this? Should we figure out what everyone needs help with, and then put together a plan based on that?"
"I was just about to get to that. I've taught from scratch before, but I don't have much experience in tutoring. So, I was going to suggest exactly what you just did: put together an actual list of what needs to be taught, then go from there."
"For a lack of a better way to do it," he continued, "we might as well go by order of class seat number. So, Aoyama, what do you need help with?"
The boy looked a bit startled, obviously not expecting to be called out. He blinked at Izuku, hesitating a moment before answering.
"Ah, well. I'm afraid I haven't quite been grasping Ectoplasm's latest lessons on logarithmic functions."
"Actually, I don't really understand those either." Kaminari jumped in.
Izuku heard Satou and Hagakure agree with him, and noted it down as something to work on.
"Anything else?"
"…I could also use some help with my English."
Izuku nodded. "Alright. We'll work on that. Now then, Ashido? What about you?"
Izuku went down the list, asking each classmate what they needed assistance with. Some of them, such as Ashido and Kaminari, needed help with more than the others, with Kaminari answering 'everything' to Izuku's question at first. Others like Kouda and Tokoyami were somewhat comfortable, but lacking in a few areas, Then Yaoyorozu, Iida, Bakugou, and Todoroki didn't seem to be lacking in any subject, which made Izuku curious as to why they showed up in the first place. Iida he could understand, as the boy probably showed up because of some imagined duty as class vice president, and Yaoyorozu most likely showed up to assist with the tutoring. But Bakugou and Todoroki barely interacted with anyone. Based on what he knew of them thus far, neither had much reason to show up.
Either way, slowly but surely, Izuku put together a full list of what needed to be addressed as he spoke to each student.
For the most part, Mathematics seemed to be the area where the most struggled, so that's where Izuku chose to get started. He had everyone move over to the living room, where they all spread out and made use of the numerous beanbag chairs and giant pillows laying about. Once everyone was settled, Izuku set about attempting to teach them.
In the end, he knew that tutoring wouldn't be very different from directly teaching a subject from start to finish. He knew the material backwards and forwards, all he had to do was explain specific concepts. Most of his classmates grasped what he was teaching easily enough. For many of them it wasn't the case that they were truly having difficulties, but just hadn't understood at the time when it was initially taught and then weren't able to close the gaps with their own studying. For those students, all that was needed was simply a fresh explanation and the occasional demonstration. For others, he needed to go a bit further, walking them through specific steps of certain concepts. For the few that were having an especially difficult time, such as Kaminari, Aoyama, and Ashido, some of the other students paired up with them to provide additional help, namely Yaoyorozu, Iida, and, to Izuku's slight surprise, Bakugou.
With mathematics being the largest problem area, by the time they had wrapped it up, three hours had already passed—interspersed with a few short breaks, obviously—putting them close to noon, close enough that Izuku decided it was time to take a break for lunch.
"Alright, that's enough for now." He announced. "It seems like everyone's got a pretty good grasp on everything. This is as good a time as any to take a longer break while I work on getting lunch together."
"Oh, thank God." Kaminari said when Izuku told everyone. "Any more and my brain would've started melting."
"As if there's anything there to melt." Jirou responded, standing up from her spot.
"Hey! After all that-that we just went through, there's at least something there. I actually kinda understand some of this stuff now."
"You're free to get up and move around." Izuku said. "Just remember where I said you can and cannot go. You're also welcome to the tv if you want."
Izuku wasn't overly worried about having his classmates wander the apartment, even if he didn't fully trust some of them not to snoop where they weren't supposed to. The doors leading to rooms that were off-limits were all locked, and anything that he didn't want to be seen, such as his Oni outfits, were all hidden. Plus, he could see everything in the apartment with 'All Sight,' and would be able to see anyone snooping before they could even make it into a room.
With his classmates getting up from their spots, some of them stretching to work out some stiffness, Izuku moved over to the kitchen to get started on the cooking. He took a few moments to retrieve everything he would need. He needed to adjust everything to compensate for more people than he'd originally expected, but luckily, he had plenty of food.
As he worked, his classmates dispersed. Several stayed in the living room to watch tv, while a few found their way out onto the balcony. Ochako disappeared into her room along with Tsuyu, Hagakure, and Ashido.
Within a few short minutes the smell of the food began to permeate the apartment. As it did, a few students—Yaoyorozu, Shouji, and Satou—began gravitating towards him.
"I didn't know you could cook, Etsumi." Satou said, looking at what Izuku was working on. "And from the smell alone, it seems like you really know what you're doing."
Izuku nodded. "I enjoy cooking. It's relaxing. And it's satisfying to test a final product, especially when I've created it from scratch."
"Oh, tell me about it. I feel the same way whenever I've made a particularly good cake. I especially like experimenting with new recipes."
Izuku's eyebrows raised a bit. "You cook too?"
"Yep! Mostly desserts. I got into it because of my quirk."
"Right." Izuku said, leaning back from the food to let it sit for a few moments. "That makes sense. Your quirk relies on sugar. I imagine that you're practically immune to any negative effects it would have. You'd be able to eat as much as you wanted. I'm almost the exact opposite, in both respects actually. I can cook meals, but I don't tend to do much with desserts, and my increased size requires me to consume a greater number of calories to maintain it. It would take a bit of effort for me to actually overeat, and that's before taking into consideration the further increase because of my enhanced strength and speed."
"That's fascinating." Yaoyorozu said. "My quirk also requires me to eat quite a bit, and with how quickly I use lipids to create things, it causes my fat tissues to be incredibly dense to increase the amount I can store up. It's pretty hard for me to overeat as well, especially now that I'm attending Yueii, and our training is making me use my quirk all the time."
"Huh, so that's what it is. I figured that there was something more to your quirk, with you being able to create things that ought to require more mass than a normal human body should have available. At first, I guessed that maybe the objects you created simply had lowered densities, therefore requiring less mass, but that theory didn't seem to fit quite right."
"Actually, that's partially true. With how precisely I'm able to control the makeup of what I create, I can also manipulate the internal structure. Anything solid, especially solid metal, that I can create with an internal honeycomb structure, or something similar to reduce weight and the mass required, while maintaining as much durability as possible, I will."
Izuku hummed. "And I'm guessing that through that same method, you could even manipulate the density of an object outright?"
"That depends on the materials involved." She answered. "For the most part, so long as a material isn't what it is because of its density, like coal and diamond both being pure carbon just with different densities, then I can freely manipulate it. Though even with some materials like that, I can still change it to a degree. And obviously, the more complex an object and the more constituent materials, the less worthwhile it is to do that. The benefits from saving mass and weight are cancelled out by the time and focus it takes to apply those benefits to every piece of an object. Not to mention that the slight drop in durability would only make it easier for the object to be destroyed, which might require me to recreate it, which would defeat the purpose."
"I see… Your quirk is truly fascinating. Definitely one of, if not the most versatile quirk I've come across."
Hearing how much utter control Yaoyorozu's quirk gave her over the matter she manipulated and shaped only reinforced what Izuku already knew: that her quirk was one of the few S-Class quirks that he had encountered. The sheer versatility, the number of possibilities that such versatility afforded, and the combat potential that Yaoyorozu had shown it to possess put it a step, or several, above a great many other quirks. It was the sort of quirk Izuku would very much like to possess. The things he could do with the power to create whatever he wanted…
"I'm not going to pretend to fully understand most of what just happened," Satou said, interrupting Izuku's thoughts, "but going back to the cooking part, if you ever wanted to get better at cooking desserts, I'd be more than happy to help out. Maybe in return you could help me out with regular food."
Izuku nodded as he directed his attention back to the food. "Perhaps. I'll let you know if such a day ever comes."
He didn't want to appear rude. He did appreciate the sentiment of Satou offering to help. But if Izuku wanted to be more proficient, it would be a simple matter for him to learn on his own. He knew how to follow a recipe, and experimenting with a given recipe was an easy thing to do once the basics were understood.
The other students talked amongst themselves as he diverted his attention to the cooking, and with just another minute or two of work, everything was set to simply sit on heat and cook for a few minutes. With that done, Izuku leaned back a bit and pulled out his phone to occupy himself while he waited.
"Wait, what are you reading, Etsumi?" Yaoyorozu asked when she happened to look over. "That doesn't look like Japanese. It almost looks like… English? But it looks like gibberish."
"It's Dutch." He responded, not looking up. "And what I'm reading is an article published by a Doctor Juliette Konijnenbeld. It's about the ever-increasing apparent strength of quirks with each new generation."
"You know how to speak Dutch?"
He shook his head. "No, not completely, I've only just recently decided to start teaching myself another language, and still have a bit to go before I get to that point. I can hold a conversation though, and reading a language is generally easier than speaking. I've found that reading, or just consuming any media, in another language is one of the best ways to learn said language."
"Did you say another language?" Shouji asked. "You're clearly already fluent in English. Just how many languages do you know?"
"This'll make six. Seven, if you include Japanese."
"Woah… That's incredible. Which ones do you know?"
"Japanese and English, obviously, and then German, French, Spanish, and Mandarin."
"I wish I could learn languages that easily." Kirishima said, walking over from the living room, followed closely by Kaminari. "I can barely even learn English."
"In fairness, English is one of the hardest languages to learn, especially when your native language is an Asian one. The opposite is also true, for English speakers, Asian languages are among the hardest to learn."
"I enjoy learning new languages." He continued. "Aside from the obvious advantage of being able to communicate with more people, it's interesting to be able to learn about a culture through their own language. And as I'm discovering with Dutch and English, it's fun to see the similarities between two languages that had similar origins."
"Oh! Do you know a lot of Dutch yet? Can you say anything?" Kaminari asked.
Izuku tilted his head a bit at the boy, before speaking.
"Ik zou mijzelf tien talen aan kunnen leren in de tijd dat het jou zou duren om er een te leren."
"Cool… What did you say?"
"I said it's almost time for lunch." Izuku lied, ending the conversation and turning his attention back to the food. "Another five minutes or so, and everything will be ready."
Sure enough, five minutes later, Izuku had the students who were with him going to gather everyone else up, and within another ten minutes, everyone had a plate full of food and had spread back out to eat. Izuku, Ochako, and Tsuyu had claimed spots at the kitchen table, with Yaoyorozu and Iida finding enough space to join them.
"So, Etsumi." Iida began, a few minutes into the meal. "You've mentioned before that you completed school incredibly early. Years ago, by this point. Does that mean that you've already pursued, or have begun to pursue higher education? Or is Yueii it?"
Izuku nodded. "Indeed, I have. Initially, it was necessary in order to officially become 'Deku,' but since then, I have also pursued some purely for my own enjoyment."
"You make it sound like you have multiple degrees." Yaoyorozu said.
"That's because I do. I actually needed two to register as a quirk analyst."
"…Just how early did you finish school, to already have those?"
"Oh right, I never have told any of you specifically, have I?"
He took a bite of his food, savoring the taste for a moment, before continuing. "I completed everything for my high school education about two months after my tenth birthday."
"So early!" Iida exclaimed. "And the degrees? How long did it take you to complete those?"
"It wasn't anything remarkable." Izuku answered. "I was only going for the bare minimum at the time. Both were just associate degrees. I had both of them wrapped up about a month after my eleventh birthday."
Iida's eyes widened, and Yaoyorozu spoke back up. "Wait… If you had those two completed so quickly… How many do you currently possess?"
"Let's see… The first two were in Quirk Biology, to understand how quirks function, and Quirk Analysis. Since then, I've built upon the first to the point that it is now a master's degree. The second is now a doctorate in Quirk Analysis. Beyond that, I've also acquired a master's degree in Quirk Genetics, Biology, and in World History. I was working on a doctorate for World History, but I've put that on hold for the time being while I attend Yueii. Though, unless the second semester comes with a drastic increase to our workload, I'll most likely keep working on it."
"Five high-level degrees… And technically you're 'Doctor' Etsumi…"
Izuku shrugged. "I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm smart. And I've never felt any desire to use that title. That's not why I pursued furthering that bit of my education. It was all just so I could ensure that I was as proficient as possible for my work as 'Deku.'"
Iida shook his head. "No. With how much you've done, you're more than just smart, you're some kind of genius."
Izuku shrugged again, taking another bite of his food. "Semantics. Both are correct. There's no need to distinguish between the two."
The matter of his own intelligence was something that Izuku had considered before, and found himself returning to whenever he happened to acquire a new intelligence quirk. Because almost every new quirk affected him in a new and unique way, bringing something new to increase the effectiveness of his brain.
All but two of his six intelligence quirks—he didn't count 'Quick Thinker,' as he didn't keep that one active at all times like he did the others—had different functions, with one of which providing no outright change to his brain other than to ensure that it did not overheat. Two increased the processing speed of his brain, one gave him his almost perfect recall, and 'Parallel Mind' layered his mind several times over to allow him to think and focus on multiple things at a time, and even made it possible to give more than one-hundred percent of his focus to a given thought. And on top of those, the newest quirk added to the count was one that somehow increased the size of his brain.
That was a discovery only made possible because 'All Sight' allowed him to see inside his own body. The day after he'd acquired the quirk, he'd activated it and noticed offhandedly as a change took place within his head. That had been immediately followed by an intense sensation of vertigo as he attempted to focus on the change.
'All Sight' allowing him to see both the interior and exterior of an object, from every angle all at once, meant that he was able to observe both the interior and exterior of his skull simultaneously, which presented a problem as the two did not match up as they were meant to. The volume of the inside of his skull had very obviously not been the same as what the exterior appearance of his head suggested it should be. He was observing something that was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside, but he was doing so from both sides at once, which was something that his brain, which he'd also noticed was larger than it had any right to be, couldn't handle.
To make matters worse, the feeling of vertigo, and the realization of what the source of that vertigo was, had been followed by a desire to take a closer look to inspect the phenomenon, which only made it worse. It had continued in a vicious cycle until he'd been forced to deactivate 'All Sight' altogether lest he lose his lunch.
After giving himself some time to reorient and get over the vertigo, he'd given it another try. The sight still had him feeling nauseated, but luckily it hadn't been enough to keep him from exploring the new development, from sating his curiosity and excitement. Because of course he'd been excited, there was a pocket dimension in his skull!
Quirks had a habit of challenging what humanity thought was possible based on its understanding of the laws of the universe. Just two short centuries ago, no one would've thought it possible for a human to possess the ability to level a building through raw strength alone, or sweat nitroglycerin, or render something weightless with nothing more than a touch. It was one of the reasons he enjoyed his analysis so much. Just about every single day since the existence of quirks had become known there was something new to challenge established scientific knowledge.
However, this was something else entirely.
Out of the great multitude of interesting and amazing quirks in the world, the ones that caught his attention the most, even more than sapient quirks, were those that manipulated space, or that at least appeared to. Quirks like 'Hotbar' that seemed to create a pocket dimension that only he had access to. Just the idea that in the course of the millions of years of evolution that Humanity had undergone, it had somehow led to them possessing a biological function that had the ability to control an aspect of the universe.
The realization that the new quirk seemed to have created a pocket dimension to allow for his brain to be larger had led to even more excitement when he considered just what sort of effect the increased brain mass would have.
There was a small bit of confusion as well, as despite his brain being larger and seemingly structured differently, he noticed no change to how he felt or how he thought, but he decided to leave that matter for later, and just focus on his excitement for the time being.
Based on what knowledge he held in regard to neurobiology—he wasn't an expert yet, but all in good time—when it came to organisms, or at least humans, evolving larger brains, the benefits it brought to intelligence came in the form of greater brain mass bringing an increased number of neurons, which allowed more information to be processed, while also lowering how densely packed the neurons were, which resulted in fewer connections between those neurons and therefore allowed for more efficient processing of said information. If his assumptions about how the quirk functioned were correct—which unfortunately he was unable to check, as 'All Sight' couldn't quite see down to the microscopic level—then with the increase in brain mass, his brain now had either more neurons, or it had the same number, and they had simply been spread across the increased space.
He had, of course, wondered in the past just how much his quirks had enhanced him, how intelligent he was with their affects, both in comparison to himself without said affects and in comparison to other people. However, he had never followed that train of thought very far. The task of determining a method to compare himself to others was not one that he felt any interest in pursuing. Just coming up with an average to compare against was already practically impossible with the existence of intelligence quirks skewing the data. And as far as comparing his enhanced self versus his baseline self, that wasn't likely to happen for a completely separate reason: He didn't want to.
Sure, it would be a simple matter to deactivate his quirks in order to make the comparison, but he had never deactivated a single one, not from the moment he'd taken and activated the first one, the one that opened his eyes and enabled him to drag himself and Rei out of poverty, and he likely never would. They made him who he was. He had grown up with them altering his mind, his brain developing while under their influence. He was constantly taking in every single bit of information that his senses collected, and had nearly perfect recall of all of it. That was how he had grown up, with his mind constantly in overdrive, analyzing every bit of his surroundings every waking moment.
He had no interest in learning what he would be like if that influence was removed from his mind, what would remain if he was reduced to normal brain function.
Izuku knew he was smart. That much was blatantly obvious to him, what with how he had dragged himself through a full twelve years' worth of grade school and then some all before he was even twelve years old. For now, that was enough for him.
"Your analysis work seems to be really important to you, huh?" Yaoyorozu said, pulling him from his thoughts. He gave his head a slight shake, before taking another bite of his food.
She had no idea. His work as 'Deku' was what paid for the very penthouse they were all sitting in, and the food they were all eating. And above all of that, it was the reason that he and Rei were even alive. He wasn't going to tell them any of that, of course, but saying that it was important to him would be a significant understatement.
"It is." He said instead. "Quirks fascinate me, and being an analyst gives me the opportunity to constantly learn about and explore new quirks every day. I remember every single request that I've ever received, and it's truly interesting to see both the variety, and how many are similar to one another."
"You remember all of them?" Iida asked, obviously becoming more shocked as the conversation went on. "Surely that's not possible, right? I mean, if you've been Deku for as long as you say, then by now you must've received a rather large number of-."
"Including the requests I completed this morning, I have received and fulfilled four-hundred-and one-thousand, six-hundred-eighty-two in total. If we had a month, I could list out all the quirks, and if we had a year, I could recite to you the analysis I wrote for each of them, word for word."
Granted, that number wasn't entirely true, as it counted all the requests he'd ever received, and not just those that came once he'd officially become Deku, but it wasn't as if they would know the difference.
In response to their shocked expressions—even Ochako, whom he had actually demonstrated his work to, showing her how quickly he could work through a single request, looked surprised at the number he'd given—he shrugged again. "Consider how fast you've seen me move, and think about how that would translate to typing at a computer. Paired with how quickly I'm able to process information, and I can look at a request, analyze the given quirk, and then type out that analysis out in the space of about a hundred seconds."
There was also 'Parallel Mind' to factor into that, which meant that he could effectively analyze several quirks at once. When he settled down to start his analysis work, he'd found that it went much faster if he read all the requests that he needed to handle first, then began the process of analyzing them, before typing it out as he completed them. The discovery of that method had sped things up considerably.
"And in case it's my saying that I could recite it all to you that surprised you, Ochako and Tsuyu already know this, but I've not yet told anyone else in our class: I have nearly perfect recall of my memories. And when I say nearly perfect, I do mean very nearlyperfect. I could recite to you every single word the two of you have spoken in my presence since I met you."
"I-… I actually don't really know how to respond to that." Yaoyorozu said. "So, I think I'm going to attempt to change the subject, if that's alright with you?"
Izuku gestured noncommittally in her direction. "Go for it."
She nodded. "Okay, right. Going back to our conversation earlier, about what you were reading. You said that it was an article about quirks getting stronger. I happen to know a little bit about the subject because my high school tutors taught me some advanced quirk sciences so that I would be ahead of the curve no matter what Yueii ended up teaching, though it's probably nothing compared to you. Does that article have anything to do with the quirk singularity theory?"
Izuku snorted the moment the name left her mouth, then when she gave him a confused look, he explained.
"Sorry. To answer your question, yes, the two theories are related in that they have to do with quirks increasing in strength as time goes by. However, the way you worded your question implies that they both stand on equal ground, when in reality, it's a stretch to even call the quirk singularity concept a theory at all."
"You don't agree with it?"
He shook his head. "No. I most certainly don't. In fact, I'm of the opinion that people who do agree with it, at least those who are fully educated in quirk sciences, as it would be unfair to expect most people to know what they're looking at, are the modern-day equivalent of flat earthers."
She scrunched her brow. "I know that it was a bit controversial when it was first published, but I didn't know that it was considered that bad."
"It is. There's a reason that the man who presented it was practically laughed off of the academic stage until he dropped off the face of the Earth. He presented a lot of the data about how quirks seem to be growing more powerful at what he perceived as a dangerous and unsustainable rate with each generation, which if you look at only that, then his idea, that one day humans would not be able to handle the excessively powerful quirks they possess, losing control of them and bringing about some form of doomsday, almost makes sense. But what he seemed to not take into account, and what certain people such as Doctor Konijnenbeld do, is that as quirks increase in power, humans are evolving right alongside them to be able to handle that power. The baseline capabilities of the human body, everything from general strength and speed, to durability, to even metabolism, and the presence of specific adaptations that people develop to protect themselves from their own quirk.
"Just think about us." He continued. "Meaning our class. Think about the physical punishment we go through on a regular basis. We might think nothing of it with how we're used to our bodies, but do you think a normal human from two centuries ago would be able to handle an explosion from Bakugou at close range without being severely injured to the point of hospitalization? Or that they'd be able to handle a kick from you, Iida? Or from you, Tsuyu? Given the sort of force that you two have to be putting out, there's no way it would be possible, and yet we see it happen almost every day."
"And on the other side of things, think about the sort of punishment your own bodies would be subjected to when you produce that amount of force. When you jump over two stories into the air, or when you run at the speed of a car. Without the adaptations your bodies developed to be able to handle your quirk, that kind of exertion would shred your muscles the moment you attempted it. It's the same concept with Bakugou being able to handle his own explosions, or Present Mic not being deaf, despite his quirk."
"The point that the opposing theories make is that those two things together would enable humans to handle the increasingly powerful quirks."
"So, taking that bit of data into account in conjunction with the fact that quirks are growing more powerful, the theories being presented that actually hold weight state that what's more likely to happen is that the growth of quirks will follow something akin to a logarithmic growth curve. There is a sharp increase in power now, but eventually, as both quirks and the adaptations of the human body begin to reach the limits of what flesh can accomplish, the curve will flatten out."
"Also. Another thing, in regard to the idiocy of the man that first presented the singularity concept. He must have forgotten about the existence of natural selection entirely. Because if humanity truly did end up developing quirks that they could not handle, what would most likely happen is that those people with quirks that are too strong for their own body would die off, and natural selection would come into play, ensuring that the survivors, those with a quirk that wasn't too strong, would be the ones to survive and reproduce, creating a new generation that is more likely to be able to withstand. The ever-rising power of quirks would be curbed back and forced to stabilize via the power of evolution and survival of the fittest."
"Huh…" Yaoyorozu said. "That actually makes a lot of sense. I was never very knowledgeable with the singularity theory aside from knowing the basic concept, but to my limited knowledge of the subject, that theory seems more believable."
"You obviously know a lot about this stuff, Etsumi." Iida said. "And for good reason based on what you've told us about your education. Have you published anything yourself?"
Izuku shook his head. "I haven't. At least not yet. As much as I may understand the subject, my area of expertise is in analyzing quirks, not the science behind them. I have my own ideas that are in the subject I'm an expert in, but nothing that I've felt like making known as of yet. All in good time though."
"Now then!" Izuku said after a few moments of silence as the conversation ended, rising up from the table with his now-empty plate in hand. "I feel as though it's about time to resume the studying."
The four other students that had been eating with him followed his lead, and he had evidently spoken loud enough for the rest of the class to hear him, as they all almost immediately gravitated towards the kitchen to drop off their plates. He didn't do anything to clean up his mess from cooking, and he left the pile of plates in the sink once everyone had added theirs to it. He would leave the cleaning for once everything was done.
Finally, with everyone gathering back un the living room, returning to their spots, it was time to get back to the reason they were there.
Following mathematics as the second biggest problem area was English. Present Mic was an excellent teacher, as far as Izuku could tell, but as he had stated before lunch, English was one of the hardest languages to learn, especially when your native language is an Asian one. So it wasn't surprising that a number of his classmates were struggling a bit.
With the short amount of time that they had been learning, they weren't at the point where they would be expected to speak or read fluently, which was fortunate for everyone that wasn't Izuku, Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, Iida, and Bakugou, with the latter four possessing an impressive understanding of the language, but what they were expected to know were basic greetings and certain simple phrases and questions, along with the correct spellings for all associated words and the basic sentence structure.
For the most part, the majority of the class wasn't having many issues with speaking the language. Their accents were as bad as one would expect from someone just starting to learn a language, but with only a few exceptions, they could all say what they were supposed to be able to say, and they all understood what they said. The issues came primarily in writing those same words and phrases. When it came to writing in both languages, that was where the greatest differences between the two languages emerged, from the difference in writing orientation to the shift from the complexity of multiple alphabets, one of which containing thousands of characters, to the comparatively simple singular alphabet of only twenty-six characters. There was a reason that most of their English class thus far had been dedicated to working out the basics of how to write.
Unsurprisingly, most of the issues that his classmates were having were in spelling words correctly. Learning what order the words were supposed to go in was comparatively easier than actually spelling them. though some of the students still needed help with that as well. Thankfully, when it came to spelling, the easiest way to learn was simply through repetition. Izuku took the time to go through everything, starting from the beginning with the alphabet and then walking them through how to spell the words they needed to know. And as he moved on to more specific issues and questions, he periodically returned to the spelling, calling on a random student to attempt it. By the time they were close to reaching the last of the problems for the subject, it seemed as though there had been some slight improvement in their overall spelling ability, though part of that very well could've been a result of short-term memory helping them to spell rather than a true understanding, but that was also something that the students could all practice easily enough at home, especially since he had confirmed that everyone understood the core concepts.
In all, going over English took them nearly as long as it had taken them to cover mathematics.
Following English came Physics, Modern Hero Art History, and finally Modern Literature, with each subject presenting less issues overall than the last. The further they all went, the less students there were that needed assistance. Despite that though, and despite the fact that Izuku told the ones who no longer needed assistance that they could leave if they wished, no one did. Everyone had decided to stay until the study session had been completed and everyone was prepared.
Eventually, as the study session came to a close, with it taking more time in total than a day actually attending Yueii, it was with nearly everyone feeling more confident than anxious about the upcoming exams. A few of the students couldn't quite get to that point, but despite that, they were still leaving with a new understanding of the issues that they had come with, and were now confident and comfortable enough to at least continue to study those areas on their own, which they were likely to do until the day of the exams, which would take place in just under a week.
After a while, his classmates slowly found their way out of the apartment, with Izuku hearing more thanks than he cared to count as they left. Once the apartment was empty once more, the only people that remained were Izuku, Ochako, Tsuyu, who evidently would be staying for the rest of the day and potentially through the night, and Rei, who had yet to wake up.
With everyone gone, Izuku immediately began cleaning the mess that had been left behind, starting with the dishes from lunch. He intended to have everything proper before Rei got up, because if she did, and there was still a mess, she would no doubt try to help, and there was no need for her to do anything of the sort.
Thankfully though, that ended up not being a concern, as with a bit of enhancement from his quirks, he had everything tidied up within a few short minutes and had retreated to his office, with Ochako and Tsuyu already having gone to Ochako's room after he told them that they didn't need to help clean.
As soon as the door to his office shut, he pushed both the study session and the nonissue that was the upcoming exams to the back of his mind, and focused on the matter at hand.
The paperwork he had submitted with Nezu's assistance to be registered as a foster residence had gone through, completing one more step, with the next being an interview that both he and Rei needed to sit through with a social worker to determine both whether they were fit to be foster guardians and whether the apartment was a safe enough and otherwise proper environment to be a foster home.
They had already scheduled the interview, and there was no doubt in either of their minds that they would pass it without issue. The only thing left to do was ensure that the apartment was ready as well. In terms of safety, it already was. In terms of how safe it was for a child, it was just as safe as any other apartment. The only thing that set it apart was the balcony that ran almost all the way around it and the floor-to-ceiling windows that made up most of the exterior walls. The doors leading out to the balconies could all be locked, using the same electronic locks as all of the interior doors, ensuring that a child wouldn't be able to open them, and the glass that the windows were made of was all bulletproof. He doubted that even Iona's quirk would be able to break it, let alone her.
Aside from safety, it was fairly spacious, with his, Rei's, and Ochako's bedrooms all still being in close proximity to what would be Iona's. Izuku had put a not-insignificant amount of money into ensuring that the apartment was equipped with a number of comfort-features, from the automatic sliding interior doors, to the heating and cooling system, which after some of the shit apartments he and Rei had lived in that never seemed to be able to maintain a comfortable temperature, he had made sure was perfect, and the heated floors that covered the entire floorspace of the apartment, including the balconies. There was nothing that was necessary for a high quality of life that was missing from the apartment.
Nothing but the very notable exception that was a proper bedroom for Iona.
The room was there, but at the moment, it still contained his computer and the bookshelf full of notebooks that contained analysis on all the quirks that weren't either ones he was being paid to analyze or his own, all the interesting quirks he happened to stumble upon in public. It was still missing a few very important things, such as a bed, a dresser, and all the other pieces of furniture that actually made it a bedroom.
With the rest of today, and potentially into tomorrow after school, he would be correcting that issue. His computer and his notebooks would all be moved over to his bedroom, and he and Rei would be making trips out to a few stores together so they could get furniture to fill the room.
"Alright then." Izuku said to himself. "Let's get started."
As he spoke, he lifted a hand up to the nearest bookshelf, activating 'Hotbar' as his hand brushed against one of the notebooks, storing it away. He moved on, repeating the process. The books all vanished as he trailed his hand along them, making the job of transporting them between rooms easier.
As he worked, a small smile found its way onto his face with the excitement that he felt.
Once again, he was another step closer to being able to help Iona.