Torino Sorahiko was not one hundred percent sure how Nedzu had talked him into this. He was retired for a reason, damn it, but here he was at UA finishing signing a work contract to act as a Heroics course teacher to babysit Toshinori for at least the next year. He had known for a while that Toshi had done something stupid to piss off both the Rat and Mirai but now he had confirmation.
He was going to kick Toshi's ass into next week if he really did not see how he had messed up with his Sidekick's nephew. It was no wonder Nedzu didn't trust the man alone with 20 kids to supervise at a time.
Nedzu pulled the papers back across his desk. "Excellent! Now if you are not busy tomorrow I was hoping you could help out with judging for the recommendations exams. Unfortunately a few of the students taking the exam can't be judged by the current 1-A teacher impartially or in one case most of the current staff, myself included. Additionally, given that I am informally sponsoring one myself, I will not be allowed to judge as well.
That earned Nedzu an interested look. "Informally sponsoring?"
The Rat nodded. "Technically Midoriya Izuku is being sponsored by the Vigilante Reformation Program by the Musutafu Police Department or I would have used my privilege as the Principal to bypass the bylaw that prevents staff from sponsoring a student. Thankfully, due to that, Sir Nighteye was not forced to choose between his two nephews to sponsor since Eraserhead unfortunately cannot sponsor his own son due to his position as a member of staff. His son, Shinso Hitoshi, is the one that is the real problem since he has spent at least a bit of time on campus informally with most of the staff at this point. As a result, I am going to have to be the one to grade all his assignments for classes where his teachers would easily be accused of nepotism."
Sorahiko considered that. "Yeah I can see that being a bit of a problem. So who are the other two judges since both you and the 1-A teacher can't judge?"
"Thankfully, the rivalry Vlad King has with Eraserhead has left the school board feeling he will remain impartial. Originally they were arguing that Yagi should be one of the judges but I was able to talk them out of it since two of the students this year will be his former Sidekick's nephews and he could hardly be unbiased about them, especially given the fact that the raid that cost him his position of a full time Hero had one of them on it. As a result one of the board members themselves will be sitting in."
Sorahiko nodded. "You know which one? If some of the same guys are still on the board from before I retired then Midoriya could have issues with them. I remember that some of the bastards are pretty Quirkist against the Quirkless."
"Sadly no, however he is hardly lacking when it comes to natural charisma so he might just win them over regardless. Additionally, given he is being sponsored by the VRP, he does really only need to win over two of the three of you instead of all three since his enrolment in a Hero Program is given priority. It is just a question of which school it will be and with UA being one of only two schools that will accept Quirkless into the Hero Program, his slot is a guarantee at this point."
Sorahiko raised his eyebrows at that. "I don't know about Vlad King but I haven't signed off on the kid yet."
Nedzu gave a smile. "True true but I suspect you will like him. He shares his Uncle Mirai's sense of humor. Additionally, he did not name himself after the Norse god of mischief to not be willing to pull pranks on those around himself. From what his father and Eraser have told me, he and his group of friends as well as most of the staff are planning on pretending that none of them know each other at the start of the year with a few notable exceptions to see if the other students can catch on."
Sorahiko felt the corner of his mouth tick up in a grin. "Oh? Do tell."
"The exceptions will be of course, Shinso knowing Iida given they will be both coming from the same Junior high, Shinso and Midoriya due to their status of being legally cousins, and Todoroki with the pair since Todoroki briefly ran away to stay with them."
Sorahiko frowned. "What was up with that anyways? Why did the kid run away in the first place?"
Nedzu sighed. "It is my understanding he had only planned on staying a night or two with the Midoriya's at first but when his father didn't notice he hadn't been home right away, he decided to push it a few more days and then the next thing he knew his father had declared him kidnapped. After that I understand that he just didn't want to deal with the drama right away so just stayed put."
"Pretty nice of the Midoriya's to let him stay when he didn't want to go home but surely that set off alarm bells somewhere?"
"But of course. After the news broke that he had been kidnapped, Hisashi contacted me directly to inform me where the kid was and that he had not in fact been kidnapped."
"Hisashi?"
Nedzu waved the question off. "Midoriya's father. He is one of the few people I have come across that can give me a good challenge in a game of chess. I suppose he would be my closest friend now."
"Intelligence Quirk?"
"No, a form of fire breathing."
Sorahiko gave a low whistle at that. "Damn, that is impressive. What does a guy that naturally smart even do for a living?"
"Real estate mostly from what I understand. He has several hobbies though including chess. The family is hardly lacking in disposable income."
"Should I be worried that Midoriya is going to be a bit of a spoiled rich kid?"
"No, despite having plenty of extra money to throw around, the family largely lives a fairly normal middle-class lifestyle outside of their recent purchase of a new family home in wake the apartment they had been living in being to get cramped with the addition of their adopted daughter Himiko and their youngest getting old enough to want her own space. Honestly I am surprised that apartment lasted them as long as it did given it was the one that they all had been living in together since Inko and Hisashi moved in together."
"Huh. Mirai never really talked about his family with either me or Toshi so this is largely all news to me."
"I mean it is understandable isn't it? Heroics is a dangerous enough career as it was and he had found himself as the Sidekick of the biggest named Hero out there. Had anything at all gotten out about his family, they would have been in danger."
"So what changed to make him so open about them now?"
"Well for starters, with the exception of little Eri, all of them are at a point where they are more than capable of defending themselves if they were to be targeted. For the longest time, Izuku was the primary concern given that unlike his elder brothers, he lacks a clearly offensive Quirk. Of course, now that he has both become fairly competent in combat and Todoroki Shoto has revealed to the world at large that there is at least some connection by blood between him and Sir, he largely decided there was little point in keeping up the pretense anymore."
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Midoriya Izuku couldn't decide if he was nervous or not. In just a few minutes, he would be going with the Dadtective up to UA to take the recommendations exam, or at least the practical and interview portions of it. Unlike Hitoshi and Shoto who had sent him messages of complaint at how early they had to be up to go take the written portion of the exam this morning, Izuku got to sleep in to his normal time and join them during their lunch break. It was definitely one of the best perks to come from Nedzu having him take the written portion of the exam a little over 9 months ago at this point.
It was sometimes hard to believe just how much had changed during just those 6 months that followed. At least the past 3 months had settled back down into a bit of a new normal. It was strange not living generally under the same roof as Tomura, Dabi, and Kurogiri at first after the move but getting to spend more time with his parents (all three of them now and wasn't that an adjustment?) was nice as well as Himiko and little Eri.
It was interesting to see his Mom and Dad with someone else even if Izuku understood how it happened. At this point a few months into his relationship with the two of them Detective Naomasa seemed to be the most bewildered about the relationship out of all of them, not that he seemed unhappy about it. Izuku couldn't remember who had thrown the joke title of Dadtective out for him in the first place but now all of them were referring to him as such except Eri who seemed set on calling him Papa.
Izuku looked up from his anxious scribbling in one of his notebooks to the sound of knuckles rapping on his door frame to see the Dadtective himself. "Izuku, you ready to head out?"
Izuku nodded quickly and bounced up to his feet. "Yeah!"
His future step-dad smiled and stepped aside to let Izuku out into the bedroom hallway. "Nervous?"
Izuku smiled. "I mean more for our prank than anything but that won't really start until the normal entrance exam." They paused at the front door to pull on shoes and for Izuku to grab his horned circlet off the hook to place in his nest of dark curls only for it to seemingly vanish completely when he put it on under them.
Naomasa chuckled. "Maybe we should grab some gel before we leave."
Izuku stuck his tongue out briefly at the man before pulling out his phone to send a text message. A few seconds later he got a reply. "Hizashi says I can steal some of his once we get there, I only have tinted stuff here and I want to show off my natural color today."
Naomasa nodded. "Yeah that's fair. Alright let's go."
The house was well within walking distance of the UA campus main entrance so it was just a brief stroll up to the main gates where the two of them flashed their guest IDs and headed into the main building. They had barely crossed the threshold when Present Mic picked Izuku up in a spinning hug. "Ack! Uncle Zashi! Stop! What if someone sees?"
The blonde pulled back and offered an apologetic grin. "Sorry Little Listener, I was just excited to see you actually here at UA. It makes it more real ya know? Here, I've got the goods." The man held out a tube of gel and comb he pulled from an inner pocket of his leather jacket.
Izuku gave the man a grin. "Thanks!" Izuku quickly pulled his circlet off and handed it to the Dadtective watching the two of them in bemusement and quickly gelled the top of his head back flat with the speed gained from months of repetition.
"You know, if you are planning on wearing that all the time, you should probably invest in some more untinted gel yourself."
Izuku hummed in thought as he passed the now half empty tube and comb. "Probably." He took the circlet back and lowered it back onto his head. "How do I look?"
"Like I should be trying to arrest you. Come on, we don't want to miss the lunch." His Dadtective lightly pushed his shoulder to get them all moving.
Several eyes looked up from around the cafeteria as they entered. While it was not necessary, it was common for Heroes sponsoring a potential student to arrive during the lunch so that they could cheer their student hopeful to be during the practical and show off to the other heroes who were putting their sponsorship forward. Two such Heroes that Izuku was looking for were easy enough to pick from the crowd given that they had ended up at the same table together, likely due to their student hopefuls.
Izuku basically did a running tackle into Hitoshi, knocking him nearly from his seat. While that got some cries of shock from around the room, Hitoshi, Shoto and Uncle Mirai hardly even blinked. Hitoshi merely shifted his arms to pull Izuku the rest of the way onto him and continued eating. Endeavor, who had been sitting across from Mirai, was giving Izuku a bit of a disapproving look. "That seemed highly unnecessary, Loki."
Izuku shifted to make himself more comfortable before reaching over to steal one of Mirai's sandwiches. "Eh, probably."
Mirai sighed and shoved his plate closer to Izuku before pulling the one free chair at the table out beside him for the Detective to sit down in. "No troubles getting him here I take it?"
The Dadtective shook his head. "Nothing outside of forgetting to put on some hair gel earlier."
A girl, who had been sitting with their group and seemingly chatting with Shoto without a sponsor present, gave them all strange looks. "I'm sorry but I feel like I am missing something."
Shoto gestured to Izuku. "Sir Nighteye's other nephew and Hitoshi's cousin." He gestured to Naomasa. "A detective from the police department sponsoring him."
The ponytail wearing girl gave Izuku a curious look. "I was unaware that you could be sponsored by anyone other than a Pro Hero."
Izuku swallowed his mouthful of stolen sandwich. "Only if you are part of the VRP then the police department who caught you is responsible for sponsoring you to the nearest available Hero Program."
"The VRP?"
"The Vigilante Reformation Program. My cousin Izu here is the now slightly infamous Loki." Hitoshi casually mentioned as he lowered his chopsticks and lowered his face onto Izuku's shoulder. "Izu, wake me when it is time for the practical."
Izuku reached up with his free hand to gently pat the likely completely exhausted Hitoshi on the top of his fluffy head. "Sure thing Toshi."
The girl seemed to study him slightly puzzled. "So did you not have to take the written portion of the exam because of the Program then? You weren't here this morning for it."
"Nah, I just took it and passed months ago. I just had to wait to do the practical and interview with everyone else. According to Nedzu I am a couple years above everyone else in a couple classes so I will be having personal lessons with him once classes start."
"You seem fairly confident that you are getting in."
Izuku shrugged. "I mean it is here or Ketsubutsu since they are the only ones that will take me due to my Quirk status and Nedzu sort of called dibs."
"I don't understand, why would your Quirk status have to do with anything?"
Shoto paused in eating his Soba. "UA and Ketsubetsu are the only two Hero schools who accept Quirkless students in the country."
She gave a surprised "Oh!" before she seemed to consider Izuku in a new light. After a beat of eating in relative silence she spoke up again. "I'm sorry, I just realized I failed to introduce myself. I'm Yaoyorozu Momo. I'm here under the sponsorship of the hero Majestic."
Izuku swallowed his last mouthful of sandwich. "Oh, I'm Midoriya Izuku." He gestured past his uncle at his Dadtective. "That is Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa of the Musutafu police department."
She bowed her head. "It is a pleasure to meet you both as well."
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Hitoshi did not want to wake back up when Izuku shook his shoulder and pulled him to his feet. Only half awake, he allowed Izuku to lead him to the locker room to get changed out of his Soumei uniform and into his workout clothes, which happened to be a set of gray sweat pants and the lavender cat-ear hoodie that Izuku had gotten him back on his birthday since they were the only half decent looking work out clothes he owned, not seeing much of a point of getting anything nicer when most of his physical training for building his muscles over the past few months had been helping clean a trash beach.
Izuku, had of course turned up in his own mint green tracksuit but he loitered for him and Shoto to change into his own more professional looking black tracksuit and white undershirt. They followed the crowd to the obstacle course that he knew was coming and not looking forward to running.
Sure, Hitoshi was not in terrible shape but running a 3 kilometer obstacle course was going to be rough with how drained he already was. As his Pops went over the rules and they all attached their numbers to their chests, Hitoshi began to pray that he would end up running in Shoto's group. He desperately needed the free ride.
As they waited for their numbers to be called a tall and frankly jarringly loud boy came up to them "Hey, you with the split colored hair, you're Endeavor's son right? I'm Yoarashi Inasa!"
Shoto gave the boy a blank look. "Unfortunately."
That seemed to jar Yoarashi slightly. "Unfortunately?"
"Yes."
When Shoto didn't elaborate, Yoarashi looked at the other two of them. "...Okay…? Uh, are you guys his friends or something?"
Hitoshi and Izuku nodded as Hitoshi fought back a yawn. Izuku offered the other boy an apologetic look. "Sorry Shoto, Toshi and I are all sort of night owls and they aren't particularly awake after getting up early for the test this morning. I should have brought them coffee when I came."
He turned his attention fully onto Izuku, thank god. "I was wondering about that. You missed the written part of the exam. how do you think you will pass the recommendations exam like that?"
"Oh I took the written portion months ago so I got to sleep in."
"Really how did you manage to get to do that?"
"Vigilantism. I'm Loki." He pointed at his circlet. "Thus the horns. They are sort of a signature part of my look."
The boy tilted his head as if to study it in a new light. "Why is the one mostly broken off then?"
That had been a fairly recent change on Izuku's part. "Oh, it is to match my baby sister. She only has one horn."
Hitoshi nodded and fished out his phone and tapped it a few times to pull up a picture of his little cousin. The first one he found was the one he had taken of her focusing hard to braid Himiko's hair for the first time on her own. "This is her and Izuku's older sister."
Yoarashi smiled at the picture. "Oh your little sister is really cute." He gave Hitoshi a puzzled look though. "But why do you have a picture of her?"
Hitoshi gestured between him and Izuku. "Cousins. My Dad is his Mom's younger brother."
"I see. Do all the members of your family have different colored hair?"
Izuku snorted. "No, most are either naturally white or green. Hitoshi and his Dad are a couple of the exceptions as is my older sister Himiko but she was adopted so that is kinda to be expected. Not that you would know that looking at my older brothers given that they have been dying their hair for years now."
Hitoshi snorted. "Dabi and Tomura are just living their best punk rocker and e-boy lives."
Shoto cracked a grin at that. "While I think Dabi would take the punk thing as a complement, Tomura would definitely kill you if he heard you call him an e-boy, Hitoshi."
Hitoshi gave Shoto a half dead stare, "What can I say? I long for the sweet embrace of death so I can finally get some decent shut eye."
"Toshi, no."
"Toshi, yes."
"Shoto, maybe."
The three of them fell into a small fit of laughter at the inside joke that had been born of over half a year of late night voice calls. Poor Yoarashi looked slightly lost and slightly worried. "Uh, are you alright?"
Hitoshi made a so-so gesture. "I am running on like maybe 3 hours of proper sleep along with however long my nap was during lunch and the coffee I had this morning has worn off." He turned to Izuku. "Do you think I could talk Uncle Mirai or the Detective to steal some of my Dad's coffee from the staff lounge?"
Izuku shook his head. "You are going to have to run before either of them would get back." Hitoshi watched him look around before seeming to spot something. "If you want coffee, you might be able to get some though. Your Dad is here with a cup."
Hitoshi sighed and shook his head. "Even I am not so bold as to try and take Dad's coffee from him when he knows about it. It is one thing to take a cup from the coffee pot in the morning, it is another to take a cup directly from him."
"Good, you are smarter than Hizashi and Nemuri." To Hitoshi's delight, a familiar coffee mug appeared in front of his face.
"Dad, have I ever told you how much I love you?" Hitoshi gingerly took the heavenly drink from his father's hand and began to down it, ignoring the familiar burn.
Shoto made a noise of disappointment. "None for me?"
Hitoshi turned to look over his shoulder at his Dad as the man shook his head. "Endeavor would have a fit if I gave it to you out in the open when he could see. Besides, why do you care? I was under the impression you planned to throw the practical this afternoon."
Yoarashi's eyes widened as he looked at Shoto in shock. "What?! Why?"
Shoto gestured to Izuku and Hitoshi. "The conventional entrance exam is highly biased against people without a strong offensive Quirk. I know I could easily pass the practical and get one of the four seats but that greatly reduces both Izuku and Hitoshi's chances of getting into the Heroics course before the Sports Festival. I can get in through the normal exam just fine so I will."
The other boy blinked as if to consider that. "Oh, that is actually a rather good point. Do you both have mental Quirks then?"
Izuku blinked in surprise. "I literally went on air with Present Mic months ago and openly stated I am Quirkless, how is it I keep having to explain that to everyone new today?"
Hitoshi rolled his eyes. "Hey Yoarashi, you want to see what my Quirk can do?"
"Sure?"
"Hop on one foot." The boy had just barely started when Hitoshi felt his Quirk being erased.
"Hitoshi, don't use your Quirk on other people before you have too."
"Yeah whatever."
Yoarashi blinked up at him from where he had fallen onto the ground after he lost his balance as he regained control mid jump. "Oh that is a rather powerful Quirk! I couldn't break free at all!"
Hitoshi nodded. "Yeah as far as I can tell, Izuku's the only one who has been able to regain any control while I had him brainwashed. Best guesses are because he either has a weird brain or maybe Quirkless people are harder for me. No idea since he is the only Quirkless person I have been able to try."
Before they could chat more, Pops called out a new series of numbers. A series that had all of them except Izuku in it. Oh, well, at least he got his wish to run with Shoto.