Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku yawned, waking up from his sleep with the sun. He sat up and threw his sheets aside, rubbing his bleary eyes. 

But once he opened those eyes, he saw something odd. 

It was just… strange white text, floating in the air.

Hello, Midoriya Izuku. 

Welcome to your Quirk: The Gamer! Apologies for manifesting so late. 

Was this… some kind of joke?

It was probably an illusion quirk or something. Most likely just one of the other kids at school messing with him, using their quirk to make him look the fool. Izuku sighed and curled up in bed. It was a cruel prank to play on a quirkless kid. Trying to make him think he had a quirk. Well, he wasn’t going to let anyone make fun of him! He would ignore the stupid message as long as it took. 

Izuku waited, but the words in the air didn’t go away. He huffed, and poked the words impatiently. They rippled under his touch. Izuku blinked as the words in the air changed. 

To begin, please say ‘Profile’ aloud. This will bring you to a list of your abilities. If you wish to see any categories within the Profile Window, state them aloud while in the Profile. State “close” when you wish to close the Window. Say “okay” to confirm! 

Izuku stared at the message for a long time. 

Eventually, he cautiously said, “Okay?” 

The text vanished, as if it were never there. 

Then, Izuku, feeling cautious (feeling as though his classmates were about to jump out any minute and make fun of him) whispered “Profile”, quiet enough that none would hear it. 

A giant box appeared across his vision, filled with white-colored text and numbers. 

Midoriya Izuku -- Lvl. 12 -- Age: 14

HP: 120/120

Exhaustion: 0/600

Title: None

Quirk: The Gamer

[Stats][Skills][Inventory][Relationships][Questlog]

Izuku still felt stupid for experimenting with it, but… 

He glanced around. 

No one was around but him. If this was an illusion quirk, then how was that person changing the illusion to follow whatever he said? 

“Stats,” Izuku said, testing the waters. The white text flashed to a different screen. 

VIT: 12, STR: 6, DEX: 7, INT: 15, WIS: 13, CHA: 11

Unallotted Stat Points: 0 

Were those stats meant to be for him? He supposed it made sense. His strength was the lowest, and he wasn’t very strong. If someone was making stats for him that’s what they’d probably pick, after all. And the interface had reacted to his words again, which meant the first time hadn’t been a fluke.

“Um… Skills?” Izuku said. 

Skill List

Japanese [Lvl. 81]: speaking the Japanese language

Literacy [Lvl. 45]: reading and writing [language: Japanese] 

Mathematics [Lvl. 45]: ability to use mathematical equations to solve problems

Quirk Analysis [Lvl. 30]: make deductions about what a person can do with their powers, and what their weaknesses might be

Observe [Lvl. 1]: gathers information about something when the player states ‘observe’ while looking at that thing

This… 

If this was a quirk, it was the weirdest one Izuku had ever seen. 

Izuku was staring down at his spare notebook, pen in hand. 

He didn’t want to put information about this, in Hero Analysis for the Future #13. That seemed far too hopeful, like he was assuming all this was real. 

It probably wasn’t! Really. It probably wasn’t. 

Besides, even if this was a quirk, he didn’t want anyone reading his usual notebook and finding out about it. Especially his mom, he didn’t want to get her hopes up and then proceed to crush them. Better to put it in a top secret notebook. He titled it, “History Notes.” 

(Anticlimactic, but it was supposed to be a secret.) 

He wrote about the strange, untouchable words that floated in the air. He wrote down everything written in the stats and skills pages as well. Once he was done writing those things, he still had more to check. 

“Profile,” Izuku said. 

Midoriya Izuku -- Lvl. 12 -- Age: 14

HP: 120/120

Exhaustion: 0/600

Title: None

Quirk: The Gamer

[Stats][Skills][Inventory][Relationships][Questlog]

“It says my quirk is ‘The Gamer’,” Izuku muttered, writing it down. “It said it was the Gamer, earlier, didn’t it? So it’s definitely claiming to be my quirk…” Weird. 

‘The Gamer’ was a strange choice of name. But Izuku could understand how his quirk was supposed to be similar to a game, considering the leveling system and the stat points. 

“Inventory,” Izuku said. It popped up, but unfortunately… 

Inventory: [LOCKED] -- Required Level: Lvl. 20

“Required level--?” Izuku muttered, then glanced at his profile. “Since I’m only level 12, I need eight more levels to access the inventory… but how do I level up?” 

And what was inventory even useful for, if he did suddenly manage to reach Level 20? 

There was no one to answer him. 

With the inventory unavailable for now, Izuku decided to try the next tab. 

RELATIONSHIPS

Midoriya Inko: Rep +96. Unconditional Love. 

Bakugou Katsuki: Rep -53. Enemy. (Type=Petty) 

Bakugou Mitsuki: Rep +10. Friendly Acquaintance. 

Bakugou Masaru: Rep +9. Friendly Acquaintance. 

Classmates [Homeroom]: Rep -29. Moderate Hostility. 

Was this true? As happy as he was to see his mother listed as “unconditional love”, seeing such low rep with Kacchan made him wince. But, well, it was true that Kacchan wasn’t that fond of him, so it wasn’t like it was wrong or anything. He didn’t agree with the ‘enemy’ classification, but if the type was listed as petty… 

Maybe he could consider Kacchan a petty enemy. That was kind of like frenemies, right? 

But this whole weirdness was making less and less sense as the result of someone’s quirk or an elaborate prank. How would someone else’s quirk know Midoriya’s relationship with Bakugou’s parents? 

“Izuku, come down for breakfast!” he heard his mom yell. 

Izuku sighed. He hadn’t had time to look at the last tab-- Questlog. But whatever. This would help him check something else as well. 

Izuku could see white text in front of him, moving with him as he walked, because he’d never said “close.” Now was the chance to see if his mother could see it. 

Izuku cautiously sat down at the breakfast table. His mother greeted him cheerfully (“Good morning, Izuku!”) and gave him a bowl of miso soup. He started eating his food absentmindedly, glancing up for her reaction to the white screen in front of him. 

There was no reaction. In fact, at one point she reached through the text to put down some tea and natto, all without even blinking. His mom definitely couldn’t see it. So… was it some kind of illusion? Some kind of false computer interface? 

“Close,” he muttered to himself, and the Profile vanished. All that was left in front of him was his soup. 

Izuku tried to make conversation with his mother, but it was difficult when his mind was still whirling with what he’d just discovered. “Sorry for being distracted,” he said. “I just saw this really cool villain fight online and I can’t wait to take notes on it.” 

His mom smiled sadly and shook her head. “You can take notes on it after we eat. It’s Sunday, after all.”

Sunday… that was perfect. He could spend all day playing with… whatever it was. 

He wanted it to be a quirk. Really badly. Even though it probably wasn’t. 

But whatever it was… maybe it could be useful? If it was real? Being able to tell what other people thought of you… that was almost like an entire quirk on its own, wasn’t it? So even if the rest of it was worthless… 

By the time breakfast had finished, Izuku had made his decision. 

If this was even remotely real… he was going to use it to be a hero. Whatever advantages this ‘quirk’ could offer, he was going to make the most of them. 

Chapter Text

Izuku figured he wouldn’t get anywhere with the Gamer unless he explored it a little. He put his disbelief aside and tried to get into business mode. 

“Questlog,” Izuku said, in the privacy of his room. He’d been curious about this one. He wasn’t entirely sure what it would end up being. 

OUTSTANDING QUESTS:

• Tutorial Quest Part 1

He had a Tutorial Quest? How was he supposed to activate it? 

He could probably try just… saying the quest, right? 

“Tutorial quest part one,” Izuku said. 

TUTORIAL QUEST PT. 1

• Explore Each Page of Profile  ✔

• Ask for [Explanation: Stats]

• Ask for [Explanation: Relationships]

REWARDS: ??? 

It worked! And… the check mark must mean he completed that part of the quest. He had checked every page of the profile. Now all he had to do was finish the other two parts. 

“Can…” Izuku felt a little stupid asking a quirk this, “Can I have an explanation of stats?” When the wall of text changed, Izuku was relieved that it worked. 

BASE STATS

• Vitality: physical state in regards to health and constitution [affects HP, exhaustion threshold]

• Strength: the quality of being physically strong [affects Attack Power]

• Dexterity: ability to move quickly and easily [affects Dodging, Base Speed]

• Intelligence: the ability to learn new things quickly [affects time spent Learning Skills]

• Wisdom: the ability to properly apply knowledge to situations [affects Problem-Solving] 
• Charisma: charm that inspires others to like you and take up your cause [affects Conversation, Relationship Statuses]

Izuku scribbled down every word in his notebook, in case they’d be important later. In particular, he made careful note of The Gamer’s distinction between Wisdom and Intelligence… might come in handy later. 

Once he’d written everything down, Izuku said, “Tutorial quest part one.” The tutorial quest popped right back up, even though he hadn’t gone through the Questlog first. Convenient. 

TUTORIAL QUEST PT. 1

• Explore Each Page of Profile  ✔

• Ask for [Explanation: Stats] ✔

• Ask for [Explanation: Relationships]

REWARDS: ??? 

“Explanation, relationships?” Izuku asked. 

The relationship screen shows you what other people (or groups of people) think of you. People you interact with often or who have strong feelings about you are more likely to appear in the relationships tab. If you want someone in particular to be added or removed from the list, say “add [name] to relationships” or “remove [name] from relationships.” 

[ALERT! Quest: Tutorial Quest Part 1 has been completed! Collect Rewards?]

Izuku wrote down the message about relationships, but he was mostly focused on the alert. He felt a knot of anxiety and excitement as he looked at it. He took a deep breath and said, “Collect rewards.” 

Tutorial Quest Part 1 Complete! 

Rewards [Hidden]: +500 XP, +5 Stat Points

[ALERT! Level up! You are now Lvl. 13!] 

… The quest gave him XP? 

Congratulations on finishing the tutorial quest! You’re on your own now! 

“What?! But that was just the first part of the Tutorial Quest! What about the rest of it?” Izuku shouted. When there was no answer, Izuku yelled out to no one, “What even are you? What do you want with me?!” 

Izuku felt anger bubble up within him when the only response was quiet. 

“Just abandon me, why don’t you,” Izuku muttered. 

He sighed. “Profile.” 

Midoriya Izuku -- Lvl. 13 -- Age: 14

HP: 120/120

Exhaustion: 0/600

Title: None

Quirk: The Gamer

[Stats][Skills][Inventory][Relationships][Questlog]

“Nothing changed when I leveled up, not even HP,” Izuku muttered. “Stats?” 

VIT: 12, STR: 6, DEX: 7, INT: 15, WIS: 13, CHA: 11

Unallotted Stat Points: 10

So that’s what changed. He got 10 unallotted stat points. Unallotted stat points meant he could put them wherever he wanted, right? 

He glanced up at the rewards, which only promised five extra stat points. Now he had 10, even though he had none before. The only other thing had been leveling up… had he received 5 unallotted stat points by level-up? 

Izuku was tempted to immediately put them towards Vitality. Since it had said that Vitality affects HP, Izuku had the opportunity to give his HP a massive boost. And he was a bit tempted to do so. 

He wasn’t sure, though, and he wanted to be thorough. He didn’t want to blow his stat points off on something that wouldn’t benefit him much in the future. Izuku wanted to maximize the benefit of whatever this was, but that was hard when he knew so little. 

Yet, the best way to prove that ‘The Gamer’ was real would be to boost his stat points and see if anything changed. He needed to know if this was real. 

But if he was going to do that, he wanted to choose something that would help him now. If he chose something that was immediately useful, it would justify him spending his stat points right away. And the best stat for that was… 

Intelligence. 

The description had said that he could use Intelligence to learn skills faster. If he could learn skills faster now, he might get better at his skills fast enough that it would make spending his stat points now rather than later worth it. 

“Ten stat points to intelligence,” Izuku said, and the text changed in response. 

VIT: 12, STR: 6, DEX: 7, INT: 25, WIS: 13, CHA: 11

Unallotted Stat Points: 0 

“Okay,” Izuku breathed. “How do I test if I’m smarter?” 

Izuku pulled out one of his analysis notebooks and set up a video of a hero fight on his computer. He started working on it, analyzing a fight between Present Mic and the villain Toxic Chainsaw. He decided to focus mainly on Mic’s skills, since he already knew some of what Toxic Chainsaw could do from his other fights. 

“... three-sixty degree sound waves, weaponization of …” as Izuku muttered and scribbled out his answers, he tried to think if this felt any easier or harder than usual. But to be honest, it didn’t. It felt basically the same. He kept going anyway, deciding that he would evaluate afterwards if it were any more skilled than usual. 

Your problem-solving activity increased your Wisdom! +1 WIS

Quirk Analysis Skill leveled up to Level 31! 

Izuku paused to glance at the alerts. “Stats.” 

VIT: 12, STR: 6, DEX: 7, INT: 25, WIS: 14, CHA: 11

Unallotted Stat Points: 0 

“My wisdom got higher when I was doing problem-solving…” Izuku glanced down at his quirk analysis. “So quirk analysis isn’t an intelligence-based ability, it’s a wisdom-based one…” Probably because quirk analysis dealt with the application of knowledge, not the learning of knowledge. Izuku sighed. So his new intelligence wasn’t going to help him with Quirk Analysis directly. 

But… 

Izuku glanced at the Quirk Analysis Skill Level Up. My new intelligence boost probably helped me level it up faster. So it helps me get better at quirk analysis faster, but it doesn’t help me actually *do* the quirk analysis? 

Izuku shrugged to himself. If he focused on improving skills, then the intelligence boost might still be worth it, even though Quirk Analysis was a wisdom skill. Speaking of, there was another skill that he wanted to work on… 

He poked his head in the hallway, glancing out at his mom. 

“Observe,” Izuku whispered.

Midoriya Inko -- Lvl. 29 -- The Persevering 

Quirk: Attraction of Small Objects 

[See Stats & Skills]

He could see her name, her quirk, her level… but what did ‘The Persevering’ mean? Was it a ‘title’ like he’d seen on his profile? 

“See stats and skills,” Izuku muttered. 

Observe Failed. The target’s level is too high. 

Hm. So he couldn’t see her stats… 

“Mom,” Izuku said. “I’m going to go to the park quick.” 

Inko blinked in surprise. “Oh, alright. Make sure to be back for dinner.” 

“I will,” Izuku promised. She was probably surprised because he rarely left the house on the weekends (he didn’t have any friends to meet, anyway) but he had some experiments to run! 

He wanted to see if he could raise his other stat points by doing things they were related to. With dexterity, that would be running. And in the meantime, he could practice his ‘Observe’ and see if it actually worked on other people! ( Observe might be a good way to confirm that this is real, noted Izuku. If he could see things that it would be impossible for him to know, it was proof that something was at play.) 

He started jogging on the sidewalk, and each time he saw someone, he would whisper Observe under his breath. Their name, level, and what he was guessing was ‘title’ popped up, along with an option to look at their stats and skills. He tried to look at stats as well, but he kept getting the message that the target’s level was too high. He’d even tried looking at the stats of a level six kindergartener, but apparently even they were too high a level for Izuku’s Observe. Was it because Observe was still a Lvl. 1 Skill? 

After he’d run for ten minutes (and was starting to get really tired), he got what he’d been looking for. 

Practicing has made you faster! +1 DEX. 

“Yes!” Izuku cheered to himself, ignoring the other people on the sidewalk. Newly motivated, he kept running and practicing his Observe ability, hoping for them to improve. 

When he got home a few hours later, Izuku’s legs felt like jelly and he was drenched in sweat. He’d spent time running around the park and given himself plenty of breaks, but he still was horribly tired. 

Am I really this out-of-shape? I had to keep stopping, since I didn’t have enough endurance to run the whole time… geez. I ought to run more often. 

On the bright side, though… 

Observe Skill leveled up to Level 2! 

Practicing has made you faster! +1 DEX. 

Practicing has made you faster! +1 DEX. 

Observe Skill leveled up to Level 3! 

Observe Skill leveled up to Level 4! 

He’d gotten better! If he could keep improving his dexterity like this, he’d be fast in no time! 

He’d decided to stop after his Exhaustion level reached 200. It seemed to increase the more he worked out, and if this is what 200 felt like, Izuku was frankly a little worried what would happen if he got all the way to 600/600 exhaustion. Death, he suspected. 

“I’m going to take a shower!” Izuku called from the door. He took off his shoes and went straight to the shower. He’d have to convince his mom to let him work out, though, or at least just go on runs to increase his dexterity… 

Izuku knew that he hadn’t technically definitively proven that this was… well, real, yet. 

But it hadn’t gone away yet, and no one had jumped out to claim the prank. 

Though he didn’t want to get his hopes up, with every passing second he felt a little bit more secure in his new, yet odd, quirk. 

Chapter Text

When Izuku woke up the next morning, he was briefly convinced that none of the previous day had happened, and it had all been some sort of weird fever dream. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, groaning. Monday.

“Profile?” 

Midoriya Izuku -- Lvl. 13 -- Age: 14

HP: 120/120

Exhaustion: 68/600

Title: None

Quirk: The Gamer

[Stats][Skills][Inventory][Relationships][Questlog]

Izuku blinked and stared at the text. 

So it hadn’t been a fever dream. 

Izuku squinted at his exhaustion score. It was still at 68? But he’d just slept! When Izuku stood up, he could figure out why. His legs were super sore, not to mention the fact that he felt groggy overall. 

Izuku sighed. Great. “Close,” he said. 

His mom had left for work early, leaving him breakfast behind. Izuku quickly ate his food and sipped at his green tea, feeling himself get a little bit peppier. Which gave him an idea. 

“Exhaustion,” Izuku said, and to his pleasant surprise, only the exhaustion score popped up in front of him. 

Exhaustion: 48/600

“It decreased,” Izuku muttered to himself. He glanced down at the green tea. “Observe.” 

Green Tea. -20 Ex, +6 HP. Good for you. 

A special item?!

His exhaustion had decreased by twenty, so obviously the green tea must have done its work. Izuku grabbed some coffee from the coffeemaker that his mother used, pouring a little bit into a cup. “Observe,” he said, once he was staring at the coffee. 

Black Coffee. -40 Ex. A bitter taste. 

“Decreases exhaustion a lot, but no health benefits,” Izuku muttered. “It’s another item.” 

He tried a few other things, but the table and pencil and silverware didn’t seem to trigger Observe’s effects like the coffee and green tea had. Izuku wished he was able to spend more time experimenting, but he had to get to school. His teachers wouldn’t abide by him being late. 

He rushed to school and barely made it in time, sliding into his seat at the last moment. His teacher gave him a dirty look, but didn’t say anything directly. 

Once everyone was in their seats, the teacher started talking. “So as third-year students it’s time to start thinking seriously about your futures and what you want to do with your lives,” the teacher said. “I could pass out some career aptitude tests, but… why bother? I know you want to go to the Hero Track!” 

Izuku winced as the class celebrated and cheered. It was true, he did want to get into the Hero Track, but he knew no one believed he could do it. 

“Hey teach, don’t lump me in with these losers! I’m the real deal, but these guys would be lucky to be a sidekick to some busted D-lister! Hah!” 

“You can’t just say that!” 

“That was uncalled for, Katsuki!”

“Shut up, extras!” Kacchan barked back. 

“Oh, if I remember correctly, you’re trying out for UA High, aren’t you?” the teacher said. As the class reacted in shock to the news that Kacchan was trying for such a prestigious school, Kacchan bragged about his abilities and how he’d be a great hero. “People all across the world will know who I am, and it all starts with UA High!” 

“Oh yeah, Midoriya, don’t you want to go to UA High too?” the teacher said. 

“Fuck,” Izuku muttered to himself as the class burst into jeers and laughter. 

That day after school, Kacchan stole his notebook. 

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing, Deku, but we’re not done,” he said. 

“Give it back!” Izuku said. Suddenly he was thankful that he left his notebook about his secret powers at home and only took the hero one to school. As Bakugou taunted him, Izuku pursed his lips. He’d never gotten the chance to Observe Bakugou, so maybe…

Bakugou exploded his notebook and tossed it out the window. 

“N-!” Izuku started. All that work! 

“Most top heroes have stories about them from their school days. I want the shine of being able to be called the only student to make it into UA from this garbage city junior high school! So don’t even think of applying to UA, nerd,” Bakugou said, putting a sizzling hand on his uniform. 

There was nothing Izuku could say. 

As Bakugou was walking away, Izuku said, “Observe.” 

Bakugou Katsuki -- Lvl. 19 -- None

Quirk: Explosion

[See Stats & Skills]

“What was that, nerd?” Bakugou growled, turning around. 

“N-nothing!” Izuku squeaked. Level 19?! That’s a full six levels above me! 

“You know if you really want to be a hero that badly, there's actually another way. Just pray that you'll be born with a quirk in your next life and take a swan dive off the roof of the building!” Bakugou said viciously. 

Izuku said nothing. 

Dammit… I wanted to stand up to Kacchan there, but the only thing that I ended up seeing was how much stronger he is than I am… 

Izuku shook his head and sighed. He couldn’t believe that Kacchan had said that to him. He grabbed his soggy-but-potentially-salvageable notebook, feeling a bit depressed. Whatever. He’d just go home and then--

[ALERT: EMERGENCY QUEST ACTIVATION!]

Emergency Quest: Danger Under the Bridge

• Goal: Survive the villain attack

• Bonus: Defeat the aggressor alone

REWARDS: ??? 

BONUS REWARDS: ??? 

“Wha-” Izuku barely managed to get that out of his mouth before he was attacked by green sludge. 

“A medium-sized invisibility coat, just what I need,” the sludge villain said, amusement in his voice. “Don’t worry. I’m just going to take over your body. Calm down. It’ll only hurt for a minute. You’ll feel better soon.” 

Izuku clawed at the sludge covering his mouth, but there wasn’t anything he could do. His new quirk wasn’t doing anything to save him! Maybe if he had unallotted stat points left he could put them into strength as a hail mary, but… he didn’t have any left…

[ALERT! Damage Taken! (Type:Asphyxiation) -23 HP]

[Your current struggles will make you more durable later! +1 VIT] 

He couldn’t breathe… 

“You can’t grab me, I’m made of fluid! Thanks for your help, though. You’re my hero. I didn’t realize he was in the city, so I’ve got to get out fast,” the sludge villain said. 

My vision’s getting all fuzzy… am I dying? Someone… help… please… 

“It’s all right now, young man. I am here! TEXAS SMASH!” he heard someone yell. 

[ALERT! Emergency Quest has been completed! Collect rewards?] 

[ALERT! Emergency Bonus Quest Failed]

[Assisted in defeat of Lvl. 26 Enemy! Contribution level: minor. +1300XP] 

Izuku groaned and ignored the text alerts that flitted across his vision as he felt someone slap his cheek. “Hey, hey-wake up! Oh, good. Thought we lost you there.” 

Izuku made a noise of involuntary surprise as he sat up from the pavement. 

 “A-All Might?” 

I’m glad you’re okay! I’m sorry I caught you up in my villain fighting. It turns out the city sewer system is pretty difficult to navigate,” All Might said, with a bellowing laugh. “But, you were a big help. I captured him safely!” he said, holding up a bottle that seemed to contain the sludge villain. 

Izuku was barely able to react. “A-an a-autograph--” he started to say, but once he opened his notebook he realized All Might had already signed it. “He already did! Th-thank you very much! I will treasure--” as Izuku was babbling, he thought of a new opportunity, better than an autograph, that he could get from this. After all, knowing more about All Might would help Izuku write better quirk analysis of him! “Observe,” Izuku whispered. 

Yagi Toshinori -- Lvl. 99 -- The Symbol of Peace

Quirk: One for All (transferred)

[See Stats & Skills]

ACTIVE BUFF: Quirked Form (+STR, VIT, DEX)

• Buff Time Limit: 3mins, 2s remaining

Izuku’s jaw dropped. All Might’s… real name? Oh gosh, he hadn’t even thought about how that would pop up. Wasn’t that some kind of national secret? He probably shouldn’t know that his name was Yagi Toshinori. Not to mention the name of his quirk… One for All… and that buff… a time limit? His buff was called Quirked Form… was All Might’s quirk on a time limit? Why... how?! All this information was probably extremely classified and he hadn’t even thought of that part.

If the villains ever found out All Might had a time limit… if that’s what was even happening and Izuku wasn’t misinterpreting, of course… 

Luckily, All Might seemed to take him saying ‘Observe’ as part of his incomprehensible hackneyed muttering, and seemed to take his awed (horrified) silence as just a regular civilian reaction. 

“Okay! I gotta take this guy to the police! Stay out of trouble, see you around,” All Might said. 

“Wait, you’re leaving already?!”

“Heroes are constantly fighting time as well as enemies. Now stand back, I’m taking off. Thanks for your continued support!”

“All Might--!” 

But All Might was already gone. 

Chapter Text

As he walked home from his encounter with All Might, Izuku glanced up at his alerts. It looks like I got XP from almost getting killed by that villain because apparently I technically contributed to his defeat. 

Not to mention the quest that he’d just completed. He had rewards to collect. 

“Collect rewards,” Izuku said. 

Danger Under the Bridge Complete! 

Rewards [Hidden]: Detect Enemies Skill (Lvl. 1), +8 Stat Points, +2100 XP

[ALERT! Level up! You are now Lvl. 14!] 

“A new skill,” Izuku muttered. “XP, and some stat points.” Izuku was most curious about his new skill. “Skills,” Izuku said. Glancing through his skill list, he noticed a new skill added at the bottom. 

Detect Enemies (Lvl. 1): Say ‘detect enemies’ aloud to detect anyone with the ‘enemy’ relationship or the ‘bloodlust’ status effect within a five-foot-radius. 

Huh. That looked sort of useful, if he wanted to figure out if someone was trying to kill him or not. But a five-foot-radius was kind of small, so the enemy would have to be right on top of him if he wanted it to work. Not to mention that he would have to literally say ‘detect enemies’ aloud? Maybe the radius would expand if he leveled-up the skill.

It was probably not worth getting almost murdered for. But he supposed it wasn’t going to hurt to have it.

 “Stats,” Izuku said. 

VIT: 13, STR: 6, DEX: 10, INT: 25, WIS: 14, CHA: 11

Unallotted Stat Points: 13

Thirteen new stat points to play with. He would wait to put those into something later. For now, he needed a game plan for how he was going to improve his stats fast enough for the UA entrance exams. 

Izuku was doing push-ups. 

Well, he’d done a couple of regular push-ups before he’d gotten far too tired, so he switched to doing push-ups on his knees instead. Which was mildly embarrassing. 

But he just had to keep going until he confirmed--

[Using your muscles makes them stronger! +1 STR]

Izuku collapsed to the ground, panting. 

“So… working out… increases your strength,” Izuku huffed, scribbling that down in his notebook. He’d suspected it strongly, but it was important to test. 

So far, he’d confirmed that quirk analysis increased WIS, that running increased DEX, that taking damage (almost getting murdered?) increased VIT, and that working out increased STR. All he had left to figure out was INT and CHA, and he had a few ideas on how to test those out. But first… 

Izuku grabbed the green tea that was just within reach and chugged the cup. He felt some of his tiredness and muscle soreness vanish, the -20 Exhaustion from the item taking effect. 

Izuku pulled out his homework and got to trying to increase his INT. 

After ages studying, Izuku finally managed to increase his INT by one point. It seemed like trying to learn new things (both memorizations and new techniques) was the factor that increased intelligence, just as he had suspected. 

Something else was quickly becoming apparent, though, and that was discrepancies between the times it took to increase certain stats. He’d been able to increase strength and dexterity fairly quickly, but the less said about the time it took to gain one intelligence point the better. Was it the activities themselves, or…? 

“Stats,” Izuku muttered. 

VIT: 13, STR: 7, DEX: 10, INT: 26, WIS: 14, CHA: 11

Unallotted Stat Points: 13

“Do they increase on a curve?” Izuku muttered to himself. It would explain why it was easy to get STR and DEX (things he didn’t have that much of) but hard to get INT, which he had a lot of. His theory was that the more points he gained in a stat, the harder it would be to get more after that. It was just a working theory for now, but one that Izuku feared would be the truth. If it were the case, it would be very easy for his progress to plateau. 

“Keep an eye on that,” Izuku muttered to himself, writing down a note. “Record how much time it takes to increase certain stats as opposed to others, to test that theory.” 

If stats did increase on a curve, that meant he should grind up all his stats as high as they would go before adding his unallotted stat points to them, because once they were higher they would be tougher to increase. Which meant dumping all those points in intelligence had probably been a bad idea. Oh well. 

On the bright side, he’d noticed that he learned much faster and retained a significant amount more than usual when he was studying, so if nothing else, at least he’d gained that. 

Bakugou shoved him up against the wall. Izuku winced as he hit the bricks. 

[Alert: Damage Taken! -2 HP.] 

“Kacchan--” Izuku tried. 

“You haven’t withdrawn your application to UA, nerd?” he snarled. 

Bakugou’s bullying had gotten a lot worse since that day. He apparently hadn’t gotten over learning that Izuku was truly trying for UA, especially considering he still thought Izuku was quirkless. Izuku hissed in pain as Bakugou used his quirk to singe his arm. 

[Alert: Damage Taken! (Type:Fire) -8 HP.]

He knew it wasn’t that much HP, nothing a few green teas couldn’t fix… but it still stung very badly. Burns hurt! 

“Detect enemies,” Izuku said. 

[Alert! Enemy detected!] 

“Why do you keep saying that?!” Bakugou demanded. 

(Also, maybe the fact that Izuku kept saying ‘detect enemies’ was contributing to the fact he was getting bullied… but he needed to level up this skill! And Bakugou was the only enemy he had, even if he was technically classified as a petty enemy!) 

“Detect enemies,” Izuku replied. 

[Alert! Enemy detected!] 

[Your observation of others increases your people-skills. +1 CHA.]

Bakugou screamed in frustration. 

Izuku stumbled to class bruised and a little singed, but the teacher paid him little mind. At this point Bakugou’s bullying had become routine, and neither he nor the teacher wanted to go through the official procedures that were supposed to take place whenever one student assaulted another. They’d tried doing that before, and nothing had ever been done. Honestly if the teacher took him to the office every time somebody pushed him around no one would get any learning done. 

“Observe,” Izuku muttered as quietly as he could, using his abilities to scan students around the classroom. Even though he was trying to be quiet and non-obtrusive, he knew that doing this all the time would probably make him look weirder than he already did. And he was already known as the weird kid. 

[Observe Skill leveled up to Level 5!]

Izuku resisted a sigh. Sometimes he just wished that he could be normal, like all the other kids with quirks. 

He wished his quirk had come in on time?

No… more like he wished he had a regular, normal quirk. This one was so finicky and he didn’t know anything about it, and it came in so late… and he probably wouldn’t be able to convince anyone of it, so having a quirk now didn’t increase his social status. 

The only thing that his quirk was good for was letting him know how much his classmates hated him. (-31 Rep, Moderate Hostility.) 

If only he could convince everyone he had a quirk… 

Then maybe he’d finally get some friends around here. 

GET INTO UA -- SEVEN STEP PLAN

• 1. Grind DEX stat by going on daily runs. 

• 2. Grind STR stat by doing push-ups and sit-ups every day. 

• 3. Work on WIS by doing Quirk Analysis in spare time. 

• 4. At school, go for CHA by practicing Observe and Detect Enemies Skills. 

• 5. VIT --- might increase on its own with Kacchan attacking me all the time? 

• 6. Grind INT with extra studying. 

• 7. IMPORTANT: How will I explain my quirk? Can I? 

Could I pass it off as something else?

That would be committing fraud! 

But it would be easier than trying to become a quirkless hero… 

Maybe I could actually make some friends at UA if everyone knew I had a quirk

I want other people to respect me

Chapter Text

Izuku finished his morning run feeling exhausted. “Stats,” he said. 

VIT: 14, STR: 12, DEX: 15, INT: 28, WIS: 17, CHA: 15

Unallotted Stat Points: 13

He’d been training his stats for the past month, trying to increase them as much as he could. It had worked well enough… he had improved by at least one point in every area, even intelligence and vitality, two of his hardest stats to level. 

And the system was real. 

It was hard for Izuku to believe, but these stat bonuses had basically provided confirmation that his quirk worked. Izuku’s strength had gone from 6 to 12 since he started, and in real life his strength truly had doubled, with him able to lift heavy things he’d never been able to before. With a strength stat of 12, he was actually only a little below average in strength for his age group, where he had been severely below average before. 

Not to mention that the intelligence bonus had been a godsend. He hadn’t realized it within the first few days of getting the boost, but adding ten points to his intelligence worked great! His memorization and recall, in particular, was stellar. He barely needed to spend any time on subjects that were mostly memorization. 

(He was leveling faster than ever in Quirk Analysis, too, probably the result of his intelligence bonus. He was proud of how far he’d come in that area since he’d gotten The Gamer.) 

But, to his dismay, through grinding for stats this way, he’d confirmed his fear. 

Stat gains eventually happened less and less. 

The more points he had in a stat, the harder it was to level. That meant that despite a month where he studied ferociously, he’d only managed to gain two intelligence stat points, because his INT was already so high. 

Vitality was another one that was tough to level. Vitality seemed to require serious injury to actually make any progress toward increasing it. Bakugou didn’t hurt him badly enough for him to increase VIT in any significant way, probably because Bakugou didn’t want a mark on his record that would threaten his potential enrollment at UA. 

And speaking of school, the social rejection had increased tenfold since he’d started muttering ‘observe’ and ‘detect enemies’ under his breath all the time. It was weird, he knew it was weird, but school was the best time to level those two stats and his charisma! 

Yet he was getting bullied more than ever, and it was becoming unbearable. 

(He needed to come up with a fake quirk soon. Then people would leave him alone, right? He didn’t think he could last another day of this.) 

But at least his stats were increasing! 

There was always that. 

“Detect enemies,” Izuku muttered dully. 

[Alert: Enemy detected!] 

The range of ‘detect enemies’ seemed to increase one foot per level, so at Lvl. 6, it had a ten-foot range. More than enough to detect Bakugou from the other side of the classroom. 

“Detect enemies,” Izuku repeated quietly. 

[Alert: Enemies detected! (Quantity: 2)] 

Izuku froze. Two enemies?! He glanced around. No one new had entered the room. That meant someone in the classroom had recently become his enemy. 

“Relationships.”

RELATIONSHIPS

Midoriya Inko: Rep +95. Unconditional Love. 

Bakugou Katsuki: Rep -64. Enemy. (Type=Abusive) 

Bakugou Mitsuki: Rep +11. Friendly Acquaintance. 

Bakugou Masaru: Rep +10. Friendly Acquaintance. 

Classmates [Homeroom]: Rep -38. Enemy. (Type=Petty)

Izuku resisted the urge to bash his face on the table. It wasn’t just one enemy, it was all his classmates. He had such a low reputation among his class that they were, as a group, being classified as his enemy. Great. 

Izuku also noticed a change in Bakugou’s classification. 

Enemy, abusive type? That’s ridiculous… Bakugou gets really mad, sure, but that’s just his personality! Abusive is an exaggeration… 

Izuku decided to put it out of his mind. 

“Detect enemies.” 

[Alert: Enemies detected! (Quantity: 2)] 

[Detect Enemies Skill leveled up to Level 7!]

Oh, that was a fast level-up. Maybe having more enemies in close proximity helped the skill level faster?

“...that’s all for now, class,” the teacher said, putting down his chalk. “Make sure you’ve finished the reading by Monday so we can discuss it during class!” 

Izuku got up absentmindedly, putting all his books away. He was excited to go straight home and work on his favorite thing, Quirk Analysis, as well as further strength training. 

“Hey. It was Midoriya, right?” a voice said. 

Izuku turned around and glanced at the person speaking to him with surprise. “Uh, yeah. You’re the new transfer, aren’t you?” 

“That’s right!” he said, nodding. “The name’s Nakano Izanagi.” 

“Oh, it’s nice to meet you, Nakano-kun,” Izuku said, feeling a swell of emotions within him. On one hand, this was probably the most civil conversation he’d had with someone who wasn’t his mom in a month. On the other hand, talking to him was social suicide, and if the transfer didn’t know that, Izuku didn’t want to ruin his chances at making friends… 

“Walk with me?” Nakano said, and Izuku found himself nodding. 

“U-um, so h-how was your first d-day?” Izuku said as he followed, stumbling over his words. 

“It was nice,” he said, with a smirk. “How was your day?”

“F-fine,” Izuku managed. 

“Glad to hear it,” Nakano answered easily. “Now, riddle me this… why do you say ‘Observe’ under your breath in class all the time?” 

“Observe?” Izuku echoed, and the skill involuntarily activated. 

Nakano Izanagi -- Lvl. 15 -- None 

Quirk: Enthrall

[See Stats & Skills]

“Yeah, I was wondering,” he said. 

But that didn’t make a lot of sense. Izuku had gotten much better at whispering quietly so others couldn’t hear him. It was mostly on the first few days of practicing with his quirk that everyone realized he was saying ‘observe’ all the time. Besides, Nakano sat far away from him, so he shouldn’t have been able to hear during class.

Meaning he’d heard about it from someone else. If he had heard about Izuku from someone else, that meant he probably knew Izuku was quirkless. 

“A-ah, just a nervous tic,” Izuku responded hesitantly. 

Nakano stopped in the middle of the hallway. 

“What is it?” Izuku started. 

He stopped dead in his tracks after Nakano looked him in the eye. 

His eyes were… transfixing. The light inside them almost seemed to be swirling and dancing. Izuku stared at them intently. An alert popped up, a message from his quirk, but Izuku ignored it, because it didn’t seem important. A hand grasped his shirt and he felt himself being dragged somewhere, but… Nakano’s eyes… so pretty, so distracting…  

Suddenly, everything snapped back into focus. Izuku quickly glanced at the alerts that had popped up while he was out-of-it. 

[ALERT! Debuff (Hypnosis) Applied] 

[ALERT! Debuff (Hypnosis) Timed Out] 

Izuku found himself standing in the supply closet, instead of the hallway. In front of him was Nakano, at the supply closet door. “Wai-!” Izuku started, but Nakano shut the door in his face. 

“HEY! Let me out!” Izuku yelled, pounding a fist on the door a few times. 

He heard multiple voices on the other side, though it was muffled. “-trapped the quirkless freak just like we asked! Maybe you’re worthy of--” 

So, it was a setup, Izuku thought, internally growling. The fact that the class moved to enemy status was more of a warning than I ever knew. 

Izuku tried the door. It wouldn’t open. 

Sighing, Izuku resigned himself to being stuck in here for a bit. Pounding on the door wouldn’t make anyone particularly inclined to let him out sooner, and would only serve to entertain his bullies. 

Izuku took a step back and tripped over a broom, unable to see where he was going in the dark. He stumbled into a shelf, knocking over everything that was on it with several loud clatters and bangs. He heard jeering from the other side of the door at the loud noises. 

The sound of something cylindrical rolling and splashing liquids hitting the ground was of more immediate interest, though, as was the acrid scent that hit his nose. That smells awful… and kind of like cleaning supplies. Did I spill bleach or something? 

Izuku was a bit worried now, still unable to see, with his eyes watering from the smell of whatever he’d just spilled. As he fumbled around for the lightswitch, he heard another clatter and more splashing, and cursed internally at whatever just fell. 

[ALERT: EMERGENCY QUEST ACTIVATION!]

Emergency Quest: Chemical Spill

• Goal: Survive the dangerous fumes
• Bonus: Survive at above half health

REWARDS: ??? 

BONUS REWARDS: ??? 

“Shit!” Izuku said, rushing to the door. A chemical spill? “Hey! Let me out!” 

He heard snickers and laughter on the other end of the door. 

“Some cleaning supplies spilled and got mixed together! Which is dangerous!” Izuku shouted through the door. There was a moment of silence and then more talk from the students. 

“-what’s he talking about-”

“-making up stories-” 

“-how does-” 

“-probably just afraid-”

No one opened the door, and the smell of whatever was filling the room grew more noxious. “Guys, please?!” Izuku shouted. 

“Let’s just leave him in there for a bit! He’s obviously desperate, and a liar too,” a voice said, one that Izuku recognized as belonging to one of his crueler classmates. “We’ll let him out after basketball practice!” 

A few people voiced their agreement, and Izuku heard his classmates shuffling away from the closet. “Wait--please!” Izuku shouted. 

[Alert: Damage Taken! (Type:Poison) -10HP]

[WARNING! Poison damage incurs exhaustion.]

Izuku broke into a coughing fit as he gave up pounding on the door. He trailed his hand along the wall with urgency, finally managing to find the lightswitch. Finally, with the lights on, he glanced back at what had spilled. Bleach and drain cleaner. Definitely not two things one should mix. Izuku put his shirt over his mouth to use like an impromptu mask, and started looking for a way out. 

[Alert: Damage Taken! (Type:Poison) -13HP]

He tried kicking the door as hard as he could, but it was a new door, and thick. His kicks barely affected it. He tried messing around with the door handle, but while it would move up-and-down, the door wouldn’t open. Had they jammed it from the other side? 

[Alert: Damage Taken! (Type:Poison) -11HP]

[Your current struggles will make you more durable later! +1 VIT]

He could try putting all his unallotted stats into STR and then kicking the door down. But this was such a well-built door that he severely doubted it would work. He honestly just didn’t have enough unallotted stat points to take down the door. But he would try it if nothing else worked. 

[Alert: Damage Taken! (Type:Poison) -7HP]

But there was probably another way to get through. If he remembered correctly, he might be able to remove the hinges from the door, if he could loosen the hinge pins enough… but he needed tools to remove the hinges, he couldn’t just do it by hand… 

[Alert: Damage Taken! (Type:Poison) -8HP]

[Your problem-solving activity increased your Wisdom! +1 WIS]

He quickly glanced around the room and took stock of everything in it. In the back… there! A tool kit! Izuku snatched the toolkit, and found exactly what he needed in it: a screwdriver, a hammer, and some nails. This would work. 

[Alert: Damage Taken! (Type:Poison) -11HP]

[WARNING! You are at above 50% exhaustion.]

He grabbed the screwdriver and started pushing the hinge pins up out of the hinges. The first two went easily, but the last one got stuck.

[Alert: Damage Taken! (Type:Poison) -8HP]

Izuku quickly used the hammer to strike up at it, and it fell loose. Quicker than Izuku anticipated, he had gotten all three hinges out of the way. The door came loose, and he quickly tossed it aside.

[Alert: Damage Taken! (Type:Poison) -4HP]

The thing that had been jamming the door was a big doorstop, which had prevented the door from moving when he pushed it.  Izuku stepped over the doorstop and stumbled out, coughing.

[ALERT! Emergency Quest has been completed! Collect rewards?] 

[ALERT! Emergency Bonus Quest has been completed! Collect rewards?]  

He staggered away from the dangerous gases as quickly as he could, managing to spit out, “Profile!” as he headed towards the nurse’s office.

Midoriya Izuku -- Lvl. 14 -- Age: 14

HP: 78/150

Exhaustion: 523/750

Title: None

Quirk: The Gamer

[Stats][Skills][Inventory][Relationships][Questlog]

Izuku was shocked at how low his health had gotten so quickly. 

I was in that closet for under two minutes after the spill, and I’m barely above half-health! That means if I’d taken another two minutes to get out…

Izuku felt a chill down his spine at the thought. 

And my exhaustion is higher than I’ve ever seen it go before… Poison must be especially dangerous for me if it causes my exhaustion to skyrocket like that… As he arrived at the nurse’s office, spots swam across his vision. He fell to his knees. “Oh, dear!” the nurse said, blinking in surprise. “What happened?” 

“Supply closet… mixed chemicals… breathed in…” Izuku managed, before slumping against the wall. 

“I’ll call an ambulance!” the nurse said, a panicked look on her face. 

Despite feeling like he was going to pass out (from low oxygen, or high exhaustion, or something) Izuku knew that he wasn’t going to die. He wasn’t at 0 HP yet. But he didn’t say so to the nurse. She wouldn’t understand. 

He simply nodded, and allowed her to panic.

Chapter Text

Izuku was rushed to the hospital. He decided to wait to collect his quest rewards for now. As exciting as it was that he’d completed another quest, he honestly just couldn’t focus on that right now. 

An oxygen mask was put on his face immediately, which made him feel much better, and hospital staff seemed relieved that he was capable of breathing without mechanical ventilation. Still, they ran a battery of tests to check the state of his lungs, his sinuses, as well as testing his blood for chemicals. They gave him some medicines to help with his symptoms and his poisoning. Izuku felt unfocused, so he didn’t try to understand the ins-and-outs of what was going on. He just let the doctors do their work. 

His mother rushed in after a few hours of this, looking frantic. “Is he okay?!”

The doctor set down his clipboard. “We still have a lot more tests to run to check for damage to his lungs and other organs… but what we have so far looks promising. We want him to stay overnight for observation, so we can process the rest of the results.” 

“Oh, poor baby, I’m sorry I took so long!” his mom said. “The school’s call didn’t go through until late in the day, I didn’t know.” 

“It’s okay, mom,” Izuku said, giving her hand a pat. 

“The school wants to talk to you tomorrow, if you’re able to come in,” she said. “So that they can figure out what happened so it doesn’t happen again. But we can schedule that meeting later if you aren’t feeling well.” 

A meeting with the school principal? Just what I needed… Izuku thought to himself, trying to repress his frustration. “That’s fine,” Izuku said. 

“We’ll see how he’s feeling in the morning, ma’am,” the doctor said. “Don’t be afraid to take some extra days to rest.” 

He talked with his mom for a little bit, expertly dodging all her questions about exactly how he’d ended up stuck in the supply closet after spilling tons of chemicals. Honestly, he just didn’t want to get into it right now. 

It wasn’t long after that visiting hours closed down. Though his mom wrung her hands anxiously, Izuku insisted firmly that he was just fine and that she could go home and sleep. He promised to text her as soon as he woke up in the morning, in fact. 

It took a while to convince her, but he managed. 

“Emergency quest, collect rewards,” Izuku muttered once the nurses were gone. 

Chemical Spill Complete! 

Rewards [Hidden]: +3 Stat Points, +7100XP

[ALERT! Level up! You are now Lvl. 15!] 

[ALERT! Level up! You are now Lvl. 16!] 

[Collect bonus quest rewards?] 

That much XP, and two level-ups!? That was great! Maybe emergency quests weren’t so bad after all. It wasn’t the worst consolation prize for almost dying, he supposed. And he still had the bonus to collect. 

“Bonus quest, collect rewards?” Izuku tried. 

Chemical Spill Bonus Quest Complete! 

Rewards [Hidden]: Title “Broken Chemist”, +1000XP

And he got a title! He wasn’t sure what titles did, but he was very excited. Even Kacchan didn’t have one! Did bonus quests usually give titles, or did they give other things like stat points? How random were his prizes? 

[ALERT: Tutorial Quest Activation!]

Tutorial Quest Part 2: Titles

• Say ‘Titles’ aloud to look at your available titles. 
• Say ‘equip __ [title name]’ to equip a title. 

REWARDS: +100 XP

“There’s the tutorial quest!” Izuku shouted, barely managing to shut himself up even after remembering he was in a hospital at night. “Okay… Titles.” 

Titles Available 

Broken Chemist: While this title is equipped, the player takes half damage from poisons, toxins, and other corrosive substances. 

Izuku broke into a grin. Broken Chemist looked pretty useful! He would love to be immune to poisons. It would have been really useful to have before this whole closet situation. 

“Equip Broken Chemist,” Izuku said. 

Tutorial Quest Part 2 Complete! 

Rewards: +100XP

“Profile,” Izuku said. 

Midoriya Izuku -- Lvl. 16 -- Age: 14

HP: 138/150

Exhaustion: 42/750

Title: Broken Chemist

Quirk: The Gamer

[Stats][Skills][Inventory][Relationships][Questlog]

“So now I have a title of my very own,” Izuku murmured. If he ever spontaneously came in contact with some kind of toxin, he would be good to go. What an oddly comforting thought. 

Aside from that, he’d also improved in vitality and wisdom, plus he had lots of unallotted stat points now. 

“Stats,” Izuku said. 

VIT: 15, STR: 12, DEX: 15, INT: 28, WIS: 18, CHA: 15

Unallotted Stat Points: 26

What had just happened was horrible, and Izuku still shivered when he remembered how close he’d been to death. But at least he had more stat points? 

The next day, all his tests came back indicating that Izuku was in healthy working order. He had many doctors and nurses tell him about how lucky he’d been not to suffer any permanent lung or brain damage from the harmful chemicals he’d been exposed to. Izuku wasn’t sure how much of that was ‘luck’ and how much of that was ‘my HP was restored so I’m fine now’ but either way he was grateful. 

Knowing that he was fine, he went home to assure his mom and give her a hug and hang out with her a bit before heading to school midday. She’d told him it was fine if he stayed home the whole day, but in truth Izuku wanted to get the meeting with the principal out of the way. He didn’t want to be stressing all of tonight about it. Then, tonight, after he met with the principal, he would get his rewards from the Emergency Quest and figure out what to do with them. It would be something to look forward to. 

After walking down the hall (the whole hallway where the chemical spill had taken place was cordoned off) he poked his head into the principal’s office. 

“Ah, come in, come in,” she said, giving Izuku a nod. 

Izuku sat in the uncomfortable wooden chair across the desk from her. 

“We wanted to ask you how you’d been doing! Of course, seeing what happened,” the principal said smoothly. 

“I’m fine,” Izuku said stiffly. “I’ll recover.”

“Oh, good! Well, now keep in mind, this is why students aren’t permitted in the supply closets! We have rules for a reason, Midoriya-kun.” 

“I didn’t go there on purpose,” Izuku snapped. 

“Oh?” The principal raised an eyebrow. 

“Someone locked me in there,” Izuku mumbled. 

“And what student would do that?” she asked. 

“Nakano Izanagi,” Izuku muttered. 

“Why, Nakano? On his first day as a transfer?” the principal said.

“Yes,” Izuku ground out. “He used Enthrall to drag me in the closet.” 

“That’s a big accusation, Midoriya,” the principal said. “Assault with a quirk is no joke. Are you sure you want to accuse Nakano-kun of that?” 

“It’s the truth!” Izuku said. 

“Well. If that’s the case, then how did you learn the name of Nakano’s quirk?” the principal asked, skepticism in her voice. “Since Nakano has been discriminated against for his quirk in the past, we made sure to keep it a secret and not announce it to the class. If he was planning on attacking you, like you said, I doubt he told you about it,” the principal said. 

Izuku bit his tongue. If he said that Nakano told him, the principal either wouldn’t believe him or he’d use it as evidence against him. And he couldn’t say he learned it from ‘Observe’... 

“I guessed based on what the quirk did,” Izuku said. 

“Well that’s lucky, isn’t it,” the principal said, shaking her head. She leaned forward, face serious and unamused. “Listen, Midoriya. I’ll tell you what I think happened.” 

Izuku set his jaw and nodded. 

“I think you researched what Nakano’s quirk was in advance, and then used that information to make up a story for attention,” the principal said. As Izuku opened his mouth to reject, the principal slammed a hand against the desk. “Quiet! Your story doesn’t add up. If this really was a random attack like you said, then you shouldn’t know that his quirk is called Enthrall. Your explanation of ‘lucky guess’ is flimsy,” she said. 

The principal’s reasoning made some amount of sense, but Izuku couldn’t help but feel like she was unfairly biased against him. 

Izuku said nothing. There wasn’t anything he could do to contradict her at this point. 

The principal shook her head and sighed, as if disappointed. “Izuku, this isn’t the first time you’ve been in altercations with your classmates. Before we’ve only laid out minor consequences because there wasn’t much proof against you, but I’m very disappointed that you targeted a new student like this. Such a serious false accusation must result in discipline.” 

Izuku bit his lip. He should have just shut up and stayed quiet… but whatever. He could handle this, he could handle detention, or even suspension just fine. 

“We’re going to need to put a black mark on your record,” the principal said. 

Izuku jolted in his seat. “Wait-” 

A black mark was the worst kind that Aldera gave out on their middle school records, usually for violent offenses. He knew that if a black mark was placed on his record that his chances of getting into UA would plummet.  

It would be possible to get in, technically. But it was UA policy to inquire into serious offenses on student records, and consider them during the application process. Which meant that even if he passed the entrance exam, UA would hear from Aldera that he had falsely accused another student of injuring him with their quirk. Considering how serious attacking someone with your quirk was… 

UA would never let him in if they believed that he’d levied that kind of false accusation. Especially if the principal implied he’d done it because he discriminated against Nakano’s quirk.  

“That’s not necessary!” Izuku insisted. 

“I think it is,” the principal said. “Unless you can prove to me that what you’re saying is the truth, I’m going to be forced to punish you for your false accusation.” 

“It was…” Izuku started, but he couldn’t finish the sentence. 

“It was what, Midoriya?” the principal said impatiently. 

“It was my quirk!” Izuku said. 

“You don’t have-” 

“It’s called Observe!” Izuku interrupted. “I can tell someone’s name and quirk just by looking at them! I’ve had it for as long as I can remember, but for a long time I didn’t realize it was abnormal to sense someone’s quirk and name by looking!” 

“You’re lying, you must be… you’re quirkless,” the principal said, eyes sharp. 

“I can prove it!” Izuku said, desperately. “Please, let me prove it.” 

There was a long silence, in which Izuku breathed heavily after his shouting fit. 

“Okay,” the principal said. “Alright, let’s see if you can prove it.”

“Observe,” Izuku said under his breath as he looked at the man in the coat. 

Tabata Nao -- Lvl. 22 -- None 

Quirk: Healing Boost

[See Stats & Skills]

“Tabata Nao,” Izuku said. “His quirk is Healing Boost.” Then, he glanced at the woman with the scarf. “Observe.” 

Kawata Kayo -- Lvl. 27 -- None 

Quirk: Spark

[See Stats & Skills]

“Kawata Kayo, Spark,” Izuku said. 

The principal had asked a few people from the new maintenance crew to come over for the test, to see if Izuku really could guess everyone’s name and quirk. Luckily, Izuku actually did have the ability to do so. 

“My god,” the principal breathed. “You do have a quirk.”

“Call his mom,” Kawata suggested. “Get him to an appointment with a quirk physician.” 

“I will,” the principal said, with a short nod. 

Izuku sank into his car seat as his mother chattered on the way to the doctor. 

“To think that you actually had a quirk this whole time…!” she said. It was clear why she was excited, and Izuku could understand why. She was excited that Izuku’s life would get easier. Frankly, Izuku knew that she’d always been afraid of how the world would treat her poor, baby boy, considering that he was different. 

Izuku was a little excited, just like his mom. To have a quirk would be lovely… and maybe it would help him get along with his classmates. But he’d really jumped the gun on this decision. Once he registered Observe, that was it. He wished he’d had more time to think about what quirk he wanted to fake. 

He would have to completely revamp his plans for getting into hero school… 

He’d been planning to give himself a strength quirk… 

But… he could work with this. Observe was a decent quirk for a hero, it would allow them to instantly bust any villain’s secret identity and immediately know the quirk of any villain they thought. So very useful. But it wasn’t flashy, which was a bummer. A non-flashy quirk would make it tougher to break out of the industry. 

“Hello, Midoriya,” the doctor greeted as they entered. He was a kindly-looking old man, with round glasses and a mustache. They’d called the same one that had been his quirk doctor at age four, when he’d been pronounced quirkless. “I hear you’ve had some kind of… quirk manifestation, or at least revelation. I don’t do quirk evaluations much anymore, but since I was the one to diagnose you quirkless in the first place … well, why don’t you come down to my office.” 

Izuku and his mom followed him into his office, which was tightly-packed full of little trinkets and equipment. “Now, why don’t you give me a quick rundown of what happened,” he said. 

Midoriya tried his best to explain. “I don’t think my quirk was late to manifest, I think that I was just never quirkless. Ever since I was a kid—as long as I can remember—I’ve been able to tell someone’s name and quirk just by looking at them. Since it was my whole life, I thought it was normal. But I think it’s my quirk.”

“Interesting, interesting,” the doctor said, scribbling something onto his clipboard. “How does the information appear to you?”

“It just sort of gets injected into my brain,” Izuku explains. Makes more intuitive sense than writing appearing in mid-air, so I’ll just twist the truth about that part…

Ah! I have an idea. As a preliminary test, why don’t you tell me my name and quirk?” the doctor asked. “Observe,” Izuku muttered. 

Kyudai Garaki -- Lvl. 76 -- Shadow of the Demon

Quirk: Life Force [copy]

[See Stats & Skills]

“Kyudai Garaki, and your quirk is Life Force,” Izuku said, despite his initial awe at seeing such a high level on the doctor. How impressive! And why is his quirk listed as a copy? It kind of reminds me of the [transferred] label I saw next to All Might’s quirk… I wonder what it means. 

“Kyudai? I thought your name was Tsubasa,” his mom said, confused. 

“I got a name change in my youth. Tsubasa now, but used to be Kyudai,” the doctor said, waving his hand dismissively. “But no matter! You’re entirely correct. Very impressive…” 

“But didn’t we discount the possibility of a quirk because Izuku has the double-toe joint?” Inko asked. Izuku tensed slightly, waiting for the doctor’s response. 

“Yes, we did,” he sighed. “But you see, quirklessness and the toe joint are only linked genes, not caused by the same gene. That means they’re affiliated most of the time, but there's a very small chance that you can have both a quirk and the toe joint… like Izuku here, for instance.” 

“Ah, I see,” Inko said, sounding uncertain, and probably not understanding the science behind it. 

“I apologize for not doing further testing, but it really is rare… less than one percent… and since he wasn’t showing any indications of a quirk anyways,” Kyudai said, voice apologetic. 

“It’s alright,” Izuku intervened. “It’s fine, I’m just glad we have it figured out now.”

A smile returned to his mother’s face. “I am glad for that. What else do we have to do?”

“There is some additional testing you’ll need to go through to confirm your quirk, and then we’ll have to register it legally,” Kyudai said, with a patronizing smile. “It might be a good idea to put you in quirk counseling as well.”

Izuku smiled weakly, while his mom beamed. 

Chapter Text

Izuku received some additional testing in order to get his quirk registered. He had to guess the names and quirks of random volunteers, which he did right every time. He even leveled up Observe once, not that it really affected his performance. Once he’d done this, Dr. Kyudai (Tsubasa?) promised he would start working on the paperwork he’d need to submit for his quirk to become officially registered. But before that… 

“Ah, one more thing,” Kyudai said, just as Izuku thought he was done. “I’m supposed to ask: how would you feel about doing some additional intelligence testing?” 

Intelligence testing? “Why?” Izuku asked. 

“Some quirks have auxiliary effects,” he explained. “This quirk, though primarily observatory in nature, technically also falls into the category of analysis quirk. Analysis quirks occasionally provide secondary intelligence boosts… if you take this test and get a high score, increased intelligence would be part of your quirk description.”  

That sounded… “Great!” Izuku said. Good! That would give me something extra to sell to hero schools besides ‘can tell a person's name/quirk’... having boosted intelligence might actually make me a way more competitive applicant! 

“I’ll go print you a test,” the doctor said. As he left, Izuku sat down at one of the chairs and thought about making a potentially-rash decision. “Stats,” he said. 

VIT: 15, STR: 12, DEX: 15, INT: 28, WIS: 18, CHA: 15

Unallotted Stat Points: 26

“Is my intelligence actually good enough to make a big difference on the test?” he muttered to himself. He hoped it was… this might end up being kind of important for his hero resume, and it would also let him explain his boosted intelligence if he heightened it significantly in the future. 

I could add unallotted stat points to intelligence for a boost, Izuku thought to himself. Intelligence is kind of getting out of the ballpark where I can improve it naturally anyways… 

The whole point of how he was using his quirk was to get into hero school, right? This was basically improving his chances. 

With that in mind, Izuku’s choice was decided. “Thirteen unallotted stat points to intelligence,” he said. 

VIT: 15, STR: 12, DEX: 15, INT: 41, WIS: 18, CHA: 15

Unallotted Stat Points: 13

Perfect. Forty-one intelligence had to be high enough. He’d felt like a genius with how fast he could learn at twenty-eight. 

The doctor came back with a test (along with a pack of pencils) before long. Izuku took the pencils and the test and glanced at it, ready to crush this test and get plausible deniability for having really high intelligence in the future. 

Which is why he almost dropped his pencil when he saw it seemed to be an exam that focused almost solely on testing the critical-thinking and problem-solving of the person in question. 

Problem-solving is Wisdom! Why did they call this an intelligence test?!

Izuku wanted to bang his head against the table. Did he seriously make the mistake of mixing up intelligence and wisdom again? His wisdom wasn’t even that great! How was he supposed to do well?! Well, sure it was high, and getting to the point where it was difficult to grind it much higher, but… 

Izuku sighed. “Thirteen stat points to wisdom.” 

VIT: 15, STR: 12, DEX: 15, INT: 41, WIS: 31, CHA: 15

Unallotted Stat Points: 0

Well, now that he was done wasting a bunch of his stat points by mistake, hopefully he’d actually be able to get a good score on this awful test. He put pencil to paper, and did his best.

The test had been hard, but not that hard. Izuku was hoping that was a good sign, considering it was supposed to test if you got some kind of boost… so maybe it was hard on purpose, and the fact that he’d found it medium-hard was a good sign? 

Kyudai promised him that his test (and the rest of his paperwork) would be processed within a few business days, and therefore he was good to go. He went in the car with his mom, who was making celebratory katsudon to celebrate, and sighed. I had to make a lot of impulsive decisions today, but… boosting my highest stats was probably the best idea anyway given the curve on stat point gains… I think I’ll just focus on grinding my other four stats for now, and improving skills. 

I wonder what my classmates will think, now that I have a quirk… 

His classmates weren’t exactly… happy with him. Not really.  

Still, their anger at him was… withdrawn. Subdued. But he’d been the pariah of his class for so long that it seemed like he was always destined to be, at the very least, mildly unpopular. Part of him was angry about what happened, but… well… he understood they hadn’t meant to kill him, only keep him locked in the closet for a few hours. So it was… a little bit like an accident, right? 

(It was nothing like an accident, but thinking in those terms made Izuku feel better.) 

Basically all of the bullying had stopped, though. Whether it was because they'd received some kind of dressing-down from the teachers or because they’d felt bad about what happened, Izuku wasn’t sure. Maybe they were just too afraid to bully him any longer after what happened to Nakano.  

Nakano had gotten a black mark on his record for attacking another student. 

Izuku was stunned that Nakano actually faced real consequences. He’d thought maybe he’d get detention for a few days and then they’d forget about it, but… no. Nakano’s wrongdoings were actually documented? He supposed that now that there was a story behind his odd interest in quirks and his strange mannerisms, and that he had an explanation for how he knew about Nakano’s quirk, he was believed. It was kind of ironic. The punishment that the principal had threatened him with was the one that had been levied against Nakano. 

Sure, Nakano technically hadn’t any punishment punishment, like getting suspended, but… this was good enough! Izuku hadn’t had very much of an expectation for that anyways, considering the teacher had barely even believed him. It was fine. 

(It wasn’t.) 

Something very interesting was what had happened with his classmates’ reputation. It was still in the high twenties (which left him on-edge) but it was now labelled unsure instead of enemy, which was something, at least. 

RELATIONSHIPS

Midoriya Inko: Rep +97. Unconditional Love. 

Bakugou Katsuki: Rep -54. Enemy. (Type=Abusive). 

Bakugou Mitsuki: Rep +13. Friendly Acquaintance. 

Bakugou Masaru: Rep +12. Friendly Acquaintance. 

Classmates [Homeroom]: Rep -27. Unsure.

Strangely, Bakugou’s rep had actually gotten a little better too! Only by like ten, but still. 

Frankly, Bakugou was still kinda mean. He glared at him across the classroom and insulted him loudly, even calling his new quirk useless. But he never attacked him or messed with his stuff anymore. When his friends asked him why, Bakugou loudly announced that he wouldn’t be getting a mark on his record “like dumbass Nakano” since he had to get into UA, but Izuku got the sense that Bakugou was letting him off easy. 

Izuku didn’t think that Bakugou felt bad about what happened to Izuku, not exactly, but Bakugou did seem to be at the very least thrown by what had happened. 

(It made Izuku feel better about their relationship that Bakugou hadn’t been in the group who had locked him in the closet.)

To be honest, Izuku wanted his rep with Bakugou to improve. Still, he didn’t know how to make that happen, so there wasn’t much he could do on that front. He’d just have to hope that it would happen on its own. 

“Izuku, your results are back!” his mother called. 

“Results for what?” he asked, chomping on his noodles. 

“Auxiliary testing for your quirk?” she said, reading the envelope. 

“Auxiliary… wait--” Izuku started. Was that the intelligence test? 

Inko tore open the seal. “It says… oh, it says that the test results confirmed that quirk gives you an intelligence boost! How wonderful, baby! I always knew you were a smart cookie,” she said, giving him a pat on the head. Then she handed him the envelope.  

Izuku scanned the letter eagerly. 

Apparently, with the score he got, he’d be listed as having a ‘mild intelligence boost.’ 

Despite how he’d initially suggested the name Observe, his quirk would officially be called Analysis, and the description would be, “ Analysis lets the user know a person’s name and quirk just by looking at them. It has the side effect of giving them a mild intelligence boost.”

Izuku sighed in relief. Good enough. 

They’d decided to call it ‘Analysis’ rather than ‘Observe’ because they thought it fit better, considering the quirk gave him an intelligence-boost as well as letting him figure out someone’s quirk and name. Technically Observe would be the more honest name in truth, but Analysis hit what he was trying to portray in his fake quirk better, so the name change would work just fine for him. “So I’m finally registered,” Izuku said. 

His mom smiled. “Congratulations, sweetheart.”

Izuku glanced down at his plans to train for the UA Exams. He needed completely new plans, now taking into account his new quirk and used stat points. 

Well, firstly, even though it was inefficient, he would have to boost his intelligence and wisdom as much as he could. Intelligence quirks were expected to grow with adolescence, so he was supposed to get smarter as time went on. While his growth didn’t have to be perfect (it was hard to measure what ‘intelligence’ really meant anyway, and it’s not like anyone was breathing down his neck and monitoring his progress) but he should probably try to keep up appearances a little just in case, since he didn’t want any suspicion. That would be hard to pull off, though. It was hard to grind INT and WIS as it was. 

But… he could grind related skills, right? He could probably work ahead a lot in Math and Chemistry, right? Physics, maybe? Learning new things for those would help him grind INT anyways, and if he practiced Quirk Analysis he could bulk up his WIS while working on that skill specifically. And working ahead in academics would help him with the UA written regardless. 

As far as his other raw stats went, he’d need to improve his strength and dexterity a lot to be a hero. He’d continue his workout routine, and keep going with his charisma practice during school. There wasn’t much he could do for his vitality, though, since he wasn’t planning on intentionally hurting himself for it. He could figure out what to do with that later. It’s not like he was planning on getting in any fights anytime soon, so he’d basically have until he was out of internships before his low VIT became a risk. But regardless, he had a plan. 

Izuku felt a swell of determination. 

He could do this. 

He would do this. 

And he would keep his secret in the meantime.  

Chapter Text

Izuku huffed, finishing his run. He’d been practicing for the past nine months, and the UA Entrance Exam was tomorrow. He’d been training, but his stat changes had started to plateau the more he gained, which had stymied his progress. He was stronger, of course, he could feel it, but he wasn’t sure if he was strong enough.

“Stats,” Izuku said. 

VIT: 16, STR: 18, DEX: 20, INT: 43, WIS: 35, CHA: 21

Unallotted Stat Points: 0

It was decent, but… well, the UA Entrance Exam was tough. And since he had (as far as the law was concerned) a non-physical quirk that didn’t boost his athletic potential, he needed to be in top condition.

Izuku wasn’t in top condition. He was above average, sure, but he wasn’t amazing. 

So yeah, his training hadn’t gone great exactly. 

On the bright side, thoug, he’d gotten very far ahead in math, chemistry, physics with his new INT boost… he’d even tried out a little computer coding! Such high intelligence was very conducive to learning. (To be honest, his ‘mistake’ when it came to adding more intelligence points had been a great boon to his academic career. He got As on basically all his tests without trying.) 

He hadn’t gotten any quests, so no more XP… which meant there weren’t any free stat points to put into anything. He’d just have to take the test with what he had right now.

“Oh, good luck Izuku,” his mother said fretfully, handing him a packed lunch. 

“I’ll be fine, mom,” Izuku said, despite feeling a bit worried himself. “I’ll do my best!” 

“That’s all I can ask,” she said, giving him a quick peck on the forehead. 

Izuku waved his mother goodbye and got on the train to take him to UA. The commute was only ten minutes (another reason Izuku wanted to go to UA) so Izuku didn’t take too long to get there and enter the school. 

Only to trip on the sidewalk as he was walking up to the testing building.  

Luckily, he was saved by a friendly girl who had brown-hair, who used her quirk to float him up from the ground. Too nervous to say anything, he just stuttered in response to her. Afterwards, he managed to walk the rest of the way into the testing center.

He took his seat a little numbly, before noticing that he was seated next to Bakugou, of all people. He tried to ignore the way that Bakugou growled at him. 

Once the testing center had filled up with examinees, Present Mic walked onstage and started to explain how the exam would be going. Izuku grinned upon seeing him. 

“Observe,” he muttered to himself. 

Yamada Hizashi -- Lvl. 53 -- Radio Hero

Quirk: Voice

[See Stats & Skills]

Izuku hummed in satisfaction. It wasn’t any information he didn’t already have on Present Mic, and Izuku’s level was too low to look at the stats and skills, but he liked seeing it regardless. It made sense that Mic had the title Radio Hero, too. 

Unfortunately, Present Mic was in the middle of explaining how the Physical Exam consisted of fighting robots. He winced internally at that. A strength score of 18 was probably not good enough to punch through metal, especially not thick metal. A robot-fighting test did not bode well for him whatsoever. 

He puffed out a breath. I’ll just have to do my best…  

“You with the unkempt hair!” a boy with glasses said. 

Izuku jolted out of his daydream. “Huh?”

“You’ve been muttering this entire time! You have to take this seriously. You’re distracting the rest of us,” he said strictly. 

Izuku shrank into himself as the students around them giggled, and frowned. Once Present Mic went back to answering the boy’s question (about how the fourth robot was an ‘obstacle’-- best avoided, rather than fought) Izuku glared at the boy and muttered, “Observe.” 

Iida Tenya -- Lvl. 19 -- None

Quirk: Engine

[See Stats & Skills]

“No title, but he outlevels me,” Izuku mumbled, but quickly shutting up so that the boy wouldn’t notice and yell at him again. That last name, Iida, plus the quirk, Engine… was he related to Ingenium?

There was no chance to ask. The exam was starting. As he walked to his new testing arena, Izuku wondered a little bit how mad the kid was with him. He supposed that if he was curious, there was a way to find out. 

“Add Iida Tenya to relationships,” Izuku whispered. “Relationships.” 

RELATIONSHIPS

Midoriya Inko: Rep +98. Unconditional Love. 

Bakugou Katsuki: Rep -54. Enemy. (Type=Abusive) 

Bakugou Mitsuki: Rep +12. Friendly Acquaintance. 

Bakugou Masaru: Rep +10. Friendly Acquaintance. 

Classmates [Old Homeroom]: Rep -28. Very Mild Hostility. 

Iida Tenya: Rep -3. Slight disapproval. 

Izuku could have given a sigh of relief. It looked like he hadn’t made a proper enemy out of the kid yet, it was just a little disapproval. -3 rep was nothing. “Close.” 

He wanted to go up and talk to the girl who had stopped him from falling on his face earlier, but Iida gave him a severe look from across the courtyard that stopped Izuku in his tracks. Why is he looking at me like that? 

Unluckily, at that exact same time, Present Mic yelled ‘GO’ for the exam to start. 

Izuku ran clumsily sprinted forward, just as white text jumped in front of his vision with a dinging noise. 

[ALERT: HEROICS QUEST ACTIVATION!]

Heroics Quest: UA Physical Exam

• Goal: Pass the UA Physical Exam

• Bonus: Get first in the UA Physical Exam. 

REWARDS: ??? 

BONUS REWARDS: ???

“Close!” Izuku said, ignoring it and continuing to sprint. He didn’t have time to hem-and-haw over the quest right now, he just had to take the test. 

He ran forward and made a plan.

“Kids are doing pretty well this year,” Hound Dog commented, scanning the screens. “That one is certainly making significant progress,” he said, pointing out the kid blowing up all the robots by explosion. 

Nedzu nodded. That one--Bakugou Katsuki, by the name on his files--was obviously powerful and focused. He had high potential. Though it looked like he wasn’t very keen on rescuing, judging by the way he’d only gotten villain points so far. 

“Oh, and that one,” Kayama said. “Look how stylish he is! Keeping a level-head!” She pointed to a blond kid with sparkles shooting out of his stomach. 

Nedzu sighed, a bit bemused. This was the ‘ let’s point out all the kids who we think look interesting’ part, in which all the teachers (except perhaps Aizawa) partook every single year. Nedzu for one didn’t really understand why they didn’t just wait until everyone had gotten in before getting all excited. 

“Oh wow, look at that one!” Yamada said, pointing to an examinee in Battle Center B. “He’s spearing the robots with that robot leg he got off another kid! Metal.” 

“He’s going pretty fast, but not fast enough. He might get in, though, if he manages some decent rescue points,” Thirteen said. “What’s his quirk?” 

Aizawa pulled up the kid’s profile on one of the computers. “It’s Analysis,” Aizawa said. “It lets him know someone’s name and quirk on-sight. Additional mild intelligence boost, as well.” 

“How are they spearing the robots with that piece of metal, if they don’t have a strength quirk?” Yamada asked. 

“He’s aiming for the vulnerable area beneath the control panel,” Nedzu said. “On the 2-pointers. That's why he's going after them exclusively.” 

“Aw, that’s clever! Looks like his quirk really does make him smarter!” Yamada said, glancing back at Nedzu expectantly. 

Nedzu nodded, but he didn’t feel as excited as Yamada thought he would be. Very few intelligence quirks among humans were anywhere close to being as powerful as High Specs, which is why he had very few intellectual equals. To be honest, he wasn’t really expecting much out of Midoriya’s quirk, considering it was a secondary effect (instead of the function of the whole quirk itself) and was only strong enough to be listed as mild in the quirk description list. 

It was interesting that he’d found that weak point, though. Nedzu had put in a few weak points on purpose, to ease Aizawa’s (legitimate) complaints, but they were only ever utilized rarely. 

“Let’s unleash the Zero-Pointer,” Kayama suggested. Nedzu nodded at that, breaking into a grin. He slammed the red button. 

Izuku panted, feeling exhausted. His legs and arm throbbed as he ran, destroying yet another robot by spearing it right under the control panel. He’d managed to obtain the metal spear thing after the sparkly kid had blown a three-pointer apart in front of him, and he’d managed to grab a sturdy-looking piece and use it to his advantage. 

It had taken him a little while to find the weak spots, but once he got started he was easily able to make a robot-destroying rhythm. But considering the point values the other kids were yelling out, Izuku worried that it wouldn’t be enough.

Only a few minutes left… 

There was a great rumbling, and a gigantic robot arose in the middle of the arena. Is that supposed to be the zero-pointer? “Oh geez,” Izuku started, turning around, about to run. But, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a girl trapped in the rubble. 

Surely they know she’s there, she won’t get run over or anything, Izuku justified, wanting to run away. Still, he felt guilty. She was the one who helped him before! And knowing he couldn’t make it over there in time… 

As Iida ran by him, Izuku grabbed onto his arm. “Wait!” Izuku said, skidding a few feet. 

Iida slowed down, his engines sputtering out, and he whipped his head over and looked at Izuku like he was crazy. 

He pointed at the girl from earlier. “Grab her!” 

Iida’s eyes set in determination, and he ran back, lifting the girl out of the rubble, before swinging around just as fast. The robot actually shut down once it got seriously close to the students, but by Izuku’s estimates, Iida probably would have escaped even if the robot had kept plowing forward. He did feel a little silly once he saw the robot stop automatically, though. Obviously UA had their robots under control… Still, Izuku followed Iida as he ran back towards the entrance. 

“Thaaat’s it, boys and girls! The exam is over! Injured examinees, stay where you are! We’re bringing medical to you.” Present Mic’s voice rang through the arena. 

[ALERT! Heroics Quest has been completed! Collect rewards?] 

[ALERT! Heroics Bonus Quest Failed]

Does that mean… he got in?!

It did! 

Izuku barely managed to resist pumping his fist and literally cheering. He didn’t even care that he didn’t get in first place. He got in. He got in! He didn’t think it would have been possible with a non-physical quirk like his, not with robots for a test! 

“Collect rewards,” he said. 

UA Physical Exam Complete! 

Rewards [Hidden]: +10 Stat Points, +100XP

Stat points! Good enough. He could always use a few of those. 

That meant so long as he passed the written exam, he would be fine! 

Izuku grabbed his bag at the front and started walking inside to change. He’d brought an extra set of clothes to change into before the second part of the test, as had been recommended. 

And now that he was thinking about it… Izuku really wanted to pass the written exam by a large margin, since he was faking an intelligence quirk. He didn’t want to get a weak score and for everyone to think he was being lazy or that his quirk didn’t do much. 

And, well, since he basically couldn’t grind up WIS or INT anymore unlike his other stats… it would make a lot of strategic sense if he just… 

“Ten stat points to wisdom,” he said. “Stats.” 

VIT: 16, STR: 18, DEX: 20, INT: 43, WIS: 45, CHA: 21

Unallotted Stat Points: 0

Forty-five was probably good enough, right? Wisdom was meant to represent problem solving, so it should help him on the test. Was 45 a good number for a kid with a minor intelligence quirk? Probably. It would probably be fine. Stop stressing, Izuku ordered himself. Now changed into a new set of clothes, Izuku mentally prepared to take the written exam.  

The written exam was easy. 

Izuku hated to say it! It was fun, sure, and somewhat challenging, but he’d expected it to be a bit more difficult. Maybe because it was the Heroics exam and not the General exam? No, no, the internet had told him that the two exams were virtually identical… 

Did I miss all the trick questions? Izuku wondered. Maybe I missed the complexities… or, well, it is just a high school entrance exam. Were my preparations overkill? I mean, did I really need to go so many grade levels ahead in math? Maybe not… 

He was reluctant to say that for certain, though. UA had brought out a giant death robot for their physical exam, so who was to say?

He was pretty sure he’d passed, though. And that’s what counted.

Glancing down at the written exam in his paws, Nedzu had to admit that his low expectations had undersold Midoriya's abilities. He grinned. 

At the very least, Midoriya was worth keeping an eye on.

Chapter Text

“Ah, there’s one more thing,” Nedzu said, in the middle of their staff meeting. “We need to change things regarding Midoriya.” 

“What do you mean?” Aizawa asked, giving Nedzu a look. 

“Midoriya’s quirk allows him to know a person’s name and quirk on sight,” Nedzu said cheerfully. “If he sees All Might, Yagi’s civilian cover would be blown immediately! Which is something of an issue, considering All Might is supposed to be Midoriya’s Heroics instructor.” 

“Ouch,” Hound Dog muttered. 

“Yeah. How do we deal with that?” Yamada asked. 

“I do have a plan,” Nedzu said. “Yagi, in his normal form, can teach First Year Heroics, while All Might teaches some of the upper classes.” 

Aizawa grimaced. “Which classes? Those students will be graduating soon and they can’t afford to have been taught poorly.”

“That’s why he will not be teaching alone. He can help run the practical exercises of some of the upper-year heroics courses. We’ll schedule them against each other so he doesn’t run out of time on any given day,” Nedzu said. “Then he can be listed as a secondary teacher or a co-teacher on multiple courses.”

“I can do that,” Yagi said. 

“A bit complicated, though,” Thirteen added. 

“Yeah… I hate to say this, but…” Kayama seemed uncomfortable with her suggestion even as she spoke, “…wouldn’t it be easier to just reject his application?” 

“Yes, but we shouldn’t,” Aizawa said flatly. “We can’t just reject all the applicants with  information-gathering potential because we have secrets to keep.” 

“Ah, it might be better this way,” Yagi said. “It would probably be easier to learn how to teach if I’m under the guidance of others as a secondary instructor…” 

“Yeah. Plus, more students would get to meet All Might,” Hound Dog said gruffly. “That’d make them happy, and it’s good for PR. We’d just have to be careful that Midoriya and All Might never come in contact.” 

Nedzu wanted All Might to be moved to teaching the older students for his own reasons. Since All Might had chosen Mirio as his successor, it would be better for All Might to teach the third-years so he could more easily have contact with Toogata. 

In a way, Nedzu appreciated Midoriya giving him a proper excuse. 

Kayama nodded, and the teachers seemed to be in agreement over this plan, even though it would require a significant amount of very last-minute switching around. 

“Alright then, we have our plan,” Nedzu said, and so the meeting ended.

The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it!” Izuku called, running to answer it. His UA letter was supposed to be coming today! And sure enough, at the door was the postal worker, carrying all their mail for the day. And in that mail was Izuku’s letter marked from UA. 

Time for the moment of truth…

Izuku took the heavy envelope upstairs and opened it, just to find a holo-disk inside. He unwrapped and activated the disk. 

All Might appeared on the screen. “I am here… as a projection!” he said. 

All Might?! How’d UA get him to do the acceptance letters?

“Now, you’re probably wondering why you see me here! Which is why I come bearing an announcement! I actually came to Musutafu to teach at UA!” projection All Might said. 

All Might’s teaching at UA?! 

Part of Izuku was absolutely thrilled, but the other part was mortified. Would All Might still remember him? All Might hadn’t known at the time that Izuku had figured out his real name and quirk, so it shouldn’t be a problem, but just remembering that mistake was absolutely embarrassing. 

“While I’ll only be teaching the upper-years,” projection All Might said, which made Izuku both disappointed and relieved, “I’m here to deliver your scores! And perhaps I’ll end up being your teacher in a year or two!”

Alright, I can work with that, Izuku thought. Now tell me if I got in or not… 

“As for your physical exam score, you managed to achieve 26 villain points! Not bad, but unfortunately a little short of being enough to get you into the hero course.” 

What?! But my quirk said… Izuku’s roiling feelings of shock and betrayal were interrupted by All Might once more. “If that’s all there was to it! Take a look at this video!” 

A video in the background of the scene clicked on. On-screen was that blue-haired boy, Iida Tenya, talking to Present Mic. 

“Apologies for the intrusion, sir!” Iida said, doing a chopping motion with his arm. “But you know that boy who was muttering in the auditorium? The one with the green hair? I am unsure of how many points he got, but I must ask you to admit him!” 

“Why do you say that, little listener?” Present Mic could be heard asking offscreen. 

“I ran away when that girl was in danger,” Iida said. “It was that boy who stepped up and told me I needed to save her! Even more so than me, he would make an excellent hero,” Iida said, face set in determination. “So I must recommend him very strongly for the hero course!” 

The video-within-a-projection was clicked off. 

“That student there has a point, you know!” All Might said. “How could a hero course reject someone like you, who brings out the heroic spirit in others?” he announced. “For encouraging someone else’s heroic actions, and thus contributing to a rescue, you’ve been awarded 25 rescue points! When combined with your villain points, that’s definitely enough for you to get into the hero course!” 

Izuku gasped in shock, a broad grin spreading across his face. 

“And that’s not all! For saving that person from the zero-pointer, Iida himself received 45 rescue points, which puts him in first place for the entire exam!” All Might said. “All three of you passed!” 

Izuku breathed a sigh of relief. I’m in. My quirk wasn’t lying! 

“Your heroic spirit is truly something to be admired! Congrats on getting a 98% on the written exam, by the way. That marks something of a record! Top scorer this year! Nedzu informs me it’s been a while since anyone’s scored that high!” 

Oops, shit. Might have overdone it… 

Oh well. This is fine. This just means that my INT and WIS are high enough now to believably class as an intelligence-boosting analysis quirk. That’s what I was worried about in the first place. 

“The rest of your enrollment information will arrive in the mail this week! Plus Ultra!” With that, the recording ended. 

Izuku swung his door open. “Mom, I got in.” 

Midoriya Inko’s eyes filled with happy tears. “Oh, congratulations, sweetheart!” 

“Congratulations, Midoriya and Bakugou, on getting into UA High!” the principal announced. “To hear that two of you got into such a prestigious high school… especially you, Midoriya, after discovering your quirk so late! We’ll be sure to congratulate both of you at our commencement ceremony.”

Bakugou glared daggers at him. Izuku winced. 

Well… time to avoid Kacchan for as long as possible…! 

There wasn’t much time left before classes at UA would start. And Izuku was thrilled, though he knew it might be a bit tough for him, since he hadn’t been able to boost his physical stats very much. 

Looking at it from an objective standpoint, I obviously put too many points into Wisdom, Izuku thought to himself, It might have been better to split it, half-WIS and half-VIT or half-WIS and half-STR. But it isn’t not like I could have known that that level of WIS would be overkill… I wasn’t sure how much forty-five stat points would really end up being at the time… 

With a little bit of extra thinking, Izuku made a plan for how he wanted to use his future unallotted stat points. 

Since UA involved a lot of physical conditioning, he would wait for his STR and DEX to rise around as high as they would go with regular training. Then he would use his unallotted stat points to top off those two stats. He would try and make them go as high as he could without making it look like Izuku had an unregistered strength quirk. 

He’d do the same with CHA. When it got so high that practicing with Observe and Detect Enemies wasn’t improving it any longer, he’d add a few more stat points. He’d try not to worry about his INT and WIS for now… seemed like they were high enough for now, and he didn’t want to spend more stat points on them unnecessarily. 

And, last of all, judging by how slow his VIT was levelling, he’d probably have to increase that using unallotted stat points alone. 

That meant, if he got more stat points in the future, he should save them (for topping off his strength and dexterity later) or he should put them in VIT right off the bat (to get that stat up to par since VIT wasn’t levelling any longer on its own). 

Izuku puffed out a confident breath. This was a good plan. 

Izuku, casually looking at his stats, absently decided to delete some people off his relationship page. For one, Bakugou’s parents were cluttering it up when he didn’t really know them, and for two, seeing his low relationship with his old classmates all the time had been getting him down.

After removing Bakugou’s parents and his old classmates, he looked at his relationships screen to see how it looked, expecting it to be depressingly thin. It sort of was, but... 

RELATIONSHIPS

Midoriya Inko: Rep +97. Unconditional Love. 

Bakugou Katsuki: Rep -51. Enemy. (Type=Abusive) 

Iida Tenya: Rep +27. Admiration. 

Nedzu: Rep +5. Curious. 

The first thing Izuku noticed was that Iida’s rep had gone from a little negative to way in the positive. That was great! And Iida actually admired him!? 

Two seconds later, Izuku noticed Nedzu was there. WHY IS NEDZU ON MY RELATIONSHIPS LIST?! Izuku thought, a little frantically. What had he done for the principal to take note of him?! 

Nedzu had to have noticed him at the entrance exam for some reason, there was no other explanation that made sense. His reputation with Nedzu was positive, which was good, but the Curious tag worried Izuku. Does he suspect my quirk is fake? Why would he be curious about me? I didn’t think I was acting that strange… maybe because I was the top scorer on the written?

“Why,” Izuku muttered to himself, putting his head in his hands. 

Chapter Text

Finally, it was the first day of school. Izuku was buzzing with excitement. 

Bakugou had been trying to corner him for the past two weeks, but Izuku had managed to give him the slip every time. It was half luck and half the fact that he could use ‘detect enemies’ to discern Bakugou’s location.

Izuku was pretty sure that Bakugou just wanted to talk. But he didn’t want to have a talk with Bakugou, because he was scary, so he would avoid him as long as it took! At this point he was just praying Kacchan would be in 1-B. 

Regardless of this weight on his mind, Izuku was still incredibly excited. 

His mom was thrilled about his first day too. She dragged him out of bed early, even though he could hardly sleep, and made breakfast while he got on his uniform. Luckily, his breakfast included green tea…

Green Tea. -20 Ex, +6 HP. Good for you. 

… which helped get rid of his exhaustion. 

(Izuku was pretty sure that drinking tea couldn’t actually undo the fact he didn’t sleep, just give him a caffeine boost, but he sure felt like the tea had simply erased his exhaustion. Numerically speaking if he drank enough green tea his exhaustion would inevitably drop down to zero. Did these ‘healing items’ operate outside of normalcy as well?) 

Questions for later. For now, he had school. 

With backpack in hand and a full stomach, Izuku waved goodbye to his mother and marched his way to school. He was there in very little time, but the huge gates didn’t help his nerves. 

As Izuku was walking to the classroom, he decided that he was hoping for Iida to be in his class. He worried about meeting Iida a little, since he seemed super intense (Izuku also worried about messing up the apparent admiration Iida had in him) but he also seemed so earnest that Izuku couldn’t help but want to be his friend. 

As Izuku walked in, he saw perhaps the worst case scenario: Iida and Bakugou were both there, but they were arguing with each other. 

“Take your feet off that desk now! It’s the first day and you’re already disrespecting the academy by scuffing school property, you cretin!” Iida said. 

“You’re kidding me, right?” Bakugou scoffed. 

Iida opened his mouth to retort but quickly stopped when he saw Izuku. He turned away from Bakugou and walked in his direction. “You got in! I must apologize for what I said earlier--you saw the true nature of the exam, and you behaved much more heroically than I did in that situation! For that I must thank you!” 

“Oh, it was no big deal--” Izuku said sheepishly. “You’re the one who saved her.”

“Your humility is admirable!” Iida said. “But you don’t give yourself enough credit!” 

“Oh! Glasses kid and messy-haired kid!” a voice said. The girl that Iida had saved earlier bounced into the classroom. “It’s you two! I’m so excited you guys got in! What are your names? I’m Uraraka!” Uraraka said.

“If you’re just here to make friends, then you can pack up your stuff now.” A voice, from the floor. Izuku glanced down and saw a yellow caterpillar--no, a man in a yellow sleeping bag--getting up from the ground. “It took eight seconds for you to shut up. That’s not gonna work, time is precious.”
Is this our teacher? Izuku resisted the urge to use Observe on the man immediately. He’d wait for his moment. 

The man introduced himself as Aizawa Shouta and announced in short order that they would be doing some kind of Quirk Assessment Test outside instead of going to orientation. It was a bit disappointing, because he’d been planning to Observe all the teachers to see what they were all about, but it seemed like he’d have to wait. 

[ALERT: HEROICS QUEST ACTIVATION!]

Heroics Quest: The Quirk Assessment Test

• Goal: Don’t get last place

• Bonus: Get 15th place or above

• Bonus 2: Get 10th place or above

REWARDS: +1 stat point, +200XP

BONUS REWARDS: +5 stat points, +500XP

BONUS 2 REWARDS: -5 rep with Bakugou Katsuki, +5 rep with Aizawa Shouta

Another quest. He’d definitely want to do well on this test, so he could get some stat points. And to be honest, he should try to get above tenth, too. Honestly, what’s losing another five rep points with Kacchan? It’s already at -50… better to build rep with my new teacher… 

But when Aizawa announced the nature of the test, Izuku couldn’t help but wince. They were physical tests, which his fake quirk wouldn’t help him with whatsoever. While his STR and DEX were pretty good compared to the average citizen, Izuku suspected he would be no match for the people who actually had quirks capable of boosting their scores. Getting above 10th might be impossible. 

But… well, when Izuku thought about it, it didn’t really matter that much if he lost. He could lose and it’d be fine! Yes, there were some stat points in the game, but he couldn’t expect to win every quest. And it was just a test anyways. It’s going to be fine, Izuku thought. 

Then, once they were outside, Aizawa threatened to expel them. 

“If I see any students not taking this seriously, I’ll expel them immediately,” Aizawa reprimanded. It made Izuku feel a little skittish. Does he mean that?

“Expelled on the first day?!” a pink-skinned girl exclaimed. 

A red-haired boy agreed with her, “Isn’t that a little harsh?” 

“Life is harsh,” Aizawa said. “Get used to it. We’re wasting time by just standing here, so let’s get started.” 

Despite Izuku’s best efforts, he didn’t do exactly well on the test. Since most of the tests were based on dexterity (which he was better at than strength) and his decent flexibility, his score was alright for a normal person. And he definitely tried his very hardest. 

But when almost everyone had quirks that could help them out on the test… 

Izuku scanned the scoreboard for his name. 

He found it by the end of the list. #16: Midoriya Izuku. 

Izuku gave a sigh that was somewhere between relief and disappointment. 

[ALERT! Heroics Quest has been completed! Collect rewards?] 

[ALERT! Heroics Bonus Quest Failed]

[ALERT! Heroics Bonus Quest 2 Failed]

Looks like I’m just not quite good enough to get fifteenth or above yet… so close, though...

“Mineta Minoru,” Aizawa said, staring at the kid who had gotten last place. 

“...Huh?” the kid said, looking nervous. 

“You were slacking. Don’t think I missed the fact you were goofing off with Kaminari earlier. Do better next time or you won’t be here much longer.”

“G-got it, sensei!” Mineta said nervously, gulping. 

“Peh, might as well expel him already,” Bakugou scoffed. “He got an even lower score than Deku and his useless quirk.” Bakugou glared at Izuku, letting everyone in the class know exactly who he meant by Deku.  

“Bakugou,” Aizawa said. “I’m pretty sure I just said that I was willing to expel students who didn’t behave. Did I not make myself clear?”

Bakugou looked away, clearly trying to contain his anger. “Tch.” 

“Keep it in mind,” Aizawa said, before turning back to the class. 

Did he… just threaten to expel Kacchan?!

Izuku bit his lip. It felt like a good sign, the idea that this teacher wouldn’t let Bakugou get away with things, but Izuku knew that it probably wasn’t. Strict teachers, even though they claimed to be fair, always ended up being soft on their favorites. And then they usually came down hard on the heads of the kids who they liked the least. 

If Bakugou (diligent student, perfect quirk) was getting expulsion threats just for mouthing off, then what kind of consequences would someone like Izuku face for his mistakes? 

Best to keep his head down in this class and try to avoid being noticed. 

“And Midoriya,” Aizawa said. “See me after class.” 

Never mind, Izuku thought, barely resisting the urge to sigh as his classmates sent him curious glances. 

The class headed back inside to change out of their gym uniforms. 

“Collect rewards,” Izuku said as he went. 

The Quirk Assessment Test Complete! 

Rewards [Hidden]: +1 Stat Points, +100XP

New stat points. Not many, but still. As per his new plan, he’d save the point for later. 

Izuku awkwardly stayed behind in the classroom, feeling oddly vulnerable staring into the tired, flat expression of his new homeroom teacher. “Um-”

“The principal wants to have a meeting with you tomorrow in order to rework your schedule,” Aizawa finished. 

Izuku froze, remembering Nedzu’s +5, Curious on his relationship screen. “Why? What’s wrong with my schedule?”

“Your entrance exam score indicates that you’re far past the usual high school science and mathematics curriculum. Going at the pace of your classmates at this point would be illogical, and a waste of your time.”

“O-oh,” Izuku said. He hadn’t really thought of that. “That makes sense, I guess.”

“You’ll meet with Nedzu tomorrow to build a new schedule. In the subjects in which you’re ahead, you’ll likely be placed in advanced second- and third-year classes for now, but Nedzu suspects by the end of the year that you’ll improve enough to need either private tutoring or university courses,” Aizawa said. His tone was dry but casual, and Izuku couldn’t tell if it was deceptively so. Private tutoring? Is this some kind of test?  

“Um… sorry,” Izuku said. “I don’t mean to impose…” 

Aizawa gave Izuku an unimpressed look. “Don’t apologize for your academic success. And here’s your pass for tomorrow.” Aizawa handed him a hall pass marked for a time in the morning. 

“T-thank you,” Izuku said, giving a hesitant wave. Aizawa gave a simple nod in response. 

As Izuku left the room, he glanced back at Aizawa, who was sitting back down at his desk. As quietly as he could, he whispered, “Detect Enemies. Observe.” 

[No enemies detected nearby.]

Aizawa Shouta -- Lvl. 54 -- Watchful Guardian

Quirk: Erasure

[See Stats & Skills]

Izuku considered this result as he walked out of the room. He’s not at enemy status--not that I think he’d be, Izuku thought, feeling a little ridiculous at the thought. I mean, I might not have the best history with teachers, but it would be stupid to think that this one would just randomly be an enemy of mine! Haha. 

But deep down, Izuku knew he’d chosen to use Detect Enemies for a reason. Because he didn’t trust that that wouldn’t be the case. (And maybe it was a worthwhile precaution. He remembered what happened the last time he’d gotten a new enemy, after all.)

But, putting that aside. 

Going off Aizawa’s quirk name (Erasure) and his scarf, Izuku strongly suspected that Aizawa was secretly the Erasure Hero, Eraserhead. Eraserhead kept a low profile, but he was a very skilled underground hero, and seemed like just the type that UA would hire. 

His title is interesting too! Watchful Guardian is probably a play… he’s technically the temporary ‘guardian’ of his students because he’s their teacher, but he also protects people as a hero! That's kinda cool. But the Watchful part is a bit worrying, since I have the secret of my quirk… 

But I'm not sure titles really give very good hints as to the nature of how someone is. I mean, my title is Broken Chemist, but I'm not a Chemist! And my quirk doctor had that 'Shadow of the Demon' title even though he's just an old man! But Aizawa does seem like a 'watchful' sort of guy...

It was something to ponder. 

Izuku walked away from the school, getting back on the train. 

At the very least it’d been an interesting first day. 

Chapter Text

Izuku sat in his bed, waiting anxiously. 

He’d woken up at 3 am in the morning and hadn’t been able to go back to sleep, too keyed-up at the idea of having his first normal day of classes (well, maybe normal, depending on how the meeting went) and his upcoming meeting with the principal. Since he was awake, he decided to creep around before breakfast and look around the house for better healing items. 

Only food and drink responded to Observe, just like he’d thought, but finding anything that resembled a ‘healing item’ was difficult. While a lot of them had health benefits, most of them were proportional to size. The best he found was a large salad that would net him +15 HP, but he wouldn’t have time to consume a giant salad in the middle of a fight. That meant his best bet was still green tea until he managed to find better healing items.  

He did find something else that was useful in the cabinets, though. 

Chocolate-Covered Coffee Beans. -6 Ex. Caffeine and sugar, the perfect combo.  

No health benefits, but it was -6 exhaustion per bean, which was pretty good. If his exhaustion was too high he could just shove a bunch of them in his mouth and swallow them quickly. Hopefully they’d give him an energy boost. He put the chocolate-covered coffee beans in his bag, just in case. 

At that point, his mom came out from her bedroom and started to make breakfast, which meant he had to end his healing-item hunt. He’d work more at it later. 

His hall pass was marked for the second class of the day, which was English. So that meant that after Homeroom, he was to immediately go meet with Nedzu. Present Mic gave him an encouraging smile when Izuku showed him his hall pass, and told him he could leave for his meeting.  

Okay. My first meeting with the principal at this school… let’s get this over with. 

Nedzu had taken the liberty of doing a quick look-over of Midoriya’s school files to get a better idea for how to tackle the boy’s scheduling situation. And what he found was interesting. According to these records, Midoriya hadn’t been in any advanced classes during his time at Aldera, meaning that everything he’d learned to score well on the exam had been either self-taught or the result of tutoring outside of school. 

Also interestingly, most of the comments left by teachers indicated that Midoriya was disruptive in class, disrespectful towards authority figures, and abrasive with his peers. Frankly, Nedzu wasn’t all that surprised. Midoriya had probably been very bored, and teenagers were famous for their poor impulse control. Keeping him stuck in a classroom with literally nothing to do had probably not been a good idea. 

Okay, so. What could he expect from Midoriya? 

Midoriya might show up to UA with behavioral problems, like antipathy and hostility (as suggested was his normal at Aldera) but Nedzu suspected that the problem might die down to some degree once Midoriya’s educational needs were met. Not only that, but Nedzu couldn’t rule out the possibility that Midoriya might be cocky or arrogant, having grown an ego from being surrounded by people who couldn’t keep up. 

Nedzu didn’t see even a hint that either of those things were true when he actually met Midoriya. 

When Midoriya arrived for his meeting, he was stiff as a board and white as a sheet, looking like he very much didn’t want to be there. Despite the fact that it wasn't completely unusual for people to show up to his office being a little nervous, Nedzu couldn’t help but feel mildly concerned. Nedzu greeted him politely, resisting the urge to frown. 

Midoriya, achingly shy, said only hello back. Nedzu was pretty sure he could see Midoriya trembling slightly. 

This was a far cry from the rebellious teen found in the files. Had someone been telling him horror stories about Nedzu? Maybe the kid was just nervous because it was the second day? 

For a reason Nedzu couldn’t explain, those explanations didn’t feel right. 

“So I assume that Aizawa told you why you were coming?” Nedzu said. 

“Y-yeah,” Izuku said. “We have to change my schedule?”

“Exactly,” Nedzu said. “Why don’t you take a seat? We can talk over your scheduling adjustments.”
Midoriya took a careful seat across from Nedzu. 

Izuku left Nedzu’s meeting with a relieved sigh. I’m glad that’s over, he thought to himself. Not that it had been unpleasant. 

No, on the contrary, Principal Nedzu had been very nice. He didn’t talk over Izuku, he didn’t yell at Izuku for his twitchy posture or his averted gaze, and he hadn’t made Izuku feel bad about himself. He hadn’t even reprimanded Izuku for his mumbling! No, Principal Nedzu seemed rather kind. (At the very least, he was the type to keep up appearances.)

Still… being in there, he couldn’t help but think about what had happened with his old principal and the situation with Nakano. Then that made him remember how he’d been trapped in the closet, choking on noxious gas, frantically searching for anything to help him remove the hinge pins. The whole thing made him want to crawl out of his skin. 

But once he’d left the office and the haze of panic had lifted, the whole meeting had been harmless in retrospect. Just some scheduling changes. (Nedzu had even asked his opinions! Izuku appreciated that even if he was a bit nervous to actually say what he thought). Izuku would take third-year classes in math and science, and he’d add a second-year computer science class to replace English, since he was mostly fluent at this point. He’d keep the rest of his classes the same, those being Japanese Literature, Heroics, and Modern Hero Art History. 

So that was… three classes to be changed, and three normal classes. Izuku liked it, he thought it was a pretty good split. He’d get some extra English material from Yamada-sensei to make sure he stayed ahead in that area. Izuku was quite sure he’d be able to handle the workload with the INT and WIS stat boosts he’d given himself before the UA entrance exam. 

He’d also managed to cleverly get Nedzu’s stat block during the meeting by sliding the word Observe-ations into their conversation, which Izuku felt inordinately gleeful about. 

Nedzu -- Lvl. 63 -- UA Principal 

Quirk: High Specs

[See Stats & Skills]

(He hadn’t been able to use Detect Enemies, but Izuku could just check Nedzu’s status from the relationship screen.)

All in all, Izuku was pretty satisfied with what had gone on in the meeting, even if the whole thing had been a bit much while it was in progress. He returned to class just as Modern Hero Art History was starting. 

Uraraka had invited him to sit with her and Iida once lunch came around, and Izuku was incredibly happy about it, if slightly nervous. The three of them talked for a little bit about mundane things, like the weather and how are classes going and do you have any siblings? Uraraka was cheerful and friendly, and Iida revealed he really was related to Ingenium just like Izuku had thought. Turns out Ingenium was his older brother. 

“Oh, I hope this isn’t rude to ask Midoriya, but since you’re in the hero course with us,” Uraraka asked. “What’s your quirk?” 

Izuku panicked and fumbled for a brief moment before managing to say, “A-Analysis. I-I can tell what someone’s name and quirk is by looking at them.”

“That’s so cool, Midoriya-kun!” Uraraka had said, and that was the end of it. Izuku felt like he’d been given a great gift: normalcy.

When Izuku got to the last class of the day, Heroics, he was thrilled. This was going to be the most important class considering the career he was going into! He wondered who would teach the class. 

Just as the class was about to begin, an older man, looking thin and sickly, entered the room. “Ah, hello,” he said, looking a tad nervous. “My name is Yagi Toshinori, and I’ll be your instructor for Heroics this year.” 

There was a slight murmuring among the class, probably the other students trying to figure out what hero this guy was, since basically all of UA’s staff were heroes. 

“He’s probably a retired hero,” he heard Jirou say. 

“Yeah, he does look older,” Sero murmured back. 

But Izuku had a much more pressing concern. Did he say his name was Yagi Toshinori? But that was… 

“Observe,” Izuku muttered under his breath. 

Yagi Toshinori -- Lvl. 99 -- The Symbol of Peace

Quirk: One for All (remnants)

[See Stats & Skills]

What. 

Those were the stats and skills he’d seen on All Might! How was that possible? 

A feeling of dread came over Izuku.

His first instinct was to quickly leave the classroom and run to fetch Nedzu or Aizawa. After all, this man couldn’t be All Might, right? Maybe he was a shapeshifter? His quirk was One for All, and if he was one who could become all via shapeshifting, that sort of made sense… 

But, no. That theory fell to pieces the more he thought about it. It brought up too many questions. If Yagi was just some guy, then why was he at Lvl. 99? Why was his title Symbol of Peace? 

It really seemed like… 

Yagi is All Might?! But how is that possible? Could it be… that All Might’s quirk is a transformation-type and that’s why he has two forms? 

Izuku stared at Yagi. 

That would mean… I’m being taught by All Might?!?

Izuku gaped at the idea. 

But still. While his theory explained a lot, there were still things that went unexplained. Once he’d seen All Might’s time limit ten months ago, he’d started looking up the hours the hero spent on work, and found a strange pattern. All Might, after a fight five years ago, had vanished from the media, and then sharply decreased his hours. Nowadays, he only spent around three hours a day on hero work. 

So, why had All Might suddenly incurred a time limit on his transformation quirk? Had he gotten hurt, or something? Or was it just aging? Had he always had a time limit?

Was Izuku wrong? Was this man an imposter after all?

Whatever the case… 

He planned to find out. 

Chapter Text

Almost as soon as Yagi entered, he felt a pair of oddly-intense eyes on him. 

He glanced over, and saw Midoriya. 

Midoriya was staring him down, seemingly deep in thought. 

That’s the kid who can figure someone’s name and quirk by looking at them, right? Yagi thought to himself. He’s probably doing that right now. He’ll only find Yagi Toshinori, though, and he shouldn’t know the meaning behind the words One for All… if it even shows up as that instead of ‘quirkless’, given I’ve handed it off to Mirio… 

Speaking of, the kid looked kind of… familiar, but Yagi couldn’t place him. And the kid had a plain-looking sort of face, so maybe he was thinking of someone else? Regardless, Yagi felt mildly unsettled. He tried his best to ignore it. 

He explained to the students they’d be changing into their costumes and heading to Battle Ground B to start off their First Year Heroics Class. The class broke into excited chatter as they got out of their seats and went to change.

As excited as Izuku was to investigate, he had to do this first. This was his first heroics class after all. And he got to do it in the costume his mom made him! He should really try to pay attention and avoid thinking about the whole Yagi thing. 

(It didn’t work that great, Izuku still felt kind of distracted.) 

Yagi announced they’d be splitting into random groups of two. Their team would be assigned “heroes” or “villains” and they would have to either attempt to get to or protect a fake bomb that was held by the villains. Izuku was very happy when he was paired with Uraraka. 

[ALERT: HEROICS QUEST ACTIVATION!]

Heroics Quest: First Training Exercise

• Goal: Win

REWARDS: +6 stat points, +300XP

Another chance to earn stat points! These quest opportunities were rolling in faster than ever… Now I really can’t get distracted, Izuku thought. I need to get those six stat points, which means putting the whole Yagi thing out of my mind… focus on your strategy for now. 

So he was paired with Uraraka, but who would he be fighting? 

“Team A will be fighting… Team D,” Yagi announced. 

Izuku glanced over at Team D. 

Bakugou snarled at him, while Iida gave a friendly but competitive grin. 

Oh joy… guess this won’t be easy… 

“Any plan on how to win this, Uraraka?” Izuku asked, turning to her. 

“I’m not sure…” she said. 

“Bakugou has Explosion, Iida has Engine,” Izuku said to himself, deep in thought. “You know… I think I have an idea.” 

Uraraka removed Izuku’s gravity. Izuku slowly rose and grabbed the side of the roof and pulled himself forward, so he hovered over the roof. Once Uraraka saw that he was safely bobbing and wouldn’t fall multiple stories, she dropped him. Izuku made an oomph noise as he hit the concrete of the top of the building. He stuck out his hand in a thumbs-up gesture, signalling to Uraraka that she could go in the front entrance. 

Izuku, meanwhile, snuck down the staircase that went from the roof to the fifth floor. 

Even though it would be more strategically sound to send Iida after me, since he’s faster, I just know that Bakugou is going to try and go hunt for me himself… 

[Your observation of others increases your people-skills. +1 CHA.]

… thank you, quirk. Anyway since I know he’s going to try to go get me, that means Iida is going to guard the bomb. They probably set the bomb on one of the higher levels, so Kacchan would probably go down to look for me. That means… 

Bakugou would encounter Uraraka, and Izuku would encounter Iida. 

Izuku did feel a little bit bad about setting up Uraraka to fight Bakugou, but she was a better counter to him than Izuku! If Uraraka managed to touch him, therefore making him weightless, Bakugou setting off any explosion would make him fly off in some other direction, thus making her an excellent Bakugou-counter! By contrast, Izuku had nothing that could beat Kacchan. 

Also, Izuku didn’t want to get maimed… Bakugou still seemed kinda mad about how Izuku got into UA and then didn’t tell him and then avoided him for two weeks, so… 

But regardless, Izuku was certain that their best way to win was for Izuku to try to get past Iida somehow. Izuku crept down the staircase, quiet as a mouse. Floors five and four were a bust, but the third floor… 

Do I hear Iida’s voice? 

Before Izuku could approach it, he heard crackling static in his comm. 

“I found Bakugou!” Uraraka’s said. 

“WHERE’S THE DAMN NERD?!” Bakugou’s shouting was loud enough for Izuku to hear it through the comm.  

“See if you can keep him busy,” Izuku whispered. “I think I found Iida.”

“Roger!” Uraraka said. An explosion sounded in the background. 

Izuku ignored the sounds of battle coming from his earpiece and crept towards where he’d heard Iida’s voice. 

“-of evil, to become a hero. Behold, I am the personification of villainy!” Iida said. He finished the sentence with an evil laugh. 

Is he roleplaying? Izuku thought to himself. He barely repressed a snort. Iida really is an earnest sort of guy… he’s really putting his all into this… 

“Midoriya, Bakugou is coming your way!” Uraraka said. “He back-tracked when he saw you weren’t with me and I wasn’t able to stop him! I’m following him up!” 

That was bad. If Bakugou showed up at Izuku’s location fast enough, he’d be sandwiched between Iida on one side and Bakugou on the other, which would be a disaster. That meant he had to move now. Izuku rushed forward through the door as quickly as he could. 

Iida jumped in surprise at his appearance, not having heard him coming, and ran toward him at super-speed. And… now! At just the right moment, Izuku kicked down at Iida’s leg, causing him to stumble. Iida managed to right himself before his engines sent him reeling, and he managed to regain his momentum and shove Izuku into the wall.  

Izuku struggled, but couldn’t get out of Iida’s grip. I’m pinned, Izuku thought, unable to escape. Iida fumbled with one of the pockets of the costume to get what was probably the handcuffs. 

An explosion sounded behind the two. 

“Deku,” Bakugou said.

“I have Midoriya pinned!” Iida said, still fumbling for the cuffs. “You should search for Uraraka!” 

“Deku’s mine! Hand him over and find her yourself!” Bakugou growled. 

“Bakugou, that would be quite inefficient--” 

“Shut up, glasses! Nobody cares!” 

Izuku, glancing behind the two, saw Uraraka at the entrance. Neither of them seemed to notice her presence, too busy arguing. He gestured to the bomb with his free hand, giving her a little nod. Uraraka nodded back in determination and started sneaking over to the bomb. Still, there’s not much cover in this room. There's a good chance they’ll notice, unless I can keep their attention away from her. 

Which meant it was time to make a distraction. 

“Hey Kacchan,” Izuku said. “You’re the dumbest person I’ve ever met.” 

“WHAT?!” Bakugou’s hands sparked as he whipped his head around, giving Izuku a murderous, outraged look. 

“Midoriya-” Iida started, but Izuku disregarded his warning. 

“How does it feel to be in the same school as me? Someone whose quirk is so weak they didn’t even realize it existed for ten years? Is it because I’ve gotten stronger, Kacchan?”

Bakugou gave a scream of rage and ran toward the two, shoving Iida off Izuku and cornering Izuku himself. 

“Or maybe it’s because you’ve gotten weak,” Izuku taunted. 

Bakugou hit one of his hands into Izuku’s shoulders. It crackled, and he set off a direct explosion. Sharp burning pain slammed into Izuku’s shoulder.

[Alert: Damage Taken! (Type:Fire) -26 HP.]

Izuku gritted his teeth and muffled a yell. 

“Don’t you EVER call me weak!” Bakugou shouted. He grabbed Izuku and tossed him to the ground. “You’ve always been beneath me! You’ve never been at my level!” 

Standing over Izuku, Bakugou lifted another hand and trained it in his direction. Izuku quickly brought up his hands to shield his face, just in case Bakugou tried to send another explosion his way. Izuku cringed, unsure if he could beat Bakugou at this point even if he tried. 

“Bakugou, I think that’s enough,” Iida protested. “He’s already lost!” 

“He hasn-” Bakugou said, but he was interrupted. 

“That’s it, everyone! Uraraka has captured the bomb! Heroes win!” Yagi’s voice rang over the intercom, announcing their victory. 

[ALERT! Heroics Quest has been completed! Collect rewards?] 

Bakugou and Iida quickly swung their heads around to look at the other side of the room, but it was too late. Uraraka had one hand on the bomb, and the game was over. 

Bakugou glared down at Izuku, eyes alright with rage. But instead of trying to explode him again, like Izuku expected he would, Bakugou simply lowered his arm, ever-so-slowly, mouth splitting into a feral grin. “Haaah…. so that really is all you’re good for, isn’t it Deku? Just dirty tricks?! Well, guess what! You’re nothing compared to me!” Bakugou shouted. “And you never have been!” 

Bakugou turned around and stormed off, stomping out of the room with a purpose. 

“That’s no way to talk to a classmate!” Iida shouted after him. He scowled slightly when there was no response. “How rude!” 

Izuku had long gotten used to Bakugou’s insults. But something was off about Bakugou. Izuku had expected Bakugou to kill him for saying something like that, or try to injure him as badly as was allowed within the confines of the exercise, but it seemed like Bakugou had been holding back. 

Is he still off his game because of that time I almost died? I feel like it’s been long enough for him to get over it, but maybe he’s still worried about severely hurting me… I suppose it would be pretty disturbing to hear about an accident like that… 

Uraraka, who had been standing by the bomb, ran over to Iida and Izuku. “Are you okay, Midoriya? I saw you got hit.” 

“I’m fine,” Izuku said, wincing as he hauled himself to his feet. “Just… singed.” 

“Let’s get you to Recovery Girl, then!” Uraraka insisted. She and Iida helped him off the battlefield. 

“Now who was the MVP for this fight?” Yagi asked. Iida and Uraraka, along with Bakugou, had returned to hear the debriefing, but Midoriya was still stuck with Recovery Girl. From what Yagi had seen his injuries hadn’t been too severe, though he had to admit he was still a little concerned. He knew Recovery Girl would take care of it, though. 

“Midoriya and Uraraka, I believe, tied for first!” Yaoyorozu answered. “Midoriya’s plan was instrumental to their success, and though he got himself captured, he also created a vital distraction. Uraraka, in addition, carried out her part of the plan perfectly and was the one who managed to sneak to the bomb. They were the perfect team.” 

“Excellent explanation, Yaoyrozu!” Yagi said, but Yaoyorozu wasn’t done. 

“Iida took the exercise seriously and did well during the beginning, but he let himself get drawn into an argument with Bakugou,” Yaoyorozu said. 

“I will try to do better in the future!” Iida promised. 

Yaoyorozu’s eyes slid towards Bakugou, who scoffed and looked away from her. “Bakugou, on the other hand, was basically the reason their group lost. He lost sight of the objective, failed to work with his teammate, and actively hindered Iida’s efforts. That’s why neither Iida or Bakugou should be MVP.” 

Bakugou scowled, and said nothing.

Recovery Girl healed him quickly. One kiss, and just like that, he was fixed. He felt a bit tired, though, since her quirk drained his stamina, but she gave him some gummies to compensate for that. 

As he was walking out of school with his gummies, he glanced down at them. “Observe,” Izuku said. 

Stamina-Regeneration Gummies. -20 Ex. Designed to be helpful.

Izuku gaped. -20 exhaustion per gummy? Hell yeah, now this was a healing item. He ate his gummies and then after decided to eat a handful of chocolate-covered coffee beans. They were bitter, but it made him feel even less exhausted. Soon enough he wasn’t feeling tired at all. 

I wonder if Recovery Girl would let me borrow some of her gummies, Izuku thought to himself absently. Probably not, but worth asking… oh, and one more thing. 

“Collect rewards.” 

First Training Exercise Complete! 

Rewards: +6 Stat Points, +300XP

[ALERT! Level up! You are now Lvl. 17!] 

Izuku gave a sigh of contentment. More stat points, more levelling. As it was meant to be.

Now that school was over, Izuku scribbled ideas into his notebook, excited and a little bit desperate to figure out the mystery behind who Yagi really was. 

CLUES ABOUT YAGI-SAN??

• I met “All Might” 10 months ago, and he had Yagi’s stats
• All Might only operates for three hours a day 
  • He didn’t always. All Might vanished from media for a week, then began sharply decreasing hours (five years ago) 
• Yagi has a time limit on his quirk
• Yagi can change his appearance: has been seen as his normal self and as “All Might"
• Teacher-form Yagi is definitely his true form (“Quirked Form” buff was not seen as an addendum when he’s Yagi) 
• “Quirked Form” gave Yagi a buff to STR, DEX, and VIT.
• Yagi Observe information: One for All, Lvl. 99, Symbol of Peace
• Both Yagi and All Might work at UA

Izuku bit the tip of his pen. From these clues, he could make a few concrete deductions. 

Firstly, since All Might’s employment had been publicly announced, it didn’t make sense that Yagi had been hired as All Might in disguise. Otherwise, the real All Might would have probably said something about how he wasn’t working at UA. That meant All Might probably did work at UA, unless something was stopping him from talking about it. 

Secondly, he had to recall that he saw Yagi as All Might ten months ago. Whatever this was hadn’t started recently. Plus, that fight five years ago might be significant… 

Thirdly, according to his quirk, the ability “Quirked Form” gave Yagi strength buffs, which meant that if Yagi did have a shapeshifting quirk, it was one that allowed him to copy All Might’s quirk, which was a rare and powerful ability. 

So knowing all these things, and having his information, Izuku had a couple theories. 

THEORIES

1. “Yagi” is the All Might working at the school, but both Yagi and All Might know this and that Yagi has replaced him. In this theory, for some reason, All Might had to stop doing hero work five years ago, and Yagi took his place. Ever since then, Yagi has been All Might, but “All Might” has been forced to decrease his hours due to Yagi’s shapeshifting time limit.

2. All Might’s quirk is, in actuality, a transformation quirk. Yagi Toshinori is actually All Might’s secret civilian identity.

3. After the incident five years ago, All Might died or went MIA. The villainous Yagi took his place without people noticing (or he killed the people who noticed?) and has been operating as All Might in secret ever since. 

Izuku was pretty sure that theory two was still the most likely. It explained everything: the fact that Yagi was listed as Symbol of Peace by title, why Yagi looked just like All Might. They had the same hair, if you were looking for it! Besides, it was also statistically more likely, given how rare it was for a quirk to be able to copy both someone’s appearance and quirk at the same time. 

So theory two was the most likely. Yagi was probably All Might. 

But… even so, the simple possibility of theory three was very scary. 

It was unlikely… but if something like that had taken place, it was very serious. 

On that point, it would probably only be responsible for Izuku to make sure he was correct and that an imposter hadn’t infiltrated UA… but the only way to confirm that UA knew about what was going on was to ask them. Asking them… I really ought to do it… besides, a few questions couldn’t hurt, right?

But who would he ask?

Izuku sighed and put his notebook down. 

He didn’t want to look stupid in front of Nedzu if he was wrong, so he’d just ask Aizawa-sensei since he had immediate access to the guy. And Aizawa-sensei could erase the imposter’s quirk if it turns out theory three was in fact the case. 

I might have time to ask him before school if I show up early enough… Izuku thought to himself, grimacing. Oh well. Guess that’s what I’ll be doing tomorrow. 

Chapter Text

Izuku entered the classroom early and noticed that as he’d hoped, he was the only one there. He’d been a bit worried that Iida would be there too, because he had arrived early the previous two days, but he suspected that Iida had gotten caught up with the storm of media people that had been blocking the gates… 

“Midoriya,” Aizawa said. “Speak to me for a moment?” 

Izuku tried not to wince. He already has something he wants to talk to me about? 

Izuku reluctantly shuffled over to where Aizawa was standing and looked up to him expectantly. 

“Iida told me yesterday that Bakugou has been giving you a hard time about your quirk,” Aizawa said, giving Izuku a calculated gaze. 

“I-It’s fine,” Izuku said. “Nothing important.” Minimize. Don’t make yourself a problem. 

“I did hear what he said on the first day,” Aizawa said. “If this is a recurring issue, I need to know. I don’t tolerate quirk discrimination in my classroom.” 

Shoot, how do I respond to this… 

“U-um, I don’t think it counts as that,” Izuku said, swallowing a nervous laugh. “He just doesn’t like me very much. He makes fun of my quirk, yeah, but, more because he hates me, than anything else?” Izuku said. 

Aizawa’s flat expression didn’t change. “Still, I expect much better from my students. I’ll speak with him. Let me know if he does this again. If he doesn’t shape up, he’s not fit for the hero course.”

Izuku gave a quick nod. Oh wow… he seems really serious about this… he really is strict… 

Izuku felt a brief flash of worry about how strict this teacher might be, if he’d threatened to punish Bakugou twice, before he came up with a different answer to why he might have done those things. 

Both times he threatened to punish Bakugou were times he was trying to make fun of my new quirk. And… Eraserhead went to UA, right? I heard he had to transfer over from Gen Ed since he didn’t do well in the Entrance Exam… I wouldn’t be surprised if people tried to bully him for his quirk after he joined their class as a transfer under those conditions. Could it be that he’s just looking out for me? 

Izuku thought that was possible, and the idea immediately eased his worries. He still had to be careful (he could still mess this up) but this meant that for once, a teacher was explicitly on his side. Weird. 

Seeing Izuku’s silent reaction, Aizawa seemed to think their conversation was over. But unfortunately, Izuku still had to ask him about Yagi. 

“Oh, could I ask…” Izuku tried to muster up the courage. I really need to do this so that if Yagi’s an evil imposter we don’t all die… come on Izuku, you can do it… “Um, just wanted to check… Yagi, he’s All Might, right?” 

Aizawa paused. “...Why do you say that?”

Izuku ducked his head. “He just has the same name and quirk…” 

“You met All Might at one point?” Aizawa questioned, frowning. 

“Yeah…” Izuku shrugged. “Like a year ago…” 

Aizawa gave a long sigh and put his head in his hands. “I’m… gonna have to make a call. Stay put, give me a moment.” 

Izuku awkwardly stood in place, fidgeting, as Aizawa dialed someone on his phone. 

Aizawa opened the call with another sigh. “Nedzu. Midoriya’s already met All Might. Now he’s asking me about it. What should I say?” There was a long pause. “Tell him everything? You sure? … Yeah, okay. See you in a minute.” 

Aizawa tucked his phone back into his pocket.“Yes, you’re right. Yagi is All Might.” 

“Oh!” Izuku said. “Good. I was a bit worried he might be an imposter or something. Secretly evil, taking All Might’s place or something… ” 

“Thankfully that’s not true,” Aizawa said. “Regardless, I suspect you understand that you can’t tell anyone about this."

Izuku nodded quickly. “I promise! I’m really sorry, I was just worried and wanted to make sure, it was a stupid idea,” Izuku said, giving him a nervous glance. 

Aizawa shook his head. “If you thought he might be an imposter, telling me was the right thing to do. We should have considered the possibility that you saw All Might in the past, considering he’s been operating in Musutafu for a while now.” 

Izuku gave a reluctant nod. 

“I’ll smooth things over with Nedzu and All Might,” Aizawa said. “They won’t be angry, though. There wasn’t anything you could have done.” 

“Thank you, Aizawa-sensei,” Izuku said, still feeling unconfident. Maybe this was a bad idea after all… 

“Don’t worry about it,” Aizawa said. 

Aizawa swept out of the classroom just as the rest of his classmates began to enter. 

Izuku sat in the classroom, a bit awkwardly, and started to work on homework. Uraraka said hi to him cheerfully, and Iida gave him a compliment for being early (and for his ‘diligence’ in working on his homework) but besides that, he was mostly left alone. And he was worried. 

I’m glad All Might’s not an imposter at least… or that at least UA knew what was going on… but I’ve drawn unnecessary attention to myself… did I just put myself in danger?

Izuku bit his lip in worry. He had just discovered a major state secret. What if they got angry with him, or… reported him to the government or something?!

“Add Aizawa Shouta to relationships,” Izuku said “Relationships.” 

RELATIONSHIPS

Midoriya Inko: Rep +97. Unconditional Love. 

Aizawa Shouta: Rep+3. Neutral. 

Bakugou Katsuki: Rep -51. Enemy. (Type=Abusive) 

Iida Tenya: Rep +31. Admiration. 

Nedzu: Rep +7. Concern. 

Uraraka Ochako: +14. Friendly. 

Well, sort of interesting. Aizawa’s rep was minimally positive, which was fine enough for a teacher. Meanwhile, it looked like Uraraka’s rep had gotten high enough for her to be added to the list automatically, with a Friendly tag attached. Iida’s rep had gone up a little. So had Nedzu’s rep, actually… but Concern? Izuku was a bit worried about that. Was it concern for him, or concern about him? 

Well… at least his rep with Nedzu was still in the positive direction. No one had the enemy status, which meant no one actively was looking to hurt him. He supposed that’s what counted. Even so, he’d have to apologize to Nedzu about this whole situation. Hopefully that would quell any anger Nedzu felt at him for his mistake. 

Aizawa came back a few minutes later, just as the bell rang, but unlike the two previous days, he looked frazzled rather than tired. 

“Class, you’ll be having a special Hero Informatics class today,” Aizawa said, clearly not in the mood for mincing words. “You need to elect a class representative.” 

The class went wild, clearly excited. “Ooh! Pick me!” Ashido shouted, raising her hand. 

“Kero, it might be best…” Asui started. 

“To pick me!” Ashido interrupted. 

“Hm, if we’re talking about it, I think I’d be a good class rep,” Uraraka added. 

Aizawa grumbled and sat down at his desk. “Just pick someone by the end of the hour.” He turned his attention to his computer, leaving the class to their own devices. 

“I think it would only be fair to decide by vote!” Iida announced, catching everyone’s attention. “This ought to be a democratic process!” 

“Wouldn’t we all vote for ourselves?” Kaminari pointed out. 

“Yeah, and we’ve only known each other for a few days, kero,” Asui said. 

“That just means whoever actually receives votes truly deserves them!” Iida insisted. 

"I mean, I guess it could work," Kaminari remarked. 

“I sort of like it. It is fair," Yaoyorozu said. 

“Okay then, let’s do it!” Kirishima said. The class seemed to be in general agreement with him. 

Izuku ended up voting for himself. Even though he was pretty sure he wouldn’t win, it wouldn’t hurt to try. Being class representative would be a good networking opportunity, after all. 

After everyone had cast their votes and they were tallied, Izuku was a little stunned by the result. Midoriya: III, Yaoyorozu: II, Bakugou: I, Asui: I… 

Bakugou scoffed. “Deku? Who the hell voted for him?!”

Izuku couldn’t help but agree. He was surprised as well. 

Izuku didn’t miss the way Uraraka leaned back in her seat and gave an awkward grin, as if trying to play innocent. He also didn’t miss the fact that both she and Iida had zero votes, meaning that neither of them voted for themselves. I bet it was those two, Izuku thought. 

“That means that Midoriya is now the class rep, while Yaoyorozu is the vice representative,” Iida said. “Congratulations!” 

Wow, I guess I’m just being thrown bodily into this leadership role, Izuku thought to himself as his classmates turned to look at him and congratulate him. I don’t think I’ll do very well, but… too late now… 

“You’ve finished just in time,” Aizawa said, a bit dryly. “English class is about to start. Midoriya, it’s room 240 for you.” 

“Where’s he going?!” Kaminari called, boldly. 

“Yeah, why does he get to leave?” Ashido asked. 

Aizawa flashed his eyes red. The class shut up quickly. “Midoriya is in some different classes than you,” Aizawa said. “He can tell you why if he wants, but don’t bother him about it. Midoriya.” 

Izuku scrambled out of his seat and grabbed his backpack on the way over to the door. He followed Aizawa out of the room just as Present Mic popped into the classroom, shouting excitedly about how it was time for English! in English. 

Izuku started walking away from Aizawa, towards the staircase. 

“And Midoriya,” Aizawa said. 

Izuku froze. 

“See Nedzu at lunch,” Aizawa said. 

Izuku grimaced. 

His new computer programming class was interesting. He got a few curious glances (for not being a second-year) as he went into the classroom, but the teacher hadn’t really paid him any attention as he took an empty seat in the back. During their class period, they basically had just gone over the syllabus, and Izuku hadn’t had much of an opportunity to talk with anyone. It seemed like the class would have lots of its grade based on projects, though, which Izuku was a little excited for. Hopefully not group projects, though. 

Third-year math was different. They jumped straight into the subject matter, no time spent on the syllabus, and Izuku spent the whole class taking notes. It was oddly satisfying. With his high INT, Izuku had no problem learning the material. He just sat and absorbed everything the teacher said, which was kind of fun. By the end, he actually found himself wanting more time in math class, a foreign feeling to him considering school was normally supposed to be boring. It was interesting. And the kid who sat next to him, a tall blond boy named Toogata, had introduced himself cheerfully, saying that he hoped they could be friends. Izuku knew to be wary of the upperclassmen, but the guy seemed earnest like Iida and friendly like Uraraka, which made him hopeful. Maybe they could at least have a cordial school-friends type relationship? 

His looming meeting with the principal distracted him from most of his other subjects, though. The half-day seemed to pass by in a rush, and soon enough Izuku was seated in the same chair he’d been in yesterday, giving an awkward, nervous smile. 

“Ah, welcome, Midoriya,” Nedzu said pleasantly. 

“I am so sorry,” Izuku rushed to say. “I didn’t know…” 

“No harm done,” Nedzu said, taking the situation calmly. “And it’s true there’s nothing you could have done to prevent the situation. Yagi?” 

The door of the office creaked open, revealing Yagi (All Might!) behind it. 

“Have a seat,” Nedzu said. “Feel free to introduce yourself!” 

“Yagi Toshinori, and it’s nice to meet you,” Yagi said. “So you’re the one who figured out my identity?”

“Not on purpose!” Izuku emphasized. 

“At least there’s that,” Yagi said, sighing. “Nedzu said you were responsible, just… be careful, young man. If it gets out you know who I am, you could be targeted by villains.”
“I mean, I didn’t tell anyone for the last ten months when I knew your identity… that’s when I first saw you, you know…” Izuku trailed off. 

There was a momentary silence.

“Young man, I apologize for not remembering, but how did we meet?” Yagi asked. 

“I almost got murdered,” Izuku said, a bit too brightly. Both Nedzu and Yagi looked a little thrown by his upbeat tone, but well, he’d gotten to meet All Might! It had been a pretty bad day at the time, sure… and okay yeah, it was still kind of bad in retrospect, but… whatever. Nobody cared, he could be happy about meeting All Might if he wanted.  “Some guy tried to choke me to death,” Izuku added, tacking on the additional detail. “You saved me, though. And arrested the bad guy. All pretty standard, for you. I’m not surprised you don’t remember, the whole thing took less than five minutes. You even signed my notebook!” 

“Well, I’m glad I got there in time,” Yagi said, still looking a bit disturbed. “And you’re fine?” 

“Yep, just fine,” Izuku said. “So that’s when I figured it out! And I didn’t tell anyone your name or quirk after! I figured it was classified. Thanks for saving my life, by the way.” 

“Of course, that’s my job,” Yagi said. “I’m glad you’re fine. And I do appreciate that you kept my identity a secret. Most teenagers wouldn’t have been able to.” 

“Ah, not to interrupt,” Nedzu said. “But did you notice any change in Yagi’s quirk between then and now?” 

“Sort of,” Izuku said. “Back then, I saw it as One for All, transferred, now I see it as One for All, remnants. I kind of wanted to ask you about that. I don’t usually see tags like ‘remnants’ accompanying other people’s quirks. You’re not the first to have one like it, but I’m curious as to what it might mean.” 

Nedzu frowned. “He isn’t the only one?” 

“Well, only one other person. I saw a person who had the tag copy, but besides him, no one else,” Izuku said. 

Nedzu and Yagi shared a glance. “Midoriya, who had that tag?” Nedzu asked. 

“Just some guy. Kyudai Garaki,” Izuku said. 

Before Izuku could elaborate on that, Yagi broke into sudden, surprised coughing. “Just some guy?! We haven’t seen Kyudai, not since…” Yagi began, trailing off. 

“Not since five years ago, but we knew he’d gone into hiding,” Nedzu said, his gaze sharpening. He glanced at Izuku. “Where did you meet him? If you let us know, we can find him.” 

“Um, he’s my quirk doctor,” Izuku said. 

Nedzu frowned at that, but said nothing. 

“Is he undercover as a regular quirk physician now?” Yagi wondered aloud. 

“Well, he said he didn’t usually do quirk evaluations nowadays actually,” Izuku said. “But he said he was doing this one specifically because he thought my quirk was interesting.” He thought my quirk was interesting because of the late manifestation, but I don’t want to raise suspicion saying that, so I’ll just leave that part out. 

Nedzu’s expression froze. 

“He said your quirk was interesting?” Yagi asked. He looked vaguely ill. 

“You won’t be going to any further appointments with him, Midoriya,” Nedzu said, voice tight. “Do you have any more information?”

“His quirk is called Life Force,” Izuku said, getting nervous with Nedzu’s weird behavior. “And he’s undercover using the fake name Dr. Tsubasa. Besides that, I don’t really know… you could ask my mom, though, she met him too.” 

“Good. We’ll do that, then,” Nedzu said. “You’re free to go each lunch, Midoriya.” 

“Um… if you don’t mind me asking…” Izuku said, glancing up at him. “Is this guy some kind of criminal or something?” Izuku knew he shouldn’t be pushing, but he really had to know. 

“He won’t be bothering you,” Nedzu said. It wasn’t a real answer, nor a denial. 

Izuku nodded in acceptance despite this, and ducked out of the office.

That was so weird… they definitely knew who I was talking about… and I never got an answer on what those tags meant… Izuku thought to himself. Whatever that was, I better check my relationship screen to make sure we’re still in the clear… hm, let’s see if I can just summon Nedzu’s rep without opening the entire screen. 

“Nedzu, relationship,” Izuku said. 

  Nedzu: Rep +12. Protective. 

Looks like he could do that, but that wasn’t what Izuku was focused on right now. His rep had increased.... and Nedzu had gotten a new protective tag?!

In the back of his mind, it made Izuku wonder who Kyudai Garaki really had to be to get that kind of reaction out of Nedzu… and to move his descriptor from concerned to protective. How bad was Kyudai to make Nedzu think he needed protection? 

… As Izuku was pondering this, the intruder alarms started blaring. 

“Level three security breach,” the announcements said.

“What?” Izuku said. He glanced out the window.  Part of the gate seemed to have crumpled, probably the result of someone’s quirk. And, more noticably, the press was trying to push their way through the flaw in the gate. 

“So the media broke down the gate,” Izuku muttered to himself.

He shook his head, sighing. He was pretty sure Nedzu wouldn't be in the mood to deal with this. 

Chapter Text

Nedzu was not happy. 

Things had started going wrong when Aizawa had revealed to him Midoriya had accidentally discovered Yagi’s true identity. Now that didn’t ruin his day, not really. Even though it was an additional risk, the whole situation was very exciting. Besides, Midoriya’s story about meeting All Might ten months ago was very believable, and Midoriya seemed very apologetic about the whole thing. If Midoriya hadn’t told anyone in the past ten months about the secret, he was unlikely to in the future. 

Admittedly, hearing that Midoriya had almost been murdered curbed his good mood a little. He felt a little bad being all cheerful after hearing that a student almost died (some villain had tried to strangle him or something?) but on the bright side, Midoriya didn’t seem too broken up about it. For some reason. Either he was coping remarkably well, or he was trying to play it off so no one would worry about him. Maybe both. 

And then Midoriya had mentioned he met Kyudai Garaki. 

Kyudai Garaki, the faithful associate of All for One, and missing in action ever since the battle five years ago. Nedzu had expected to find him again eventually, but not like this. 

And then Midoriya’s admission: he’s my quirk doctor because he’s interested in my quirk. 

Midoriya didn’t seem to understand the implications of that, but Nedzu did. Kyudai’s express role under All for One had been quirk experimentation. That, and finding interesting quirks for All for One to take. Nedzu wasn’t in the habit of worrying for other people, but he felt a wave of mild dread at the knowledge of how close this student had come to death. Kyudai’s subjects were certainly not known for surviving. 

Nearly getting involved in quirk experimentation… it was likely the intelligence increase that Kyudai was interested in, which was more unique in a human than being able to tell someone’s name and quirk on-sight. Unless, of course, he’d grown interested in Midoriya when he was young, before the battle, in which case the first part of Midoriya’s quirk might have been meant as a gift for All for One. 

Hopefully it was the second. In that case, Kyudai didn’t have any reason to be interested in Midoriya any longer, because All for One was dead. But Nedzu worried that he wouldn’t be that lucky. 

It didn’t happen yet, Nedzu thought to himself. I caught it in time. 

Nedzu would do a thorough review of Midoriya’s medical information to make sure that nothing had already been done to Midoriya. If the man had been Midoriya’s only quirk doctor, Midoriya would have no idea what counted as a standard medical procedure in the area of quirk medicine. Midoriya would be liable to think whatever Kyudai did to him was normal, if Kyudai could think up a decent excuse for doing it. 

On that front, an additional medical check-up and a proper quirk evaluation (one by a qualified professional with ethics) would not be out-of-place. 

Nedzu was a little furious. Oh, he would find Kyudai Garaki. Considering the man was still operating on people, he needed to be found as quickly as time and resources allowed. 

It was definitely not a good day today. 

And then the intruder alarms went off. 

Izuku was still staring out the window at the broken gate when Nedzu came out from his office and pulled Izuku from the window. “Don’t just stand there, the alarms are going off,” Nedzu said sternly. “You’re supposed to evacuate.” 

“It’s just the media,” Izuku said, glancing back to the window. 

Nedzu turned his head to the window, eyes flickering in understanding. “Ah, the press. I’ll handle them. Just stay here then, thank you,” Nedzu said, gently pushing Izuku into his office. “Yagi, come with me.” 

Izuku sat down in the office chair again, while Nedzu and Yagi left to investigate the cause of the alarms.

“Hey Izuku, we didn’t see you during lunch!” Uraraka said. 

Izuku shrugged. “I was about to go to lunch when the alarms started, but I was in a different part of the building,” Izuku said. “I just ended up eating my lunch somewhere else…” 

Izuku had ended up stuck inside Nedzu’s office for essentially the whole lunch period. He supposed it made sense for Nedzu to want him to stay there while the alarms were going off… even with untrained eyes, Izuku was able to quickly notice the steel doors and top-notch security around the office. It seemed like an exceptionally fortified area. 

“Oh, that means you didn’t see what happened!” Uraraka said. “It was really cool! Everyone was panicking because of the alarms and there was a big mob, but Iida jumped on top of the emergency exit sign and yelled that it was just the media and that they should calm down! He got everyone to exit the lunchroom in an orderly fashion,” she said. 

“Oh wow! That’s really impressive, Iida,” Izuku said. 

Iida gave a proud smile. “It was nothing!” he said. “It was only the proper thing to do!” 

“Honestly, I wouldn’t have known what to do,” Izuku said. “Maybe you should be the class rep... I'm too quiet. I don't think I could stand ordering people around.” 

“Nonsense!” Iida said. He took Izuku by the shoulders. "Assertiveness is not an inherent trait of personality, rather, it is a skill that can be learned! Besides, I am sure our classmates will respect you regardless of how loud you are. I know I do." 

Izuku teared up a little. "Really?" 

Iida nodded. "You'll do great."

Izuku smiled, trying really hard not to cry. "Thanks Iida." 

Even though it appeared at first glance that the media had broken the gate, Nedzu still strongly suspected that someone else was responsible. Even after resolving the immediate crisis and starting the gate repairs, Nedzu was a little concerned about this apparent new threat.

But there wasn’t much time for it now. Not immediately now, at least. He had something else to focus on. Because the school day was over, there was a much lower-hanging fruit to handle. 

Nedzu turned and gave Hound Dog a grin. “Today we plan, and tomorrow, we will attack a doctor! You’ll be helping!” 

Hound Dog, who had been stacking papers and minding his own business, nearly dropped his paperwork in surprise. “...Uh, okay. Not an innocent doctor, I hope?”

Nedzu shook his head with a slight grimace. “No, far from it.” 

Nothing about Kyudai could be called innocent. 

And he was going down. 

Midoriya Izuku -- Lvl. 17 -- Age: 15

HP: 160/160

Exhaustion: 0/800

Title: Broken Chemist [half damage from toxins, acids, poisons]

Quirk: The Gamer

[Stats][Skills][Inventory][Relationships][Questlog]

VIT: 16, STR: 18, DEX: 20, INT: 43, WIS: 45, CHA: 22

Unallotted Stat Points: 12

Notable Skills-

Quirk Analysis [Lvl. 46]: make deductions about what a person can do with their powers, and what their weaknesses might be

Observe [Lvl. 18]: gathers information about something when the player states ‘observe’ while looking at the thing in question

Detect Enemies [Lvl. 16] Say ‘detect enemies’ aloud to detect anyone with the ‘enemy’ relationship or the ‘bloodlust’ status effect within a twenty-foot-radius. 

Chapter Text

It had become a bit of a habit for Izuku to experiment with healing items in the mornings. 

This morning, he’d decided to try a little bit of making his own healing items rather than just testing the ones he found around his house. To start, he’d tried mixing coffee and green tea to see what happened, and what he got… 

Coff-Tea. -30 Ex, +2 HP. What strange drink have you created?

It was interesting, at least. And it tasted… okay. Not really. It didn’t taste very good. He tried putting sugar in, but then the stat lineup changed. 

Sweetened Coff-Tea. -30 Ex. Less bitter now. 

That seemed to completely eliminate the health benefit. 

Coff-Tea seemed like just a mix of the stats of coffee and green tea. And if you added sugar, that completely eliminated the HP increase. 

Izuku noticed that most of the things that healed were supposed to be healthy or had healing properties in real life, and that most of the things that erased exhaustion had some kind of caffeine, stimulant, or anti-exhaustion real-life property. That’s probably why adding sugar ruined the Coff-Tea benefits, because sugar wasn’t good for you. 

So, Izuku needed something healthy and concentrated. So, he came up with another idea: one of those green smoothies! He quickly made it from a recipe he found online and the fruits and vegetables he found in his house, to much better results. 

Green Smoothie. -10 Ex, +15 HP. Antioxidants and stuff. 

That seemed pretty good. A small cup having a fifteen HP increase was pretty decent, it would at the very least be a good recovery item even if he couldn’t have it during battle. 

And then, in another stroke of brilliance, he mixed that with green tea. 

Green Tea Smoothie. -30 Ex, +25 HP. A fun morning treat. 

Now this stuff was concentrated enough that Izuku could probably use it for some kind of healing potion. Maybe he could try adding other healthy stuff to his smoothie, like kale or raspberries… maybe some lemon… logic dictated that if he could increase the healthiness of his green smoothie, that would get him more HP. 

Izuku was getting somewhere. 

Izuku poured his green tea smoothie into a thermos and put it in his backpack. He could drink it with lunch! If Izuku got any bruises or cuts, he could get rid of them instantly at lunchtime with his green tea smoothie creation. It was kind of a weird feeling, knowing that. 

His mother got up for breakfast, just in time to see him making his green tea smoothie (she beamed at him, happy he was doing… well not cooking exactly, but something that he seemed to enjoy) and had time to make him some breakfast quickly before he went to school. 

He beamed at his mother, and left for school in a good mood. 

“Psst, hey,” Toogata whispered, during a brief lull in math class. “You said you were Midoriya, right? Are you a second-year?” 

“I’m a first-year,” Izuku said honestly, but a little nervously. 

“Sweet!” Toogata said, grinning. “I’m glad you’re in my class! This is a great way to meet my new kouhais.” 

“Oh… thanks,” Izuku said. 

“No problem!” Toogata said. “If you ever need any help with anything, feel free to ask me! I know it can be kinda hard to transition to a knew school.” 

“Oh, thank you,” Izuku said, trying to sound friendly. He paused, unsure of what he could add to the conversation.

“So, how are you liking UA?” Toogata asked, after a few seconds of silence. 

Izuku briefly considered the past few days. He’d had some close calls with the teachers, but nothing bad had happened. He’d even met a few people, like Iida and Uraraka, who seemed to like him! And Bakugou had been weirdly chill the whole time. 

Sure, he could probably have said the same thing (except the Bakugou being chill part) about the start of middle school, before things had gone south for him, but… considering the first few days objectively, on their own merits… “It’s been pretty great,” Izuku said. “It’s kind of amazing here. I actually really like it.” 

“I know, right!” Toogata said, grinning with excitement and puffing out his chest with pride. “I was so wowed by all the technology and stuff during my first year! So impressive!” 

“Alright you two, get back to your worksheets,” Ectoplasm said. 

“Okay!” Izuku yelped, a bit surprised, while Toogata sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and nodded. 

Speaking of impressive new technology, Izuku knew he’d get to see some this afternoon with his class’ scheduled trip to the USJ, a state-of-the-art rescue heroics facility. They’d be riding the bus there. To meet Thirteen, he’d heard. Uraraka was thrilled at the idea, apparently she really admired the rescue hero. 

And on the bus, once they’d all boarded, Izuku got to hear Kacchan of all people get teased during everyone’s conversation about quirks, which was incredibly bizarre to Izuku. 

“Bakugou’s got a flashy quirk, but he’s only been here a week and we all know his personality is absolute garbage,” Kaminari teased. 

“Take that back loser! I’ll kill you!” Bakugou shouted in his direction. 

“See!” Kaminari said, absolutely fearless. 

The social hierarchy is way different here, Izuku noted. Kacchan’s violent approach isn’t working very well… maybe because our teacher won’t let him beat people up? But if Kacchan’s not top dog… then who is? Maybe Kaminari, because he’s funny and popular? Or Iida, because of his force of will? 

It was all very complicated and confusing to Izuku. Sometimes, Izuku felt like his charisma boosts from The Gamer only revealed to him that people were even more complicated and troublesome than he’d thought.

“Sorry to ask, kero,” Asui said. “But Midoriya, didn’t Bakugou say something about your quirk on the first day? What does he have against your quirk?”

“I don’t think anything in particular, he just doesn’t like me,” Izuku said, with a nervous smile. “My quirk’s just Analysis, it lets me know someone’s name and quirk by looking at them. And gives me a little bit of a boost when it comes to math and science, that’s why I’m in different classes. It’s nothing flashy, really.” 

“Oh, so you got moved up classes!” Kirishima said. “But that’s super cool even if it’s not flashy! You get to be all smart and stuff, you’re probably super good at school!” 

“I wish I could be good at school,” Ashido sighed. 

Kaminari gave Ashido a consoling pat on the shoulder. “We all do.” 

“Hey, we’re here,” Aizawa said, glancing back at everyone. 

Everyone clambered out of the bus in a less-than-graceful manner, despite Iida’s protests, excited to see the USJ. It was a big building, purple-and-blue in color scheme, with a giant dome for a top. Izuku couldn’t help but grin at the sight of it, though he himself had no particular plans to become a rescue hero. 

Although… All Might helped in rescues and disaster situations a lot… 

And while the fake quirk Izuku came up with wouldn’t help him in rescue scenarios directly, the secondary intelligence-boost part of it would be helpful! He could study up on rescue techniques, and maybe someday he could be the one coordinating the rescue!

Izuku smiled a bit. He liked that. The idea of rescuing people from disasters appealed to him, whether on the ground or by organizing the rescue. He’d have to pay special attention to this lesson, then.

When the group entered the USJ (which was even bigger on the inside than it looked!) they saw Thirteen, standing right inside the entrance. They gave a little wave to Aizawa. 

“Where’s A-ahem, Yagi?” Aizawa asked. 

Thirteen put up three fingers, shrugging. 

Aizawa scowled. “No surprise for the first years, then. Let’s just get started.”

Huh… what does he mean by surprise for the first-years? And he sounded like he was about to say All Might, too… was All Might supposed to show up in his original form for this lesson? That would make sense, actually, that’s probably why Aizawa switched to saying Yagi. If everyone else here heard that All Might was supposed to be here but bailed, they’d probably be super disappointed that he didn’t stay for the surprise. 

Admittedly Izuku was a little disappointed too. It was mitigated by the fact that he knew All Might was teaching them every single day in secret during Heroics, but it would have been super cool to see him in his proper All Might form up close again. 

Those three fingers… three hours? Was Thirteen trying to tell Aizawa that All Might ran out of time in his buff hero form? 

Izuku was aware that All Might could only work for three hours a day, considering the time limit he’d seen and the fact that All Might never seemed to work beyond that time, but he’d never actually gotten confirmation that it was true. No one had volunteered that information to him when he’d discovered All Might’s identity. Maybe he should have asked. 

“Welcome to the USJ, everyone!” Thirteen said. “Now, listen carefully. I’m sure you’re aware I have a powerful quirk. It’s called Black Hole. I can use it to suck up everything and turn it into dust. Like me, some of you also have powers that could be dangerous. Please don’t forget that if you lose focus or make the wrong move, that your powers can be deadly,” Thirteen said. 

Well, that was true of most of his classmates. It wasn’t really true of Izuku. He didn’t have the type of power that could easily kill by accident. Not at this stage, at least. But maybe if he unlocked more powers with The Gamer, he could eventually get a quirk that was more dangerous…  

“Carry the lessons of the past few days over to this class. Today, you’re going to learn how to use your quirks to save people’s lives. After all, that’s what being a hero is about! Ensuring the safety of others,” Thirteen said. “That’s all I have to say. Thank you so much for listening.”

Izuku grinned at that, while the rest of the class broke into cheers. I’m really excited to learn how to rescue properly… I don’t actually have any experience on this topic, meaning I need this training just as much as anyone else here. 

“Right, now that that’s…” Aizawa started. 

The lights flickered. 

“Huh? What was that?” Kirishima asked. 

The lights continued to flicker, and the water in the fountain seemed to start glitching. Izuku peered closer at the fountain to get a better look, only to see a purple-black portal forming in the middle of the fountain. 

“Stay together and don’t move!” Aizawa ordered. 

The portal opened up, and people started walking through, dozens of them. 

Izuku got the sense that this wasn’t another test. 

“Thirteen, protect the students,” Aizawa said, unwrapping his capture scarf. Izuku took a step forward to get a better look at the fountain, but Aizawa bit out a sharp, “Stay back! This is real. Those are villains.” 

A villain attack?! A real one? This is unbelievable! Izuku thought. Seconds later, his quirk confirmed what Aizawa had said. 

[ALERT: EMERGENCY QUEST ACTIVATION!]

Emergency Quest: Attack on the USJ

• Goal: Survive the villain attack
• Bonus 1: Survive with 0 deaths among your allies
• Bonus 2: Defeat USJ Bosses (Count: 3)
• Bonus 3: Level up a skill seven times during the battle

REWARDS: +10 stat points, +1000XP

BONUS 1 REWARDS: Lvl. 1 Skill: "???"

BONUS 2 REWARDS: Title “???”

BONUS 3 REWARDS: Title “???”

Izuku couldn’t help but quickly look through the quest, despite the dangerous situation. Level up a skill seven times? What, as I’m being murdered? And defeat all the bosses myself? Who the hell does my quirk think I am? I am completely unqualified--

The doors of the USJ were thrown open. 

“Hello, students! I am…” All Might paused, glancing out over the sea of enemies. “Uh…” 

The students cheered at his entrance, excited to see All Might. “Yes! He’ll beat up the bad guys!” Ashido squealed. 

Aizawa, on the other hand, was all business. “What’s your time?” Aizawa asked, glancing at All Might sharply. 

“Two minutes,” All Might said. 

Aizawa’s face twisted with muted fury, while Thirteen looked worried. 

And All Might wasn’t smiling anymore. 

I’m getting the sense this might still be a bad situation, Izuku thought to himself.  

Chapter Text

“Do your thing,” Aizawa ordered All Might. 

All Might nodded in agreement and lunged forward, taking down enemies with ease. Izuku looked at him with awe. He moved so fast he was hardly visible to the human eye, taking down a few dozen enemies within the first few seconds. 

Until something stopped him. 

A giant blue-colored blur ran forth to meet him: a hulking, blue-black creature with a beak and exposed brain. All Might seemed briefly caught off-guard as the creature punched him in the side, sending him flying back into the staircase. Shrapnel flew up from where All Might landed, a plume of dust rising into the air. 

“Class, get back!” Aizawa shouted, recognizing the danger of the situation. Izuku rushed to follow his classmates as they ran for the exit. The only one behind Izuku was Aizawa, who took up the rear. 

“Not quite,” a voice said, and a purple cloud with bright yellow eyes manifested itself in front of the entrance. “I am Kurogiri, and we are the League of Villains! Unfortunately, I cannot let you leave here alive.” 

Izuku quickly glanced behind him to see what Aizawa would do. He immediately activated his quirk, erasing Kurogiri’s teleporting capabilities. Meanwhile, Thirteen pointed their arm at Kurogiri, clearly preparing to use Black Hole. 

But then Bakugou and Kirishima both jumped forward to fight the villain, blocking Thirteen’s shot and ruining their plan. 

“No!” Thirteen cried, frustrated. “Get out of the way!” 

Bakugou ignored their warning. He leapt forward and shot explosions toward Kurogiri. The villain backed away, dodging most of Kacchan’s explosions, but even the ones that hit seemed to have minimal effect on his mist body. 

“Thirteen, you need to get them out of the way!” Aizawa said, voice strained. Izuku felt a sudden surge of panic, remembering in short order that Aizawa could only keep his eyes open for so long. 

But before Bakugou or Kirishima could try to get away (or before Thirteen could drag them away from the villain) Kurogiri unexpectedly changed directions, charging straight for Izuku at full speed. Izuku shrieked and jumped backwards, fearful of the villain even though he knew Kurogiri’s quirk was being erased. 

In his scramble to get away from Kurogiri, Izuku tripped backwards and fell into Aizawa, who was standing directly behind him, accidentally elbowing him in the gut as he fell. He felt the erasure hero stumble back too, losing his footing. 

Izuku realized he’d fallen right into Kurogiri’s trap when he felt Aizawa’s hair fall. 

Knocking into Aizawa had made him blink. It was over. 

The world was engulfed in darkness. 

Izuku fell on top of Aizawa with an oomph, sending them both sprawling to the ground. 

Izuku quickly looked up, but they weren’t by the entrance any longer. In fact, the purple-black portal that had taken them there was already vanishing, but there was a more immediate problem: everything was on fire.  

Aizawa sprang to his feet, grimacing as he looked about. “Conflagration Zone. We’re still in the USJ. Stay close. We’ll find an exit.” 

A figure leapt through the fire, lunging at Aizawa, but Aizawa easily kicked him in the face. He landed roughly on the ground. 

“So they have villains stationed throughout the USJ, not just by the center,” Aizawa growled. “The teleporting villain must have dropped them off.” 

“Observe,” Izuku whispered. 

Yamasaki Haru -- Lvl. 19 --  Hot Stuff

Quirk: Fire Resistant Skin

[See Stats & Skills]

“Fire resistant skin is his quirk!” Izuku said. “They probably put all the people with fire quirks over here.” 

Aizawa nodded, even as other figures started to creep out from behind buildings toward them. He stood in front of Izuku in a fighting stance, ready to face down the other villains in the conflagration zone. 

But before Aizawa could do anything else, a loud bang echoed through the Conflagration Zone. A body at rapid speeds tore through the thick concrete and fiberglass that separated the conflagration zone from the rest of the USJ. The blue creature slammed into the ground not far away. 

The air pressure from the hit fed and redirected the flames, sending them spiralling out in all directions. But while Izuku froze upon seeing the wall of fire speeding toward them, Aizawa-sensei acted quickly. He grabbed Izuku and curled around him, shielding him with his body. The flames slammed past them with a whoosh, almost sweeping Aizawa-sensei off his feet. 

The other villains in the conflagration zone panicked and fled at the sudden burst of fire, scattering back behind buildings again. 

Meanwhile, Aizawa hissed in pain and ripped his capture weapon from his neck, hastily throwing it to the ground. Before Izuku could ask what he was doing, he heard the loud slam of boots hitting the ground. 

“Aizawa, young Midoriya, how are you over here?” All Might asked. 

“We got teleported by a quirk,” Aizawa hissed. “Why’d you bring it over here? You risk setting the rest of the USJ on fire by throwing around those stupid air punches!” 

“I was hoping the fire might stop its regeneration!” All Might defended. 

“That thing does not have a Regeneration quirk!” Aizawa barked. “Do you have eyes? It’s clearly hyper-durable!” 

“It grew an arm back!” All Might argued. 

Izuku poked his head out from under Aizawa’s grip. Through the thick smoke, he could see the creature beginning to slowly stand again. “Observe,” he said. 

N̵̟̄͒͆̾̈́̂̂o̸̱̾̅̑͑́͛m̴̨̛̗̟̱̩͈̐̈͗̋͂̃͝ũ̶̙͕̮͙̦͌̈́̾͛̂̋̍͆̌̍̉̂̂͘̚͜   -- Lvl. 90 -- hElp mE pleASe

Quirk: Shock Absorption, Super Strength, Regeneration (+3 more)

[See Stats & Skills]

“I-it has multiple quirks!” Izuku yelled. 

All Might reared back in shock for a moment before looking back to Aizawa, grim determination set on his face. “Aizawa… I don’t know if I can defeat this beast on my own. It’s very strong… and the regeneration… but if you can erase it’s quirks… ”

Aizawa gave a serious nod. He put down Izuku, and pointed him to the exit. “It’s too dangerous for you. Get out of here. Stay hidden, if you can. Wait for rescue.”  

Izuku glanced up at Aizawa and, for the first time, saw how hurt he was. His hair was badly singed, and his capture weapon was unspooled and laying on the ground. Burns in the shape of the weapon were seared into his neck.

Hot metal, Izuku thought, a bit nauseous. Aizawa’s hands looked badly burned as well.

“Go,” Aizawa ordered again, and Izuku quickly nodded and ran for the exit. He reached it just in time. He heard the blue creature roar in anger and slam against All Might again just as he reached the door. Izuku escaped the conflagration zone on trembling legs. 

Heart pounding, Izuku kept running forward, certain he had to put distance between himself and whatever that thing was but unsure of which direction he should head in. 

Where do I go where do I go… I need to find my classmates… but where are they? The entrance? The other zones? Where are they?

Izuku skidded to a halt, ducking beneath a large bush that dotted the landscape. 

Think, Izuku, think… where should you go in this situation… 

The entrance, probably. He needed to go to the USJ entrance, so he could escape alive. That’s what mattered right now. He was lucky he hadn’t been immediately toasted in the conflagration zone. 

The shipwreck zone has an open beach, not enough cover, Izuku thought to himself. So I’ll have to take the long way by sneaking through the mountains, landslide, and ruins zones… 

But what if there were enemies there? Izuku knew that fighting enemies in those dangerous conditions was a great way to get himself accidentally killed… maybe he should just try to sneak by the edges of those terrains, and hopefully stealth by unnoticed?

That would be the best plan. Besides… 

He’d seen the leaders of the attack in the middle, right? If he could get close enough… just close enough for them to be in his line of sight… then he could use Observe on them, and if they escaped using Kurogiri, then he could bust them with their real identities! They’d regret attacking UA then. 

Izuku couldn’t help but feel a little bit of hysterical excitement rise up in him at that idea. 

Okay, let’s do it. 

Chapter Text

Izuku snuck through the rocky areas of the mountain zone, slowly approaching the center. “Detect enemies,” he whispered. 

[No enemies detected nearby.]

Good. My range isn’t very far, but using detect enemies should give me a little warning about anyone who gets too close. 

Izuku made it to the very edge of the mountain zone without running into any conflict. Still, the leaders of the attack weren’t close enough for him to use Observe, which meant he needed to either continue his approach or give it up. 

It’s just a little closer, Izuku justified, creeping through the greenery past the edge of the mountain zone. There’s still cover up ahead, I can do this. “Detect enemies-” 

[Alert: Enemies detected! (Quantity: 4)] 

[Detect Enemies Skill leveled up to Level 18!]

Izuku froze. He peered through the thick bushes, noticing a small group of villains up ahead. They must have been what set off his detect enemies skill. 

Izuku strayed a little farther to the left, taking a longer path to avoid the group. He slowly passed out of their range, giving a quick sigh of relief once he realized he’d managed to sneak by unnoticed. He moved forward, and the villains in the center started to slowly come into view. In fact, he was probably close enough to use Observe on them now. 

… Now the only issue was that Izuku wasn’t sure who he should use Observe on. Who was leading the attack? The mist villain from earlier? Or maybe the young adult he was talking to, who had a… disembodied hand on his face ? (Izuku hoped that was fake.) And those two were surrounded by a handful of other villains. He would have a hard time remembering all of their quirks, so he wished he knew who was in command.

At least he could get the teleporting villain’s information now. 

“Observe,” Izuku whispered, looking at him head on. 

s̴̢͗͜ͅh̴̳͂̂͌̚ì̴̧̮̄͑̚ŗ̶̛͙̊a̷͕͓͌̿k̷̨̤͐͊̋u̵͕͙̿ͅm̵̩͈̘̬̉o̴̧̹͚̓ͅ ̵̳̋o̵̢͙͔̳͗̄̈́b̷̢̡͝ͅo̵̡̩̬͐̃͝r̵̺̠̱͊̊ǒ̴͚̘͗͠ -- Lvl. 43 -- ć̵͔͉͊̄̈́l̴̠̺̦̺̎̆͘͝o̴͙͍̻̜̬͘ͅu̸̥͓͊̄̈́̕͠͝d̵̯̩̜͗̈͠ ̵̯͆̿̃͆̊h̶̤͔͂̿͑̐e̶̝̝̞͖̩̩̾r̷͍̭̿̿́̉̓̿̕ǫ̸̨̳̣̝̥̉͑

Quirk: Warp Cloud Gate

[See Stats & Skills]

Static warped the screen in front of Izuku. He blinked, wincing at the strange and concerning crackling that his interface was doing. But then the interface changed, righting itself after a few moments. 

Kurogiri -- Lvl. 43 -- Shadow Portals

Past Aliases: Shirakumo Oboro

Quirk: Warp Gate [combined]

[See Stats & Skills]

ACTIVE DEBUFFS: Brainwashing (Qr.), Control (Qr.), Conditioning (Qr.), Mind-Weakening (Qr.)

Okay, so that was certainly some interesting information. So his real name was Kurogiri, but… he didn’t seem to have a first name? That was strange. And, unlike anyone he’d ever seen before, he had a ‘past aliases’ section. Why for him and no one else? 

(Another tag on his quirk again. This time it was combined, though. What did those mean?) 

But perhaps most intriguingly, there was the debuffs section. According to it, Kurogiri was under… brainwashing, mind-weakening, control, and conditioning. Literally layers upon layers of mind-control quirks. Did that mean this villain was an unwilling participant after all? Had the villains had forced this man to participate in their schemes because he had a rare teleportation quirk? If that was true, Izuku needed to let the heroes know so they could help Kurogiri get free. 

Izuku mentally took note of all this information, especially the name Shirakumo Oboro. If Kurogiri had gone by that name in the past, it would make it a little easier for Nedzu to find him. 

Izuku crept a little bit closer to the villains, hoping to get a better look. 

He was still out of earshot, but from here it was easy enough to see from here that Kurogiri and the hand-man were standing above all the other villains. It sort of gave Izuku the impression that those two had some kind of authority. Best to get the hand-man’s stats, too.  “Observe,” he said. 

Shigaraki Tomura -- Lvl. 46 -- Demon’s Apprentice

Past Aliases: Shimura Tenko

Quirk: Decay [transferred]

[See Stats & Skills]

Another past aliases section. And, in addition, Izuku noticed that Shigaraki’s title was a little odd as well. Demon’s Apprentice? It sounded a little bit too close to Shadow of the Demon (Kyudai’s title) for comfort. The title Shadow Portals seemed similar to it too. Could these two be related to Kyudai somehow? Not to mention that both Shigaraki and Kurogiri (like Kyudai) had strange tags on their quirks. 

Izuku wanted to sneak a little closer to hear their conversation, but worried he was a bit too close already. “Detect enemies,” Izuku whispered. 

[Alert: Enemies detected! (Quantity: 7)] 

[Detect Enemies Skill leveled up to Level 19!]

Izuku nodded to himself. The fact that the group of villains up ahead was in his range meant he was around twenty feet away from them, and maybe forty feet away from Kurogiri and Shigaraki. If that was the case, it was probably a bad idea to get too much closer. 

Although… maybe they were a little farther away than twenty feet, since Detect Enemies had leveled a bit since Izuku got here. Why is that? Izuku wondered for a moment. Wait, it’s probably because Detect Enemies levels up faster when there are lots of enemies in the area. 

“Detect enemies,” he whispered. 

[Alert: Enemies detected! (Quantity: 7)] 

[Detect Enemies Skill leveled up to Level 20!]

Izuku hadn’t forgotten that one of his bonus quests was to level a skill seven times. He felt a little stupid focusing on bonus quests now of all times, but if he got a new title, it might be really useful in getting him out of here. 

Besides, a better range on Detect Enemies would be really helpful when he was trying to sneak back out of this area… he only needed to whisper a little bit more for it. 

“Detect enemies, detect enemies,” Izuku whispered. “Detect enemies.” 

[Alert: Enemies detected! (Quantity: 8)] 

[Alert: Enemies detected! (Quantity: 8)] 

[Detect Enemies Skill leveled up to Level 21!]

[Alert: Enemies detected! (Quantity: 11)] 

[Detect Enemies Skill leveled up to Level 22!]

What level had he started at? Level eighteen, or something? Just a few more levels… 

“Detect enemies, detect enemies,” Izuku whispered. 

[Alert: Enemies detected! (Quantity: 11)] 

[Detect Enemies Skill leveled up to Level 23!]

[Alert: Enemies detected! (Quantity: 11)] 

[Detect Enemies Skill leveled up to Level 24!]

[ALERT! Emergency Bonus 3 Quest has been completed! Collect rewards?] 

“Collect rewards,” Izuku muttered. “This had better be useful…” 

Emergency Bonus Quest 3 Complete! 

Rewards [Hidden]: Title “Quick Study”

Okay, a title. How did he check his titles? “Titles,” Izuku said. 

Titles Available 

Broken Chemist: While this title is equipped, the player takes half damage from poisons, 

toxins, and other corrosive substances. 

Quick Study: When in dangerous situations, the player receives a temporary +10 INT boost. 

Izuku quickly read the description. Then, he sighed in disappointment. Not the most useful, it only boosted how fast he learned in dangerous situations. Nothing that would help get him out of here. But oh well. Since things are dangerous right now, I might as well use it.  

“Equip Quick Study,” Izuku muttered. 

Izuku was expecting nothing to happen, as did with most stat boosts. 

But he was wrong. 

[ALERT! Your INT has reached 50! You have unlocked Spellcasting ]

CHOOSE THE SOURCE OF YOUR MAGIC 

• The Voice (Charm)

• The Mind (Cognitive)

• The Soul (Flow/Utility)

• The Muscle (Power)

• The Heart (Life/Flame)

• The Lungs (Air/Wind)

TIME REMAINING FOR SELECTION: 10min

If you do not select, your MAGIC will be LOCKED! 

Izuku froze, glancing at the screen in front of him. 

Oh shoot what did I just do?! The source of my magic?! What does that even mean? I didn’t think this system had any magic! What do I pick? Why do I only have ten minutes to decide!?  

Izuku got up from the ground shakily, his plan to find out the names and quirks of the leaders suddenly falling to the wayside. Suddenly, his quirk was flipping out and he didn’t have any time to resolve it because he was in a dangerous situation. “I’d better leave… figure this out… what was I thinking, getting this close… ” 

“Too late, kid.” A voice behind him. 

Izuku whirled around and saw the group of four, the same group he’d snuck by earlier, standing behind him. Shit! They must have noticed me after I passed them! 

Izuku sprinted in the opposite direction, abandoning his stealthy pretense. 

“YO! Boss, there’s a kid over here!” someone yelled. 

Izuku cursed and sharply turned left, hoping he could somehow make it to the exit. 

He couldn’t. The group of about ten or fifteen that he’d been practicing Detect Enemies on noticed him and quickly spread out to block his path. Izuku glanced behind him, hoping to double back towards the conflagration zone, only to see Shigaraki and Kurogiri approaching him from behind. 

“A UA student,” Shigaraki said. “Looks like he got separated from the group. You there--” he gestured to an alligator-quirked man.

“Taniguchi,” the man grumbled. 

“Pin him down,” Shigaraki said. 

Izuku tried to run again, but the man was too close and too fast. He slammed Izuku to the ground with a massive amount of strength. Izuku winced, losing a few points of HP. 

“Should I kill him, boss?” Taniguchi asked, claws digging into Izuku’s back. Uh oh-

“No. Not yet.” Oh, good. “Wait until All Might gets here. But do what you have to to make sure he can’t run again,” Shigaraki said.

Izuku didn’t have time to register what Shigaraki meant until the alligator-quirked man opened his jaws and clamped down on his leg. 

[ALERT! Damage Taken! -95 HP]

Izuku screamed in pain as he felt teeth dig into the limb . “Stop-stop stop--” Something in his leg snapped under the pressure. He thrashed instinctively, too caught up in pain-it-hurts to understand that moving was making things worse. He clawed feverishly at the face of the alligator man who’d just bit him, desperate to get loose or at least to scratch out his eyes in revenge.

“Ow, shit,” he said, releasing Izuku’s leg as Izuku managed to dig his nails into his nose. “Mind if I take down an arm?” 

Izuku didn’t hear Shigaraki say anything. Regardless, he must have given some kind of affirmative, because the next thing he knew the man’s teeth were sinking into his shoulder. 

[ALERT! Damage Taken! -49 HP]

Blackness dotted against his vision. Izuku felt another rush of frantic panic, because he couldn’t remember how much HP he had but this was too close, he’d lost too much, he knew it, and he was in danger. Izuku's screams turned into sobs as the alligator yanked his teeth out of Izuku’s arm. 

Izuku only barely had the presence of mind to go limp, hoping it would stop the man from ruining his other leg and arm. He wanted to be fighting back, but... 

“So now we just wait for All Might to appear?” Taniguchi said. 

“If he's not already dead when my Nomu's done with him,” Shigaraki said. "We kill his student in front of him. That'll ruin the pride of the Symbol of Peace." 

Shit... don’t panic… I need to look at my profile and see how I’m doing. 

Izuku glanced up at the white text that still obscured his vision. 

CHOOSE THE SOURCE OF YOUR MAGIC

• The Voice (Charm)

• The Mind (Cognitive)

• The Soul (Flow/Utility)

• The Muscle (Power)

• The Heart (Life/Flame)

• The Lungs (Air/Wind)

TIME REMAINING FOR SELECTION: 5min, 32s

If you do not select, your MAGIC will be LOCKED! 

He didn’t have time for figuring whatever the fuck this was out right now. He would just have to choose something random and hope it was the best one. After a brief scan of all the options, Izuku mumbled. “The Heart.” Something else popped up in front of his vision (some kind of instructions on how to use magic) but there was no time. Not now. “Close. Profile.” 

Midoriya Izuku -- Lvl. 17 -- Age: 15

HP: 14/160

Exhaustion: 81/800

Title: Quick Study

Quirk: The Gamer

[Stats][Skills][Inventory][Relationships][Questlog]

Izuku’s stomach dropped at seeing how low his HP was. 

He couldn’t help but feel like his quirk was working against him. 

If I get another limb bitten… I’ll die… 

A normal person could survive multiple broken limbs because they haven't lost anything vital. That's not exactly true for me. I lose HP no matter where I’m hit so the fact they've avoided hitting any vital organs is irrelevant, they might still kill me. This is all because of my low vitality and HP... I can barely survive anything... And, even though it hurts… I can’t pass out, because my exhaustion isn’t high enough… 

He needed to get his HP back up. He was at imminent risk of dying right now. 

But his healing items… he’d left his smoothie in his thermos, which was in his backpack all the way at school… 

Only one other way to do it… but would it be too noticeable? What if they see me heal, and when they see that I healed they get mad and break my leg again?

Izuku shuddered and placed his head on the ground, almost deciding not to go through with the plan. His leg and shoulder still throbbed with so much white-hot pain that he could hardly think. I can’t do that again. Maybe I should just stay where I am... 

But then, a giant bang echoed throughout the USJ. A pillar of flames lit up the air from the conflagration zone. Everyone, even Taniguchi (who still held him loosely) stopped what they were doing and looked over to the distracting scene. 

Izuku knew he needed to take the opportunity. He steadied his resolve. 

Heal the only way you can right now…! “Twelve stat points to vitality!” Izuku said. 

Immediately, Izuku felt significantly better. His twisted and bleeding limbs became much less twisted. Glancing down, Izuku noticed some of the skin on his arm knitting itself together. His injuries didn’t look perfectly healed, but-! “Profile,” Izuku said. 

Midoriya Izuku -- Lvl. 17 -- Age: 15

HP: 134/280

Exhaustion: 81/1400

Title: Quick Study

Quirk: The Gamer

[Stats][Skills][Inventory][Relationships][Questlog]

Just as he’d hoped, when he’d added those stat points to vitality, the new HP had arrived right away rather than just increasing the maximum! (Izuku wasn’t sure what he would have done if he’d been wrong. Lie on the ground and bled out, maybe.) 

Izuku quickly scrambled to his feet, tossing the still-distracted Taniguchi off of him. He needed to get out of here, now.

Shigaraki turned back to look at him, and his eyes widened in shock. “A regeneration quirk, just like my Nomu. And stat points…” His eyes took on a calculating gaze. “Do you-” 

A wind swept through the center before he could finish the sentence.

 Izuku felt himself being picked up and then set down again in seconds. Izuku blinked, and he was far away from the center, at the base of the stairs. Next to him was Aizawa, and in front of them both was All Might. “You managed to beat the monster!” Izuku said, breathing a sigh of relief. Both of them looked considerably more singed and soot-covered than when he’d first seen them, but neither seemed to be too badly injured. 

“Midoriya!” Aizawa said, voice alarmed. He pulled something from his utility belt (a small first aid kit) and flipped it open, quickly wrapping bandages around Midoriya’s shoulder. “Keep pressure on it,” he said, seemingly to himself. 

“OW!” Izuku yelped as the bandages were squeezed around his shoulder. “Stop it,” Izuku  said, a whine to his voice. 

“I’m sorry,” Aizawa said. “You can’t lose any more blood.” 

Izuku glanced down. And… yeah. He was covered in blood. 

I may have managed to heal myself by increasing my vitality… but that didn’t erase the blood I lost from my previous wounds, Izuku thought. Yeah, he looked pretty bad. No wonder Aizawa was panicking. And Izuku couldn’t exactly tell Aizawa ‘don’t be worried, I won’t die, I’m at half health and I don’t think this bleeding is decreasing my HP anyways’ so he just had to let the teacher do what he wanted with his wounds. 

After his shoulder had been bandaged (which was bleeding the most, and didn’t look straight-up broken like his leg), Aizawa scooped Izuku up and ran up the stairs, managing to quickly arrive at the top. He set down Izuku gently, laying him flat on the ground. 

“Sensei! What happened to him?!” Uraraka shouted, rushing to his side. 

“He’s hurt, don’t touch,” Aizawa said. “Thirteen, what happened?” 

“Iida escaped,” Thirteen said. Thirteen was standing, but looked much worse for wear as well. Their suit looked like it had been destroyed then patchily fixed up by what appeared to be Sero’s tape. “He’s running to get help, but the other students were scattered throughout the facility.”

“Okay,” Aizawa said. “ETA?”

“Three minutes or so,” Thirteen said. 

“So he’ll be here soon,” Satou said, puffing out a relieved breath. “The teachers are on their way!” 

“That means Recovery Girl, so you'll be fine,” Ashido said reassuringly to Izuku, her voice surprisingly gentle.

“And look! All Might’s back in the game!” Uraraka said, pointing to him. 

Izuku glanced down to see All Might whooshing from zone to zone in the blink of an eye. Suddenly, with another burst of wind, All Might skidded to a halt on the stairs, dropping off another set of students. Mineta, Asui, Yaoyorozu, Kaminari, and Jirou were all quickly put down on the stairs. “So fast… kero…” Asui said. 

“Yeah, I’m dizzy,” Jirou agreed. 

Izuku grinned at the amazing display of All Might’s power. But still… something was off. Steam was pouring off of All Might in droves, showering everyone around in a strange mist. “Conflagration, mountain, and shipwreck zones cleared!” All Might said quickly. “Got to go, sorry!” 

Once he said that, All Might leapt up over to the conflagration zone. He landed right beneath a body-shaped hole in the roof (had he shot the Nomu through the roof?? Izuku hadn't been paying attention) that Izuku hadn’t noticed before. 

Then, All Might quickly jumped up through the hole in the roof. With that, he had vanished. 

“Did… did All Might just leave?” Sero asked. The students murmured in worry and confusion. 

“He’s… getting the teachers here faster,” Aizawa grumbled, lying. 

“Well, that makes sense, I guess,” Shoji said.

He ran out of time… Izuku thought, resisting the urge to facepalm. He must have literally been falling apart at the seams…

“Oh but look, the villains are leaving too!” Uraraka said. 

Shigaraki and Kurogiri, along with a few other villains that had been located near the center, vanished into Kurogiri’s portals. Unfortunately, most of the villains were still left behind, and the ones that were conscious (aka hadn't been knocked out by All Might's rampage) looked infuriated at the fact they'd been abandoned. 

“Er. Well, some of them left at least!” Uraraka said, trying to be cheerful. “And look over there! It’s Bakugou and Kirishima and Todoroki! They’re all coming our way!” 

[ALERT! Emergency Quest has been completed! Collect rewards?] 

[ALERT! Emergency Bonus Quest 1 has been completed! Collect rewards?]

[ALERT! Emergency Bonus Quest 2 Failed]

Izuku sighed and closed his eyes. 

Well, at least that’s over, he thought. 

Chapter Text

Aizawa went to check on the last zone that hadn’t been cleared, while Thirteen (still pretty beat up) stayed back to protect the rest of the students. Minutes later, Aizawa arrived back at the staircase with the last students who had been missing just as the teachers (accompanied by a harried Yagi, who must have met with them outside) broke through the door. 

Even though the teachers were technically too late to rescue anyone, Izuku was still relieved to see them. And they still probably had a lot of work to do, with all those villains to arrest. 

The teachers looked horrified at Izuku’s blood-soaked condition and were quick to start applying first aid to his leg. The ambulance arrived moments later, and Izuku was loaded into it immediately. Izuku hissed angrily as he was placed into the ambulance. The paramedics quickly hooked him up to monitors and poked an IV into the crook of his elbow as Midnight stood just outside. 

After receiving a nod from a paramedic, Midnight leaned over and released a small amount of purple gas right in front of Izuku’s face. Once he breathed it in, Izuku started feeling incredibly sleepy. Oh, Somnambulist… they’re putting me to sleep… 

After one last yawn, Izuku fell unconscious. 

“I can’t believe our plan failed!” Shigaraki grumbled. “It’s so frustrating. I thought we’d beat All Might for sure this time. What a waste.”

“Unfortunate, but not a waste,” All for One said. “We gathered plenty of information about UA, about both their defense systems and their students. You saw a few up close, did you not? Did you find any of them interesting?” 

Shigaraki considered the question for a moment. “Well, there was one,” Shigaraki said. “He had a regeneration quirk, just like Nomu.” 

“Was it powerful?” All for One asked. 

Shigaraki shook his head. “No… I don’t think so. At least, not as powerful as Nomu’s. It took a while to kick in and only healed him partway.” 

“Not very useful, then,” All for One said. He sounded disappointed, which made Shigaraki feel a bit defensive. “Maybe not, but…” 

He thought back to what the kid had said. ‘Twelve stat points to vitality!’ 

Does his quirk have to do with games, or was he just copying the way I was talking about video games with Kurogiri?  Shigaraki was unsure, and dare he say it, curious. 

“... I think he liked games, too,” Shigaraki said. 

All for One gave a soft huff, but one edged with enough annoyance to be a warning. “Don’t let your common interest make you forget that he’s a hero brat,” All for One said. 

Shigaraki tried not to roll his eyes. “Of course not, he’s annoying! I just want to kill him even more now. Nobody likes a copycat,” he insisted. 

“Good,” All for One said. “All in due time. If you want him dead, he will die soon enough.” 

Nedzu cackled with joy as he flipped through his profile of Dr. Tsubasa, completely ready to tear him to pieces. The person they’d found was definitely Kyudai Garaki, all right. They’d finally found him. 

Tonight’s the night, he thought, placing his profile down. All the pieces were in place for the raid on his office, where Nedzu was sure he would be working come 6PM. 

His work phone rang. Nedzu picked it up. “Hello?”

“It’s Yagi,” the voice rasped. 

Nedzu furrowed his brow at the rasp in his voice. Had Yagi gotten caught up at the scene of a fire? That couldn’t be good for his lungs--

“The USJ was attacked,” Yagi said. “By villains. Backup and ambulances have already arrived. I haven’t been able to call--I was trying to help--” 

“What?!” Nedzu sat straight up in his seat. “The defense systems--?” 

“Deactivated, we don’t know how,” Yagi said. “We think it was a quirk.”

“Any casualties?” Nedzu said, gripping the phone. 

“Thirteen and Aizawa are both injured, but stable. They’re expected to survive. Only one student was injured, but it was bad. Midoriya,” Yagi said. 

Nedzu dropped his reports about Tsubasa back on his desk. “I’d better get back to UA,” he said, the words tasting like ash. 

Izuku woke up slowly to a beeping monitor. “Huh?” he asked, rubbing bleary eyes. 

“Ah, you’re awake,” someone said, and Izuku opened his eyes to see Recovery Girl, the famous healer of UA. 

“Recovery Girl,” he said, propping himself up with the arm that wasn’t covered in bandages. He wondered if it would be awkward to ask her for an autograph right now. He hadn't had time to get one from her after the battle trials. 

“How are you feeling? How are your pain levels?” she said. 

Izuku took a moment to think. “Um, my arm and leg hurt, but not nearly as badly as before,” he said. Now, the throbbing pain was distant, barely a consideration. “I actually think I’m sort of okay.”

She smiled. “That’s good. Your newest dose of pain medication should be kicking in right about now, so that’s good to hear.”

“How long was I asleep?” Izuku couldn’t help but ask. He resisted a yawn. He knew he’d just woken up, but he already felt exhausted, like he’d just run a marathon. Had his injuries caught up to him? Maybe Recovery Girl had used her quirk on him. 

“Around a day,” Recovery Girl said. “Once they managed to patch up your injuries and get you stabilized, you were transferred here, so I could heal you with my quirk. I’m waiting for you to recover your stamina so I can heal you more.” 

“Oh,” Izuku said. “That’s not so bad. A day’s not that long…” 

“Would you feel up to eating?” Recovery Girl asked. “Gaining your strength back will help me heal you sooner. Feel free to tell me if you don’t feel up to it, though.” 

Izuku thought about it. He wasn’t hungry, exactly, but he wasn’t opposed to the idea of eating. “Yeah, sure,” he agreed, rubbing his eyes tiredly. “Let’s do that. Then I’m gonna sleep again.”

“Sounds like a good plan, dear,” she said. “I’ll be right back. Press the call button if you need me while I’m gone.” 

Recovery Girl left the room, probably going to get him some food. Once the door shut, Izuku muttered to himself, “Profile.” 

Midoriya Izuku -- Lvl. 17 -- Age: 15

HP: 162/280

Exhaustion: 518/1400

Title: Quick Study

Quirk: The Gamer

[Stats][Skills][Inventory][Relationships][Questlog][Spells]

Izuku’s attention was immediately drawn to the new Spells category that had been added to his profile. “Spells,” he said. 

Spellcasting, Heart Magic

LOCKED until INT is above 50. 

Izuku grimaced. Quick Study must have boosted his INT just enough to put him above fifty and unlock spellcasting. Unfortunately, since he wasn’t in danger any longer, Quick Study was no longer active. He was going to have to do something about that later.  

“Collect rewards,” Izuku said. “Collect bonus quest rewards.” 

  Emergency Quest Complete! 

Rewards: +10 stat points, +1000 XP

Emergency Bonus Quest 1 Complete! 

Rewards [Hidden]: Stealth Skill (Lvl. 1) 

Izuku mumbled “skill list” and looked to the bottom to look at the stealth skill’s description. Stealth [Lvl. 1]: Actively using stealth makes you very difficult to find, even in well-lit places. The higher the level, the greater the effect.

Well, he supposed that wasn’t too bad. It would be cool to be super stealthy in well-lit places of course, but he couldn’t help but wish he’d gotten the skill sooner. Like when he was sneaking around the USJ. 

I wonder if my quirk gives me skills that would have been useful for doing the quest, Izuku thought. I mean, I got ‘detect enemies’ from the quest where I almost died to that villain… and knowing he was coming probably would have let me escape.  

That was… really annoying, but that theory might be correct. Izuku decided he’d keep it in mind and see what other skills he got in the future. 

Izuku was tempted to add more stat points to intelligence so he could see if he could re-unlock his magic right away, but… well, he was exhausted right now. He needed a break, and some time to think before he did anything else with his quirk. 

“I’m back,” Recovery Girl said, and this time, she had a bowl full of soup. Izuku took the soup from her hands and started eating. 

And once he did, Izuku realized just how hungry he was. Soon enough, he was slurping down the noodles quickly, with little regard to how he looked as he was eating. 

“Fascinating,” Recovery Girl said, a curious quality to her voice. 

Izuku paused, looking up from his soup. 

“Your cut… it healed. What was your quirk again?” Recovery Girl asked.

Izuku froze, quickly swallowing the rest of the noodles he had left in his mouth. This soup must be a healing item… one that’s apparently really good! Most aren’t good enough to actually visibly heal me… 

 “Um,” Izuku said, unsure of what he could say in this situation. “It doesn’t matter.” 

“In this situation, I may have to disagree,” a voice from the door said. Izuku glanced over at the door only to see Nedzu, standing in the doorway. He was accompanied by a tall man in an overcoat.

“Ah… I was about to say I brought Nedzu and the police detective here, since you were awake,” Recovery Girl said, shrugging apologetically. 

“Even though your quirk is Analysis, you can regenerate as well?” Nedzu said. He gave the man in the overcoat an odd glance. “After all, we know it isn’t possible for a person to have more than one quirk.”

“Well,” Izuku said. “There was that weird monster. That had multiple quirks, so, uh… it is possible, technically…”

“Yes,” Nedzu said. His expression was difficult to read. “There is that, isn’t there?” 

There was a long moment of silence. 

“Well,” Izuku grasped at straws, “It’s not like you aren’t keeping secrets too! I bet you know what the tags on those quirks mean and just won’t tell me. I saw two more people with them at the USJ.” Izuku crossed his arms defensively. 

Nedzu frowned at that. “Midoriya…” 

“We’re just worried about you,” the police detective intervened. “Considering that the only other creature we know has multiple quirks is that creature, we’re worried about your safety.”

Izuku puffed out an upset sigh. “Well, I’m not involved in any of that, so there’s no need to worry.”

“True,” the man said. Wait, how does he know? 

Izuku blinked in confusion. He squinted a little closer at the man. “Observe,” he said. 

Tsukauchi Naomasa -- Lvl. 28 -- True Man

Quirk: Lie Detector

[See Stats & Skills]

“You can detect lies,” Izuku realized. “So you know I’m telling the truth.” 

“So, if you’re not involved with… that, then how?” Nedzu asked, now looking confused. 

“Well it’s not really multiple quirks,” Izuku said, feeling like he had to explain a little bit. “It’s just one quirk. A really complicated quirk, but only one all the same.” 

“That’s also true,” Tsukauchi said. “But if that’s true, then what quirk involves both regeneration and telling people’s quirks at the same time?” 

Now, rather than looking all serious, Tsukauchi frankly looked a bit baffled. 

But Izuku was still panicking. Because he didn’t know how to explain this. 

Do I really want to tell them? I mean… this guy will know I’m being truthful, but my quirk is incredibly unbelievable. Sure, I can explain the basics of the Gamer, but then how do I explain the spells that I’m going to learn? The game-screen? The healing items? The titles, the quests? All of those feel so… random, so out-of-bounds of a regular quirk it feels ridiculous even thinking about it. If I was truthful, would they think I’m delusional? 

And… 

I don’t know if I can trust these people yet. It’s only been a few days. What if Nedzu turns out to like my previous high school principal? If that’s the case, telling him what my ace is could put me at a serious disadvantage. Plus, I don’t know if I can trust this Tsukauchi guy… 

Izuku really wanted to lie. But Tsukauchi would know it immediately, and he couldn’t think fast enough to come up with one of those technically true but misleading statements that would let him work around Tsukauchi’s quirk. “It’s none of your business,” Izuku mumbled, averting his eyes. 

Nedzu sighed. “We need to know.” 

"No," Izuku said stubbornly. 

"Please?" Tsukauchi tried. 

"...No," Izuku answered again. His skin was burning red hot, half embarrassment and half fear, but he wasn't going to back down now that he'd decided not to tell them. 

“You two,” Recovery Girl said. “You promised me this wouldn’t turn into an interrogation. And yet here we are."

“But he can regenerate!” Tsukauchi said, gesturing to Izuku broadly. "That... should not be possible." 

“That’s true, but he's said he only has one quirk, and you can confirm it, so it’s not going to end up being what you’re worried about,” Recovery Girl said, placing a strange emphasis on that phrase, as if alluding to something special. “It’s clearly just an unusual quirk and he’s not ready to tell you right now. My patient needs rest. Come back later.” 

“I understand,” Nedzu said. “But one last question. Midoriya, does Garaki know the full extent of your quirk?” 

“No, he doesn’t. I lied to him about it,” Izuku said. 

Tsukauchi gave a nod to Nedzu. “That’s also true.” 

“Good,” Nedzu said. 

“Now shoo,” Recovery Girl said. “We can handle this later.” 

As the two shuffled out of the door on her orders, Recovery Girl kissed Izuku lightly on the forehead, quirk going into effect. Already being slightly tired, Izuku fell asleep instantly, despite his incredible anxiousness over the situation. 

Recovery Girl was tired. Between having to heal Aizawa, Thirteen, and Midoriya, wrangling Yagi into an appointment, and dealing with Nedzu, she was honestly having something of a long few days. 

Midoriya had been her easiest patient, because despite his severe injuries, he was in no danger of dying, and only woke up to drink soup and drop bombshells about his quirk. He seemed like a sweet kid, and Recovery Girl felt a little bad he’d been injured so badly. 

Yagi, on the other hand, was a terrible patient. He’d spent a significant amount of time in the conflagration zone when he only had one lung! And then he hadn’t come in! What an imbecile. He was lucky that the USJ’s conflagration zone was made out of a material that produced non-toxic smoke, otherwise he might have suffered permanent injury from smoke inhalation. 

So, he was fine. But that was 50% only because he got medical right after on Recovery Girl’s insistence, and Recovery Girl was still a little mad at him. She had one job. And yet nobody would ever let her do it! 

And then of course she was having this conversation with Nedzu, who seemed much more high-strung than usual, which was kind of concerning. 

“So… why do you need Midoriya’s medical records again?” Recovery Girl asked, resisting the urge to sigh. 

“All for One’s right hand man in quirk experimentation was his quirk doctor!” Nedzu said. “And now we learn he can regenerate, just like the Nomu, who, by the way, were probably created by Kyudai. Sure, he said that he only had one quirk, but what if it only came up as a truth because that’s what he believes? What if he thinks he only has one quirk, but in reality he's received an additional quirk just like the Nomu?” 

“If Kyudai did do something to Midoriya, do you think he’d just put it down on his medical records?” Recovery Girl asked, unimpressed. 

“I want to look for red flags, signs that something went wrong,” Nedzu said. “The medical record will help me understand the situation better.” 

“It’s not just you being nosy, or because you’re upset Midoriya wouldn’t tell you the truth?” Recovery Girl asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“No,” Nedzu snapped, looking mildly offended. “I am worried about student safety.” 

“Alright, if you’re sure,” Recovery Girl said. “Then I'll fetch them for you later.”

Nedzu sighed. “Thank you.” He sat down in one of the plastic chairs in the waiting room, sighing. 

“You don’t seem to be doing very well,” Recovery Girl noted. “You look stressed.” 

“There’s just a lot going on right now,” Nedzu said. “All for One might be back. Who knows what’s going on with Midoriya. I don’t think he trusts me. He accused me of keeping secrets because I wouldn’t tell him what those ‘tags’ meant, but I can't tell him. If he knows, he’ll discover the truth behind One for All,” Nedzu sighed. "That's too big of a secret for him." 

Recovery Girl nodded. “I’d tell you to take a break, but..”

“I’ve got to smooth over the aftermath of the USJ, and figure out what’s going on with Midoriya,” Nedzu answered. He stood up and stretched. “When do you estimate Midoriya will wake up again?”

“He’ll probably wake up again tomorrow. He’ll likely be ready to debrief about his experience soon,” Recovery Girl said. “I’ll have his medical files on your desk by tonight.” 

“Thank you,” Nedzu said, nodding. 

“On the bright side,” Recovery Girl said. “Midoriya was quite close to the leaders, from what I hear. It’s possible he’ll remember their names and quirks--their real names. He might be quite the asset when it comes to catching the criminals.” 

Nedzu smiled, eyes gleaming. “I quite hope so! That would make things much easier.” 

With a quick wave, Nedzu left her office. 

Chapter Text

Izuku woke up again feeling warm and cozy. With a big yawn, he sat up in bed, before abruptly remembering he was in the infirmary because two of his limbs got chomped by an alligator. His arm and leg didn’t hurt at all, though. 

After quickly opening his profile, Izuku confirmed his HP was full and that his exhaustion was nearly back down to zero. Both good things. It looked like he’d been fully healed now, thankfully. “Stats,” he muttered. 

VIT: 28, STR: 18, DEX: 20, INT: 43, WIS: 45, CHA: 22

Unallotted Stat Points: 10

Ten new stat points… 

If he put seven points into INT to get back to fifty so he could unlock spellcasting, then he’d have three extra stat points to do what he wanted with. Maybe they could go into VIT? Or he could just save them? 

He decided that he would wait until the end of the day before he put his stats back in order. While he didn’t think he’d get any new quests, things weren’t exactly back to usual yet, so it was possible a new quest would pop up that would change things. 

Izuku, now remembering the events of the previous day (night?) quickly buried his head in his hands and groaned. What was he supposed to say now? He’d probably looked so suspicious! He didn’t mean to, he’d just… froze. He hadn’t been sure what to say. 

Well, at least now he had some time to think about it. 

Well, I can’t just tell them nothing… 

Maybe I need to tell them a half-truth? Like an interim truth until I know them better? But what half-truth would be both believable and something he could defend to Tsukauchi, who knew if he was telling the truth? 

And, of course, the best lie wouldn’t just explain his regeneration and Analysis, but would also explain other aspects of The Gamer as well, like spellcasting, in case he needed to use those too. 

Part of a plan started to form. 

The door creaked open. Recovery Girl again. “Ah, you’re awake again. How are you feeling?”

“Good!” Izuku said. “Basically healed.” 

Recovery Girl ran him through a few post-injury questions and tests, most of them checking the functions of his arm and leg. They both looked fully healed, and Izuku didn’t have any problems with mobility. “No scars, though I would have expected there to be some,” Recovery Girl said, noting it down on her chart. “Though that might be part of your mystery-quirk, eh?” 

Izuku flushed bright red. 

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Recovery Girl advised. “Registering a quirk is technically the responsibility of the quirk physician, so it’s not like you're really in trouble. But you are going to need to tell them, there’s no getting around that.” 

“I get it,” Izuku said, frowning. 

“Don’t look so down,” Recovery Girl said, lightly chastising. “Telling them shouldn’t be too big of a burden. They’re your teachers. They’ll do what’s best for you.” 

Maybe it was true, but it was the wrong thing to say. Izuku had heard that before, but it never actually ended up applying to him, only to other kids. Her words just solidified Izuku’s resolve to go forward with his alternate plan. “Okay,” Izuku said. “What should I do now?”

“We have some regular clothes for you to change into,” Recovery Girl said. “And Lunch Rush will get you something to eat. Meanwhile, we’ll call your parents. You’ll need to talk to the police at some point, too, but that doesn’t have to be today.” 

Izuku nodded. “Okay. So… I’ll just go change?” He was in hospital gowns right now, which made some sense considering the likely state of his blood-soaked outfit. Ah, I’ll have to get a new costume then. It was a shame that the one mom made was destroyed that way...

“I’ll call the number for your guardian in the meantime, dear,” she said. 

Izuku nodded, though a lump formed in his throat. He really didn’t want Nedzu or Tsukauchi to bring up his weird regeneration in front of his mom, which meant he was going to have to enact his plan fast if he wanted to avoid that coming up during the meeting. 

He quickly changed in the bathroom, and by the time he went outside, Recovery Girl was on the phone in the corner, and while he was gone Nedzu and Tsukauchi had both arrived and sat in the waiting room. Izuku felt a brief flash of surprise with how fast they’d gotten there. Maybe Tsukauchi was already at UA for the investigation, either that or he’d been waiting for Izuku to wake up. 

Izuku gave them both an awkward look. “Ah,” he said, by way of greeting. 

“Hello, Midoriya,” Tsukauchi said, giving a wave. 

They don’t look angry, which is good. 

Hmph… I really don’t want to say anything right now, let alone anything related to the truth, but mom is on her way, so I need to make this quick if I want to finish this conversation before she gets here. 

“My quirk,” Izuku said, and both Nedzu and Tsukauchi turned to look at him. He forced himself to keep talking. “My quirk… you really have to know?” 

Nedzu just nodded. 

I’m sorry I can’t tell you everything right now, Izuku thought. I’ll ease you in. If you really deserve to know the truth, I’ll tell you the rest later. 

“I get a new ability every time I almost die,” Izuku said. 

“True, ” Tsukauchi said.

And it was. Emergency quests always showed up whenever he was in life-threatening danger, and they always came with new titles and new skills! Therefore, he got all sorts of new abilities whenever he almost died, making his statement true. 

And of course, as a bonus, this meant he could justify almost any new ability so long as he said that he almost died getting it. 

“It’s part of my quirk,” Izuku said, truthfully. “I’ve almost died multiple times now. I have lots of abilities, but technically speaking I only have one quirk.”

Tsukauchi nodded in confirmation. At that, Nedzu’s face changed from seriousness into what looked like understanding and relief. “A quirk that gives you new powers after every near-death experience… Midoriya, what abilities do you have right now?”

“Um, I can tell someone’s name and quirk, plus the intelligence boost, which is what I have registered as Analysis,” Izuku said. “I can also regenerate. I’m also resistant to acids and poisons and stuff.” 

“So the amount of near death experiences you’ve had… ” Tsukauchi started. 

“Three,” Izuku said. “Almost getting killed by that slime villain before All Might saved me, almost dying because of toxic gas, and then at the USJ.” 

“I imagine the Poison Resistance corresponds with the toxic gas,” Nedzu murmured. 

“It does,” Izuku said. “After surviving that attack, I could resist poison.” 

“Attack?” Tsukauchi said, frowning. “It wasn’t an accident?” 

“Well. Um. I mean, it was sort of an accident. I mean, like, they meant to attack me, but the part with toxic gas where I almost died was not on purpose,” Izuku rushed to explain, mostly telling the truth because of Tsukauchi’s Lie-Detector. 

“...Huh,” Tsukauchi said. “Do you… want to elaborate on that?”

“Not really,” Izuku said, also truthfully. 

“So Analysis after the slime villain, and regeneration with the USJ attack,” Nedzu murmured to himself. “Interesting.” 

“We’ll have to update his quirk registry,” Recovery Girl said, setting down her phone. “His mother’s on her way, just so you know.” 

“Good,” Nedzu said, nodding. “But I’m not so sure about the quirk registry part. At least not right away.” 

“Wait,” Izuku said. “We don’t update my quirk registry?” 

“I’ll explain my reasoning,” Nedzu said. “Firstly, you need to know that your quirk physician was arrested around six PM last night.”

“What?” Izuku said. “Wait, why did he get arrested?” 

Nedzu grimaced. “He was involved in quirk experimentation.”

Izuku felt his stomach drop. Experimenting on humans was highly illegal, of course, but since animals so rarely manifested quirks… well, the law didn’t stop some. “So why does that stop me from getting my quirk registered?”

“We arrested him, but not everyone he was working with,” Nedzu explained. “We’re worried he might have mentioned you. If you come out with a new and interesting quirk, I’m worried you might attract negative attention from his… colleagues.” 

“Oh,” Izuku said. He felt a little bit like he’d had ice dumped over his head. “So that’s why you wanted to know if I told him everything about my quirk earlier. Was it good that I lied to him?” 

“Quite so, it was a very wise decision-” Nedzu started, but after receiving a stern glare from Recovery Girl, quickly added, “-not that I approve of lying to medical professionals!” 

Izuku’s regret over lying about his quirk began to slowly evaporate. So it’s a good thing that I’m not telling people, he thought. I’ve run into at least one person who was really dangerous in the past who I risked telling. I mean, I still feel bad about hiding it from these people, but… less bad. 

“We might want to wait a little bit until we’ve caught the people he was working with, or at least until things settle down a little,” Nedzu said. 

Tsukauchi gave a considering but skeptical hum. “I agree, but I would recommend registering it by the end of this semester,” Tsukauchi said. “You’re supposed to document any major changes in your quirk fairly soon. Within half a year is reasonable, but any longer than that and it would be my duty as a police officer to say something.” 

“Okay, then,” Izuku said, since Tsukauchi and Nedzu’s opinions on the subject both sounded pretty reasonable. “We can register it when the semester ends.” 

“Alright,” Recovery Girl said, shrugging. “At least we’ve got that figured out.” 

Looks like it worked! Now, if I almost die again, I can just say I manifested spells from that! I mean, I’d have to almost die again, but still… 

“That’s certainly unique,” Tsukauchi said. 

Nedzu checked something on his phone, then said, “Ah, Midoriya, your mother is here! I’m going to go let her in.” 

“Sure,” Tsukauchi said. “Midoriya, want to come with me to the meeting room?”

“Oh! Wait, one last question,” Izuku said. “Nedzu, what kind of soup did I have?”

“Lunch Rush made it! Why?” Nedzu said. 

“It made me regenerate a lot,” Izuku said. “I was just wondering.” 

“Ah, interesting,” Nedzu said. “That could be helpful if you’re injured in the future.” 

Izuku agreed with that assessment. He’d never had any problem with being healed so highly by soup before, only ever vegetables, so it hadn’t even crossed his mind to worry that it was a problem. Just his luck he’d get weirdly effective soup. 

Maybe Lunch Rush was just especially good at making it? Now that he thought of it, he was keen to use Observe on the soup at some point in the future. 

 “Okay,” Izuku said. “I’ll come.” With Izuku’s question answered, the group split up. He said good-bye to Recovery Girl on the way out, Nedzu went towards the school’s entrance, and Tsukauchi escorted him through the halls. 

“So, Midoriya,” Tsukauchi said. “I actually wanted to ask you something too.” 

Izuku swallowed, a bit nervous. “What?” 

“Did you tell me everything about your quirk?” Tsukauchi asked. 

“Um-” think fast, Izuku, “Everything you need to know,” Izuku said, nodding and trying to sound confident. 

Tsukauchi, though, having years of experience of people trying to dodge his questions, didn’t fall for it.“‘Everything I need to know’ is not the same as everything,” Tsukauchi said. 

There was a brief silence. 

“I did tell you the truth,” Izuku said, after a few moments, trying to suppress the maw of fear opening up in his belly. “There’s just a little more to my quirk than I said! I figured I’d go in steps. Start with some of what my quirk does, and tell you more about the rest later. That way you’d actually believe me!” 

“Hm. I understand your reasoning,” Tsukauchi said. “But it wasn’t a very good idea. What if Nedzu and I had wanted to register your quirk right away? We’d have registered it wrong.” 

“I could have changed it later,” Izuku said. “People update their registries all the time.” 

“Most registry staff only accept one or two major changes after initial registration,” Tsukauchi said. “You would have gotten a little more freedom with it, since your quirk physician was arrested for malpractice, but it’s still an unnecessary risk. What if you’d been stuck with the wrong quirk description?” 

Izuku fumbled a little over his words. What Tsukauchi said was a legitimate point, but Izuku still strongly believed that he’d done the right thing to protect himself. “Well, maybe,” Izuku admitted. “But it was still the right thing to do. My quirk physician was experimenting on people and I was probably next,” Izuku said. “What would have happened if he knew what my quirk actually was?” 

Tsukauchi frowned deeply. “I suppose, but that shouldn’t have happened. The likelihood of your doctor being a serial killer… is normally very low.” 

“It still happened,” Izuku muttered. “Sometimes secrecy is the best option if you’re not sure it’s safe to tell someone. And I’m not sure.” 

Tsukauchi sighed at that. “Tell you what,” he said. “Keep your secrets for now. But…” He dug through his pocket and handed Izuku a business card, one embossed with Tsukauchi’s number. “For when you realize it’s safe to tell. If you ever want to tell the truth, call me, and I’ll back you up.” 

[ALERT: HEROICS QUEST ACTIVATION!]

Heroics Quest: Test of Truth

• Goal: Tell Nedzu and Tsukauchi the truth about The Gamer

REWARDS: +3000XP, Title “Lion-Heart” 

[Alert! This quest has a time limit!] 

Time Remaining: 4 months, 3 weeks, 1 day

Izuku had never encountered a time limit in his quirk before, but he could guess what it meant in this scenario. The time limit is the end of the semester, Izuku thought. The quest wants me to tell Nedzu and Tsukauchi the truth before then. Before my quirk gets registered. 

“I…” Izuku looked up at Tsukauchi, still caught off-guard by the quest. “Thank you.” 

“I’ll be waiting,” Tsukauchi said, with a simple nod. 

Izuku had a lot to think about. Both the quest, and what Tsukauchi had said. 

The two arrived at a small meeting room not long after. 

Already sitting at the table were Aizwa and another man, whose head was a cat and who was dressed in a police uniform. His name tag said Sansa, and Izuku guessed this was one of the police officers he was going to be talking to. 

Aizawa drew his attention more than Sansa, though, because Aizwa looked different than what he normally did. His hair, rather than being long like it had before, was now chopped short, not even long enough to reach his ears. He probably had been forced to get it cut after the conflagration zone set it on fire. Underneath his capture weapon, Izuku could see white bandages layered on his neck, probably from the burns. His hands, though without bandages, had pale white burn scars running across his palms. 

Izuku wasn’t happy to see the scars, but the ones on his hands weren’t too noticeable at least, and Aizawa seemed well overall. 

“It’s good to see you, Aizawa-sensei,” Izuku said. “I’m glad you’re okay.” 

Aizawa nodded in response. “I’m fine.” 

The door behind them opened, revealing Nedzu and his mom, Inko. 

“Oh, you’re okay!” she said, rushing over and squeezing him in a hug. “I was so worried about you when I’d heard--villains attacking?! It just seems unbelievable--” 

“I’m fine, mom!” Izuku said. “Recovery Girl healed me pretty fast! You just had to wait for me to be done sleeping.” 

“I’m glad you’re done sleeping now,” she said, inconspicuously wiping away unshed tears. “So what was everyone saying about questioning?” 

“A few of the perpetrators escaped,” Nedzu explained. “We were hoping he would be willing to talk with our police detective and tell us about what happened, so we have more information to go off of. Considering your son’s quirk…” 

“I see,” Inko said. “Izuku, are you feeling up to it? We could always wait.”

“No, let’s do this now,” Izuku said. “I’m ready.” Best to get it over with.

“Would that be fine with you, Ms. Midoriya?” Nedzu asked. 

“Yes, I believe it would,” she said, sitting down at the meeting chairs. Nedzu and Tskauchi followed suit, sitting down in meeting chairs next to Aizawa and Sansa. 

“Alright, let’s start then,” Tsukauchi said. “Midoriya, can you explain to me what happened after the villains arrived?”

The first part of his explanation went pretty well. Sort of. While he tried to downplay it, Izuku did have to admit going towards the center to get a look at the leaders of the attack. His mother was horrified, which made him feel bad, and Aizawa actually looked a little upset too. 

“What part of stay put and hide did you not understand?” he asked, exasperated. 

“Um,” Izuku said. “Sorry? I was mostly trying to go towards the entrance and since it was… on the way… ” 

Aizawa gave him a look that said we’ll be talking about this later. 

Midoriya did not want to talk about this later. 

“Midoriya,” Tsukauchi said, graciously intervening on his behalf, “So when you got closer, did you notice the leaders' names and quirks?”

“I did, actually,” Izuku said. 

At that, Aizawa’s eyes widened slightly, while Nedzu simply broke into a grin. 

“So who were they?” Tsukauchi asked.

“So you know the one who was ordering everyone around, he had a hand on his face?” Izuku said. “I got two names from him, Shigaraki Tomura and Shimura Tenko. I think one of them might have been an alias. His quirk was called Decay.” 

Something strange happened while Izuku explained this. While Sansa and Aizawa didn't react, upon hearing the name Shimura Tenko, Tsukauchi and Nedzu exchanged a strange glance.

“Do you think it’s related to--” Tsukauchi asked Nedzu. 

“I don’t know,” Nedzu said. “We’ll have to come back to it later.” 

“Do you know who he is?” Izuku asked, frowning. 

“Ah, one of the last names is familiar, but it may simply be a coincidence,” Nedzu said. “Continue. Did you get any other names?” 

“The second guy standing right next to him,” Izuku said. “The mist villain who could teleport.”

Tsukauchi said perked up a little. “We were struggling to find someone with a quirk like his in the Database. His name would be very useful.” 

“But there was something else about him," Izuku explained. "The Analysis part of my quirk also lets me see if someone is under quirk effects.I didn’t know about that for a while… since I haven’t really seen many people under the effects of quirks, but I could tell this guy was definitely affected by them.” 

“What quirks?” Tsukauchi asked, dutifully noting down what Izuku was saying. 

“Mind-weakening, control, brainwashing,” Izuku said. “And one other. I forget the last one, but it was definitely four mind control related quirks. I don’t think he did this willingly.” 

“Interesting,” Nedzu said to himself. “I suppose… with a quirk so versatile… yes, I can see these villains wanting to recruit him… what was his name and quirk?”

“His quirk was Warp Gate, but I got two names from him too,” Izuku said. “Kurogiri, and Shirakumo Oboro.” 

"I see," Tsukauchi said, obliviously writing that down, but the moment those words came out of Izuku's mouth, Aizawa's face twisted, and Nedzu's posture suddenly grew stiff. Neither of them spoke, but something was wrong. 

“Um… did I say anything wrong?” Izuku asked in the face of their silence. 

“Midoriya,” Aizawa said. “If this is some kind of joke, it isn’t appreciated.” 

“I’m not joking,” Izuku said.  

“Midoriya, I just said it wasn’t funny,” Aizawa said. 

“I’m serious, his name was Oboro!” Izuku said, a bit desperate. 

“Shirakumo Oboro is dead!” Aizawa snapped, voice just short of a shout. His hands trembled, and his eyes blazed with fury.  

For another moment, no one spoke. 

“Aizawa,” Nedzu said quietly. “Take a walk.” 

Aizawa swallowed, and gave a quick nod. He left the room brusquely.

Dread formed in Izuku's stomach as Aizawa left.  

“...What was that about?” Midoriya Inko wondered aloud, and Izuku couldn’t help but wonder too. 

“Shirakumo Oboro was someone he used to know,” Nedzu said, lips twitching downward.

Izuku abruptly remembered that Aizawa had said Shirakumo was dead, and that Nedzu had not contradicted him. Had he thought Izuku was taking part in some kind of morbid prank?

“M-maybe it’s a different Shirakumo!” Izuku said quickly. “Or it might just be an alias, so maybe he went by Shirakumo at some point, but he’s not actually him!”

“All those things are possible,” Nedzu said. “But do not worry. We’ll find Kurogiri and get the truth--and hopefully rescue and rehabilitate if possible, considering what you said about him being trapped under mind control.” 

Izuku nodded, thankful. He glanced back at his mom to check her reaction. Part of him expected her to be perturbed by Aizawa’s strange behavior, but she seemed to be brushing it off quite well. Izuku probably should have anticipated that. While most of his teachers had been at least polite, he’d had a few act much angrier than that at him for less. It wasn't exactly new for his mom, really. 

“Is he going to be upset with me for bringing up that name?” Izuku asked. 

Nedzu shook his head. “No. I imagine he’ll be much more upset with the villains impersonating Shirakumo than you,” Nedzu said.

"Ah... alright," Izuku said. 

"Did you get any other names?" Tsukauchi said. 

"The guy with the alligator quirk who bit my arm was called Taniguchi, but besides that, no," Izuku said, and the interrogation moved on.

He could have been lying, but... no. Tsukauchi didn't even blink. He immediately agreed with Midoriya's assessment, meaning he really did see the name Shirakumo Oboro.

Aizawa sat at a desk, thinking, staring into space. 

What could that mean? 

"Hey Shouta! Something wrong? You look down!" Hizashi asked, with a beaming smile. 

"No... no, everything is fine, Hizashi," Aizawa murmured. "Just fine." 

Chapter Text

When Izuku arrived back at home, he was completely ready to spend the rest of the day resting. He didn’t have any school today, because it was Saturday evening. His classmates had gotten off on Friday because of Thursday’s attack, but Izuku had slept through all of that. 

He was pretty sure the rest of his questioning with the police had gone well, at least comparative to the first part. At the very least, there had been no more horrified reactions, except Nedzu giving Izuku a worried frown when Izuku explained both Kurogiri and Shigaraki’s quirks had tags. Part of Izuku wanted to press him over what that meant (since it seemed to mean something to Nedzu) but he still felt a little embarrassed about bringing it earlier when he was trying to hide his quirk earlier. 

“Oh, are you feeling okay? Do you want anything to eat?” his mom fretted. 

“I’m fine!” Izuku insisted. “Um, do you have the ingredients for katsudon?”

“I do,” his mom said, seeming relieved there was a concrete action she could take. “Why don’t I make some for dinner? It’s your favorite, isn’t it?” 

“Yeah, that would taste delicious,” Izuku said. He brought out his homework in the living room. He didn’t have anything due soon, but he wanted to work ahead for his third-year math class. His mom, though she started getting out pots and pans, didn’t take her eyes off him. 

Izuku didn’t like it when she worried, so hopefully his mom could be quickly reassured that he was fine. 

Tsukauchi clicked through the pages on the adoption registry, trying to suppress a sense of creeping unease. 

It’s got to be a coincidence, Tsukauchi thought to himself. Shimura isn’t that uncommon of a name. In all of Japan, you could probably find a few thousand Shimuras. 

Tsukauchi found what he was looking for. Kotaro Shimura, Nana’s son. 

Nana, not wanting All for One to target her family (and trying to steel herself for making the decision) had strictly forbidden All Might and Gran Torino from looking into what was going on with Kotaro. They’d both obeyed her wishes, but Tsukauchi was forced to contradict them considering this new information.

Tsukauchi quickly found what he was looking for. With the records of what family he went to, and his individual number, it wasn’t too hard to track down Kotaro and figure out what had gone on with him through the years. Employment history, marriage certificate, news articles… 

SHIMURA FAMILY MISSING; PRESUMED DEAD

Shimura Kotaro and Nao, along with their two children, have vanished from their family home, leaving behind only piles of ash as evidence. Police have struggled to find leads amidst-- 

Horrified, Tsukauchi quickly read the rest of the article, looking for more information.

He didn’t like what he found. Their son’s name was Shimura Tenko. 

It could still be a coincidence, Tsukauchi thought, but the hope fell flat. The piles of ash that had been all that was left behind of the family was frighteningly reminiscent of the way the UA gate had been reduced to dust. 

Had someone kidnapped Tenko, turned his family to dust, and then groomed him into a villain? Had that same person taken down the UA gates to facilitate his invasion of UA?

And is that person All for One, or working for him, Tsukauchi thought. That’s the most concerning question right now. 

Nana’s attempt to protect her family had failed after all. 

I can’t tell Toshinori, part of Tsukauchi thought. He would be heartbroken. 

But did All Might not deserve to know the truth? 

Wouldn’t it be better for him to think that somewhere, out there, that Nana’s family is living in peace? 

Tsukauchi shook his head. He couldn’t be thinking like this. He couldn’t justify not telling All Might just because it would be awkward or uncomfortable for him, no matter how much he wanted to. And… 

He was going to need to talk to Nedzu about this. The principal was probably already aware of the situation, though, or at the very least, he would be soon. It wouldn’t take him long to investigate the connection to Shimura. 

Tsukauchi couldn’t help but idly wonder what Nedzu would do with this information. Would he tell All Might, maybe launch some sort of investigation? Usually Nedzu liked to keep his cards close to his chest, but with a situation this serious and this personal, Tsukauchi couldn’t know for sure whether or not Nedzu would insist on telling All Might right away. 

He stilled hoped, as he dialled Nedzu’s number, that Nedzu would politely tell him he was being stupid, and that the Shimura Tenko of the USJ attack was completely separate to Nana’s grandson. That he’d been looking into it too much. 

He was not that lucky. 

After dinner, Izuku went up to his room, and decided to finally update his stats. 

I need seven more stat points to unlock spells. I’ll save the last three for later in case I need them. “Seven stat points to intelligence,” Izuku said. “Stats.” 

VIT: 28, STR: 18, DEX: 20, INT: 50, WIS: 45, CHA: 22

Unallotted Stat Points: 3

“Spells,” Izuku said. 

Spellcasting, Heart Magic

Skill Points: 28

Mana Points: 28/28

Known Spells: None

Izuku glanced at the page, a bit stumped. “Um… learn spells?” he said. Nothing popped up, and Izuku was beginning to regret skipping that tutorial now, even if the situation had been a crisis. “Magic instructions?” he tried. “Explanation, magic.”

That seemed to do the trick. 

Using the Spell Skill Tree. Say “spell skill tree” aloud to look at the spells you are capable of learning, but don’t know yet. You can unlock new spells using skill points. Say “unlock [name of spell]” to obtain the spell. More magic skill points can be gained by practicing known spells, or by gaining more of your source stat. To learn what an unknown spell does, say “[name of spell] description.”

Monitoring Spellcasting Progress. Say “spells” aloud on the Profile page to see your skill points, mana points, and known spells. 

Casting Spells. Say “cast [name of spell]” to cast a spell. 

Mana Points. Mana points (MP) fuel your spells. Your maximum MP can be increased by gaining more of your source stat. MP will regenerate back over time. The speed at which it does is dependent on your INT. (Current MP Regeneration Rate: 5MP/hr.) 

Additional Note. Some spells must be learned in order. Say “[name of spell] requirements” aloud to learn about prerequisites. 

As had become habit, Izuku scribbled down everything his quirk said about the topic. He didn’t want to lose any information. In particular, he paid attention to the commands: ‘spell skill tree’, ‘unlock spell’, ‘cast spell’, ‘spell requirements’, and ‘spell description’. It was a little complicated, definitely a lot more commands than he was used to, but so long as he was careful in his record-keeping he was pretty sure he would be fine.  

“Spell skill tree,” Izuku said. 

Level One: Heat (Unlock: 3 points) 

Level Two: Spark (5), Tiny Flame (5), Relieve Minor Pain (5)

Level Three: Jolt (10), Flame (10), Relieve Pain (10), Inflict Pain (10)

Level Four: Zap (20), Fireball (20), Heal Minor Wound (20), Inflict Minor Wound (20) 

Level Five: Arcing Bolt (40), Fire Wall (40), Healing Flame (40), Heal Major Wound (40), Inflict Major Wound (40)

Level Six: Lightning Strike (60), Electrical Fire (60), Flame Strike (60), Healing Flames Burst (60), Minor Regeneration (60), Necrotic Touch (60) 

Level Seven: Chain Lightning (80), Firestorm (80), Cleansing Fire (80), Major Regeneration (80), Death Touch (80)

Level Eight: Invocation of the Storm (100), Phoenix’s Blessing (100), Agelessness (100)

NOTE: The user may only learn ONE of the three level 8 spells. 

Izuku blinked at the wide variety of spells. He started writing down all the names. And judging by the first spell… “It looks like the number next to them is how many skill points it takes to unlock them,” he said. He winced a little bit upon learning that. Considering he only had 28 skill points, those upper-level spells sure looked expensive. Oh well. It did say I could gather more by practicing, so I’ll just have to grind for them. And by gaining more of my source stat… actually, what’s my source stat? What does that mean? 

Izuku was considering this question, but was stopped in his tracks when he saw the level eight spell called Agelessness. Was that what he thought it was? 

“Agelessness, description,” he said. 

Agelessness: Once this spell is cast, the user of the spell stops aging, and will not suffer the negative effects of old age. 

Izuku gaped. 

If… if he managed to cast this spell, and if he got his VIT high enough, he could make himself functionally immortal, because he wouldn’t age and he would have too much HP to die. Now that was worth saving up points for. He could live for literally hundreds of years! And no one could stop him! Okay, how did he check the prerequisites again? 

“Agelessness, requirements,” Izuku said. 

Agelessness [requirements]: Heat, Relieve Minor Pain, Heal Minor Wound, Heal Major Wound, Minor Regeneration, Major Regeneration

“So I’d need to learn all those spells first,” Izuku said to himself. Quickly glancing at the spells in front of him, Izuku realized it would take well over three hundred skill points to get to Agelessness, and that was if he only ever invested skill points into the specific ones Agelessness required. 

He started mapping out the skill tree based on what requirements there were, and it quickly became apparent that it really was like a traditional skill tree, his quirk simply didn’t map out the branches for him. There were three or four main ‘pathways’. Lightning, fire, healing, and necrotic. To learn a lightning spell of level four, you’d need to learn the level three lightning spell, and to learn that you needed the level two lightning spell, and to learn that you would need to know Heat, the first level one spell. The same went for the fire spells, and the healing spells. 

As such, Izuku would need to work his way up through the lower-level spells if he ever wanted to get to the upper-level spells. Agelessness, for example, required going through seven different healing spells before you could properly get to it. 

Necrotic was a little weird, seeming to be a strange offshoot of healing. You needed to know a few lower-level healing spells to unlock death, but once you did, you could just follow the necrotic track by choosing only death spells. Not that Izuku was really keen on learning that stuff. He would much more like healing, or something cool like electricity or fire. 

Not to mention the combination spells, like Healing Flame. Izuku checked, and to learn Healing Flame, you had to know all the lower-level fire and healing spells to get it. The same thing went for Electrical Fire, a level six spell which required the user to know all the lightning and fire spells up to level five. That meant combination spells were going to be kind of complicated and expensive to get. 

The last thing Izuku found interesting was the note at the bottom. He could only learn one level eight spell? Was it because they were too powerful? That meant he would have to make a decision about them eventually, and if the other two spells were anything as tempting as Agelessness, he would have to be careful in his consideration. 

Oh well, he had time. It wasn’t exactly urgent. If he wanted to pick Agelessness, he would probably have to wait until he was like 25 to cast the spell, because human brain development ended at around age 24 and he didn’t want to accidentally stunt his growth. So he needed to wait. He also needed to do a bunch of research on each of every spell, and carefully consider where he wanted to invest his skill points. 

But first…  

All the subsequent spells required knowing Heat first, as it was the only level one spell. It was the prerequisite for literally everything. So that’s where Izuku was going to be forced to put his first points in, no matter what strategy he decided to use. And if that was the case, he might as well start now. “Unlock Heat,” Izuku said. 

[Alert! You have learned Spell: Heat!] 

“Heat description,” Izuku said. 

Heat: When this spell is cast, the user’s hands heat up and get warmer. The effect wears off in one minute or by the user’s intention. 

“Okay,” Izuku muttered. “Let’s see… cast Heat.” 

[Alert! You have gained 1 spellcasting skill point by practicing!] 

It worked instantly. His hands, which had been a little cold before, now felt comfortably warm. In awe, he pressed them to his face, but quickly pulled them away. While his hands felt nice and warm, they felt almost too hot to touch when pressed against the skin of his face. He tentatively touched his arm with his finger, and yes, his hands definitely felt very hot to his arm. Was the spell stopping his hands from burning? 

Regardless, he was definitely giving off a decent amount of heat, to the point where the spell might actually be a decent utility spell in cold areas. 

He grabbed a pencil to write this down, but stopped once he realized his hands were still very hot. Remembering the spell description (wears off in time or by user intention), he purposefully thought about his hand getting colder and it worked! The Heat spell wore off quickly, leaving his hands just as they’d been before. 

Huh, that worked… It's very convenient that Heat can be deactivated like that. But wait, if my quirk can sense my intentions, why doesn’t it just do that for everything? Why do I have to literally say ‘Observe’ or ‘Detect Enemies’ or ‘cast spell’ every time? Is it just being arbitrary or is there some reason for that? 

There was no answer from his quirk, of course. Izuku sighed. “Spells,” Izuku said.

Spellcasting, Heart Magic

Skill Points: 26

Mana Points: 27/28

Known Spells: Heat [Lvl. 1]

Hm, so it looked like Heat only took one mana point to cast. Was that true for all spells, or only for lower-level spells? 

He wasn’t sure. But, on the bright side, he had a full day ahead of him on Sunday to experiment with Heat and his new skill Stealth, as well as do in-depth research on the remaining spells he had. Which was good, because he certainly felt like he had a lot to learn. 

Nedzu gave Aizawa a look from across the room. “You should tell him.”

“I can’t,” Aizawa said. “What if we’re wrong? What if Kurogiri is just some villain, and I bring back all these horrible memories for him for nothing?” 

Nedzu was becoming increasingly sure that they weren’t wrong, between the ‘combined’ tag on Kurogiri’s quirk (cloud, when combined with a teleportation quirk or two, could have easily become that black mist) and the simple fact Midoriya hadn’t been lying about the name. He didn’t bring that up to Aizawa, though. 

“Doesn’t he deserve to know?” Nedzu asked. 

“I don’t want to hurt Hizashi,” Aizawa said. 

“You shouldn’t hide things from your husband,” Nedzu countered. “Really, we should probably tell Kayama too.” 

Aizawa grumbled at that. “Fine. I’ll tell Hizashi,” he said. “But I don’t want to drag Nemuri into it until we have more evidence.” 

Nedzu resisted the urge to sigh in relief. “Good! Tell him I’ll have more details about it in the future.” 

“You will?” Aizawa asked. “From where?”

Nedzu’s smile got a little bit stiffer. 

“Nedzu, what are you thinking?” Aizawa demanded, sensing that he was hiding something. 

“The next logical course of action-- would be to check Shirakumo’s body for tampering,” Nedzu said. He braced himself for sharp anger, and maybe even accusations of grave desecration, but instead Aizawa just shuddered and laid his head down on the table in front of him, looking defeated. 

And this is why Nedzu had wanted to tell Yamada. Aizawa had never really… gotten over Shirakumo, but even if he had, this situation would have been difficult. Emotionally burdening multiple staff members instead of one wasn’t exactly ideal, but Aizawa needed some kind of support right now, and Nedzu knew that he wasn’t going to cut it. Yamada would help. Kayama would help too, but trying to get Aizawa to share his problems with anyone was like pulling teeth. 

Aizawa sat up a little bit. “I’m--” he swallowed, trying to banish the sadness in his voice, “I’m going to go let Hizashi know.” 

“Okay,” Nedzu said. “I’ll be here if you need me.” 

“I know,” Aizawa said, and he stood up, and left the room. 

Izuku stood back and looked at his giant spell map with a grin. 

He’d looked over the description of every spell, exactly what they did, what their requirements were, and how many skill points he would need to reach them. It had taken all day, but he had it, and now he was thrilled. 

Because he had a plan. 

Chapter Text

Izuku had decided he loved magic. It was incredibly versatile. 

He’d scoured his spells, and had found some truly interesting standouts. 

There was Death Touch, which would allow him to kill someone by touching them for twenty seconds with the spell activated. Necrotic Touch was similar but a bit scaled-down, causing progressively more serious tissue necrosis the longer the spellcaster touched the person they were attacking. Chain Lightning, similarly destructive, would allow him to hit someone or something with lightning, and then shoot more lightning from the spot he’d just hit! Firestorm was just like it sounded, but if Izuku was guessing its scale correctly it had the capacity to cause massive harm and damage. 

And of course, some of the most impressive spells were the level eights. Invocation of the Storm, the lightning capstone, would allow him to imbue his being with the essence of a thunderstorm. This would give him total lightning immunity, plus the ability to fly and cast Arcing Bolt without expending any mana. Phoenix’s Blessing, the fire capstone, gave him the ability to ‘resurrect himself in the essence of ash and flame’ one time after he died, which was another grand ability. 

Izuku was a bit torn. Invocation of the Storm would give him flight, something he’d dreamed of having since he was a kid, but it seemed silly to pick it just for that when the other options were so powerful they could cheat death. Phoenix’s Blessing would be super helpful if he died unexpectedly, but it only worked once. Agelessness, on the other hand, had the potential to let him live a very extended lifespan, but it wouldn’t protect him from external threats. Whatever the case, he had plenty of time to choose.

While the idea of being immortal and living forever sounded potentially very scary, the fact that Agelessness only protected him from the effects of old age would ultimately work out in his favor on that front. If living for that long actually sucked, it wouldn’t be too much of a problem to check out of life.

Wow, that was dark. He was going to stop thinking about that now. Whatever the case, he had plenty of time to choose.

There were a few spells that caught his attention even more than the level eight spells, and these were healing spells.  

Three of them in particular were intensely interesting to Izuku.  

Minor Regeneration: When this spell is cast, it regenerates minor wounds. Suitable for healing minor loss of limb, such as fingers or toes. 

Major Regeneration: When this spell is cast, it regenerates major wounds. Suitable for healing major loss of limbs, such as arms or legs, as well as organ regeneration. 

Cleansing Flame: When this spell is cast, it creates a giant flame that heals healthy cells, but destroys unhealthy cells and pathogens. 

It would take hundreds of skill points to unlock these abilities, especially Cleansing Flame, because that spell required all the way up to level six for both fire and healing. But if he could get these, in theory he could regenerate people’s limbs back and destroy tumors! If Cleansing Flame healed healthy cells and killed unhealthy cells, then Izuku should be able to. At the very least he would be able to shoot sicknesses away with a fireball, something beyond even regeneration’s reach. 

All these healing spells appealed to Izuku deeply. 

He wanted them, a lot. 

His dream was to be a hero, of course--

--but wouldn’t he be so much of a greater hero if he could heal injured civilians? He could be just like Recovery Girl! 

He would go forward on the healing track, but since he’d also need fire to get Cleansing Flame, he’d also work on unlocking some fire spells. He still wasn’t completely sure about which level eight spell he wanted to go for, but he’d try to get ahead in healing and fire. He planned to emphasize healing the most, though, so he could get to those regeneration spells very quickly. But in the meantime, the fire spells would act as excellent self-defense, which was especially important as his offensive capabilities were low. 

“Unlock Relieve Minor Pain,” Izuku said. “Unlock Tiny Flame. Unlock Relieve Pain.” 

[Alert! You have learned Spell: Relieve Minor Pain!] 

[Alert! You have learned Spell: Tiny Flame!] 

[Alert! You have learned Spell: Relieve Pain!] 

“Spells.” 

Spellcasting, Heart Magic

Skill Points: 6

Mana Points: 28/28

Known Spells: Heat, Relieve Minor Pain, Tiny Flame, Relieve Pain

“Cast Tiny Flame,” Izuku said, and like he’d hoped, a little flame appeared in his palm. He looked at it gleefully. He’d made that fire! It was his! It was… everything he’d wished for since he was a kid, when he’d been desperately hoping some fire would manifest from his father’s quirk. 

Huh. Thinking about that made him feel a little sad. 

He willed the flame to vanish, and it did. Glancing up, he noticed that his mana had dropped from 28 to 26, meaning that the spell had cost two mana. 

“Heat only cost one mana,” Izuku pondered. “Maybe the difference is because Tiny Flame is a level two spell?” 

Regardless, he’d get his mana back soon. He had a mana regeneration rate of 5 MP/hr, so he’d get that back in no time. “Cast Tiny Flame,” Izuku said again, watching the little flame flicker to life in his hand. 

Nemuri knew that something was off. 

Shouta and Hizashi were hiding something from her. At the very least, there was something they weren’t telling her, and she could deduce that it was something bad. 

She got the sense that Shouta was crumbling from the inside out beneath that stoic facade. Muted sadness was leaking out from his expression, even when he was trying to keep a straight face. Sometimes she’d see him looking at her, eyes full of an odd melancholy she couldn’t place. He refused to tell her what was wrong. 

Hizashi wasn’t doing much better. He was trying to act cheerful all the time, but the effort was clearly exhausting him. He was probably trying to just act like himself, but watching him go through so much effort to pretend to be happy was almost painful. Towards the end of each day, he’d get very quiet, so emotionally drained he could barely carry a conversation. 

Nemuri had started looking to Nedzu for his reaction. He was very smart, so Nemuri figured maybe he would know what was wrong with them, but the only thing she figured out is that there was something wrong with him, too. Nedzu seemed unfocused, keyed up and a dose more anxious than usual. Nemuri was vaguely reminded of a bottle of soda that someone had shaken without taking the cap off. 

“Everyone seems off, don’t you think?” Nemuri said, glancing at Thirteen, who’d become an increasingly good friend to her in the past few weeks. Now, the two of them were sitting at Nemuri’s apartment for ‘post-work drinks’, though Thirteen rarely ever indulged in anything alcoholic. 

“Agreed,” Thirteen sighed, popping off the cap of a ginger beer. “Nedzu looks like he’s about to explode. I’m not sure how to tell him nicely that he should sign up for therapy.” 

“Honestly, yeah,” Nemuri said. “Do you think this was caused by the USJ attack?” 

Thirteen shrugged. “I don’t know. It started around the same time, but… if it was that, why wouldn’t they just say that they weren’t feeling great after the attack?” Thirteen said. “They’re acting awfully shifty for it being about that.” 

“Yeah, there’s no reason to hide something that we already know happened,” Nemuri said, frustrated. She took a long sip of her sake-vodka mix. “It’s been such a weird week. Is anyone else acting weird or is it just those three?”

“Well, Yagi was acting normal until this morning,” Thirteen noted. “But then he went into a meeting with Nedzu and came out acting all subdued, and didn’t cheer up for the whole day. I think he got some kind of bad news.” 

Nemuri grimaced. “Any idea if it’s the same bad news as everyone else has apparently gotten?”

“Nope,” Thirteen said. “Still a mystery to me.”

Izuku stretched, waking up to another beautiful morning. 

Well, it was beautiful, but Izuku wished he could keep sleeping because he’d had an incredibly hard time falling asleep. He’d been so excited about the spells that he’d spent most of the night playing with them, managing to rack up eight spell points, bringing him to fourteen total, almost enough to unlock Heal Minor Wound. He also tested out Stealth, managing to get it to Lvl. 4. It was hard to tell how sneaky he was at this point, with no one to test it around (his mom was fast asleep at that point) but Izuku was satisfied just watching the skill reach a higher level. 

Izuku rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and started getting dressed for school today. 

He’d been thinking last night about how he’d explain his healing and fire spells, and he came to the conclusion that he’d probably have to say he was put in life-threatening danger twice to explain both of them. They were too separate, and his previous ‘Regeneration’ ability was just for himself, so he’d need something new to explain these two things to others. But he needed to wait until he could actually do something impressive with fire and healing before he pulled out the explanation, so he had some time to almost get killed, or (more safely) pretend he almost got killed. 

He waved his mom goodbye and got on the train, mind still spinning with the thoughts of all his spells. He strolled into school, ready for a regular day of taking notes. 

“Midoriya!” Ashido greeted him loudly as he entered the classroom. 

“Oh… hi,” Midoriya said, a bit shyly. 

“Here! This is for you!” Ashido handed him an envelope. 

Midoriya looked down. It was a plain white envelope except for a sparkly pink YOU’RE AMAZING sticker that had been haphazardly stuck to the back. He opened it carefully. Inside was a card, and written on the front of it in cursive blue was ‘Get Well Soon.’ The card was decorated with little flower images, and when he opened the card, he saw that the get-well card had been signed by everyone in the class, with the exception of Bakugou. 

Izuku broke into a big smile. “Thank you!” 

“We wanted to give it to you sooner but we didn’t know where you lived!” Kirishima said, grinning from his desk. “It was Uraraka’s idea! Very manly of her!”

“Well, everyone helped,” Uraraka said, blushing. 

“I really appreciate it,” Izuku said, and he did. He tucked it into his folder, careful not to bend or fold it out of shape. It was precious. Did his classmates at UA actually like him? 

“Are you doing well, Midoriya?” Yaoyorozu asked.

“I’m just fine! Recovery Girl fixed me right up,” Izuku said. 

He spent a few more minutes chatting with his classmates. Iida and Uraraka both seemed quite relieved that he was okay. Izuku felt a little bit bad, he hadn’t even thought about them and they seemed like they’d been sick with worry about him. For some reason he hadn’t anticipated them caring so much. 

“Let’s exchange numbers, okay?” Uraraka said. Just then, Aizawa entered, so she quickly added, “--after class.” 

Everyone sat down in their seats and looked up at Aizawa, waiting for him to speak. Izuku heard a murmur or two commenting on Aizawa’s changed appearance, the short hair in particular, but Aizawa ignored those students resolutely. Izuku tried to peer under his capture weapon to get a look at his neck, but he couldn’t really see anything underneath it. There were no stark-white bandages there any longer, so Izuku guessed that Aizawa was fully healed now. He had no idea how bad the damage or scarring was… oh well. Izuku wanted to know to make sure he was okay, but it really wasn’t his business when he thought about it. 

“Alright everyone, let’s talk about the Sports Festival,” Aizawa said. 

The Sports Festival! I forgot about that! 

“It’s scheduled in two weeks, so that’s how long you have to prepare,” Aizawa said, and Izuku frowned to himself. Two weeks? I don’t have time to pick up more abilities by then, like fire or strength, so I don’t have anything flashy for the Sports Festival! Let alone explaining how I got those flashy powers… 

Izuku winced as Aizawa talked up the Sports Festival’s potential for career advancement for heroes, which he would not be able to take part in very well because of the state his quirk was in right now. At least he’d get two more chances? 

Once homeroom was over, Uraraka grinned with excitement about the Sports Festival. “I’m so excited! Let’s all do our best, everyone!” 

“I’ll certainly do my best,” Izuku mumbled, and Iida clapped him on the back good-naturedly. “I’m sure you’ll come up with an excellent strategy to win the Festival, Midoriya!” Iida said. 

“You think I could win?” Izuku said. “I don’t really have anything flashy to win it right now.”  

“You won the first training exercise despite Bakugou’s firepower, didn’t you?” Iida said. “I have faith you’ll come up with something, and-- do not fear! We have next year as well! So long as you do your best, your efforts will be more than heroic!” 

Izuku smiled at his friends. “Yeah, alright. I’ll try.” 

Who knows? Maybe he'd win. 

SPELL TREE BY PATHING

Lightning Path

HEAT --> SPARK --> JOLT --> ZAP --> ARCING BOLT --> LIGHTNING STRIKE --> CHAIN LIGHTNING --> INVOCATION OF THE STORM

Fire Path

HEAT --> TINY FLAME --> FLAME --> FIREBALL --> FIRE WALL --> FLAME STRIKE --> FIRESTORM --> PHOENIX'S BLESSING

Healing Path

HEAT --> RELIEVE MINOR PAIN --> RELIEVE PAIN --> HEAL MINOR WOUND --> HEAL MAJOR WOUND --> MINOR REGENERATION --> MAJOR REGENERATION --> AGELESSNESS

Necrotic Path

HEAT --> RELIEVE MINOR PAIN --> INFLICT PAIN --> INFLICT MINOR WOUND --> INFLICT MAJOR WOUND --> NECROTIC TOUCH --> DEATH TOUCH

Combination Spells (Learn both 'ingredient' spells for the opportunity to learn the new spell) 

ARCING BOLT + FIRE WALL = ELECTRICAL FIRE 

FIREBALL + HEAL MINOR WOUND = HEALING FLAME

HEALING FLAME + FIRE WALL +  HEAL MAJOR WOUND --> HEALING FLAMES BURST 

FLAME STRIKE + MINOR REGENERATION = CLEANSING FLAME

Chapter Text

Izuku had to split up with his classmates to go over to his math class, where he sat next to Mirio out of habit. He got out his notebook and started working through the chapter six practice problems. 

“Wow, you’re pretty far ahead!” Mirio said, peering over his shoulder. 

“I sort of work on it when I’m stressed,” Izuku said, sheepishly. The rest of the class was still on chapter two. “Got a lot done over the weekend.” 

“What’s stressing you out?” Mirio asked, swinging himself into his seat. 

“I’m a bit worried about the Sports Festival,” Izuku confessed. “I want to do well, but my quirk’s not that flashy.” 

“Aww,” Mirio said, creasing his brow. “Hey Midoriya, how about you train with us?”

Izuku jerked in surprise. “With you?” 

“Me and my friends!” Mirio said, grinning. “It would be fun!

“Really? You’re sure they wouldn’t mind?” Izuku asked. He didn’t want to make enemies of Mirio’s friends by spoiling their training. He wanted to make a good impression! 

“They’d love you!” Mirio insisted. “Besides, it’s not like you’d be competition! The third years have their own Sports Festival.”

Izuku was still hesitant. But… he glanced over to Mirio, who was giving him a hopeful look. He definitely didn’t want to disappoint Mirio, and it seemed like a legitimately good training opportunity… 

“I’ll come, but only if you’re sure your friends won’t mind,” Izuku said. 

“They won’t!” Mirio said cheerfully. “Oh this’ll be great! Meet me after school today by the entrance and I’ll show you where we’re meeting!”

“I will,” Izuku said, but he was suddenly stricken by anxiety. Shoot why did I say yes what if his friends hate me what if I look stupid in front of them-- Izuku picked up his pencil and worked on his math homework more fervently than ever. 

The school day was over more quickly than he would have liked. After giving his 1-A classmates a wave (and thanking them for his card again) he walked tentatively towards the entrance, looking for Mirio. 

Mirio was there, easy to spot and giving him a cheerful wave. With a nervous sigh Izuku jogged over to where he was. “We’re in the gyms near Field Beta, I’ll show you!” Mirio said, essentially vibrating with excitement. 

At least Mirio’s enjoying himself, Izuku thought to himself, shaking his head. 

He followed Mirio, and finally thought to say, “Hey, how many other people will there be?” Izuku glanced up at Mirio. 

“Just two!” Mirio said, and Izuku was glad. At least that wasn’t very many. 

“And here we are!” Mirio threw open the doors to the gym. 

The gym had high ceilings and equipment in the back, but most of this gym just seemed to be open space, reinforced with concrete and steel. It was probably meant to be a place where students could throw around powerful quirks without having to worry, which made Izuku a little worried about what kind of quirks Mirio’s friends were packing. Well, he’d soon find out. 

Standing in the middle of the gym were two students, one of them a girl with lilac-blue curls, and the other a boy with ruffled hair and pointed ears. Upon seeing him, the girl bounced on her feet and gave him a peppy grin, while the boy just averted his eyes. 

“This is Amajiki Tamaki, and Hado Nejire! They’re two friends of mine!” Mirio said. 

“Oh wow it’s so nice to meet you,” Nejire said, face split in a smile. “You’re the freshman that sits next to Mirio in math! He’s been talking about you! What’s your name? Ooh, what about quirk? We’ve gotta know what we’re training with!”

Izuku felt a little bit blinded in the face of her enthusiasm. “Umm… Midoriya Izuku. And my quirk is Analysis, it lets me know someone’s name and quirk just by looking at them.” 

Izuku narrowly missed Mirio’s look of horror, too busy talking with Nejire. 

“Ooh! Tell us what our quirks are, then,” Nejire challenged. “I wanna see you show off!” 

“Observe,” Izuku muttered, glancing at Nejire. 

Hado Nejire -- Lvl. 42 -- Top Student

Quirk: Wave Motion

[See Stats & Skills]

“Your quirk is Wave Motion,” Izuku said, a little bit in awe of how high of a level she was. She was over level forty! That was nearly at the level of some full-blown pros! Remembering that she’d wanted him to do all of them, Izuku glanced at Tamaki. “Observe.” 

Amajiki Tamaki -- Lvl. 41 -- Versatile

Quirk: Manifest

[See Stats & Skills]

“Your quirk is Manifest!” Izuku said. Then, he turned to Mirio, who was paling rapidly. 

“Um, I don’t think you need to--” Mirio started. 

“Observe,” Izuku said quietly. 

Toogata Mirio -- Lvl. 44 -- LeMillion

Quirk: Permeation, One for All [transferred]

[See Stats & Skills]

ACTIVE DEBUFF: Multi-Quirked (-VIT over time)

“Um,” Izuku said. “You have… more than one?” 

“More than one?” Nejire asked. “Don’t be ridiculous! His quirk’s just Permeation!” 

Well, that was just factually incorrect. “Permeation and One for All,” Izuku said, tilting his head. “Hey, isn’t that the same quirk as-” 

“Ahhh I have an explanation!” Mirio interrupted, loudly. 

Everyone in the room turned to look at Mirio. 

“Um, my quirk ‘mutated’ recently,” Mirio said, puffing out a nervous breath. “But I don’t think it was a regular mutation. In fact, the doctor said it might just be me awakening a secondary-type quirk from my mother’s side of the family! It gives me super-strength! That’s probably what you’re getting as the ‘One for All’ quirk.” 

Nejire snapped her fingers in recognition. “That weird spark thing you’ve been doing that makes you stronger! So that’s not an extension of Permeation like I thought!?” 

Izuku was still kind of confused. “Then why is it the same quirk that Al- I mean, as that person has?” Izuku said, deciding not to reveal that his quirk was the same as All Might’s in front of his friends. Just in case it was some kind of private thing. Luckily, Mirio seemed to know what he was talking about. 

“He’s…” Mirio winced visibly. “He’s my uncle.” 

Izuku gasped. Mirio was All Might’s nephew!? 

He looked Mirio head to toe, and… well, he sort of saw the resemblance! The tall height, the straw-like blonde hair, the bright blue eyes… he looked just like All Might! It was still weird that he had two quirks, he was pretty sure that was supposed to be a scientific impossibility, but… Izuku didn’t really have a better explanation. 

Wait, could that somehow be related to that strange creature that had multiple quirks?

“Wait, who’s your uncle?” Nejire asked, puzzled. 

“Um, the situation is kind of sensitive,” Mirio said. “So I can’t really tell you.” 

“I promise I’ll keep it a secret!” Izuku said earnestly. The fact that Mirio was related to All Might was probably something top-secret, and not something he’d wanted to share, so he’d be sure to be quiet about it. 

“Didn’t realize you had an uncle, Mirio,” Tamaki said, a bit quietly. 

“It’s not something I advertise,” Mirio said, sounding on the edge of a nervous hysterical laugh. “But it’s nothing to really worry about! Really minor thing, honest.” 

“Well if that’s the case,” Nejire said. She didn’t seem completely convinced that this was just a ‘minor thing’, but she shrugged her shoulders and decided to move on. “We should get to training. We can’t let you go to the Sports Festival with an untrained strength quirk, can we Mirio?” 

“Of course not,” Mirio said, wilting with relief that the conversation was leading away from this topic. “Let’s get to it--what did we have planned today?”

Mirio and Tamaki were sparring with each other. It was practice for Mirio to use his ‘new strength quirk’ (in the spar, he was limited to only using it) while Tamaki was practicing quickly switching between the animals he manifested with his quirk. That meant Izuku was paired up with Nejire, and they were practicing hand-to-hand combat. 

They seemed to be going in cycles. Nejire would teach Izuku a move, they would have a few ‘baby spars’ in which she would let Izuku try the move on her a couple times, and then they would have a couple of ‘real spars’, in which they both went at each other in an actual spar in an attempt to win. Nejire won all the real spars, of course, and Izuku was usually thrown to the ground by the end of each one. 

“Are you sure this is really good practice for you?” Izuku huffed, pulling himself up off the ground. Nejire was relatively gentle in taking him down, but it sucked to lose so many times in a row. “I can’t think that I’m that much of a challenge…” 

“Maybe not, but it’s still good practice,” Nejire said. “Some of the hardest people to fight sometimes are newbies, since they're so unpredictable! You’re giving me some good practice for dealing with erratic fighters who don’t do much hand-to-hand for the Sports Festival, so basically all of the Gen Ed students who really go at it.”

“At least that’s good,” Izuku said. He would feel a bit bad if this was just her tutoring him. He was starting to pick up some of her combat moves, so he felt like he was learning a lot. He returned to his fighting stance, completely exhausted and legs sore, but ready to have another go. 

“It’s getting a bit late,” Tamaki said quietly. 

“Oh, you’re right,” Mirio said, glancing at the clock in the gym. “Hey Nejire, want to call it good for today?” 

Nejire wiped some sweat off her brow. “Yeah, sounds good! You alright with that, Midoriya?”

“That’s fine! I’m tired,” Izuku said, and Nejire gave a good-natured grin. “Thank you for being my sparring partner today,” she said. “We usually have to switch between the three of us, so this was way more efficient! If you want to join us tomorrow, you could be paired up with one of those two,” Nejire said, pointing to Tamaki and Mirio. “So that way you have a chance to fight everyone!”

“Thank you!” Izuku said, a bit flattered that she was implying he’d been useful. He was only a first-year, so he wasn’t sure he was worth more than a warm body to practice moves on to them, but he appreciated that she was being nice about it. “I would love to come tomorrow.” 

“Catch!” Mirio said, lightly tossing Izuku a water bottle. He caught it and took a big drink, which tasted great. He was parched. 

“Oh, um, Mirio?” Izuku asked. He hated to say this, but there was one more thing he needed to bring up with Mirio. “Could I talk with you for a second in private?”

Mirio immediately looked pale and worried again, which made Izuku feel a little bad, but he nodded in agreement. “Do you two wanna go up ahead?” Mirio offered. 

Tamaki and Nejire both looked a little bit suspicious at Izuku’s need for a private conversation with Mirio (in a what aren’t you telling us kind of way, which made sense after the weird conversation about the uncle they’d had before the training session) but they agreed, heading back toward the school to pick up their things while Mirio and Izuku stayed standing by the gym. 

Once they were gone, Izuku started talking. “Um, so you know how I said you have multiple quirks?”

“Uh… yeah?” Mirio said.
“I’m worried it might be causing you health problems,” Izuku said. 

Mirio blinked in surprise. That clearly hadn’t been what he’d expected to hear. “What?”

“My quirk lets me see some of the effects that other people’s quirks can have in them, but only in a very limited extent,” Izuku rushed to explain. “But I can see that having two quirks is having a negative effect on you.” 

“... Negative how?” Mirio asked, crease in his forehead. 

“Um, it’s draining your vitality over time?” Izuku said. 

“Vitality? Like what, stamina?” Mirio said. 

Stamina was technically right, since VIT was related to exhaustion, but Izuku didn’t miss the fact that VIT was also related to one’s HP. “Um, kind of. More like… your life force? It’s like how healthy you are,” Izuku said. “Low vitality will make you easier to injure. And it will probably make your health worse.” 

“So… having two quirks is going to make me have health problems?” Mirio said.

“Maybe,” Izuku said. “I’m really sorry--I know it’s not something that you can control, and this is horrible news… oh, I’m so sorry for delivering it like this, I probably should have had you sit down--”

“No, no, it’s fine, I’m glad to know,” Mirio said, looking disturbed. “Um, thanks for letting me know.” 

“I’m very sorry,” Izuku said. 

Mirio gave a bit of a forced smile. “I’ll see what I can do, right? Now that we know, maybe we can come up with something to counteract it. Always better to know early, right?” 

“Right,” Izuku said. “Well… um, best of luck?”

“Thank you,” Mirio said. “I’m… going to go grab my stuff.” 

As Mirio walked away, Izuku felt a strange mix of feelings. The training exercise had gone exceedingly well and Mirio’s friends had been nice, but… 

Whatever was going on with Mirio was definitely bad, and it sucked that Izuku had needed to give him bad news. Hopefully whatever it was was an easily fixable condition, considering modern medicine.

And if it wasn’t… 

Well, Izuku was going down the healing track for a reason. Maybe he would eventually be able to do something about it?

“I am such a failure,” Mirio said, pacing in place. “I completely froze up and came up the stupidest lie--I can’t believe he believed me,” he said, burying his face in his hands. 

“Don’t fret, young Toogata,” Yagi said. “You did what you could.” 

“I agree,” Nedzu said. “You came up with a fairly convincing lie considering it was on the spot. You and Yagi do share a resemblance.” 

He knew Nedzu was just teasing, but Mirio’s face still lit up bright red in embarrassment. “Do you think he knew that I was lying?” Mirio asked. 

Nedzu hummed. “Maybe.”

“Aghhhhh,” Mirio said, flopping down in a nearby seat. 

“You mentioned he said something else about your quirk?” Yagi prodded gently. 

“He said that having two quirks was draining my vitality,” Mirio said. 

“Vitality?” Yagi questioned. 

“It’s kind of confusing, since Nejire uses the word ‘vitality’ to talk about how her quirk makes her tired sometimes, but this is different. Vitality is like, my health or my life force or something. According to Midoriya, having two quirks is damaging me,” Mirio said. 

Yagi looked at Mirio sharply, with new concern in his eyes. “Damaging you? Wait, how would he know that?”

“He just said it was another facet of Analysis,” Mirio said. “Do you think it’s true? Maybe he’s just mistaken?” 

“It’s worth investigating,” Nedzu said, and when Mirio glanced at him, Nedzu now looked a bit worried as well. “You might want Recovery Girl to take a look at you.” 

“I’ll do more research on the past users,” Yagi volunteered. “I’ll see if this ever came up with any of them, since they had multiple quirks as well.” 

“Good,” Nedzu said. 

“... Do you think having One for All is bad for me?” Mirio asked, not really wanting an answer. 

“I don’t know,” Nedzu said. “But you can never be too careful.”  

Chapter Text

Izuku held his hand over one of the bruises. “Cast relieve pain,” he said. Then, he poked the bruise, but he felt nothing. According to the spell description, the pain relief would last for five minutes. It seemed useful, though Izuku couldn’t really test how potent it was (he was never hurt worse than scrapes, so he couldn’t test how strong the pain relief was) and the fact it only lasted a short amount of time. Izuku would have to keep reapplying it to make it work. He wasn’t sure if the time would get longer if he levelled up the spell, but he hoped so. Casting ‘relieve pain’ cost 4 mana, and since he had 28 total points… that meant he could cast Relieve Pain for 35 minutes max. He should probably try to level up his maximum amount of mana in that case. 

He also got a few more skill points! He was up to 18 now (almost enough for Heal Minor Wound) which he’d gotten by practicing further with his new spells. It seemed like he got extra points when practicing with new spells, as opposed to the old one. Slowly, as he practiced more, he got less and less skill points, until he started practicing with a new spell. This would make it easy to snatch low-level spells, but it would be incredibly hard to get higher-level spells if things kept up at this rate. He’d definitely need lots of time to get Major Regeneration… maybe he needed to look at increasing his ‘source stat’ if he wanted to improve faster. 

He remembered picking his source, the Heart. What stat related to the heart? Was it even related to his original stats? 

He remembered some of his other options. The Soul, the Mind, the Muscles, and the Lungs? And what was the last one? Voice?

Those five, plus the Heart, were six different options. Izuku had six different stats. Things were adding up so far. 

The Mind probably corresponded with INT, and the Muscle with STR. Was the Heart CHA? Or was the Voice CHA? And what represented DEX? Was it the Lungs? Or were the Lungs vitality? 

It probably wasn’t INT or STR. So that left… CHA, DEX, VIT and WIS, if he was interpreting his quirk right. Izuku could sort of cross some of them out. The Lungs were probably not CHA, the Soul was probably not VIT or DEX. He was guessing that the Heart, his magic, was VIT or CHA. 

“Spells,” Izuku said. 

Spellcasting, Heart Magic

Skill Points: 18

Mana Points: 24/28

Izuku peered at the information he had. This didn’t really tell him anything… wait. Twenty-eight mana points? “Stats,” Izuku said. 

VIT: 28, STR: 18, DEX: 20, INT: 50, WIS: 45, CHA: 22

Unallotted Stat Points: 3

Izuku remembered from the magic instructions that the amount of mana points he had were supposed to correspond with his source stat. So if he had twenty-eight VIT… 

Well, there was only one way to test it for sure. And he had been thinking of increasing his VIT lately, so there’d be no harm if he was wrong. “One stat point to vitality,” Izuku said. “Spells.” 

Spellcasting, Heart Magic

Skill Points: 19

Mana Points: 25/29

Izuku grinned. That meant his source stat was vitality! It was a shame it wasn’t INT or WIS, which were things he was already high in, but it was lucky that it was a stat he was already planning to increase. And he’d gained one skill point! So ‘strengthening his source stat’ meant that with every point he added to VIT, he’d get an extra skill point. 

Izuku looked at the nineteen stat points. So close to twenty. “One stat point to vitality,” Izuku said. “Unlock Heal Minor Wound.” 

[Alert! You have learned Spell: Heal Minor Wound!]

Excellent. Izuku put his hand on his bruise. “Heal Minor Wound.” 

With a gentle glow, the skin on Izuku’s knee slowly returned to normal, healing the bruise. Grinning, Izuku checked the amount of mana that had taken. 

Eight points?! For a bruise?!

Geez. He needed to increase his mana capacity… 

Izuku had spent the last few days working hard in his spells, with Mirio, and in chemistry and math. With the Sports Festival coming up, Izuku felt bad wasting too much time, so he tried to work hard in a variety of areas. Sure, he couldn’t do too much exercise without injuring his muscles, but he could work on his spells. And when he was out of mana and his muscles were sore, Izuku worked ahead in the more academic areas. It’s not like he thought calculus would really help him with the Sports Festival, but it was against his nature to do nothing. 

Which led him here. 

“Ectoplasm tells me you’ve been working ahead during class time,” Nedzu said. 

Izuku winced. He was guilty as charged. He usually tried to pay attention but it had gotten so… boring. Especially since he knew everything Ectoplasm was talking about already. “I’m sorry,” Izuku said. Nedzu was probably angry with him. He’d put in a lot of effort to get him an advanced schedule, and Izuku had disregarded it. Even though Nedzu had called this meeting a check-in, Izuku wouldn’t be surprised if Nedzu in reality was planning to chastise Izuku for his ungratefulness. 

“That’s fine!” Nedzu said. The cheerfulness remained in his voice. “I took into account the fact that you might get through the material faster than usual. Feel free to ask Ectoplasm questions from whatever level you’re at, he’d be happy to answer them.” 

Izuku blinked. “Oh, alright.” Izuku realized he’d forgotten how calm Nedzu usually was. His demeanor seemed sincere, so it looked like he really wasn’t upset. “Thank you.” 

“No problem!” Nedzu said. “Let me know if you need any extra materials once you finish the course.” 

Izuku nodded. It would be useful to get more materials directly from the school than to try to put together a hodgepodge of them himself online. 

And so, with another strangely mild and inoffensive principal meeting under his belt, Izuku politely said his goodbyes and left. 

Nedzu wasn’t sure why Midoriya had expected him to be upset. He was actually rather excited at how quickly Izuku could learn. This information was the perfect distraction from the bad news Recovery Girl had delivered about what her inspection of Toogata had revealed. 

“I was thinking of putting Midoriya through some simulations,” Nedzu said to Snipe. “The most basic ones, of course…” he was more talking to himself than really talking with Snipe, but Snipe nodded. “It sounds like a good idea,” he said. “Might give some interesting results.” 

Nedzu grinned slightly at the vindication.

Izuku, after school, wandered over to the gym where the third-years would be. One week left until the Sports Festival. He felt a slight pang of sadness knowing that these meetings would be over after that. As he approached, he saw Mirio, standing by the gym’s door. 

“Oh! Hey Midoriya,” Mirio said. “I wanted to give you an update about my uh… health condition, that you accidentally discovered.”

Izuku paused and glanced up at him, waiting with baited breath. 

“Recovery Girl did a tissue sample and found some cell death,” Mirio explained. “It’s tissue necrosis--slowly, and over time, of course, but that would explain the vitality drain. She thinks it's caused by multiple quirks too.” 

“Oh no, Mirio, I’m so sorry,” Izuku said. 

“Don’t worry, it’s okay,” Mirio said. “Thanks to you, we caught it early. Recovery Girl said we can try to stave it off with her quirk.” 

“Stave it off?” Izuku said, frowning. 

“She can’t fix it completely,” Mirio said, scratching his neck awkwardly. “But if I come in every night, she can heal me before I go to sleep and set it back a little bit. Um… it’s really good that you caught this early. It’s still bad, but…” 

“Is it… would it be rude if I asked how bad?” Izuku said. 

Mirio winced and sighed. “Without your warning, if we do nothing, I would have lived… maybe six seven years. With Recovery Girl’s help, it’s closer to sixteen.” 

“Mirio, that’s…” 

“Not that it’s all completely hopeless!” Mirio quickly added. “We have sixteen years to figure it out, modern medicine, and UA’s resources at my back. You shouldn’t worry about me.” 

Izuku thought Mirio was handling the news that he might not live past forty with a lot of grace, but he still felt really bad for him. “I hope that works out,” Izuku said softly, giving Miro a pat on the arm. 

“Thanks,” Mirio said, voice a bit tight. 

Major Regeneration can regrow arms--surely it has to help with this! 

Izuku needed to get Minor and Major Regeneration fast, as quickly as he could, before Mirio’s condition got any worse. Grinding skill points is my new job. I am not letting Mirio die. 

Determination in his eyes, Izuku gave Mirio a firm nod. “Okay… let’s work on training.”

“We can’t let Mirio keep the quirk,” Sir Nighteye said. 

“I know that,” Yagi said, tiredly. “He needs to pass it on. But who do we give it to? Of course you suggested Melissa… though she isn’t planning on going into a Heroics career…” 

“It doesn’t matter if she’s planning to go into Heroics,” Nighteye said. “If she’s quirkless, she’s good enough. Mirio will die if he doesn’t get rid of the quirk.” 

“And what if she refuses?” Yagi said. “We’d have to search for someone else. We might need to look outside of Japan, since the quirklessness rate is so low here.” 

Nighteye frowned. “That would take too much time. Mirio is dying.” 

“Shuzenji did say that Toogata had two years before the damage to his body was irreversible,” Nedzu interjected. “So we do have a little time.” 

“That’s still not enough,” Nighteye said. “Especially when it comes to vetting a person who we’ve never met  and giving them Toshinori’s greatest secret. We need to convince Melissa.” 

“I’ll set up a call with David,” Yagi said. “Ask for a meeting. I’ll see what I can do.” 

“Good,” Nighteye said, relieved. “I can’t watch Mirio throw his life away.” 

Izuku gathered his stuff back up in UA’s main building, lost in thought. 

Normally he’d be thinking about how his Stealth Skill had been improving, or how he’d discovered and started levelling an entirely new skill (Unarmed Combat, now Lvl. 5) from his training with the Big Three, but his mind was stuck on Mirio. This just added extra priority to his eventual plan to follow the healing track. 

At first he’d been tempted to try out Heal Minor Wound on Mirio, but he knew it wouldn’t work. If Recovery Girl’s quirk didn’t work on Mirio, then the spell only capable of fixing scrapes and bruises wouldn’t do anything either. Even Heal Major Wound could fix things on a level less impressive than Recovery Girl. 

It was at Minor Regeneration that Izuku started being able to do things above Recovery Girl’s jurisdiction. That’s where he needed to be, or higher. Maybe Izuku and Recovery Girl in combination could heal Mirio completely, or at least extend his lifetime to a good fifty years or something of that nature. 

Izuku stuffed all his books in his backpack, lost in thought. Maybe if I have a quest related to the Sports Festival I can get some extra stat points, then, if I put them towards VIT, I could get a lot of magic skill points… 

“Midoriya,” a voice said, and Izuku snapped out of his thoughts. He looked up, just to see a teacher who he hadn’t had before, Snipe. 

“Oh, hello,” Izuku said, wondering what Snipe could want. 

“Nedzu was wondering if you would be willing to spend maybe an hour after school today to run through a simulation,” Snipe said. “It should help us figure out how fast you learn. If you don’t have time tonight, you could do it some other day this week.” 

Izuku felt a little bit curious, if nervous, at the idea of whatever this was. “Um, I have time now,” he said. Better to get it out of the way so he didn’t worry about it all week. 

“Follow me!” Snipe said. 

They stopped by the locker room, where Izuku ducked in for a few minutes and changed into his gym uniform. After that, Izuku followed Snipe to an area of the school he’d technically never been in before, the basement-level support department rooms. They were usually specialty rooms, with materials or equipment (like saws) that students needed additional permission or certification to access. Or, strange simulations, apparently. When they got to a certain room, Snipe scanned his ID and punched in an access code. “Alright, good luck, kid,” Snipe said. 

Izuku walked tentatively into a gray-walled, tunnel-like room, wondering what he was supposed to be doing. 

[ALERT: EMERGENCY QUEST ACTIVATION!]

Emergency Quest: A Deadly Test

• Goal: Survive until you are rescued
• Bonus: Escape by yourself

REWARDS: ??? 

BONUS REWARDS: ??? 

Um. What.

Nedzu poured his cup of jasmine tea, looking over a list of quirkless individuals in the area. There weren’t many, and essentially all of them were above the age of sixty. Nedzu sighed looking. Yagi's point about looking outside of Japan might be true. 

“I started Midoriya on the simulations, figured you wouldn’t mind,” Snipe said. 

Nedzu paused, glancing up. “You already built a simulation for Midoriya?” Nedzu was pretty sure Snipe had never built anything like that before. Had he asked Majima for help? 

“No, I just used one of your old ones,” Snipe said. 

“You… one of  my old ones,” Nedzu said, setting down his paper list. “You don’t mean the simulations in the support basement, right?” 

“Yeah, it was one of those, why?” Snipe said.  

Nedzu shot up for his seat.“Why? Because those were built for me! They’re dangerous, and not suitable for human children!” 

“Well when you’re talking about simulations, you only ever mean those!” Snipe defended. “They’re the only ones there!” 

“THAT’S WHY WE WOULD BUILD NEW-- it doesn’t matter. Where is he? Which one,” Nedzu asked, suddenly realizing the urgency of the situation. 

“Um… I think it was B02,” Snipe said, voice now nervous. 

Nedzu bolted from the teachers’ lounge, swung around the bend, and sprinted the remaining fifty feet to his office. He fumbled with the cabinet, but managed to quickly open it to reveal his hidden control panel. 

He slammed the emergency stop on the mechanics of room B02, and on all the others for good measure, in case Snipe was wrong about which one he’d sent Midoriya into. The buttons for each turned a red color to indicate that the emergency stop had been employed. 

Then, he hit the Health Emergency button to automatically dial Recovery Girl, quickly putting down ‘basement support hallway’ for the location of the incident so she would know where she  needed to go. 

The door behind him scraped the floor. Nedzu glanced behind him to see Snipe, who must have followed him during his frantic run. 

“Nedzu?” Snipe said. 

“Snipe,” Nedzu said, turning toward him quickly. “If I open that simulation to find mangled remains, you’re fired. Grab Aizawa, bring him down the support hallway. Recovery Girl is already on her way.” A few other staff members would also be alerted, like Hound Dog for instance, about the emergency situation. They’d already be going straight for the site of the incident, so they could do preliminary first aid while Recovery Girl took time to get there. Aizawa wasn’t included in their number, but as Midoriya’s homeroom teacher, he deserved to be involved. 

Nedzu stalked down the stairs to join them. 

Chapter Text

[ALERT: EMERGENCY QUEST ACTIVATION!]

Emergency Quest: A Deadly Test

• Goal: Survive until you are rescued
• Bonus: Escape by yourself

REWARDS: ??? 

BONUS REWARDS: ??? 

Izuku panicked slightly upon seeing that terrifying message. He turned around and tried to pull open the door that Snipe-sensei had just shut. Unfortunately, it was locked. And unlike that time he got stuck in the closet, this door was a thick metal, with an electronic lock. There was no way to remove the hinge-pins from the door. 

Izuku heard a faint mechanical whirring noise. He spun around and looked at the slate-gray tunnel room with wide eyes. There was an odd clicking, but this time above him, and when Izuku glanced up he was treated to the sight of the ceiling folding backwards, revealing a mass of gears and machinery. Uh oh. 

Then, there was a loud, high-pitched beeping sound. 

Izuku’s muscles tensed, just in time for a long piece of metal to swing down towards his face. He threw himself out of the way, barely managing to dodge in time. The metal missed his head by only a few inches. 

OH no I am in actual danger. Was this on purpose? Has something gone wrong with the exercise?  

The mechanical whirring noise returned. Izuku took a few steps forward out of the little alcove that housed the door in preparation. If something swung down at him again, he would have little room to dodge. He tentatively moved towards the right of the room. 

Another high-pitched beeping noise, and another large metal pole swung down at Izuku. He dodged more quickly this time, prepared for the attack. When Izuku heard a third noise, he was ready again to dodge, but he didn’t see anything coming toward him. Confused, he glanced around and walked backwards a few steps, only for something to slam into his shoulder. Izuku yelped in surprise, tumbling forwards in a dizzying spin. 

[ALERT! Damage Taken! -27 HP]

On the ground, and a bit dazed, Izuku saw the metal pole that had hit him swing back up towards the ceiling, towards the right. Which meant it had come from behind him at a diagonal left. Ouch… guess those can come from any direction… 

As Izuku got on his hands and knees, there was another loud beeping, and another metal pole swung above him, though this time strictly perpendicular, from right to left. But since he was so low to the ground, it missed him by a large margin. If I stay on the ground those metal poles can’t hit me. They don’t go low enough. But…  

He glanced down at the floor. The patterning of the floor looked like a giant grate, with a bunch of little holes in it. He wasn’t sure what they were for, so he was loath to stay on the floor for too long. Another beeping sound, and two metal poles swung above him. More than one? And it looked like they were getting faster. On the bright side, there had been a beep before all the metal poles he’d seen, which could be useful, though he wasn't planning on standing back up. This was a comforting thought, until Izuku heard more odd clicking. 

Then there was another noise, this time another beep, but lower-pitched. The ground beneath Izuku began to emit light, probably from some kind of LED within the holes. He instinctively knew what to do. He quickly rolled away from the part of the floor that was lit-up to a part that wasn’t, and seconds later, a bunch of miniature spikes shot up from the floor. Izuku’s heart rate picked up. Those spikes wouldn’t have killed him, but they could have been incredibly painful and probably would have speared straight through his hands. 

Izuku got up from the floor, hissing as his bruised shoulder throbbed. Ducking back down again upon hearing another high-pitched noise, an idea occurred to Izuku. He pressed a hand against his shoulder. “Cast heal minor wound,” Izuku said. A gentle light enveloped his injury, but as it did, the ground lit up beneath Izuku again while high-pitched beeping indicated more swinging poles. He ran a few steps forward to a spot where the floor wasn't lit up, hand still pressed against his shoulder, just barely managing to successfully dodge the poles along the way. With the whoosh sound the poles made, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out where they were coming from now. But, it was still hard to dodge regardless. They were exceedingly quick. 

Luckily, his shoulder healed quickly, and the light of the spell faded away. He stretched his arm experimentally, but it was still sore. Not as bad as before, but…  Minor Healing must not be enough for severe bruising… I could only heal it part-way… 

He could try healing it again, but Minor Wound took eight mana and he only had 30 total. He needed to leave his shoulder as-is in case he developed some kind of emergent, life-threatening wound that needed multiple heals. 

There was more clicking, and the walls started to unfold. 

Well. That was not good. 

Two steps left. Duck. One step left. Three steps right. Duck again, hit the deck, roll away from danger. Stand up, jump backwards. Move diagonal, dodge the metal pole. 

[Practicing has made you faster! +1 DEX.]

He’d sort of gotten into a routine now, though he was forced to adapt that routine every two seconds as the pattern changed and more traps came out of the woodworks. But there was some consistency. A high-pitched beep before the metal poles came down, a low-pitched beep before the spikes from the floor, and a mid-pitched beep before the flames sprouted from the walls. Mechanical whirring before the pattern changed. Clicking for the introduction of a new trap. And no matter what he did it kept getting faster. 

Izuku had stayed by the walls at first, excellent at dodging the flames and less so those metal poles, but then he’d gotten the sleeve of his gym uniform stuck in one of the gears. For a few brief, terrifying moments, he’d been afraid his whole hand would be pulled into the gears as well. He managed to pull himself free, though the mechanism tore half the sleeve of his uniform clean off, and it didn’t do his injured arm any favors. 

Now he was closer to the middle, even though the spikes were more likely to appear there. Getting shredded by machinery would not help his case. 

The clicking started up again, and Izuku quickly glanced around the room, looking for a new trap. Nothing new was opening up, so he could guess--

A blade swept across the center of the room, having been ejected from the walls at high speeds. Izuku threw himself to the ground. And just in time. The blade only barely managed to nick the top of his left ear.

What?! There was no beep that time! 

Another blade flew above him, but Izuku was crouched down this time, so he was out of the way. All the same, he had to awkwardly crawl out of the way when the ground lit up below him so he wouldn’t be injured by the spikes. And there was no beep for the blades again! Was this to make it harder?

That panicked Izuku. He’d been navigating this mostly via audio cues. How was he supposed to duck in time if he didn’t know a blade was coming? 

It was hard to move couched down, so he was more vulnerable this way, but he couldn’t stand up if he didn’t get an audio warning for the blades. It was too risky. If the system kept getting faster at this rate, he was toast. 

Izuku glanced down the tunnel ahead of him, shrouded in darkness. 

He didn’t want to go that way. 

He’d avoided going near there, in case it was more dangerous in that area, but he was forced to admit he couldn’t do this much longer. He was exhausted, he had no idea when rescue was coming, and the blades were an untenable situation. He couldn’t let this escalate much further. 

But the tunnel was pitch-black. He couldn’t see what was up ahead. Risky. 

Stay here or escape through the tunnel? Izuku thought, dodging more spikes. If only I could shut these traps down somehow… 

Maybe… if I could get the gears stuck… 

But I don’t have any tools, just my body and gym uniform! If I try to stop the gears without tools it’s going to be like putting my hands through a meat grinder! So that leaves.. 

With that, an idea came to Izuku. He pulled off his shirt and rolled it up, holding it together tightly together in a bundle. Then, as one of the blades flew overhead, he swung his uniform at the blade as hard as he could. 

He heard the sound of ripping cloth, but his plan was a success. The blade, stopped by the cloth bundle, clattered to the ground. Now Izuku could get hold of it.

He grabbed the sharp object despite how it lacked a hilt, ignoring how it cut into his hand as he gripped it tightly. He snuck quickly towards the right wall, careful of obstacles. Quickly scanning the wall for weak points (what gear will stop all the other gears?) and pausing just enough to avoid getting hit by a burst of flames, he then lunged forward and jammed the blade into the gears of the wall as hard as he could. 

With a loud creak, some grinding noises, and some concerning sparks, the gear mechanisms on the wall began to screech to a halt. As he watched it slow down, he was forced to duck as a blade from one of the other walls flew toward him, but (as he’d hoped for) it simply clattered to the ground. Whatever mechanism had let the wall 'catch' the blade being thrown across the room was clearly no longer functional. And so, the right wall’s gears slowed to a stop. No fire, blades, or metal poles sprung from the wall after that.

The rest of the traps were still working, but… 

This meant Izuku could stand back up, with his back to the wall. With his back to the fourth wall, he could actually see the blades coming at him without dying. 

Indeed, more blades were thrown his way, but Izuku saw them coming and dodged. All of them clattered against the ground. And what’s more, this room will eventually run out of blades, Izuku thought, stepping out of the way of more ground spikes. This wall can’t shoot them out, and with the pattern they have, they’ll eventually throw them all at this wall and they’ll end up on the floor. 

Of course the metal poles would stick around, since they came from the ceiling, and the ground spikes, but if he could jam these blades into the other walls… 

He could potentially make this room a bit safer… 

An ominous clicking noise overtook the room, filling Izuku with dread. Another obstacle. 

He needed to get this done quick. 

He snatched up another blade from the ground and ran towards the south wall, and jammed the blade into the same spot he’d done for the previous wall. He only needed to dodge one more flame, and one more metal pole, before the south wall also came screeching to a halt. And just in time for Izuku to see the new obstacle. 

It was some kind of metallic tripwires emerging from the floor, and Izuku was just about to race towards the left wall to sabotage that one too when he heard a creaking noise from the door alcove behind him. 

He snapped his head around, prepared for more danger. 

The door was open. 

What? 

Izuku ran through the door as quick as he could, and realized soon enough why he’d been freed. When there’s a mechanical problem, sensors on the door will sometimes sense the shutdown and open up so people don’t get stuck, Izuku realized. This UA door must be the same way--designed to open up in the event of a power failure! Maybe some kind of… reverse hydraulics system? Izuku couldn’t remember how it worked but he was thankful for it. Getting rid of the south wall had been what had freed him. 

[ALERT! Emergency Quest has been completed! Collect rewards?] 

[ALERT! Emergency Bonus Quest has been completed! Collect rewards?] 

Izuku didn’t even feel exceptionally excited about the bonus quest, only relieved. He spilled out into the hallway, got himself a good distance from the door and then flopped onto the ground, too exhausted to be properly worried about anything. He sat there, and waited. 

Hound Dog approached the hallway quickly. He’d received the news that there was some kind of health emergency in the area and immediately started going there, but he’d received an additional note from Nedzu that it might be bad. And when Nedzu said things were bad, he didn’t joke. 

When Hound Dog came around the bend, he found his patient.

A young student (first-year?) sat in the middle of the hallway, shirtless, holding a long, sharp, piece of metal. He looked alert, if a little bit battered, and Hound Dog rushed over with his little first-aid kit to provide assistance. “Are you alright?”

“Oh, hello,” the green-haired kid said. He didn’t look too bad, only lightly injured at first glance, though whatever had just happened was clearly no walk in the park. He was panting, he looked exhausted, and he had lacerations in a few places. “I’m glad you’re here,” the student said. His whole body was trembling from exertion, but his voice was strong. 

“You might want to put that metal down,” he said, trying to be gentle, and the kid’s gaze flitted over to his hand, which was squeezing the sharp blade. Both his hands were oozing blood.

“Oh!” he said, dropping the metal. 

“Are you injured anywhere else?” Hound Dog asked, as he tightly wrapped the student’s hands. The only other injury Hound Dog could directly see was a cut on the kid’s ear and a little bit of  bruising about the shoulder. The student winced and shook his head no. Hound Dog opened his mouth to say something else when he heard more footsteps coming up behind him. He turned around and saw Nedzu and Aizawa, with Snipe following just behind them.

“You’re fine,” Nedzu said. “Are you injured?”

“Just some cuts, I’m not hurt,” the kid said. “But I don’t want to do that again.” The kid gave Nedzu a razor-sharp, discerning look, though Hound Dog wasn’t sure why. 

Nedzu gave a deep frown. “There was a mistake. You were in the wrong room,” Nedzu said. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.” 

The kid’s face flickered with disbelief, but before he could say anything, more footsteps echoed down the hall. 

Recovery Girl turned the corner, walking closer to them with her can. “Who am I healing?” she said, rasp in her voice. Aizawa quickly pointed her to the first year. 

Shuzenji quickly examined the patient. Once she’d confirmed he didn’t have any other injuries than the ones they could see, she gave him a light kiss on the forehead. The first-year’s injuries healed instantaneously, and he suddenly looked even more tired, giving a yawn as Shuzenji stepped away. 

“Let’s go back upstairs,” Aizawa said. His worried and tense expression had left him once he saw his student was healed. Now he was back to business. 

“No,” the student said, stubbornly. “I don’t want to move, I want water.” 

Wordlessly, Aizawa unhooked a miniature water bottle from his utility belt and handed it to the student, who immediately chugged the whole thing. He finished it in under a minute. 

“There’s more water upstairs,” Aizawa said. The green-haired student sighed, but picked himself off the ground with wobbly limbs, and let himself be ushered upstairs by Aizawa with Nedzu in tow. 

Hound Dog was left to accompany Recovery Girl, who seemed just as confused as he was on the exact circumstances behind the injuries. 

Well… they were in the lower support wing, so maybe the kid got caught in some support equipment? 

Oh well. It looked like Nedzu had it under control. 

Nedzu did not have the situation under control. 

On the bright side, Midoriya wasn’t dead, nor was he critically injured. Nedzu had been very worried about that. That simulation would have been easy enough for himself, at least in the beginning stages, but the same couldn’t be said for Midoriya. And for more reasons than that Nedzu had tuned his reflexes to be razor-sharp while Midoriya hadn't. For one, their differing sizes. Nedzu was small, half Midoriya’s height. The simulation was fine-tuned for Nedzu, so any blade that was meant to miss Nedzu's head by a decent margin if he accidentally made a mistake was something capable of slicing Midoriya clean in half. In addition, each trap was meant to be accompanied by a beeping tone as a signal to dodge, but since this simulation was made for Nedzu, some of the pitches were out of human hearing range. Including the ones for the blades that could slice Midoriya clean in half. Nedzu had been EXTREMELY concerned about Midoriya getting sliced in half. 

Not to mention, Midoriya wouldn’t have been able to see any of the traps in the dark tunnel due to his inferior vision as a human, so there was a good chance he would have been badly caught up in one if he’d tried to run that way. 

But no. Midoriya had survived past the blades, given how he’d been holding one, and he’d either survived in the tunnel or managed to tough out in the first room despite the increasing speed. Nedzu hadn’t had time to check out the simulation room to see what Midoriya’s survival strategy had been, even though he was interested. There was time for that later. He had a more urgent situation on his hands. 

So Midoriya wasn’t hurt, not after a quick healing of those cuts by Recovery Girl, but he was very upset. With good reason, of course. Midoriya had been snappy and irritated in the past few minutes, which seemed unlike him. ‘Maybe this is the first emergence of the personality I read about in the files’ was an interpretation Nedzu could take, but he felt bad thinking that. Anyone would be angry after having their life endangered, and if this is what it took to upset Midoriya, then calling him short-tempered was a serious mischaracterization. 

Aizawa gave Midoriya another bottle of water, and Midoriya drank it quickly. Once he was done, he threw the water bottle on the ground and laid down on the couch in the office, curling up and ignoring the two teachers. 

Which… fair. 

Aizawa pulled a blanket out of one of the storage cabinets and gently placed it over his student, who grabbed the edges and wrapped it around himself. 

Satisfied, Aizawa suddenly looked up at Nedzu sharply. “What happened,” he said, voice quiet but demanding.

Nedzu knew he had a lot of explaining to do. 

Izuku woke up in the office and noticed, according to the clock, that he’d been asleep for around an hour. Feeling groggy but somewhat refreshed, he noticed Aizawa sitting at the desk a short distance away. “Are you feeling better now?” Aizawa asked. 

“Yeah,” Izuku said, feeling a bit shy. Most of the bitterness that he’d been feeling had been suppressed somewhat, but he still needed to know. For safety reasons. “Did Nedzu put me in there on purpose so I would get a new quirk?”

Aizawa’s eyes widened slightly. 

“No.”Aizawa took a few steps forward and crouched down in front of Izuku. “He wouldn’t do that. This was the result of a mistake--one that he and Snipe will be held responsible for,” Aizawa said, voice hardening slightly as he said that, “But I promise you that Nedzu would never hurt a student on purpose.” 

And, perhaps a bit oddly, Izuku believed him. 

Maybe he wouldn’t have in the past, but… 

Aizawa’s eyes were deep and earnest. Izuku could tell he really believed what he was saying. Plus, knowing that Nedzu had the Protective tag on his relationship with him… 

… If he was really Protective, why would he put Izuku in danger? 

Izuku would check Nedzu’s relationship status after this. If it was still Protective, he would believe Nedzu, and give him the benefit of the doubt. If it wasn’t Protective… well, then Izuku was going to have to consider the alternatives. “Okay,” Izuku said. 

Aizawa sighed. “Are you feeling better? No injuries?”

“Recovery Girl healed me, so I’m fine,” Izuku said. 

“Better to ask,” Aizawa said. “You were asleep for a little bit.” 

Suddenly, Izuku realized how odd his tiredness had been earlier. And, as an extention, how frustrated he'd been. It was easy for him to get frustrated when he was tired.

“I only had a few cuts… I shouldn’t have been so exhausted by Recovery Girl’s healing…” he said.

“Keep in mind she heals muscle fiber, too,” Aizawa grunted. “After an intense workout, your muscle breaks down, and requires stamina to heal. So it makes sense you were a little tired.” 

“Oh,” Izuku said, flexing one of his arms. It wasn’t even sore. 

“Lunch Rush made you something to eat,” Aizawa explained. “After, Nedzu was hoping to apologize, if that’s okay with you.”
Meeting up with Nedzu might shed some light on what exactly happened, Izuku decided. He gave a quick nod, and Aizawa briefly left the room to go grab Izuku’s snacks. Izuku knew he’d only be gone a few minutes, but all the more opportunity to claim his rewards. 

“Collect rewards,” Izuku said. “Collect bonus quest rewards.” 

Emergency Quest Complete! 

Rewards [Hidden]: +10 stat points, +3000 XP

[ALERT! Level up! You are now Lvl. 18!] 

Emergency Bonus Quest Complete! 

Rewards [Hidden]:  +8 stat points, Title “Self-Sufficient” 

Yes! A level up! (He was getting closer and closer to that level 20 inventory.) Plus more stat points and a title. “Titles,” Izuku said. “Self-Sufficient.” 

Self-Sufficient: LOCKED: 50 WIS required. 

Izuku groaned. At least he was pretty close to fifty wisdom. Would this title be worth boosting it up to that? 

Well… he did get something cool at 50 INT, so it was possible that something similar would happen if he gained 50 WIS. He’d think about it. As for the rest of his stat points, he had… what, twenty-ish, considering the level-up? If he put all the ones he wasn’t reserving for WIS into VIT, plus adding the points he had from practicing Heal Minor Wound, he’d have about two-thirds of the stat points he needed to get Heal Major Wound. He’d also be a lot more durable. Plus a mana increase. 

Which brought up one other question. This was definitely a life-threatening situation. What new quirk should he bring to the table?

His first thought was healing, but Izuku wasn’t sure. At this point, he could only heal little bruises and cuts, and though maybe he’d get into ‘major’ healing soon enough, he was afraid that his healing quirk would be classed as very weak and then it would look weird when he could regenerate limbs. He was thinking he might want to wait on that. The same was true with fire, he could only spark a tiny flame. 

On the other hand… 

It would be useful if the others were to know of his hyper-durability. Since his VIT was so high, he was probably a lot harder to damage. Either that, or at the very least he could survive a lot more than regular people. He wasn't exactly sure which. But if it was the first, he should probably mention it, because surgeries involving those with enhanced durability had to involve different technology capable of actually cutting through their skin. Plus, it would look weird if he survived something crazy without a good explanation. 

Plus, it was a very heroics-oriented quirk. Izuku liked that, somehow. He’d save the healing for later on. At this rate, anyway, he was going to need to get into another life-threatening situation if he ever wanted to even get to the higher-level healing spells with how hard it was to grind VIT under regular circumstances regardless. 

“Stats,” he said. 

VIT: 30, STR: 18, DEX: 21, INT: 50, WIS: 45, CHA: 22

Unallotted Stat Points: 24

“Five stat points to WIS,” he said. “Nineteen stat points to VIT.” 

VIT: 49, STR: 18, DEX: 21, INT: 50, WIS: 50, CHA: 22

Unallotted Stat Points: 0

[Alert! Ability: Silent Command Unlocked; Prerequisite: 50 WIS] 

[Open the Commands tab?]

“Yes!” Izuku said. Fifty WIS did give him something cool!

Commands -- Available: 1

Active: You have NO active commands! Say “Silent Command [command name]” to set a silent command!

Silent command? Wait, did this mean he could do things silently? Finally!? Okay, think of one of his commands... 

“Silent command ‘cast’,” Izuku said. Then, in his mind, he imagined casting Tiny Flame. A little flame appeared in his hand, and Izuku grinned. 

What a practical gift for increasing his Wisdom. 

Chapter Text

Aizawa came back a short time later, which cut Izuku’s quirk experimentation short. Oh well. All he had left to check out was his new title Self-Sufficient, but he could do that on his own time when he was released from the medical wing. 

In Aizawa’s hands was hot noodle-and-vegetable soup, which had quickly reminded Izuku of how hungry he was. He gulped down the soup with a speed that surprised even him, though on second thought it was probably late enough to be past dinner now. On that note, Izuku was thankful his mom was taking a long shift at the hospital today, otherwise she’d probably be missing him already. 

… Unless UA contacted his mom about this. 

He was not looking forward to that conversation. 

Once Izuku had finished his soup, he carefully set the bowl and glanced up at Aizawa, who had been waiting patiently for him. “Are you still alright with Nedzu visiting?” he asked. 

Izuku already knew that he was. “Yeah, I’m fine with it.” If anything, he was intensely curious about why exactly Nedzu was keeping a death trap in his basement. 

Aizawa nodded and opened the door carefully. A few seconds later, Nedzu stepped into the room, likely having been waiting out in the hall for Aizawa to let him in. The serious look on his face a far cry from his usual cheerful expression. “Midoriya. How are you feeling this evening?”
“I feel fine,” Izuku said. “Much better.” 

“Good,” Nedzu said. “I imagine you have some questions about what happened.”
“I do,” Izuku said. For a brief moment, he braced himself to ask Nedzu to his face if he’d put him in there on purpose to get an extra quirk. He stopped at the last second, heart thumping with adrenaline. Confronting an authority figure to their face was still somewhat against Izuku’s nature. Maybe he’d ask Nedzu later. 

“...Why’d I get stuck in there?” Izuku settled on a much more neutral-sounding question. 

“I was talking with Snipe about potentially running simulations to track your growth,” Nedzu said. “Unfortunately, my communication was unclear, and Snipe believed that I wanted to run you through some existing simulations. Specifically, the ones in the basement support floor. However, those simulations were designed for me only, and pose danger to any other person.” 

“You go through those normally?” Izuku couldn’t help but say. “How do you not die?” 

Nedzu puffed out a breath, subdued but amused. “I’m much smaller than you are, Midoriya. As such, I have much more room to dodge the obstacles.” 

Izuku remembered how he’d been forced to crouch repeatedly in the simulation, and suddenly he had an idea of what Nedzu was talking about. “...Oh, I can sort of see that,” Izuku said. “So it was just… a mistake?”

It felt a little bit dizzying to Izuku. The idea that something so significant to him, something so dangerous, something that could have killed him… had just been a simple mistake on the part of someone else…

“It will never happen again,” Nedzu added quickly. “We’ve changed the access locks on the doors, and of course Snipe will face consequences--” 

As Nedzu rattled off some of the security measures they’d changed, Izuku couldn’t help but zone out. It all just seemed… distant. Izuku felt weird and shaky, and he didn’t like it. Why did he feel this way? He’d gotten out of there just fine! 

Maybe it was because it was so unexpected. When he was walking into that room, the last thing he’d expected was life-threatening danger. Maybe he could say the same for the USJ, but at least in that case Izuku could justify the danger in retrospect with it being an off-campus facility. On the other hand, Izuku honestly hadn’t expected anything to be able to hurt him in the heart of UA’s stronghold. 

Aizawa seemed to notice how Izuku was feeling. He gently placed a hand on Nedzu’s shoulder, who stopped talking and glanced up at him. 

“We may have made changes now that could stop this from happening in the future,” Aizawa said. “But it didn’t stop what happened to you. That’s the most important thing right now. I’m sorry.” 

Izuku blinked at that. He hadn’t expected an apology, especially not from such a strict teacher. “Thanks,” Izuku said. “Um, I believe you. When you say it won’t happen again.” It was less belief and more a raw, wounded hope, but same-difference. “And… um… I got a new quirk!” Izuku said, changing the subject. “I’m hyper-durable now.” 

Instead of looking excited at the idea of him developing a new superpower for use in his Heroics, Nedzu looked pained. Meanwhile, Aizawa frowned deeply. 

“And… that’s… good…?” Izuku tried, his original train of thought derailed by their dark expressions. 

“It means that you were truly at risk of death,” Nedzu said, ears subtly drooping. “I’d  expected it, but this is proof.” 

“Oh,” Izuku said. He didn’t know what to say to that. He’d expected the reception to his new quirk to be… more positive? Now things were just awkward. Though… 

It did feel kinda good for Nedzu and Aizawa to treat this event with such seriousness. It made him feel important, like he mattered. 

“Yes, but I made it,” Izuku said, finally feeling like he could brush off the event. “Barely even got scratched up. So you don’t need to worry.” 

Aizawa nodded, though his eyes were doubtful. “Don’t be afraid to drop by Hound Dog for counseling if you’re struggling, whether it’s related to this or not,” Aizawa said. 

Izuku wasn’t sure he really wanted to do that, but he nodded regardless. 

“We contacted your mother that you’d been in an incident involving some dangerous equipment, but we made sure to tell her you were uninjured with the exception of some cuts,” Nedzu added. “She was quite relieved that you were unhurt, and promised to join us once her shift had finished.” 

“What time is it?” Izuku asked. 

“It’s around six,” Nedzu said. 

“Her shift’s almost done then,” Izuku explained. “She’ll be driving over soon.” 

“We should get your things together,” Aizawa said. “Do you remember where you left your backpack?” 

Shouta watched Midoriya reunite with his mother a few minutes later. 

She fretted over him, but he assured her that everything was fine and that he’d barely even been hurt. She believed him easily, only stopping to ask Shouta if Recovery Girl was still there so she could thank her. Recovery Girl had already left. 

But by far the most interesting thing Midoriya said to his mother was I probably shouldn’t have been down there anyways, which was just untrue considering he’d been led down there by a teacher. Shouta frowned, puzzled, as Midoriya easily breezed over the fact that it had been UA that put him in that situation in the first place. 

Instead, he acted like he was the one in the wrong, implying that he’d been hanging out in places where he wasn’t supposed to. For whatever reason, he was trying to make it his fault, even when no one was saying it was. Was he worried how his mom would react? Or was he such a humble personality that he felt the need to take some blame even when he was totally innocent? 

Shouta was about to correct Midoriya’s obfuscations right then and there, prepared to tell Ms. Midoriya all about how culpable they were, but his student gave him a half-angry, half-panicked look when he saw him about to intervene. Frankly, Shouta was startled by it, and in response, he just closed his mouth. Clearly his student didn’t want him explaining.

So Shouta ended up saying nothing, and the two Midoriyas left the school a few minutes later. Ms. Midoriya even thanked them on the way out, thoroughly convinced that the incident was the result of either her son’s own recklessness or simple happenstance, biased by her son’s softened retelling of the events. 

Shouta felt a little bit sick thinking about it. They’d just gotten off scot-free. No bad press, no outrage, not even an angry parent. 

When something that bad happens to a kid, there should be an angry parent. 

Nedzu at least seemed to share his sentiment, if the seething rage that began lighting up in his eyes after the Midoriyas left was any indication. “He almost died,” he said. “And she didn’t even confront us about it.” 

“Midoriya told her everything was fine, that it wasn’t our fault, and she believed it,” Shouta murmured. “I almost want to call her back.”

“I’m going to have a talk with Midoriya tomorrow,” Nedzu said. “This… it needs to be sorted out. This isn’t acceptable.”

Shouta nodded in approval. 

“And he’s not the only one I’m going to be having a talk with,” Nedzu said, cold anger in his voice. “Snipe is going to get a lesson on why he shouldn’t endanger students.”

Hm. It had been a long time since Nedzu had been so upset with one of the staff members. Sure, Nedzu was disappointed with humans on a daily basis, but not usually his staff. If Shouta remembered right, nothing good had come from the last incident in which Nedzu had gotten legitimately angry at one of his teachers. Shouta couldn’t feel that much pity for Snipe though, considering he was partially responsible for what had gone on. 

“Didn’t even bother to double-check… doesn’t he know anything about simulations… support equipment safety…!” Nedzu grumbled to himself. 

Though… 

Shouta felt a spark of annoyance. It seemed like Nedzu thought Snipe was the only one at fault. In fact, Nedzu didn’t seem to be holding the second person responsible to account. Aizawa would just have to do it for him. 

“It wasn’t only his fault, you know,” Shouta said

Nedzu glanced up at him. “Hm?”  

“For such a simple miscommunication to cause such serious injuries, there was probably something wrong with our safety procedure in the first place,” Shouta said. “Why did Snipe have access to such dangerous support equipment when we all know he doesn’t know anything about the subject? Speaking of that, if we all had access to such a dangerous room, someone could have easily gone in there by accident. Potentially with a student in tow.”
Shouta let what he said hang in the air for a few moments. 

“So, it wasn’t just Snipe’s fault. It was also yours,” he said. 

There was a long, painful silence. 

Shouta immediately felt the urge to backtrack. His mind told him he’d done the right thing by telling Nedzu the truth, but his gut told him he’d taken things too far. Whatever the case, he’d meant what he said, so he wasn’t going to take it back. 

Nedzu remained quiet. His face was indecipherable, and his gaze was calculating. Then, he finally spoke. “Do you know why I hired you?”

“No,” Shouta answered truthfully. He still wasn’t sure what exactly had drawn Nedzu to hire him as a teacher back when he’d been a young hero. 

“I had many reasons, but one of them is that you were brutally honest, unafraid to give your real opinion,” Nedzu said. “And… it seems that I got what I wanted.” 

Monkey’s paw, Shouta absently thought. 

“I’m sorry,” Shouta said. 

And Shouta did feel bad for the guy. It couldn’t be easy to hear something like that. 

But Shouta couldn’t let him off easy. Not after what had almost happened. 

“I’m going to spend some time alone,” Nedzu said. Shouta just nodded in response, and Nedzu vanished behind an office door. 

Shouta really did feel a little bit bad. 

When Izuku got home, the first thing he did was more testing with his commands.

Unfortunately, he realized pretty quickly that he only had one. He could attach it to anything, but he’d only be able to cast one thing silently at any time. 

All he had to do now was pick his most useful skill or action. Observe, maybe? He’d had a lot of problems with people thinking it was weird for him to say Observe all the time in the past… or maybe Detect Enemies? 

Humming, and considering his options, Izuku opened the titles tab to get a new look at the ability “Self-Sufficient.” 

Self-Sufficient: When this title is equipped, this player can use +2 additional silent command(s). 

Izuku grinned. This was the perfect solution to his problem! Now he could choose three! 

Izuku decided to equip Self-Sufficient right away. As far as he knew, he wouldn’t be coming into contact with any chemicals, so tabling Broken Chemist for now would probably be worthwhile. 

“Equip Self-Sufficient,” Izuku said. Okay then, what else do I choose?

He decided almost immediately. “Silent command ‘observe’, silent command ‘detect enemies’” Izuku said, adding the two to his silent command list. With Cast, Detect Enemies, and Observe, he would be able to use his core abilities without tipping anyone off. 

This would be really useful for the Sports Festival. He’d be able to snatch his opponent's quirks without being forced to say it aloud! Plus, silent casting (healing in particular) would stop him from tipping off opponents by going ‘heal minor wound!’ every time he wanted to fix up a bruise. 

And of course, Izuku was excited by how close he was to some things. Only six skill points away from Heal Major Wound, and only two levels away from unlocking inventory! And was there a chance he’d get something cool by unlocking VIT? If so, he just needed one more stat point to unlock it! 

Izuku really wanted to get a quest during the Sports Festival, but he was trying not to get his hopes up. Usually quests only showed up for very important things, and even though he considered the Sports Festival quite important, he wasn’t sure if his quirk would feel the same. 

But, even though his stats were sorted out… 

He had one more thing to check. “Relationships.” 

RELATIONSHIPS

Midoriya Inko: Rep +98. Unconditional Love. 

Aizawa Shouta: Rep+10. Fond. 

Bakugou Katsuki: Rep -46. Enemy. (Type=Abusive) 

Iida Tenya: Rep +32. Admiration. 

Nedzu: Rep +22. Fiercely Protective.

Uraraka Ochako: +19. Friendly. 

So Nedzu’s rep was still protective. In fact, it had gotten even higher, going from normal protective to fiercely protective. And Aizawa’s rep had, in a strange but welcome turn of events, gone from neutral to fond, around seven points in increase. 

Huh. 

Well… 

Even though Izuku had some doubts, he was pretty sure a person who ‘fiercely’ wanted to protect you wasn’t the type to shove you in something that could kill you in the hopes that you’d manifest a new quirk. Aizawa seemed uninvolved with the situation (and was fond of him) so Izuku figured in a worst-case scenario, Snipe had done this intentionally without permission from Nedzu and Aizawa. And that kinda didn’t matter because he didn’t have Snipe for any classes. 

Izuku was satisfied with this turn of events, and he found himself extending forgiveness towards Nedzu and Aizawa. He was still kinda upset, but knowing that this wasn’t a malicious incident made him much more willing to overlook what had happened. He was glad he’d kept the most incriminating detail (the fact that Snipe had led him to the danger room) out so that he wouldn’t have to deal with his mom being angry at them. Instead, he could just forgive them on his own time. 

Izuku plopped down on his bed and grabbed an adventure book off the shelf. 

What a long day. 

“Ah, Tomura, what an auspicious evening to see you on,” All for One said, a hint of smugness in his voice. 

Tomura picked up on the hint. “Auspicious? You mean lucky?”
“Indeed,” he said. “I’ve found something quite interesting in the doctor’s lab.” 

It was good that All for One sounded pleased, for once. He hadn’t been lately, what with the capture of Kyudai, his most loyal subordinate. 

“Yes, I found something fascinating in his quirk collection,” All for One said. “It’s called Dark Reflection, and I must say, the next time we see our dear doctor I’ll need to give him a talk over keeping such an interesting quirk to himself!”

All for One liked Kyudai, so Tomura was pretty sure he'd keep him around once they found him even if he'd hid this from All for One. He nodded. 

“It’s a bit more subtle than many other quirks, which is perhaps why my friend Kyudai thought he could keep it for himself,” All for One said. “Or… it is within the beginning stages, at least. It’s quite obvious and damaging once it reaches the final stage, but at that point, it would likely be too late with the plan I have in mind. In fact, if we act now, that student who copied you might be among the number killed by the collateral damage.” 

Tomura wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but he quickly shoved down all his doubts. “So when do we start?” 

“It would be beneficial to use the quirk as soon as possible, but there is no benefit to recklessness,” All for One said. “We must wait for an opening. To our luck, however, there is a day in the near future in which UA finds itself vulnerable, even if they are only partially opening to the public.” All for One pointed to the wall calendar, on a specific day around one week away.

Tomura knew exactly what he was talking about.

“The Sports Festival,” he said. 

Chapter Text

School continued towards the Sports Festival, despite what had happened. 

“I still can’t believe All Might bailed on us!” Ashido said loudly. 

“He was transporting the teachers to our location, give it a break Ashido,” Satou said wearily. They’d had this argument before. 

“I just think it’s hilarious—”

“Well, I for one am glad the teachers got there fast,” Uraraka added. 

“But why’d he bother though! All Might could have cleared the whole mess up on his own!” Hagakure said. “He’s probably stronger than all the other teachers combined!” 

“I bet he was just giving the other teachers a piece of the action,” Bakugou scoffed. “But when I’m number one, I won’t bother.”

Izuku enjoyed spending time with his classmates. Even if they were having a conversation just a hair's-breadth away from a state secret. “Well, good for you, Kacchan,” Izuku mumbled. 

“Are you making fun of me!?” Bakugou said angrily. 

“I think he was being sincere, kero,” Asui said. 

Kaminari swung a casual arm around Midoriya. “Our guy is less out to get you than you think, Bakugou. I don’t think he’s got a mean bone in his body.”

Izuku’s classmates always tended to back him up in conversations if Bakugou got too mean, and they generally seemed to like him. They even called him ‘Class Pres’ sometimes! It made Izuku feel like some kind of political powerhouse. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Bakugou grumbled, turning back to his worksheet. 

Aizawa, who was sitting at his desk, stared at his phone for a few moments. Then, he looked at Izuku.

At this point, with so many meetings with the principal under his belt, Izuku knew exactly what that look meant. He gave Aizawa a nod, got up from his seat and walked over to speak with him. “Meeting with Nedzu?” Izuku asked, quiet enough his classmates wouldn’t hear. They’d already been asking questions about all his ‘secret meetings’ with Nedzu. 

“Meeting with Nedzu,” Aizawa confirmed, and Izuku left the classroom. 

When Izuku reached Nedzu’s office, he quickly realized what Nedzu had called him here for when the principal started talking about the meeting with his mom. After another apology about what had happened, Nedzu asked him if they needed to talk with her again, having noticed very apparently how she’d been ‘misled’ about the situation. 

Izuku felt a bit warm inside, and some of his remaining doubt melted away. They were willing, even determined, to own up to their mistakes? It made him feel very charitable. 

But also a little annoyed. Because he did not want to tell his mother. 

“I didn’t do it for you,” Izuku eventually said. “I did it for me. I don’t want my mom to have to worry about me. And it’s my decision.” 

Nedzu sighed. “If you’re sure. But if you change your mind…” 

“I know,” Izuku said. “Is there anything else you want to talk to me about?”

“One more thing,” Nedzu said. “It’s about the Sports Festival.”

“Hm?”

“As the class president, you and Yaoyorozu will be introducing yourself as representatives of Class 1-A to the visiting heroes before the official event starts. It will likely last around an hour, and it will mostly be a social event.” 

Izuku resisted the urge to frown. Social events were hard… but, it was reassuring to know his charisma was at least decent. He couldn’t self-deprecatingly say I’m bad with people when his stats numerically proved otherwise. “Okay, when does that start?” Izuku asked. 

“You’ll be given more details about it tomorrow,” Nedzu said. “But this might give you an extra day to prepare.” 

I’ll try my best to prepare, Izuku said. Social event plus athletic event means I need to be ready in both mind and body. Thankfully… 

Thankfully, Izuku spent a lot of time training with Mirio. 

“The last day before the Sports Festival,” Izuku said, a bit wistfully. 

“I’m so excited!” Neijire said. “I’m sure you’ll do great, don’t be worried.”

“Thanks, it’s a shame that this is our last meeting, though,” Izuku said. 

“I’ll still see you in class!” Mirio reminded him. “And you can still train with us sometimes! We just won’t be meeting so frequently.” 

“You really have improved,” Tamaki said quietly, and he was right. In just two weeks, his Unarmed Combat skill had jumped to level 12, which was an incredible rate of growth for any skill. Izuku was certain it was because they were excellent teachers. 

“You guys have improved too!” Izuku said. “Mirio’s really good with his new strength quirk!” Even though it still doesn’t make any sense… honestly, I need to sit down and think that through… 

“Ah, thank you…” 

“Good luck, Midoriya!” Neijire said cheerfully.

“You too!” 

Izuku hadn’t really expected to need to dress up in a suit for his first Sports Festival. He had a gym uniform in his backpack for the actual events, of course, but he needed to attend the formal first. This is one of the benefits of the class president position, Izuku reminded himself. Networking. This is a benefit! 

It still kind of felt like an evil obligation, but it would be fine. 

He glanced at himself in the mirror, giving a hesitant smile. Besides his messed-up tie (which he still couldn’t get to work correctly!) he looked pretty good! 

Oh well. Like his mom said, he should just try his best to have fun.

Chapter Text

Izuku marched into the building attached to the Sports Festival Stadium, feigning confidence. Thankfully, Yaoyorozu was waiting for him just inside. 

“Hello,” Izuku said. “Alright, let’s do this.” 

“Indeed! This is our first debut as class president and vice president. Let’s be professional and polite,” Yaoyorozu said, puffing out her chest. She wore a long, light-green dress and white heels, a gold headpiece in her hair. Izuku found himself nodding in response. Something about Yaoyorozu made him not want to disappoint her. “Of course,” he said.  

The two made their way into the area reserved for the event, but it was empty for now. A long snack table adorned one of the walls, and though Izuku was tempted to grab a cream puff off it, he just followed Yaoyorozu instead. It would be awkward if someone important arrived while he was stuffing his mouth full of cream puff. 

“Hey there, Class A,” said an orange-haired girl, and Izuku recognized her as Kendo Itsuka, Class 1-B’s representative. She was with who must have been her vice, a short boy who looked considerably shyer. 

“Hello, Kendo,” Yaoyorozu greeted. “It’s great to see you.” 

“Likewise! Hopefully we can put this rivalry between our classes behind us…” 

“Absolutely. I’m sorry about Bakugou.” 

“And I’m sorry about Monoma!” 

For a moment, Izuku looked around for the other class presidents, before realizing that this was the First Year Sports Festival. It was just going to be these four. 

Oh dear. 

The door behind them creaked open, and the students turned to glance at it. Nedzu was there, accompanied by several other teachers. Present Mic, Midnight, Power Loader, and Vlad King in particular. 

Aizawa had explained what would happen a few days ago. He said this was mostly a social event for the pros, with the first year reps mostly so they could learn how to interact in formal settings. But, since there wouldn’t be that many students to talk to and there was the possibility of many curious pros, a few staff members would be showing up at the social to make sure neither of them got dogpiled. 

Not to mention several teachers also wanted to attend themselves. Present Mic and Midnight showed up nearly every year just to enjoy the atmosphere, while Power Loader liked coming to promote his support equipment business. Izuku suspected Vlad might be attending just to keep an eye on his first-years; on the other hand, Aizawa’s absence clearly indicated he’d bailed at any hint of social interaction or partying. 

“You kids ready?” Midnight asked, grinning. 

“Yes ma’am!” Yaoyorozu said. 

“Alright--people will start entering through that door in a minute. They’ll probably come up to greet you, you’ll say hi, and then they’ll start to disperse,” Midnight said. “We’ll be mingling with people around the room. Don’t be afraid to come get us if you need anything.” 

“Alright,” Izuku said, though a knot of nervousness formed in his stomach. 

The teachers started meandering around the room a bit. Present Mic stood by the snack table, looking a bit too excited by the cream puffs. Vlad King leaned against the wall behind them, from a spot that let him observe the whole room, while Nedzu stood at the front, clearly ready to cheerfully greet guests. And after a few minutes, they arrived.

The first to walk in was Fatgum, wearing the yellow hooded sweatshirt that typically accompanied his hero costume. Izuku resisted the urge to greet him too excitedly or ask him about his quirk. Fanboying would look unprofessional at best. Though… 

As Fatgum said, “Well, heya there!” and Izuku smiled in response, he silently cast Observe, quickly gathering Fatgum’s stat block. Quirk was Fat Absorption, of course… but his title was Cuddle Bug for some reason, which Izuku found very adorable. 

As heroes walked in, Izuku greeted them, while also using Observe to look at their name and quirk. Though some people spoke for much too long or were patronizing or standoffish, saying hello was all-in-all a fairly easy task. The whole thing was mostly pleasantries, after all. And looking at their fascinating quirks was even easier. 

And then, of course, came Endeavor. 

Frankly, Izuku had not expected him at this party. He hadn’t seen anyone too high up in the ranks so far (except Shishido, the No. 13 Hero, who Izuku had seen earlier) and he’d figured that was because they were watching from their houses and would only come in person to the Third-Year Sports Festival. Actually… considering Endeavor’s son was a first-year… that might be why he was here. 

“Um, h-hello,” Izuku said, cursing his stutter. 

“Hm,” Endeavor said. “So you two are the representatives for my son’s class.” 

“Yes, we are,” Yaoyorozu said smoothly. “Being in class with your son has been excellent. I think he’ll make a great hero.” 

Izuku used Observe on Endeavor, to interesting results. Name was Todoroki, of course (he would have been concerned if it wasn’t) and his quirk was Hellfire, but his title was Number Two. Ouch. Izuku wasn’t sure how titles were decided, and becoming the second hero in all of Japan was an incredible feat, but Izuku also got the impression that Endeavor wouldn’t be too impressed that his title was essentially Second Place. Thankfully he didn’t know. 

After a very awkward exchange, in which Endeavor spoke minimally, he walked off and got caught up in a conversation with Nedzu, which sort of made sense. Nedzu was the only person in the room besides Shishido who even approached Endeavor’s level when it came to political status. Whatever the case, Izuku tried to put Endeavor out of his mind and focus on the new people coming in. 

And, in spite of what he’d expected, Izuku actually found himself enjoying the experience. He was able to talk to the pros pretty well, and he got to know all their quirks! And they had such interesting ones too! Hair-Raiser, Sandstorm, Lightning Rod, Gatling… Laser, Dark Reflection, and High-Kick! 

Even though he said he’d use his ability to make sure he didn’t forget any names, Izuku was essentially only paying attention to the quirks at this point. He really did enjoy seeing all the types of quirks a pro could have. 

Wait…

Did Dark Reflection have a tag on it? Like transferred or combined? He felt like he’d seen something attached to it… but he didn’t exactly remember what it had… all he really remembered about them was that she'd been polite and had black hair, but that applied to maybe half the heroes here. 

Yaoyorozu was deep in a conversation with some hero called X-Less, and no more heroes were entering the building. That meant it was the perfect time to do a little search. Izuku glanced around, using Observe, trying to find that Dark Reflection lady again. 

This proved incredibly difficult, though. Using Observe a bunch of times in a row clogged up his screen with white text, so it was hard to read whose was whose. And it gave him a serious headache. Ugh. It looked like Observe was pretty useful when it came to figuring out what a person’s quirk was, but rather less useful when it came to scanning a crowd for a particular quirk. 

Izuku shook his head. It was probably nothing. He didn’t really remember well whether or not he’d seen a tag attached to that them, so he didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. Especially since he had no idea what the tags even meant. 

It was probably fine. 

Izuku spotted the friendly-looking Fatgum not far away. “Ah, hello!” Izuku said, trying to make conversation. “You’re Tamaki’s mentor, right?”

Nedzu pulled his tie back in order and walked brusquely toward the door. 

He always felt a little bit… conflicted about these events. Part of him liked them, part of him hated them. He loved the looks on people’s faces when he surprised them, but he despised being surrounded by random humans he didn’t know or like. Not to mention, in social events like these it took effort to seem both friendly and competent considering his cutesy appearance. And he knew when he got impatient, he started coming off as unsettling instead. 

At least Nedzu had Vlad King to keep an eye on the first-years so he could handle the pros at the door. Nedzu suspected it was because Vlad King specifically wanted to make sure Shoda would be okay. 

Whatever the case, it made things easier for him. Nedzu opened the door and found that the students, as expected, were already in place. 

Yaoyorozu wore a long, ruffled dress, Kendo wore a black blazer, and Shoda wore a regular blue-colored suit. All normal formal wear. Midoriya on the other hand chose to wear a reddish-brown pinstripe suit, with a pale yellow shirt underneath. It was slightly oversized, and the red of the suit vaguely reminded Nedzu of rusty nails. The colors did not match. 

Nedzu resisted the urge to sigh, instead going to the doors to greet guests. His suspicion that this wouldn’t be a fun event turned out to be the case once people started coming in. There were far too many people for his liking. And of course he had to make conversation with Endeavor, who was always disappointingly disinterested in what he had to say. And, one of the guests, a person with dark hair, had even legitimately shoved him out of the way to get to the snack table. How irritating. Far too many impolite humans here. 

Oh well. The event would be over soon. And… 

Glancing over, Nedzu noticed Midoriya grinning and talking with Fatgum, while Kendo seemed to be having a vigorous conversation with the martial artist Double Hit, with Shoda often adding shyly to their discussion. 

At least the students were having fun. 

The event was over before he knew it. It was only an hour or two long, considering the first-years had to get to the Sports Festival, so while the pros meandered around continuing their conversation, the four reps were ushered out towards the student area of the building to change into their costumes and ready for the events. 

Izuku, though, even changing for the event, was deep in-thought about the tags. What did it mean for that Dark Reflection guy? Nedzu had been super concerned when he’d heard his quirk doctor had one… did that mean they had some kind of inherent meaning? Did the tag set the person apart from others?

Think, Izuku, think… 

Yagi’s quirk was associated with the word remnants. Remnants, meaning, what remains. And Mirio’s quirk was transferred, meaning that it’s changed places. 

Suddenly, it clicked. 

Remnants… what remains… what remains of One for All! And the reason he only has remnants, and not the entire quirk… 

Is because he gave it to Mirio. 

He transferred it to him. 

The idea seemed impossible. Izuku had never heard of anything like that before. But it just made too much sense. People don’t normally have more than one quirk. That’s just scientifically… incorrect, unless you do some kind of biological experimentation, which is what probably happened to the blue-black creature at the USJ. And Mirio… from what Neijire had said, Mirio hadn’t had any quirk other than Permeation before. According to her, Mirio had just ‘gotten’ a new strength quirk, presumably some time in either early third year or late second year. 

The exact time frame in which Yagi’s quirk had gone from transferred to remnants. 

It lined up too perfectly. 

And Yagi’s quirk had originally been transferred--did that mean he’d received it from someone else? Was it the quirk itself that could be passed around like a basketball? 

Could Mirio give it to someone else? 

If he could… he could get rid of his health problems! 

It didn’t really explain the combined and copy tags, but Izuku could guess that they were related to quirk experimentation because of those tags’ connection to Kyudai. They must appear when someone tampers with your quirk. 

Had Dark Reflection been tampered with at some point? Was that something that didn’t matter, or was that an ominous sign? Had it been against their will? 

Izuku finished changing and walked out, joining his classmates. They were chattering excitedly, ready for their debut in the Sports Festival, theorizing intensely about what the first challenge would be. 

Hm. I’ll have to ask Nedzu about all of this later--and maybe report that Dark Reflection person to him, if it's warranted. But, Izuku didn’t really know where he was, and the main event was starting in just a few minutes. He’d try to search for him in between events. 

For now, Izuku prepared himself to win the Sports Festival. 

Chapter Text

Present Mic cheerfully introduced 1-A through the loudspeakers as the group walked into the Stadium. Cheers erupted, and Present Mic then introduced the other classes. With a noticeable bias towards the hero classes. 

Or, well, not really bias, but he definitely put more focus on them as he was announcing them coming on the field. That made some amount of sense, considering that they were what people were here to see, but Izuku still saw some Support and Gen Ed students huff in annoyance at the difference. 

Midnight quickly announced the first race as an Obstacle course. The first forty-two to pass the finish line would be moving on to the next round. Izuku found himself grinning a bit at that. He only needed to get in the top 40-ish to win, which should be easy enough. He might have been nervous about it, but he had succeeded in Nedzu’s mini obstacle course, which was due to be much deadlier than anything here. 

Though… there were a lot of people with dexterity-based quirks here. Or area-effect quirks that could slow him down. He probably shouldn’t let his guard down. 

“Go!” Midnight called, and Izuku shot forward toward the gate, which quickly became congested with all the students trying to get through. He still managed to squeeze through pretty easily, but a giant ice sheet sent back by Todoroki narrowly missed him a few seconds later. He clumsily leapt over it, and though he didn’t get stuck in it like many other students, he still had to slow down so that he didn’t slip on the ice. At least everyone else is getting slowed down too…

Luckily, Izuku had an idea. He snatched the long pole that Yaoyorozu had left on the ground (the one that she’d used to launch herself ahead of Todoroki’s ice sheet) and used it like a makeshift ski, pushing himself across the ice at a reasonable speed. It wasn’t the quickest, but if he kept going at this rate, he’d be able to keep pace with some of the faster contestants. 

Er, well. Then the robots showed up. 

Several giant robots, including one of the zero-pointers from UA’s entrance exams, suddenly appeared in their path, clearly meant to be the next obstacle. Izuku dodged the robots’ swings, looking for a way through. He didn’t need to look for long. The hero students ahead of him (and Todoroki in particular) tore down several of the robots, leaving a perfect path for him. And, in the meantime, Izuku managed to snap up a usefully-shaped piece of robot armor to use as a shield. 

Having cleared the giant robots, Izuku ran forward and found himself on the precipice of another obstacle, this one a mass of platforms with ropes attaching them. 

Oh boy. Climbing time. 

At least Izuku’s DEX was decent-ish. 

The obstacle course was mostly as Nedzu had anticipated: Bakugou and Todoroki in the lead, and Class A performing well. Though…Class B was performing a little worse than he’d expected them to. Was Class 1-B hanging back intentionally, so that they could figure out Class A’s quirks? It was true that all they needed was to get in was the top 42.

Clever, but risky. Sacrificing the chance to show off one’s quirk in the early stages, so that they had a greater chance of making it to the later (more publicized) stages. 

And it was clear Midoriya was keeping up with the bunch. He seemed to use a variety of tools to his advantage, from things Yaoyorozu left behind, to broken robot exoskeleton. He was around the front-middle of the pack by the time he was done with The Fall, but that was quickly about to change. In fact, Nedzu broke into a grin when he saw Midoriya digging up the mines. An excellent solution to his predicament. Midoriya, using the force of the explosion, soared past Bakugou and Todoroki—

A sickly glee rose up in his chest, and suddenly Nedzu f̵e̷l̸t̵ ̸a̵ ̴li̴t̴t̸l̴e s̸tr̷an̶ge.̶ 

Nedzu rubbed his eyes, blinking. What had he been thinking about? 

He glanced down at the event, just to see that Midoriya had won. An impressive feat, considering that he was competing with all the other first-years, not only just the heroics students. And though coming in first meant he would get the ten million point headband, Nedzu had no doubt that Midoriya would come up with something interesting in the next round. 

Izuku panted as he raced across the finish line. Victory!

Todoroki and Bakugou brought up the rear, and it only took one look for Izuku to see that Bakugou was furious that he came in third, and especially at losing to Izuku. Izuku quickly backed away from the two, deciding he’d try to give Bakugou a little bit of space until he calmed down. There was something else he wanted to do. 

There’s a break in the action right now that I could use… so before everyone else finishes up with the Obstacle course… 

Izuku slowly approached Midnight, who stood on a stage slightly above them. “Kayama-sensei?” he asked quietly. 

Midnight flicked off the microphone that put her voice over the loudspeakers. “What’s up?” 

“Can you tell Nedzu that I saw another person with a ‘quirk tag’ during the formal? He’ll know what I’m talking about when you say that,” Izuku said. 

Midnight’s forehead furrowed in confusion, but she nodded in agreement. “I could text Vlad King and ask him to tell Nedzu,” she said. Ah. That made sense. Midnight would need to commentate the rest of the event, so she couldn’t physically leave.  

“That would be great,” Izuku said, and that was perfect! If the tags thing really was serious, Nedzu would know! Now all Izuku had to worry about was the Festival. 

As Midnight typed up the message on her phone, more students ran through the gate and finished the race. Izuku was happy to see that Uraraka and Iia and the majority of his classmates also made it through. A lot of 1-B students had successfully gotten through as well, which was to be expected, plus that strange purple-haired 1-C guy who’d ‘challenged’ them earlier. Maybe he was more of a threat than Izuku had thought. 

“Our next competition will be a cavalry battle!” Midnight announced. “That means you’ll need to team up in groups of two to four!” As Midnight explained the event, revealing the need for a group, Izuku felt a vague dread settle over him, similar to the kind he felt whenever a teacher said they were doing a group project. And then Midnight revealed that the person who came in first place was getting the ten million point headband. 

Izuku felt everyone’s gazes upon him. Oops.

Now that I have all these points, but didn’t show off an impressive quirk, so that could spell trouble… would anyone even want to work with me? 

Luckily, Izuku’s fear of being instantly abandoned by everyone was quickly assuaged. 

“We should work together!” Uraraka said cheerfully, jogging up to him. “It’s better to work with people you know you get along with!” 

Oh thank goodness I have at least one person. 

“Thank you,” Izuku said, feeling touched. “We just need one or two more… if we could convince Iida…” 

“Hey, Midoriya!” a voice said behind him. 

Izuku turned around to see Yaoyorozu and Kendo. 

“Mind if we join you?” Yaoyorozu said. 

Izuku gaped. Two people? Yaoyorozu wants to team up?

Uraraka, glancing back behind her, said, “It looks like Iida’s already joining Todoroki.” 

That was all she had to say for Izuku to agree wholeheartedly. “W-we’d love to have you!” Izuku said. He hadn’t expected anyone to want to partner with him, let alone a person from 1-B! “W-what, uh--” 

“Yaoyorozu mentioned you have a quirk that increases your intelligence,” Kendo pointed out. “And considering she can make anything…” 

“It ends up being a killer combo!” Uraraka said. “This’ll work out great!”

“And I can be the muscle,” Kendo affirmed.  

Ah… so Yaoyorozu and Kendo hadn’t joined his team out of class rep solidarity or anything like that… they’d joined up because they thought he could win. Oh boy that was a lot of pressure. “I’ll do my best,” Izuku promised. “What’s your quirk?” 

“Big Fist,” Kendo said. “I can increase the size of my fists. My grip strength increases proportional to size.” 

“Hm,” Izuku said. “Proportional to volume specifically? And how big can they get? And for how long?” 

“Um, yeah, volume… and like… around the size of my head for a half hour, but bigger if just for a short period of time?” Kendo said. 

Izuku gave a nod, deep in thought. Big Fist, Float, and Creation. 

“Alright. I’ve got it. How would you feel about being the rider, Kendo?” 

Chapter Text

“Teams… start!” Midnight shouted, cracking her whip. Immediately, Izuku’s team shot up into the air. The jetpack Yaoyorozu made lifted them up, helped by the fact that Uraraka had lightened them all. The other team with a jetpack (headed by a pink-haired support girl and two 1-B students) did the same and, rather unfortunately, rushed in their direction. Whether that group was running towards them because they wanted the ten million, or out of revenge for stealing their idea, it was anyone’s guess. 

Because Izuku had definitely stolen their idea. He’d seen that girl’s jetpack and thought, yes, we could also use a jetpack. They… well, they needed a defensive strategy! And there were no anti-plagiarism rules governing the Sports Festival. 

One of the enemy team members (Pony Tsunotori, Izuku remembered) suddenly detached from the flying group. Izuku almost yelled out, briefly scared for her, but after a few seconds of falling, she leveled out and began flying towards them as well. How… 

Izuku peered closer. 

She was flying by balancing on two of her horns! Yes, he remembered seeing her quirk was Horn Cannon, implying she could shoot them out, but she didn’t realize that she could control them telepathically like Hawks! 

And she wasn’t the only one who was coming after them. Bakugou used explosions to shoot himself off of his group, launching himself toward them. 

“Are they even allowed to do that!?” Mic announced in the distance. 

“So long as they don’t touch the ground they’re fine, according to the rules!” was Midnight’s response. 

“Alright, anti-aerial defense! Like we planned!” Izuku called. 

Yaoyorozu pulled several balls out of her stomach and handed them to Uraraka, who lightened them, and then over to Kendo, who threw them. With Kendo’s increased hand strength and no excess weight to slow the balls down, they went flying at an incredible speed. 

Tsunori immediately dropped downward and backward when she saw them heading towards her, barely managing to avoid them by backing off and letting them whiz over her head. Bakugou, on the other hand, agily managed to dodge two that flew his way, but a third slammed into his thigh and sent him spiraling. For a second, Izuku thought that Bakugou might hit the ground, but no dice. He managed to steady himself before he got to that point.  

Bakugou sent a snarl in his direction as the rest of his group caught up with him. Sero attached some of his elbow tape to Bakugou as he rose in the air again, likely as a new defensive measure in case he got sent flying backwards again. Meanwhile, Tsunori seemed to be readying herself for another attack.

“Oh wow, it looks like Kendo’s group is playing fastball!” Present Mic said. “Better watch out, those look like they hurt!” 

“They’re using their vantage point to keep control of the field,” Aizawa said, still monotone despite the fact that he was in the announcing booth. “Reaching them will be a challenge, but any intelligent team should be able to think up a counter-strategy." 

“They have the high ground now---YEAH!”

“Keep an eye on Tsunori’s team,” Izuku said. “I think they’re--” 

Before he could finish his words, Tsunori quickly shot six sharp horns in their direction with Horn Cannon. 

Oh shit--

 A loud clang noise rang out as the horns clashed against metal. A metallic shield, in particular. Yaoyorozu had quickly made one and brought it up to defend them when she’d seen the horns coming. 

“Q-quick reflexes, Yaoyorozu,” Izuku breathed in relief. 

“How-how’s our height, Kendo?” Uraraka panted through the exertion of lightening the entire group. “We’re up so high!” 

“We can’t get lower, though, otherwise we’re in Todoroki’s ice range.”

“G-got it.”  

“Prepare to fire! Bakugou approaching!” Izuku called. 

This time, Bakugou was expecting their attack. He dodged the balls in an impressive spiral motion, before lunging closer. But Izuku was expecting that. “Hit now!” 

Uraraka pulled the long, thin baton from her sleeve and promptly smacked Bakugou in the side with it as hard as she could. Because he was flying forward so fast, so the hit was devastating, throwing Bakugou to the left with a loud thunk. Izuku heard Bakugou curse as he struggled to right himself in the air. 

Better yet, this gave Yaoyorozu just enough time to throw up a ball to Kendo, who immediately whipped it down into Bakugou’s stomach. Fortunately for him, Sero’s tape went taut and snapped him back before he could get launched out-of-bounds. 

Izuku had known that Bakugou would try to attack on Urarka’s side. Bakugou needed to be wary of Yaoyorozu, who was capable of making anything, and he’d avoided Izuku like the plague ever since Battle Trials. 

He also knew Bakugou would dive down slightly (into short-range weapon striking range) and then pop up to snatch the headband. It was a signature move of his, something Izuku knew from years of watching. 

I knew that giving Uraraka a little extra reach might just save us in time--I’m so glad I asked Yaoyorozu to make it! 

The fact that Bakugou didn’t immediately come back up after them either meant the hit had been pretty bad or that he was sick of them and was going to try to get points from other teams. Izuku wasn’t sure which was more likely. 

“I’m running out of energy,” Yaoyorozu said, sounding strained. “Not right now--but I can’t keep making balls at this rate--”

Yaoyorozu quickly brought up her shield again as Pony Tsunori shot more Horn Cannons in their direction. 

“I’m getting tired too,” Uraraka admitted. “I might need to go down soon.” 

“Under ten minutes here folks--the stakes are high! Let’s see what everyone can do!” Mic’s announcement called.

Ten minutes… too much time. 

Shoot… but I know what we need to do.

“I have a plan,” Izuku announced. “Yaoyorozu, we need to take out the other team’s jetpack.” 

“Tsunori is the one giving us the most trouble though, not her team,” Kendo said. “And she can fly independently.”

“That pink-haired support girl can’t carry the other boy by herself,” Izuku refuted. “And the rider’s not allowed to hit the ground. If you take out his jetpack…” 

“She’ll be forced back to ground with them to carry him,” Kendo said. “Okay, let’s do it.” 

Tsunori was circling around, looking for another opening. They needed to do this quick. 

“Uraraka, lighten that shield,” Izuku said. Without questioning his suggestion, Uraraka did so. Then, Izuku grabbed it and handed it to Kendo. “Take aim,” he whispered. 

Kendo nodded in understanding. 

With the shield gone, Tsunori lunged forward and started shooting her Horn Cannons at them again.

“Pull up!” Izuku shouted. Kendo pressed full thrust on the jetpack, sending them flying up into the sky. Then, she pulled her arm back, and threw the lightened shield with all her might at the other team. 

Kendo was a martial artist, but that wasn't all. She was also fond of baseball, and many other throwing sports. Her aim was true, and sliced through the enemy team’s jetpack. 

Tsunori saw what happened. Panicked, she immediately turned around and went flying towards her teammates, catching them with her horns before they hit the ground. From there, she didn’t fly up towards them again, seeming to have been grounded. 

Maybe ' what if she grabs her teammates with her horns and flies back up' or perhaps ' will her team be okay once we knock them out of the sky?!' were questions that Izuku should have been asking himself before he came up with this plan, but to be fair, for the entire fight Tsunori hadn’t been able to manipulate more than four horns at once (meaning she probably couldn’t prop up her teammates with her) and they’d been fairly low to the ground. 

“And Team Kendo has grounded the opposition! Is no one able to reach the ten million points!?” 

“ “... Both Team Bakugou and Team Monoma have tools at their disposal for flight, but going for the ten million over other points might be risky. We’ll have to wait and see how it turns out.” 

“I don’t feel so hot,” Uraraka said. “I don’t think…I can keep lifting us for much longer..” 

“But the jetpacks Yaoyorozu made aren’t designed to handle four people! That’s why we lightened them!” Kendo started. 

“Second phase of my plan,” Izuku said. “Yaoyorozu, do you have enough energy left to make another jetpack.” 

“Yes, but barely,” Yaoyorozu said.

“One jetpack is only designed to carry one person," Kendo repeated. "Being able to create just one more won’t save us.” 

“That’s okay, I have an idea,” Izuku said. “One jetpack for us three. We’ll lower ourselves down slowly, and then Uraraka releases Zero Gravity. And Kendo…” 

“I stay up here," she realized. "With the second jetpack."

“But if Bakugou comes back up, you’ll need to handle him on your own,” Izuku warned. “Remember, play defensive. Hands stay up near the headband.” 

“I can do that,” Kendo said. “Let’s do it, quick. Try to nab some points while you’re down there, won’t you?” 

“Alright!” 

Yaoyorozu created a jetpack from her stomach and slung it around her back. Gingerly, Izuku clung on to her instead of Kendo, and the two carefully separated, with Kendo going a bit higher and Yaoyorozu slowly lowering. Soon enough, the team was in two, and Izuku was back on the ground. Uraraka released her quirk, looking sick. Kendo remained in the sky.

“Team Kendo has broken up! And it looks like Kendo is still flying. Say, we might have to ban air strats next year--this honestly seems unfair!” 

“It won’t be the same competition next year, so it doesn’t really matter,” Aizawa said. “ But regardless, it is a hero’s job to advance and succeed whether or not the situation is fair.”

“Always so pragmatic, Eraser--oh wow, it looks like Team Bakugou is back on the leaderboard!” 

Izuku risked a glance in that direction. It looked like Bakugou was harassing Monoma, that 1-B person who’d called him entitled or something earlier. So maybe he quit chasing them because he found someone else who he wanted to crush into paste?

Then, Bakugou turned to look up at the sky and growled. 

… Okay, maybe he would be pursuing the ten million after all. That was bad.

Then, he winced, clutching his stomach and doubling over. 

… Oh?! Maybe not? 

“Two minutes on the clock, people!” 

Izuku and his team tried to gather more points, in case something happened with Kendo, but it was very difficult. At this point, all the headbands were in the possession of the strongest teams. With Uraraka and Yaoyorozu both too tapped out to use their quirks, and Izuku not having an applicable one, it was difficult for them to sneak up on any teams. They almost managed to snatch one from a 1-B team, but the purple-haired gen ed student’s team dove in and took it before they could. 

Disappointing, but at this point, they were essentially just running down the clock. 

“And that’s time!” 

Izuku stopped, panting. He looked over at the leaderboard.

“In first place, Team Kendo!” 

The crowd cheered, and it suddenly dawned on Izuku that he’d come in first for two rounds in the Sports Festival. He felt almost dizzy with the realization. He was… succeeding?! In something hero-related?

“Great job, team,” Uraraka said, sounding exhausted but excited. 

“In second place, Team Bakugou!” 

It looked like it was grating on Bakugou to be in second-place, but the placement was still relatively high. Definitely not the worst position. 

And before Present Mic was even done announcing, Bakugou was already limping off the field toward the recovery area. Ouch. The baseball-to-stomach injury probably had hurt, or maybe it was the baton-to-hip at rapid speeds? 

Well, now Izuku felt kinda guilty… 

“In third place, Team Todoroki! In fourth, Team Shinsou! Everyone from these groups will be moving on!” 

[ALERT: HEROICS QUEST ACTIVATION!]

Heroics Quest: Final Round

• Goal: Finish in the Top Four
• Bonus: Win the Sports Festival

REWARDS: ???

BONUS REWARDS: ???

The quest immediately snapped Izuku out of guilt and back to determination and focus. He would really love more stat points, he needed them pretty badly at this stage. 

But to actually succeed in it, he needed to finish in the top four of the Sports Festival, with an additional optional bonus if he managed to win. That would be tough…

But he’d already gotten this far, right?

“Whew, I’m beat,” Hizashi said, yawning. 

Aizawa hid a fond smile in his capture weapon. Hizashi always looked adorable when he did that. It was almost worth getting roped into this horrible announcing position while the last of his burn wounds healed. 

… Almost. 

“You wanna grab coffee in the break room together while we wait for the next round to start?” Hizashi offered. 

Aizawa shook his head. “I need to have a quick conversation with Nedzu. He called me for something, said it was important. I’ll meet with you back at the booth.” 

Hizashi twitched oddly at this, his eyes rounding slightly. It was a bit of an unusual reaction. 

“Something wrong?” Aizawa asked, tilting his head. 

Hizashi paused. “No… nothing’s wrong. I’ll meet up with you later.” 

Hizashi turned and started walking towards the break room. 

Hm. Whatever. He’s probably just tired. 

Aizawa walked to Nedzu’s office. 

Nedzu had received Midoriya’s message about the person with the Dark Reflection quirk, and how it had a tag. Transferred, it had said. 

He was glad that Midoriya had managed to get this message to him, even though Midoriya didn’t know the importance of the tags or their implications. Maybe he needed to have a conversation with him about it later. 

For now, though, Nedzu needed to focus on how one of the heroes in their midst had also received their quirk from an outside source, likely All for One.

Now, this wasn’t an immediate red flag. Well, actually it was, but it wasn’t a crimson-blood-red flag, it was just a mild warning sign. This was because All for One, before his defeat by All Might five years ago, had been at the helm of a significant quirk-trading business, and he often gave or took quirks in exchange for favors. It was quite possible that the person in question had asked for a Heroics-suited quirk in their younger days, thus causing this incident. 

It didn’t take long for Nedzu to find the hero in question by looking at all the quirks of those who had been in attendance. 

Ah. It was a hero called Sparklebright, a recent graduate of Shiketsu. She’d been invited as a ‘graduation present’ of sorts, it seemed one of the Shiketsu teachers had managed to get her a ticket by arguing it would be good for cross-school relations. Her quirk was registered as: ‘Dark Reflection--increases the user’s strength when they feel negative emotions like stress, sadness or anger.’

That made some sense. A strength quirk would be something that Sparklebright could have wanted for Heroics, even if it pulled on negative emotions. It was unfeasible to think All for One had manipulated her into taking Dark Reflection quirk if he would get something in return from it. 

Still, they couldn’t have someone who owed All for One a favor hanging about on campus. So he’d called Aizawa to kindly escort her off-campus while making as little fuss as possible. And, if she attempted an attack, Aizawa would be able to dispatch her with ease. 

But, as he was flipping through the cameras looking for her, Nedzu realized that she was near the exit, about to leave campus. 

Hm, that’s a little odd… 

But then, he noticed her excitedly chatting with Gang Orca as he also left, trailing after him like an overexcited puppy. Gang Orca smiled gently back and talked with her too, though it was too far away to hear what they were saying on cameras. The two ended up walking off campus together. 

Oh, that makes more sense. If she found a networking opportunity already and wasn’t really interested in the final round anyways… 

“What’d you need me for?” Aizawa asked, looking into his office. 

“Oh, actually nothing, now. I resolved the situation,” Nedzu said.

“Alright, then.” Aizawa shrugged and left. 

Nedzu turned back to his cameras. A little bit more cursory research on Sparklebright wouldn’t go amiss. I can do that while I watch the final round. He felt a spark of excitement at the idea of the final round. He wanted to say that it was because he liked seeing young heroes thrive (which was true) but there was a more ever-present reason for his excitement. He couldn’t help but feel a razor-sharp excitement (tension?) when he thought about how Midoriya would perform. 

It’s going to be an interesting year… 

Chapter Text

Both Ojiro and Shoda told Midnight they didn’t want to be in the finals, and were as such replaced by Shiozaki and Tetsuetsu. After that, Midnight explained the final round, and the matchups between everyone were released. 

Kendo Itsuka vs. Uraraka Ochaco

Yaoyorozu Momo vs. Shiozaki Ibara

Jirou Kyoka vs. Iida Tenya

Bakugou Katsuki vs. Todoroki Shouto

Shinsou Hitoshi vs. Kirishima Eijiro 

Sero Hanta vs. Ashido Mina

Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu vs. Kaminari Denki

Aoyama Yuga vs. Midoriya Izuku

Izuku looked on with relief. Bakugou was in a completely different bracket from him, meaning they wouldn’t need to fight unless it was in the finals. Same with Todoroki.  In fact… 

“Todoroki’s starting out fighting Bakugou!?” Kaminari said. “Geez. That fight’s really gonna be something.” 

“And you’ll have to fight the winner!” Mineta cheerfully informed Iida. 

“Oh,” Iida said, suddenly sounding a little worried. “Well, I’ll do my best.” 

“I’m sure you’ll do great Iida,” Uraraka said, pumping her fist. “Take ‘em out!” 

“Let's give it our all, mon ami!” Aoyama declared, with a little twirl, glancing at Izuku.

Ah, yes. Aoyama was his first fight. 

If he won, after that he’d have to fight either Kirishima or Kaminari. Both Kirishima and Kaminari were pretty strong, so that was a bit worrying… and he didn’t really have a direct plan against Aoyama’s quirk, so he’d have to come up with one right now… lucky he was going last. 

Ojiro, strangely, dragged Kirishima away whispering some kind of advice. Was it because Ojiro was on the purple guy’s team and Kirishima’s match is against purple guy? Is he giving some kind of advice against him? 

Izuku shrugged to himself. He could worry about him later. For now, he needed to prepare himself for his Aoyama fight. 

“Alright everyone! Fifteen minutes until our first match, Uraraka vs. Kendo!” Midnight yelled, cracking her whip. 

“I need to go prepare for my match,” Uraraka said. 

“And I should do the same,” Iida said. 

“Good luck,” Izuku said sincerely. 

“Thank you!” 

The three split up, his two friends going off towards each of their respective break rooms. Izuku idly walked towards the student stands, deciding to watch some of the other matches so he could strategize against their quirks.

And in the meantime, Izuku just had to prepare for beating Aoyama…

Aizawa was in the staff break room, putting his things together before he had to go back to narrate the regular Sports Festival matches. Kan was there, too, vigorously filling out some kind of paperwork. 

“Not many 1-B students passed, huh,” Aizawa said, absently. It was more a commiseration than a barb. 

Still, Kan’s eyes flashed with anger. “Yeah, you must think that’s hilarious,” he snapped. 

Aizawa was a little taken aback. 

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Aizawa said. “Your class this year just got unlucky.” 

Aizawa would probably attribute 1-B’s loss to excellent 1-A strategies and their own poor choice to split into so many tiny groups rather than a few large ones. Regardless, he got the sense that saying that right now wouldn’t help. 

Kan’s eyes got a little bit softer. “Ah, I see.” He went back to papers. 

Still, something didn’t sit right about the whole situation. 

“I don’t want this rivalry to get too serious,” Aizawa said. “I want your class to succeed too.” 

Kan’s frown got deeper. “Hm.” 

Aizawa was about to say something else, when the bell rang, signifying that the next match would begin in ten minutes. He had to leave. Kan knew this too.

“You have somewhere to be,” Kan said. And though he didn’t look as mad as he had before, the hostility wasn’t completely gone from his eyes. 

Aizawa gave Kan a short bow, hoping that Kan would let go of whatever grudge he was holding, and went to walk back to the announcing booth. When he got there, Hizashi sprang out of his seat to greet him. 

“It’s so good you're here! You were almost late!” 

Aizawa gestured to the clock. “I still have ten minutes.” 

“Still! I thought you’d be back sooner!”

Aizawa shrugged. “I stopped by the teachers’ lounge to say hi to Kan.” 

Hizashi did another one of those strange twitches he had earlier. 

Aizawa tilted his head slightly and frowned. 

Hizashi’s mouth widened in an odd grin. “Well, you’re here now! Let’s get ready for announcing the third round!” 

“Okay,” Aizawa said. It would probably be better to ask Hizashi what was bothering him after the Sports Festival was finished.  

Kendo and Uraraka squared off, having a miniature martial arts showdown. Uraraka threw a punch at Kendo, but Kendo dodged easily and sent Uraraka flying with a kick. Kendo was the better martial artist, but if Uraraka could make contact with Kendo once by palm strike, she could use her quirk to immobilize Kendo and finish the match. 

The matches would replay later. He needed to investigate Sparklebright. 

Those are my students! They’re doing so well! 

Nedzu tapped his paw on the desk a few times. Focus! You just need to look at her quirk… 

He tapped on his computer, hacking into Sparklebright’s previous quirk records. It was easy enough, and soon enough he was looking at the history she had with her quirk. And it was certainly odd. Her quirk had originally been registered as Sparkle, a quirk that allowed her to form multi-colored sparks (as far as he could tell that’s what it had been when she’d gone through hero school at Shiketsu) but a few days ago it had been quietly changed to Dark Reflection. She must have updated her quirk forms. 

Did that imply she’d gotten her new quirk not long ago?

More evidence that All for One was alive, if he was handing out quirks left-and-right at this stage. 

So now he just needed to-

Uraraka, despite having been a punching bag for the beginning of the match, managed to land a solid hit on Kendo. Kendo lifted off the ground due to Zero Gravity, and so now was unable to move. It counted as a win for Uraraka. 

Yesyes perfect--

No! Focus!

He needed… to call Tsukauchi. Yes, that would do it. Tsukauchi could take Sparklebright into custody and ask her questions to figure out what was going on. He dialled Tsukauchi.

When he answered, Nedzu immediately said, “I need you to find the hero Sparklebright and ask her questions. I have reason to believe she’s been in recent contact with All for One. Ask her about what her quirk is.” 

Tsukauchi had already been briefed on the fact that All for One might be alive, and Nedzu knew he was eager for more information. “Of course. What brought this on?” 

“Midoriya Izuku. Said her quirk was transferred,” Nedzu said. “Her quirk changed from what it used to be on records, too, so we can’t be sure exactly what it is right now.” 

“Ah, I understand. I’ll get her into the station right away,” Tsukauchi said. “Anything else?”

“No, that’s all,” Nedzu said. “Just be wary.” 

Tsukauchi hummed in affirmation and hung up the call. 

With that, the pressure on Nedzu’s mind eased. The fog clouding his mind lessened, and everything rapidly sharpened back into focus. 

He sighed with relief, and turned his attention back to the Sports Festival.

“Yaoyorozu Momo wins!” Present Mic announced.

Izuku felt a little bad for Shiozaki, who scrambled off the field with her vines toasted. He’d thought that Yaoyorozu would just get thrown out by the vines without a lot of time to react, but Yaoyorozu confidently pulling a flamethrower out of her belly had changed that. She must have had time to eat for energy while Uraraka was having her match. 

Luckily, Shiozaki’s vines would grow back. She just needed a bit of water and sun. 

“Next up, Jirou Kyoka vs Iida Tenya!” 

Ah, the next match would be interesting. And by interesting Izuku meant a massacre. Without support equipment, Jirou didn’t have any offensive moves, so Iida just pushed her out of the ring. The match was over quickly. 

“And now we have Bakugou Katsuki, up against Todoroki Shouto!” 

Everyone waited with baited breath for the match to start, Izuku included. He wasn’t sure whether or not he wanted Bakugou to win or Todoroki to win. Todoroki seemed more powerful as far as brute force went, but Bakugou’s quirk control was second to none. Izuku knew Bakugou’s strategies well, but Bakugou was scary. 

The two clashed in a bright display of colors, explosions reflecting off crystals of ice. Bakugou was fully capable of smashing ice sheets or dodging them, but Todoroki was fully capable of making more. At first, Izuku wasn’t sure who would win. Bakugou was skilled, but Todoroki shot more ice at him, beat for beat. It seemed like Todoroki would never slow down.

… But he was slowing down. Peering closer, Izuku noticed Todoroki shivering as he shot off more ice in an attempt to capture Bakugou. 

Hypothermia, Izuku thought. A negative side effect of his quirk. He’s getting too cold. 

Didn’t he have fire powers? Why wasn’t he using them?

Izuku had perhaps thought that maybe the cold from Todoroki’s ice would slow down Bakugou’s sweating, but Bakugou’s physical exertion, plus the warmth of his explosions, seemed to be enough to counteract it. Bakugou was rushing forward at full speed. 

“He’s strong, but there’s no way Bakugou can top Todoroki,” Sero said offhandedly, not noticing how the fight had changed in tempo. “Look at all that ice!” 

Izuku didn’t bother to correct him, even as Todoroki slowed down even more. 

A few minutes later, one of Bakugou’s explosions tossed Todoroki out of the ring.

Bakugou seemed unhappy with how easy it was. It took Midnight sharply yelling at him for him to back away from the out-of-bounds Todoroki.  

Izuku sighed, frowning. 

He didn’t want to fight Bakugou… but he supposed that that problem was a long way away. He still needed to get to the finals before that was an actual concern. 

The next match was Shinsou vs. Kirishima, but Izuku didn’t stick around too much longer in the student stands to watch. His match would be happening soon, so he decided to leave and go to his pre-match room. 

He knew Aoyama’s quirk control wasn’t the best, an d that his quirk came with some pretty heavy drawbacks. Was there a way to exploit that?

Shinsou stared down Kirishima in the ring, eyes unimpressed. 

“You hero types really are violent, aren’t you?” he said. 

Alright… I just have to say nothing! Just like Ojiro said! Kirishima though. He hardened his arms, preparing for battle.

“I mean, that explosion kid for one. Look at how he went after Todoroki,” Shinsou continued, cautiously circling around the arena. 

Kirishima kept his mouth glued shut, even though he disliked the way Shinsou talked about Bakugou.

“He makes you all look bad,” Shinsou goaded. “He’d be a better villain than a hero, if you ask me. He’s basically a savage.” 

Kirishima felt a flare of anger. “He’s not--” 

Shinsou smirked, and a strange calm washed over Kirishima. A few moments later, he found himself out-of-bounds. 

“And after a thrilling match, Tetsutetsu takes the victory! Now let’s see what our next competitors can do--Midoriya Izuku, class 1-As responsible president, and the gloriously shining Aoyama Yuga!” Bright light shone down on Izuku as he walked into the field, feeling half-nervous and half-confident. Aoyama stood across from him, a thrilled grin on his face. 

“I love sparkling in the spotlight!” Aoyama said. “I hope we both have a chance to shine!” 

“Me too,” Izuku said, nodding sharply. 

Let’s see what you can do. 

Chapter Text

“Aaand… start!” Midnight said, cracking her whip. 

Izuku raced forward, veering to the left. Aoyama lined up his laser and blasted it in Izuku’s direction. Leaping ahead in a forward roll, Izuku narrowly dodged the laser. 

If I can just get behind him, he won’t have a way to attack me! I just need to get close. 

So he ran closer, trying to circle around Aoyama so he could take him out from behind. 

This only sort of worked. The laser caught up with him and hit Izuku’s arm, but it honestly didn’t hurt that much. And it didn’t stop him from plowing ahead. 

“Not many can stand up to my laser like that, my friend! Are you sure you don’t have Kirishima’s quirk?” Aoyama teased. 

“Aha--maybe!” Izuku called back. And, yeah, now that he was thinking about it, that hit had hurt a lot less than it should. 

Is my increased VIT helping me out? I do have like fifty of that stat now… 

Izuku kept running forward-left, circling, knowing he’d get hit with Aoyama’s quirk if he let up even for a moment. 

I didn’t want anyone except the teachers to notice my multiple ‘quirks’… luckily, I think Aoyama was joking with that last comment. 

Izuku stumbled, and Aoyama’s belly-button laser raked across his legs. He fell to the ground, but his legs were only a little singed at worst. There was no real damage. (Looks like boosting his VIT had been a good choice.) In moments, he was able to get back up. 

Aoyama’s eyes widened in surprise. Izuku lunged forward and tackled Aoyama before he could activate the laser again, quickly flipping him over so that he wouldn’t need to take a navel laser to the stomach. 

“Midoriya has Aoyama pinned! Can Aoyama escape in time?” Present Mic narrated. 

“You took me off-guard, mon ami!” Aoyama said, activating the laser again. The force of it impacted with the ground, pushing them both up in the air. Izuku scrambled to get off Aoyama’s back. “Someone that can withstand my laser at full blast…” 

Oh boy… he’s not joking now. 

As Aoyama deactivated his laser to get back on his feet, Izuku swept his legs, sending him sprawling back on the ground again. This time, though, instead of trying to pin him belly-down, Izuku left him on his back, but put all his weight on Aoyama’s shoulders and hips. Then, he ducked his head so that none of his body parts were out of navel-laser’s range. Once this was done, all Aoyama could do was fruitlessly fire off laser beams into the sky, now unable to hit anything or properly leverage the momentum. 

“He’d had him pinned for ten seconds! That means Midoriya is the winner!” Present Mic declared. The crowd cheered. 

Izuku picked himself off the ground slowly, wondering if the boy would question him again. 

Aoyama gave him a long look. Then, he smiled. “You’re very mysterious, Midoriya,” he said. “But we all are, in our own ways. I look forward to working with you.” 

Izuku breathed a sigh of relief. “Definitely, Aoyama. It was a great fight.” He offered his hand to Aoyama, who took it, and helped him up. 

“An excellent display of sportsmanship,” Midnight said into the mic, though she sounded a bit irritated for whatever reason. “A short break, and then it’s Uraraka vs. Yaoyorozu in the second round brackets!” 

Izuku glanced up at the matches listed on the scoreboard.

Round Two

Uraraka Ochako vs. Yaoyorozu Momo

Iida Tenya vs. Bakugou Katsuki

Ashido Mina vs. Shinsou Hitoshi

Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu vs. Midoriya Izuku

He’d made it to the top eight! If he could win one more fight (with Tetsutetsu) then he’d get the first Sports Festival prize! Two more fights after that… well, if he won those, he’d be the First Year Sports Festival champion.

Take it one at a time Izuku, he commanded himself. Just focus on your match with Tetsutetsu. Now… what was his quirk… I think it was like Kirishima’s, but I should use Observe just to be sure. 

Izuku decided to watch the outcome of Uraraka and Yaoyorozu’s match while he was thinking of ways to counter Tetsutetsu’s quirk. As he watched Yaoyorozu go after Uraraka with a baseball bat she’d made with her quirk, he wondered idly what her title was.

Luckily, he could find out! He mentally cast Observe, and Yaoyorozu’s stats popped up. 

Yaoyorozu Momo -- Lvl. 24 -- Heiress

Quirk: Creation

[See Stats & Skills]

Heiress… that made sense, she was due to inherit a lot. He’d already known the rest, though her level was almost eye-poppingly high for a student. Bakugou had been Lvl. 19 around a year ago, and he himself had been high compared to his old classmates. He wondered what Bakugou’s level was sitting at now. 

And… now that he was looking… 

Izuku mentally willed the See Stats & Skills tab to open. 

He didn’t expect it to work, but to his surprise, another window popped up. 

VIT: 21, STR: 18, DEX: 23, INT: 31, WIS: 28, CHA: 26

Notable Skills: Biochemistry, Diplomacy, Stock Market Trading

Izuku grinned, but still was shocked. He hadn’t been able to get that to work, basically ever before! Why was it working now when before it was broken? 

Uraraka had gotten her hands on Yaoyorozu’s bat, floating it into the upper atmosphere. While Yaoyorozu probably could have pulled out another weapon and gone out on the offensive, she hesitated, which let Uraraka get a hand on her arm. With that, and another judicious use of Float, Yaoyorozu was out of the competition. She trekked off the field looking disappointed. 

Izuku felt bad for her, but he was happy for Uraraka, and he had his own fight to worry about at the moment. Plus, he’d just unlocked another subset of one of his most favorite abilities. As Uraraka was walking out, Izuku managed to get a glance of her and navigated to see her abilities as well. 

Uraraka Ochako -- Lvl. 21 -- Unstoppable Force

Quirk: Zero Gravity

[See Stats & Skills]

VIT: 19, STR: 23, DEX: 24, INT: 23, WIS: 20, CHA: 28

Notable Skills: Construction, Improvisation, Friendly Conversation

Unstoppable Force was a pretty strong title! Izuku was proud of her. And she won!

As Bakugou entered the stage with Iida, Izuku winced slightly to himself and navigated backstage to his break room. 

Midnight tapped her foot, waiting for the next round to start. Iida and Bakugou squared up, both having looks of determination on their faces. 

Normally this would make her excited. She loved the Sports Festival and got excited about tournaments easily, one of the reasons she was chosen to announce the final round. But right now? She just felt so irritated. Everything seemed to annoy her. That stupid grin on Shinsou’s face. Midoriya and Aoyama taking too long to get off the field. Yaoyorozu stupidly going for a baseball bat instead of a more sophisticated weapon that would better show off her quirk to the pros. She knew a lot of these feelings weren’t really warranted but she was certainly ready for this to be over with. 

Maybe it was just the crowds and noise that was bothering her. Whatever. 

“Iida versus Bakugou, begin!” Midnight announced. 

Bakugou recklessly threw himself at Iida, explosions backing his rapid approach. Iida pivoted to the side, and suddenly his engines were blaring blue-white flames in a way she’d never seen before. Had he been saving this secret move for the whole competition?

“Recipro Burst!” Iida yelled. In the blink of an eye, Iida swung a recipro-boosted roundhouse kick straight at Bakugou. 

Bakugou probably hadn't even know that the move existed. There was nothing he could do to react, except to widen his eyes slightly. 

Iida’s foot slammed into Bakugou’s shoulder, and from such a close position Midnight could hear a semi-worrying cracking sound. Bakugou went tumbling to the ground. The crowd went wild at the sudden turn, cheering so loudly Midnight had to strain to listen to what the students were saying to each other. 

Iida stepped back a few paces. “I can see that you are quite injured! Forfeit now!” 

“Like hell,” Bakugou spat, drawing himself to his feet. 

“Are you certain?” Iida said, and Midnight could understand why. Bakugou seemed to be protecting his injured arm, and after hearing that cracking, she was a close to calling off the match herself. 

Though…

Midnight peered closer, and noticed the hesitance behind Iida’s movements. Noticed how Iida’s engines were sparking slightly, but fruitlessly, nothing like the exhaust that had been coming off before that point. She’d guess that his move required a recharge. 

“Surrender! There is no way for you to win this fight, Bakugou,” Iida said. 

He was bluffing… or at least stalling. He needed time to recharge after Recipro. 

Midnight saw how Bakugou’s gaze locked on to Iida’s engines, and then how he looked up with a smirk. He knew.

And that’s why he ran forward at Iida moments later, opening with an explosion-laden swing from his uninjured arm. 

Iida ducked, but a few more explosions from Bakugou meant he was easily boxed into the corner. Then, Bakugou roughly shoved him out of bounds, baring his teeth all the while. Once he had, he gave Iida a dismissive scoff. “You can’t win shit if you’ve only got one move,” Bakugou said, rudely. 

Midnight felt a sharp wave of exhaustion and anger. Normally, she’d probably be sympathetic to the injured student, and consider the fact that he was lashing out because something hurt, but right now she was just mad at his impoliteness. Iida was a skilled student and didn't deserve that kind of scathing critique, even if he had made a pretty risky gambit. 

“Get off the field, you two,” Midnight said, abruptly. 

Iida bowed quickly and Bakugou scoffed, but they both listened.

Thank God. 

“Next match… Ashido versus Shinsou!”

Thirteen tapped their pen against the desk. “Have you seen Power Loader?” they asked. 

Vlad King barely paid them any attention. He was scribbling in a notebook of some kind, looking completely obsessed. He didn’t even acknowledge that they’d asked a question. 

“Never mind,” Thirteen sighed. 

Ashido leapt left and right, shedding acid everywhere. The battle was slowly becoming a mass of acid puddles, and Shinsou knew he needed to wrap this up quick before he was forced out of the ring. “You may seem cute, but you’re secretly dangerous, right?” Shinsou said, sidestepping another acid splash. 

“Acid is destructive, you know,” Shinsou taunted. “You’re going to hurt someone.”

Ashido looked affronted, her fists clenching as she skidded across the acid-filled field. 

“I bet you only got in because of that quirk,” Shinsou said. “You don’t look very skilled.” 

Another dodge. Shinsou was locked into a corner now. It was down to the wire. 

“I wonder what the Hero Commission will think when you melt the face off some poor petty thief,” Shinsou said. “You’re being so careless with that quirk. Does that disappoint your parents? Do you feel bad about it?”

Finally, Ashido snapped. “Shut UP !” 

Shinsou grabbed hold of her mind just in time. A few seconds later, and she might have forced him out of the ring. “Leave the ring,” Shinsou said, sighing when she started to move away from him. Well, he was two-for-two when it came to insulting hero students on the basis that they were dangerous. Who knew it was such an effective insult? People told him that kind of thing on the daily.  

“Shinsou wins!” 

“Hello?” Iida said, picking up his phone. 

“Oh, Tenya!” his mother said. “I have bad news… your brother, he was injured...”

Izuku fished for Tetsutetsu’s stats as they both walked on the field. 

Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu -- Lvl. 17

Quirk: Steel

[See Stats & Skills]

VIT: 25, STR: 25, DEX: 17, INT: 18, WIS: 23, CHA: 19

Notable Skills: Cooking, Wrestling

Okay. So Izuku had to admit he didn’t have any long-range weapons, plus he wasn’t nearly as strong as Tetsutetsu when he had his quirk active. Since he needed to incapacitate Tetsutetsu or get a ring-out, it was probably best to take the fight as close to the edge as he could. 

So, Izuku didn’t approach Tetsutetsu. He stayed back near the edge of the field, only a few paces away from being out-of-bounds. 

Tetsutetsu grinned sharply. He hardened his forearms. “Good luck, Midoriya!” 

Izuku nodded in response. 

Tetsutetsu ran towards him at top speed, throwing a wide punch. Izuku dodged right.

His stance is too wide… he’s clearly not trained in any standing martial arts… Izuku thought, remembering his hand-to-hand training from Neijire. His skill is listed as ‘Wrestling’... not Takwando or anything like that! 

Izuku waited for Tetsutetsu to try to attack him again. When Tetsutetsu threw another too-wide punch, Izuku pivoted backwards, grabbed his shoulder, and pushed Tetsutetsu as hard as he could. With a wobble, he went stumbling over the line. 

Heroics Quest Complete! 

Rewards [Hidden]: +5 stat points, +1000XP

“And the durable Tetsutetsu is no match for Midoriya!” Present Mic announced as the crowd cheered at his victory. 

“Damn! I lost my balance there!” Tetsutetsu complained, stretching as he got up from the ground. 

“It was a good try,” Izuku said, shyly. 

“Thanks,” Tetsutetsu said, sighing. “Well, good luck in the semifinals.” 

Izuku felt a jolt of excitement. 

He got more stat points-- more VIT, more spell points… or maybe he could invest them into strength-- and he was in the final four of his first Sports Festival!

Only two matches left! 

Izuku glanced up at the leaderboard, which shone large and bright above them. 

Round Three

Uraraka Ochako vs. Bakugou Katsuki

Shinsou Hitoshi vs. Midoriya Izuku

He’d need to face down Shinsou. 

Then… depending on the performance of his friend… 

Bakugou, or Uraraka. 

Chapter Text

Watching the match between Uraraka and Bakugou was heartbreaking. 

In the first part of the match, she’d been losing, even though Bakugou had to be cautious of her and her quirk. This annoyed the crowd, who thought he was toying with her, but Aizawa intervened over the intercom to reprimand them for judging him like that. 

Then, Uraraka had executed her plan. A brilliant plan. And then she’d lost. 

Izuku sighed, frowning as he approached his break room. Right now, there was a short intermission so that everyone in the audience could get a break. 

And, of course, he came face-to-face with his opponent in the halls. 

Wild purple hair and sharp purple eyes stared back at him. 

“So I have to fight you next, huh?” Shinsou said. 

Izuku activated his quirk. He was a bit speechless, still shocked he ran into his opponent like this. 

Shinsou Hitoshi -- Lvl. 16

Quirk: Brainwashing

[See Stats & Skills]

VIT: 20, STR: 15, DEX: 16, INT: 26, WIS: 24, CHA: 16

Notable Skills: Studying, Voice Imitation, Insults

Shinsou scowled. “Quiet, huh? Did you find out from Ojiro?"

When Izuku only tilted his head, his scowl deepened. "You can’t think I’d attack you in some random hallway, right?” 

“Umm, I don’t know what you’re talking about," Izuku said. "I'm just surprised to see you…” 

Shinsou’s eyebrows rose. “Hm,” he said. “I’m going to my break room.” 

Izuku tried to smile at him. “Good luck,” he said. 

Shinsou’s eyes turned sharp. “Thanks. But I don’t plan to lose.” 

With that, Shinsou turned away and walked out without a word. 

Worried, Izuku bit into his lip as he ducked into his breakroom. It sure didn’t seem like Shinsou liked him at all… 

And that quirk! Brainwashing was bad. Izuku didn’t have any counter to that that he knew of, but the fact that it was Shinsou's quirk made total sense. Ashido and Kirishima were both reported having walked out of the ring without a fight. 

He glanced at the clock. He wished he could go to Ojiro to confirm the exact mechanisms behind his quirk… but there just wasn't time. He’d have to figure something out himself. 

Luckily… Izuku had a couple of hints. One from Shinsou himself. He’d accused Izuku of being quiet because he’d thought Shinsou would attack him, and because he’d ‘heard from Ojiro’ about something. Was it his quirk? That implied that keeping quiet was some kind of defense. 

Plus, that skill, Voice Imitation, might be involved. Maybe his quirk was voice-activated?

His mind flashed back to how that student with Hypnosis had trapped him in the closet, and he shuddered. Those deep purple eyes held so much spite, too. Damn… he wished his future opponents weren’t so scary. Even if he beat this guy, he’d have to face Bakugou, who he was afraid would beat him within an inch of his life for even daring to get to the finals. 

He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to do this. 

How could he even beat Bakugou? 

Nothing… nothing he had even came close to Bakugou’s level of quirk control, his level of raw power, his tactical brilliance, his rage. All he had was healing and durability, which seemed nice but what did healing and durability matter if Bakugou could just hit him again? Panic clawed at his throat. 

It’ll be fine, Izuku reasoned. I have a chance. And the teachers wouldn’t let the match go too far. 

And yet, his anxiousness didn’t go down in the slightest. 

“It’s your turn on the field, kid,” Snipe said, poking his head in from the outside. 

“U-understood, sir,” Izuku said, walking out on unsteady legs. 

The lights, though awe-inspiring, were just too bright. Too much. That enigmatic purple-haired opponent stood across from him, eyes half-lidded. Izuku stood stock-still, even as Midnight shouted start. 

“You look kinda pale,” Shinsou asked. “Are you nervous?”

Izuku opened his mouth reflexively, then closed it. 

At that, Shinsou’s face grew darker and angrier. “I knew you were lying about not knowing my quirk.” 

Izuku managed to shift back into the fighting stance that Nejire taught him. 

“You act so high and mighty,” Shinsou seethed. “But you have to know you got to the semifinals by coincidence. Tripping people out of bounds and shit. What makes you think you’re worthy? What makes you deserve the Hero Course more than everyone else!” 

Izuku didn’t respond to his taunts. Shinsou wasn’t approaching him, though, most likely because he was bad in a fistfight and mostly relying on his quirk for matches. All Izuku had to do was attack and overpower him with Nejire’s moves. He’d probably win, and then he could enter the Finals. 

“Too scared to move?” Shinsou tried, circling him like a shark. “Or do you just think I’m not worth fighting? Afraid you’ll lose?” 

Shinsou really wanted to win. Izuku could practically taste the desperation. He could see that Shinsou really just wanted a place in the Hero Course, wanted it more than anything. 

What if he just… 

No! Izuku shook the traitorous thoughts out of his head. He couldn’t just… let Shinsou win, no matter how tempting it was. He had his own goals. He needed to get stronger, so he could save people with his healing and so protect himself. He couldn’t do that if he let important goals pass him by! 

Besides. He wanted to win. He deserved this. 

Izuku sucked in a breath, and charged. Shinsou spat insults at him, swinging weak and ineffective blows, but Izuku bowled him over and pushed him down. He sat on top of Shinsou, who just didn’t have enough brawn to push him off. 

One ten second countdown later, Midnight called the match. 

Izuku got off Shinsou, whose face was screwed up in a mixture of rage and hurt. 

“I’m sorry,” Izuku said. “The reason I froze in the hallway is because I was reading what your name and quirk was. That’s my ability. I didn’t think you would use it on me then, I was just surprised by it.” 

Shinsou’s eyes widened in surprise. “Of course,” he said, now looking a bit downtrodden. "So even if I hadn't made the mistake of blowing my cover in the early rounds..."  

“I would have known,” Izuku said. 

He reached out a hand. Shinsou took it. 

The two walked off the field, only pausing when Shinsou overheard Gen Ed students in the stands talking about how cool he’d been. With disappointment on his face but stars in his eyes, Shinsou suddenly didn’t seem so scary anymore. 

Bakugou was still scary. But Izuku would handle it. 

The Final Round… I can’t believe I’ve made it this far… 

Izuku realized there was one more thing he could do before his match with Bakugou. Since his VIT was at 49… he could see if turning it to 50 gave him some kind of saving grace. “One stat point to vitality,” Izuku said.

[Alert! Ability: Retaliate Unlocked; Prerequisite: 50 VIT]

[Open Retaliate: Explanation?]

“Yes!” Izuku said.

[Once per day, Retaliate allows the user to decrease the someone else's HP by the amount that the user is missing. Example: A 100-HP user at 94/100 could reduce a 75-HP user to 69/75 after using Retaliate. Retaliate will still get rid of the same amount no matter what.]

Izuku blinked at the explanation. It was kind of like Counter in that old pre-quirk game. Pocket monsters, or something like that? This meant if Izuku was really damaged, he could use his quirk to hurt someone really badly. 

… Wait! 

“Profile,” Izuku said. 

Midoriya Izuku -- Lvl. 18 -- Age: 15

HP: 500/500

Exhaustion: 42/2500

Title: Self-Sufficient

Quirk: The Gamer

[Stats][Skills][Inventory][Relationships][Questlog][Spells][Commands]

He knew that HP and Exhaustion were both based on his VIT stat. From his records of how his HP had changed, he’d noted that his HP was his raw VIT stat multiplied by ten.

Considering it was so directly correlated like that, and considering his VIT was probably monster high… 

It could be even more useful. 

Me only getting even a little injured could really hit someone else hard, Izuku thought. If I lose 400 HP and my opponent doesn't even have that much, Retaliate would kill them. 

It sucked that he had to get injured before he used it, but it could definitely be a Hail Mary in a bad situation. 

And it would probably be useful now. 

His match with Bakugou would be starting soon. He’d created the beginnings of a plan before, but with this new ability Retaliate, things were truly beginning to slot into place. 

Izuku puffed out a careful breath. 

“Let’s do this.” 

Izuku used Observe on Bakugou the moment he stepped out on the field. Besides the fact it was good practice for information-gathering, it was also vital to his plan. 

Bakugou Katsuki -- Lvl. 24

Quirk: Explosion

[See Stats & Skills]

VIT: 23, STR: 24, DEX: 27, INT: 28, WIS: 30, CHA: 20

Some decent stats. High WIS, DEX, and an Explosion quirk could end up a deadly combination.

Regardless. 23 VIT times ten meant that Bakugou had 230 HP, about half Izuku’s. Oh wow. 

So if he took 230 damage and used Retaliate it would kill Bakugou… definitely didn’t want to get that close… maybe removing a little bit under half his HP would be good practice? 

This was his first time trying, though, and he didn’t want to be too risky. He’d try to take seventy-ish damage, then he’d use Retaliate to attack Bakugou back. Because Izuku’s HP was so high, taking that amount of damage would be much worse for Bakugou. 

He just had to stay within the ring. If Bakugou tried to knock him out of the ring, Izuku might be screwed. He just didn’t have the DEX or enough relevant abilities to stop Bakugou from knocking him out of the ring. 

Bakugou’s grin was feral. “Get ready to lose, Deku.” 

“Match, start!” Midnight called. 

Bakugou ran forward and hit Izuku with an explosion. Rather than try to dodge, Izuku stood there and took it, widening his stance to avoid being thrown back.

[Alert: Damage Taken! (Type: Fire) -10HP] 

Then Izuku jumped left, staying more towards the center. Bakugou took it in stride, turning around and exploding him again, this time even larger on his stomach. 

[Alert: Damage Taken! (Type: Fire) -23HP] 

“For hitting me with that stupid baseball!” Bakugou roared, punching him again for another 12HP. 

I’m losing a normal amount of HP to these small explosions… the real reason I’m ‘hyper-durable’ seems to be because the amount of HP lost versus the amount of total HP I have means that these normal injuries aren’t turning up on my body! 

But there wasn’t time to think about that right now. To keep up appearances, Izuku threw a sloppy punch at Bakugou, one that his opponent was easily able to duck while throwing an uppercut into his chin. 

[Alert: Damage Taken! (Type: Blunt) -9HP] 

Izuku stumbled. He was getting closer, he was nearing fifty damage right now. Bakugou just seemed to be raging at him, not really questioning his lack of bruises at his attacks. 

“And Midoriya’s chances seem to be in rough shape! I wonder if, like Uraraka, he has any tricks up his sleeves!” Present Mic announced as Bakugou gut-punched Izuku again. 

[Alert: Damage Taken! (Type: Blunt) -22HP] 

Fifty-ish plus twenty-ish... perfect! He'd do it now. Was it touch-activated?

Izuku reached forward, hoping to tap Bakugou. Bakugou was moving quickly, and Izuku ended up accidentally jabbing him in the stomach. Whatever the case, when he willed for Retaliate to begin, it happened immediately. Bakugou’s breath hitched suddenly, clutching his stomach and dropping to his knees. “What--did you do--” Bakugou rasped, as bruises and light burns started to appear on his skin. 

Izuku was mildly horrified by what was happening, and the expression on his face. 

“It looks like Midoriya has attacked Bakugou with a devastating hit!” Present Mic called, too far away to see exactly what was going on. 

Izuku snapped back into action. He grabbed Bakugou’s gym uniform and started dragging him toward the edge. Bakugou seemed to snap out of it too, and he shot explosions out of both hands and out of Izuku’s grip. He landed a little bit away, burns and bruises now apparent on his chin and forearms. 

“What did you DO TO ME!?” Bakugou screamed. 

He raced forward, flying at Izuku as quick as the eye could see. 

Izuku jumped out of the way, and Bakugou launched himself out-of-bounds. 

“Bakugou is out of the ring! Izuku wins!” 

Izuku was stunned, even as Bakugou started growling in absolute rage. 

He's probably really shaken up by getting wounds randomly… otherwise he wouldn’t have been so reckless! He was so focused that he didn’t prepare for a sudden stop… 

So Izuku had used Retaliate to win, just not in the way he’d anticipated. He'd surprised Bakugou into losing.  

“Now we have Midoriya Izuku… our Sports Festival champion!” Present Mic called over the intercom, to the cheers of the crowd.

Heroics Quest Complete! 

Rewards [Hidden]: +15 stat points, +10000XP, Title “Sports Festival Champion”

[ALERT! Level up! You are now Lvl. 19!] 

Izuku looked at the rewards in shock. This had to have been the highest amount of stuff he’d gotten after any quest ever--

“You-” Bakugou’s snarl interrupted his train of thought. When Izuku turned to look at him, he saw that Bakugou was breathing harshly, staring at him without saying a word. His hands were curled into fists, and he looked two seconds away from decking Izuku right then and there. 

“Keep it together, Bakugou,” Midnight snapped, sounding completely unlike her usual friendly self. Izuku appreciated it, though, because once she said that to him Bakugou clenched his teeth and shouted something about dirty tricks before stomping away. 

Well, he wasn’t wrong… like Shinsou had said, all of his strategies had been tripping people out of bounds or something stupid like that. Dirty tricks and tanking hits is how he’d climbed up the ranks in the Sports Festival, but it was all he had. 

But as he was ushered up onto the podium, Izuku couldn’t help feeling festive and proud of himself. A little bit later, someone managed to get Bakugou up on the second-place podium with him (though it took a good ten minutes and a lot of shouting) and Izuku got to give Uraraka and Shinsou (sharing the third-place podium) a little wave from the top. 

Then All Might, All Might HIMSELF, handed him a medal. Izuku almost passed out on the podium. Even Bakugou’s anger melted a little to reveal awe at the sight of him. Since the two had never had him for classes, the only time they’d seen him was after the Sludge Villain Incident and when All Might had fought the Nomu at the USJ. And Bakugou, while not as obvious, was almost as hero-worshipping as Izuku. 

I won, Izuku thought, a bit hysterical. I won! 

Izuku walked off the stage, staring at his new medal, very happy. Uraraka trailed after him, chatting up a storm, clutching her own third-place medal with excitement. It was a shame that Iida had lost in the second round, but his showing in the first had been super impressive! Neither of them were sure where he’d gone, though. 

For now, Izuku got to head home to tell his mom all about it! Though he knew she’d been watching on TV. Oh! And he had to thank those third-years who helped him train, Neijire’s moves had been vital to his victory, and he had to look at all his stats--

Though he could just do that in a corner on the train! 

Once Urarka had left him, Izuku said “stats” and started looking at the situation. 

VIT: 50, STR: 18, DEX: 21, INT: 50, WIS: 50, CHA: 22

Unallotted Stat Points: 24

Twenty-four points was a serious amount. If he put it all into VIT, he’d have enough spell points to get Heal Major Wounds, which would be incredible. It wouldn’t be enough to help Mirio (he’d probably need Minor Regeneration at the very least to be able to ) but he couldn’t deny that major wounds healing would come in handy in general. It was also something he could probably explain with his previous abilities. Call it ‘regenerating himself turned outwards’ or something of the like. 

But that really was sinking all his stats in one area… this amount of stat points could give him a serious boost in DEX or STR, which would have been great for the Sports Festival. But he didn’t have a way to explain boosts in those stats quite yet. 

Izuku shook his head and sighed. He’d decide at a later date. Now… 

“Title, Sports Festival Champion,” Izuku said. 

Sports Festival Champion: If more than fifty people are watching the user, they receive a temporary +50 STR boost. 

Izuku’s eyes widened. This… if he was in a crowded area (or he became a famous hero with a lot of people to watch his fights) this would be great . +50 was no paltry amount of STR, it was like double all he had. He'd have to be sure to equip the title if he knew lots of people were watching one of his fights. And, he'd think over where to put his stats over the weekend. 

He was also excited to see Aizawa on Monday (it was Saturday today) since he’d actually have something that the man could be proud of! Speaking of… 

“Relationships,” Izuku said, as he got to his house. He looked down the list, happy to see that most of them had improved slightly (with the exception of Bakugou, who had of course gotten seriously worse) and that Aizawa’s new relationship was +17, Impressed. 

Izuku got the sense that Aizawa was tough to impress, so he was proud that he’d managed to do it, if only for a little while. 

But there was something else that was super weird.

Nedzu. Rep +???. [An exception has occurred. Please wait. Status Loading…]

A little loading symbol stood beside Nedzu’s rep, going in circles. Izuku stared at it for a couple of minutes, hand on the handle of his apartment door, but it did not change. 

An unsettled feeling curled in Izuku’s belly. What was this? Did it mean that Nedzu didn’t like him any more or was there something else going on?

It was kind of reacting like it did when it encountered Kurogiri… like it wasn’t sure what it was supposed to be doing. But since Nedzu had never fully explained what was going on with Kurogiri, Izuku had no idea how bad of a thing that was. 

Suddenly, the relationship changed. 

Nedzu. Rep +52. Fiercely Protective.

“Fifty-two?!” Izuku said, sudden shock rolling through him. That was… that was so high. That was higher than anyone else in his life with the exception of his mom. And Nedzu’s last number had been like fifteen or something. 

Jeez… well, I’m glad that's fixed now. If that hadn’t been fixed, I would have probably had to have contacted Aizawa-sensei about it… though, just to be safe I’ll ask Nedzu about it on Monday. Even though that's gonna be kinda awkward.  

Though, the longer he thought about it, the more sense it made. 

I bet that my quirk had to spend some time loading because it was adapting to the new high number. Maybe the Sports Festival raised his opinion of me a lot? 

Relieved, if a little bit nervous with how much Nedzu suddenly liked him, Izuku walked into his house to greet his mom and talk about the Sports Festival. She, just like he’d expected, was also proud of how he won. 

All in all, it felt pretty great. 

He was sure that this would be an excellent weekend. 

Chapter Text

“Planning on doing anything tonight?” Hizashi said, bouncing on his heels. 

“I always patrol on Saturday, you know that,” Aizawa said, a bit amused. 

Strangely, though, Hizashi started looking legitimately upset. “Oh,” he said. 

It reminded Aizawa of how weirdly Hizashi had been acting in the Sports Festival. “Have you been feeling okay?” Aizawa asked. “You seem kinda down.” 

Hizashi shook his head. “I’m fine! Fine! I’ve just missed spending time with you.”
Aizawa could see where Hizashi was coming from. They both had a lot of work, so sometimes it was tough for them to set aside alone time. “Well, why don’t we go for breakfast in the morning?” Aizawa said. “We both have Sunday off.” 

Hizashi brightened. Aizawa didn’t usually like to go out to eat, but Hizashi loved to. “That sounds great!” he said, excited. 

Aizawa smiled, and they continued on their way. 

Midnight laid face-down on her pillow, unable to sleep. 

Normally she could fall asleep in moments, something she’d always joked was a side effect of her quirk, but now she was really having trouble with it. And she knew why. She just couldn’t relax, she was too wound up. Her mind was going over all the little things that had upset her during the day, all the stupid things other people had said. 

Ugh, Nemuri thought, rolling over. Why am I so angry all of a sudden? This isn’t really like me… 

She dragged herself to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. 

Nedzu sat in his home, feeling strangely empty. 

What were these weird feelings? Back when he’d been in UA, with his school and his teachers and his students, he’d felt fulfilled. Better than he’d ever felt before. Why had he let them all leave him? Where were they now? What were they doing?

Nedzu didn’t like it. 

I wish I could have them all back, he thought, resting his head on his desk. I want them now. Where are they?

He did have on idea on how to make him feel better. Normally Sundays were a day off for his teachers, and the school was closed. Nedzu could ask them to come in though, if there was some kind of emergent situation. 

I’ll just make one up, Nedzu thought, despite a weird guilt that let him know interrupting everyone’s days off was a probably bad idea. It’s not bad to do, it’ll keep them on their toes! And I’ll only grab my favorites… hm, Kayama, Kan, and Aizawa can all come. 

Normally he’d snatch Present Mic too, but he’d noticed Yamada being a little bit possessive of Aizawa before. He knew it was semi-appropriate, considering he was his husband, but something about it made Nedzu feel annoyed and rubbed him the wrong way. He’d have to make sure Yamada wasn’t invited. 

Regardless. This is a good plan. I’m interested in seeing how they’re all doing!

Feeling a little peppier, Nedzu did some typing on his computer and started planning his Sunday. 

That night, Aizawa got an email right as he was preparing for bed. Hizashi had still been awake when he returned from patrol, despite the hour, seeming desperate to see him. It made Aizawa feel a little bad, he hadn’t realized Hizashi was feeling so lonely. 

“Nedzu needs me tomorrow morning,” Aizawa sighed, reading the email. “Sorry, he says it's important.” 

Something in Hizashi’s eyes seemed to shift and sharpen. “Really. What time?” 

“Eight am,” Aizawa answered. 

“When will you get back?” 

Aizawa shrugged. “Doesn’t say.” 

Hizashi clenched his teeth. “I’m coming too.” 

“He said it was for me, Midnight, and Vlad King only,” Aizawa explained. “It’s probably some kind of classified data.” 

Hizashi twitched, and started pacing, now seeming agitated. 

“I’m sorry it ruined our plans,” Aizawa said, wrapping an arm around him. Hizashi seemed to calm down with the contact. 

“It’s fine,” Hizashi grumbled, lying. 

“We’ll have to make more,” Aizawa said, pulling him a little closer. 

“Okay,” Hizashi said, looking a little less upset. “... I’m tired.” 

“It’s late for you,” Aizawa said. “Let’s get to bed.” 

Nedzu’s plan was going great! 

He felt immediately better upon walking into UA ( my school!! minemineminemine-) and even once he saw his staff members ( my people! mine- no, people aren’t possessions-- right?) and even better when they started talking! Vlad King kept shooting weird glares at Aizawa across the table, and Midnight seemed upset just for being here. 

Aizawa was acting the most normal, simply being taken aback by all the negative energy in the room, but Nedzu found himself watching him the most. He was just so interesting. The way his eyes widened but only barely, the way he tilted his head whenever he thought someone was being stupid. It was beautiful.

He’d called them on there to talk about some new gang violence in Musutafu, with the excuse that it could potentially endanger students who had to walk through those neighborhoods. Normally he would have just handled this on a weekday if he thought it’d be a problem, but it was still a good enough excuse for a Sunday gathering. 

Every time Aizawa brought up a suggestion, Midnight would scoff and Vlad King would immediately send him a dark look and immediately take up a position opposing him. Sure, Midnight’s was a bad attitude in general, but the unfriendliness really seemed to be surprising Aizawa. Nedzu thought it was hilarious. 

“Kan,” Aizawa said, glancing at Vlad King. “Do you have a problem with me?” 

Ah, Aizawa. Honest and confrontational as always. Nedzu watched in anticipation. 

Kan just shook his head. Aizawa let the matter drop after that. 

After a few suggestions on how to handle the situation, the meeting seemed to be wrapping up to a close. They were making final remarks, but Nedzu didn’t want them to leave! 

“Ah, Aizawa, I have a few things for you to do once our meeting is over,” Nedzu said, and while Aizawa gave an annoyed sigh, Nedzu was relieved. Even if everyone else left he got to keep his Aizawa close. His Kan and his Kayama would come back tomorrow. Even if he didn’t like his things leaving his sight this would work fine. 

Now, what were some things Nedzu could make Aizawa do for the rest of the day… 

Aizawa arrived home exhausted, having run around and done errands for Nedzu all day. Frankly, he was annoyed. He’d better be getting lots of overtime for this. 

And he could tell Hizashi was annoyed at him for taking so long, even though he’d warned him that this might take a long time. And when Aizawa had told Hizashi he was way too tired to do anything except sleep right then, he’d gotten mad again too. It was exhausting, but Aizawa just tried to ignore everything except getting sleep for now.

Tsukauchi scrambled to call Nedzu. Now that he’d interviewed Starbright with his Truth quirk, he had urgent information about Dark Reflection. 

“Nedzu, I need to speak with you immediately. I’ve learned what Dark Reflection does,” Tsukauchi said. 

“Come to UA, then,” Nedzu said. “We’ll discuss.” 

Tsukauchi sighed in relief. “Good. I’ll be there in ten.” 

Chapter Text

Izuku bounced into school, excited for the week. He’d had a good weekend to recharge, and he’d been thinking over his stats a lot! He was thinking maybe he’d put twenty into VIT, buy Major Healing, and save the remaining four for an emergency or for strength investment at a later date. 

Homeroom was interesting. Aizawa, looking even more tired and irritated than usual, talked about internships! Pros would be putting in their agencies for them to intern at for the future. 

Internships

Bakugou Katsuki -- 4502

Midoriya Izuku -- 1508

Uraraka Ochako -- 1403

Yaoyorozu Momo -- 1061

Todoroki Shouto -- 280

Iida Tenya -- 129

Kirishima Eijiro -- 81

Ashido Mina -- 76

Yuga Aoyama -- 16

Kaminari Denki -- 8

Izuku’s jaw dropped when he saw how many draft offers he got. He hadn’t realized how many people had chosen him… 

“I’m surprised Tetsutetsu didn’t get any,” Kirishima said, sounding a bit disappointed. 

“These are the results for Class 1-A,” Aizawa said. “So this doesn’t include Kendo, Tetsutetsu, or Shinsou in 1-B. Shinsou has moved into 1-B from the General Course, by the way.”
Ashido gasped. “New transfer!” she squealed. 

“Wait, but doesn’t that mean someone in 1-B is gonna get dropped?” Kaminari asked. 

“No,” Aizawa said, looking a tad irritated. “Kan insisted that all of his students were doing well and that none of them deserved to be dropped down.” 

“And… us?” Kaminari questioned, pointing to himself. 

“Well, I haven’t expelled any of you yet,” Aizawa said dryly. 

“Why is Midoriya lower than Bakugou?” Hagakure asked. 

“Well, I didn’t get much chance to show off my quirk,” Izuku said, though it was likely just that Bakugou’s quirk was much flashier than his. 

“Review all of the offers you’re getting,” Aizawa said. “And choose carefully. The experience you get here could be incredibly valuable.” 

Once the bell rang, Izuku left to go to his alternate class, but before that, he caught up with Aizawa in the hallway to ask a question. 

“Wait, what do all the internship superheroes think my quirk is?” Izuku asked. 

“We mentioned super-durability and healing,” Aizawa said. “But our description of your quirk was very vague. Feel free to share as much or as little of your quirk as you wish with your supervisors, but try not to lie outright. One of your internships might be a place you may want to end up working.” 

“Yes, sensei!” Izuku said. “Could you ask Nedzu to meet with me soon? I have something to ask him, it’s pretty important.” 

Izuku had been monitoring Nedzu’s relationship status over the weekend, and it had gone from 52 up to 62, a ten point increase. At this point, he really needed to see what was going on. He’d never told Nedzu about his Relationship screen, but maybe a conversation would shed some light on what was happening? 

Aizawa nodded, sighing. “I’ll let him know. Now get to class.” 

“Thank you!” Izuku said. 

It turned out he was due to be meeting with Nedzu at lunch! After meeting Mirio in class (in which Mirio had told him how proud he was, which warmed Izuku’s heart) and going to the rest of him, Izuku made his way towards Nedzu’s office. 

With his new abilities in mind, Izuku used Observe on Nedzu. 

Nedzu -- Lvl. 63 -- UA Principal

Quirk: High Specs

[See Stats & Skills] 

ACTIVE DEBUFF: Corrupted (Qr.)

Observe failed. The target’s level is too high. 

So Nedzu’s level was too high to get the extra stats and skills… but that wasn’t really relevant right now. More importantly, Nedzu was under some kind of debuff? Corrupted? What the hell was that? 

“Come in, come in!” Nedzu said. “What did you need to speak with me about?”

“Well, actually, I just noticed…” Izuku said. “I think you’re under some kind of effect.  Maybe some kind of quirk?” That would explain the Qr label after ‘Corrupted.’ 

Nedzu tilted his head. “Oh dear! Let’s discuss over tea,” he said. 

Relieved, Izuku got into his chair as Nedzu poured both of the two cups of tea from an ornate ceramic teapot. He sipped his tea as Izuku began to explain. 

“It’s listed as Corrupted,” Izuku said. “I’m not really sure what that means, but you should probably look into it?” Izuku said. He took a drink of the tea. It was green tea, the kind that he liked, not that he was sure how Nedzu knew that. 

“Indeed, I should,” Nedzu said. “Though I’m not sure when it could have happened.” 

 “Have you been feeling different? Anything new?” Izuku asked.

“Actually, I have,” Nedzu said. “How should I put this… I think my eyes have been opened to new things. Perhaps that’s what you’re speaking of.” 

“Oh?” Izuku asked. “I mean, maybe that could be the quirk. What’s it like?” 

“Well,” Nedzu said. “I think I’ve been using my power wrong. I’ve been extending it far too thin! Trying to upset balances and take down evil and whatnot when I should have been using it to keep the things I love safe.” 

Izuku wasn’t sure that was the result of a quirk, but that philosophical debate was kind of interesting. Stretch out power to protect strangers, or keep it close to defend home base?

“Anything else?” Izuku asked. 

Nedzu hummed. “It’s also helped me realize what is due to me. I kept thinking I wasn’t entitled to certain things… but no! I quite am. I’ve built this place, and now I understand what belongs to me. While some of what I own adds up to mere trifles, much of it is infinitely worth having.” 

Now Izuku was a little bit confused. “Like what? Your school?” 

“No, not that,” Nedzu said, shaking his head. “Many things! Including you!”

“Wait, me?” Izuku pointed to himself. 

“Yes!” Nedzu said. “You’re valuable!”

“Wh-” Izuku’s voice faltered a little. “Uh, that’s kinda weird."

“That’s the mistake most people make!” Nedzu said, standing up from his chair. “You think that sounds strange because I’m implying I own you! But I can own people, too. Some of them just belong to me!” He paced across the other side of the room. “They just do what I want them to anyway! They might as well be mine!”

“Relationships,” Izuku muttered. He glanced down at Nedzu’s quick as he could. 

Nedzu. Rep +99999. HE’S MINE. 

Shit. 

“I should get going now,” Izuku said, heart racing. 

“Oh, no no no,” Nedzu said, shaking his head. “You’re worth far too much! You wouldn’t leave a golden watch out for anyone to steal, isn’t that right? So you’re staying right here.” 

“You can’t-” A wave of dizziness hit Izuku. “What-” 

“Ah, yes, the sedative is taking effect,” Nedzu said, clapping his hands together. “Maybe you shouldn’t have accepted that tea!” 

“But tea--” Izuku said, stumbling. It was getting harder to think. “Same pot--” 

“Assassin’s teapot,” Nedzu said, opening up the pot to reveal two different compartments. “One drugged, one not. Lever to switch. Clever, isn’t it?” 

Izuku ran for the door, but when he pulled on it, it was locked. He was getting dizzier. “No, no, no!” Izuku said, panic hitting him. 

“Oh, don’t be scared,” Nedzu said. His voice got a touch softer. “You humans can be so silly sometimes. There’s nowhere safer than with me.”

That was the last thing Izuku heard before he passed out. 

“Where’s Midoriya?” Aizawa asked, giving Nedzu a glance. 

“He went home early!” Nedzu said. “There was a family emergency. He might be out for a few days, I’ll keep you posted.” 

“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind,” Aizawa said. “Hey, do you know what happened with Midnight?” 

Nedzu shrugged. 

“She stormed out of class, yelled at me that she ‘couldn’t deal with this right now’, and then just left the school,” Aizawa said. “Any idea what that was?” 

“Perhaps she’s just having a bad day,” Nedzu suggested. 

“Maybe,” Aizawa said, sounding unconvinced. “I think I should check on her.” 

“Perhaps!” Nedzu said. “But I have a few assignments for you first.” 

Aizawa sighed in annoyance. “Through my lunch period?” 

“Well, you just eat those jelly packs anyway, so you might as well!” Nedzu said, pushing a stack of paperwork towards him. “Now, it’s time for legal theory!” 

“Do you think something’s wrong?” 

One of the other support students, Akihiko if Hatsume remembered correctly, was talking with her. She turned her head from her project, tilting it slightly. People rarely bothered her while she was in the middle of her work. 

“Wrong? What do you mean?”

“Well, I just mean…” Akihiko hesitated, shrugged. “I don’t know. With the teachers. They’ve all been acting super weird.” 

Hatsume tapped her chin. She couldn’t remember anything like that! “Like what?” 

“Well, Power Loader didn’t even show up to class,” Akihiko said. “I heard from one of the hero students that Midnight literally left mid-class period. And you saw how Present Mic was in English… he looked super antsy!” 

“He always looks antsy,” Hatsume pointed out. 

“Yeah, but…” Akihiko huffed. “More than usual.” 

“I do agree Power Loader not being there was odd,” Hatsume said. “But we haven’t had him for long. Maybe he does that all the time.” 

“Maybe, but I don’t think so,” Akihiko said. 

There wasn’t much more to talk about after that. Hatsume went back to her project.

Aizawa sat in the teacher’s lounge, working on idiotic legal forms. 

He trusted that Nedzu would only give him necessary assignments, but there were so many of these. It certainly didn’t help Aizawa’s pounding headache. And, despite what Nedzu had said about his jelly packs, all of them had gone mysteriously missing, meaning that he’d accidentally skipped lunch. He was starving, and exhausted, but he had another thirty of these and Nedzu had asked for them finished by tomorrow. If he didn’t finish them now, he’d have to work on them in the afternoon, his primary sleeping time. Not to mention he still needed to check on Nemuri. 

“There you are!” Hizashi skipped into the teacher’s lounge. “How are you?” 

“Good,” Aizawa grunted. 

“Great! I have so much to tell you! During class I missed you a lot, I know that might sound weird because it wasn’t a lot of time but since now I’m back I should probably tell you all the stories from when I was talking with the students since some interesting things happened while you were gone and I wish you’d been there and --” 

Hizashi chattered on and on. Head pounding, Aizawa grimaced up at him. “I have a headache right now, and I need to focus, so…” 

The pleasantness in Hizashi’s gaze melted slightly, revealing something… 

Well, if he’d seen it on someone else’s face, he might have called it dangerous.

But this was Hizashi, so Aizawa knew it wasn’t. 

“Do you not want to talk with me?” Hizashi said. His voice was whiny, but his eyes flashed with anger. 

“Of course not,” Aizawa said. “I just have to finish these…” 

An idea popped into his head. “We could do them together?” he suggested. 

Hizashi’s gaze brightened again. “Ooh! Bonding! Yes, give me half!” 

Hizashi still chattered, but at least he was pulling his weight as far as these assignments went. Aizawa would just have to put up with the egregious headache in the meantime. 

Hatume flicked the lights on in the storage room. 

She needed another container of bolts for her newest baby, but the support lab had run out, which meant she needed to search around in the storage room. 

She only walked a few steps in when she saw a form, splayed out on the floor. 

“Power Loader?!” she gasped.

She stood there for a few moments, staring down at his unconscious body. 

"...I need to get Recovery Girl." 

Chapter Text

“Is Power Loader going to be okay?” Hatsume asked. 

Recovery Girl frowned. “I think so, dearie. He simply seems to be badly dehydrated. Were there any clues about his condition where you found him? Anything of note?”

“He was just lying in the storage room,” Hatsume said. 

Recovery Girl sighed. “We’ll simply need to ask him when he wakes. Thank you for your help, but you should get back to class now.” 

“Okay, Recovery Girl,” Hatsume said with a nod. “Class is kinda over by now though.” 

Recovery Girl glanced at the clock. “So it is. I’ll need to inform the rest of the staff of this development… you just go on home.” 

Izuku woke up slowly, yawning. Everything around him was soft and plush, like fluffy clouds, and Izuku felt tempted to roll over again and just go back to sleep. But then, he remembered everything that had happened in Nedzu’s office, and he sat right up immediately. 

He was in a bedroom, gray-and-white with green accents. There was a playful pawprint pattern on the walls, All Might-themed baubles lining the shelves, and a stack of books in the corner. There was one potted plant, but it was placed directly under an artificial light, likely to compensate for the lack of windows. The bed was oh-so soft, with warm fuzzy blankets. 

A regular bedroom. But not lived in. Too artificial. 

Izuku carefully got up and walked over to the door. Though he expected it to be locked, it opened easily once he turned the handle. 

It opened up into a living room, one with several couches and a TV, with the walls painted blue. A figure sat on the sofa, which immediately put Izuku on guard. 

“Hello?” Izuku asked carefully. 

He turned around, and Izuku immediately gasped. “Tsukauchi! Why are you here?! What’s going on?” 

Tsukauchi sighed. “I’m glad you’re awake, kid. We’re Nedzu’s prisoners.” 

Yeah, that’s basically what Izuku had expected. “W-why was Nedzu acting like that?” Izuku asked. 

“He’s under the influence of a quirk,” Tsukauchi explained. “Dark Reflection… Sparklebright, a hero at the gala, used it on him. It accentuates a negative trait in a person, usually either their worst or one they were indulging in at the moment they were affected. I hadn't realized how bad things had gotten.” 

“Oh,” Izuku said. “So… his was…” 

“Possessiveness,” Tsukauchi said. “I’m almost completely certain.” 

“So he wants to possess you too?" Izuku said.

“Well... sort of. This was all a bit circumstantial,” Tsukauchi explained. “I came to tell him about the fact that he was under a quirk, but he’d already figured it out and decided that he preferred the new him. He said that it would be a shame to kill me, but that I could be a useful caretaker for one of, ah…” Tsukauchi hesitated slightly. 

“For one of what?” 

“One of his most important possessions,” Tsukauchi said, wincing. “Sorry, kid.” 

“And that’s me,” Izuku said, resisting the urge to sigh. “So he wants you to take care of me?” 

“That’s not all!” A new voice chimed in, over an intercom. 

Izuku froze. 

“Apologies for the intrusion,” Nedzu said. “But I thought it might be useful if I were to answer some of your questions now!” 

“W-why is Tsukauchi here?” Izuku blurted out. “You can let him go! I don’t need a caretaker! He wouldn’t tell!” 

“Yes, he would,” Nedzu said. “This is the best way to repurpose him. He is one of the few that I know of that are trustworthy enough to handle you. Besides, humans do quite poorly in isolation. I’d always known that you would need someone to accompany you!” 

“Do you intend to keep us here forever,” Tsukauchi said, steel behind his words. 

Nedzu laughed, and the cold sound sent a shot of fear through Izuku. He took a step closer to Tsukauchi, almost hiding in his shadow. 

Nedzu cooed at the reaction. “I knew I made the right decision,” he said. “And yes, I do.” 

“And what about the cameras,” Tsukauchi said, which surprised Izuku. “In the bedrooms? Bathroom? Or just the living room?” Tsukauchi pointed at the corner of the room, and Izuku only then noticed the camera present. 

“Only living room,” Nedzu said. “I promise. Humans need a safe place to hide away! A lack of privacy can be psychologically damaging, and Midoriya’s brain is the best part of him! It’s just like owning a guinea pig. Every responsible pet owner knows you need to get your pet a little cave or whatnot for them to hide in.” 

“Nedzu,” Izuku said, feeling sick. 

“Please, take some time to settle in. I understand this may feel stressful, but I ask you not to worry! You’ll be safe now, I’ll be watching,” Nedzu promised. 

Izuku got the sense that that was meant to be comforting. It wasn't.

When neither of them responded to that statement, the intercom turned off with a click. 

[ALERT: ESCAPE QUEST ACTIVATION!]

Escape Quest: Escape

• Goal: Escape

REWARDS: +??? DEX points

Izuku almost wanted to punch his quirk in the face. Yes he was aware that he needed to escape. Just fantastic. 

[ALERT: HEROICS QUEST ACTIVATION!]

Heroics Quest: Quintuple Teacher Rescue

• Goal: Cure Infected Individuals

REWARDS: +5 stat points per person cured

Okay. And he needed to save everyone. Pretty standard impossible quest goals. 

...Wait, was that implying there were more people infected besides Nedzu?! 

A staff meeting had been called about the condition of Power Loader, who had apparently been found unconscious in the storage room. Aizawa, almost finished with his papers thanks to Hizashi’s help, dragged himself to the after-school staff meeting despite the fact that he was starving and wanted to go home and wanted to sleep. He’d been tempted to skip this, but he’d decided to show up out of respect for Power Loader in case he was really badly injured. 

“Did any of you see Power Loader over the weekend?” Nedzu asked. 

Most of the staff shook their heads. “I think I saw ‘im working in one of the support labs,” Snipe said. “Can ya check the cameras?” 

“I plan to, but I wanted to see if Power Loader had informed all of you of anything before I did so,” Nedzu said. Strange. Normally Nedzu always checked the cameras first, but maybe he’d been busy with something? “Regardless, he is expected to recover… all of you can go.” 

Aizawa left, stepping out of the conference room with Hizashi dogging his footsteps. 

“Can I meet you at home?” Aizawa asked. “I need to ask Vlad about something.” 

Hizashi scowled deeply again. 

Aizawa sighed. “Hizashi, it will be ten minutes.” 

“Promise to come home straight afterward,” Hizashi commanded. 

Aizawa thought he was being ridiculous, but he agreed, mostly to get out of the conversation. “I promise. Right after.” 

The two split up, though Hizashi shot him glances every two seconds as they walked opposite directions in the hall. Aizawa had to hurry to catch up with Vlad King, who was stalking down the hallway like someone had killed his puppy. He looked mad. 

But Aizawa knew they needed to have a talk. This was getting ridiculous. 

“I think this 1-A and 1-B rivalry has gone a bit far,” Aizawa said, carefully. “I’m sorry for spurring it on, but I want us to have a good relationship as coworkers.” 

“Shut up! Shut up, shut up,” Vlad growled. “I hate how your voice sounds!” 

Aizawa frowned deeply. 

Vlad’s fiery gaze met Aizawa’s, and his anger only seemed to grow. “Why are you making that face at me?” he snarled. 

“Because you’re being rude!” Aizawa snapped. “What’s wrong with you?” 

Vlad walked a few steps forward towered over Aizawa. Aizawa wasn’t short by any means, but it was tough to compete with someone approaching six and a half feet tall. 

“I’m reaching the end of my rope,” Kan said, quietly. “I’m fucking done. Say one more thing to me, I dare you.” 

His voice was dead serious, and it gave Aizawa pause. 

Aizawa had a choice here. Maybe if he’d been in a bar, and he was being challenged by some drunk stranger, he’d quietly back off, pulling all the stops to defuse the situation. It’s not like he wanted to get into a fight. But this was Vlad King. His coworker. Vlad King was better than that, he knew better than to get into a brawl with another teacher. And like hell he’d let himself be intimidated in his own workplace. 

“I-” before Aizawa could finish what he’d said, Kan grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the wall. 

“Ggh-!” Aizawa struggled to breathe as Kan lifted him and pressed him against the wall. He kicked out and thrashed instinctively, but Kan didn’t even flinch. His only focus was applying more pressure to Aizawa’s throat. 

The adrenaline meant Aizawa’s quirk was automatically firing, but it was futile. The only thing Kan was using to attack him was raw muscle, and so Erasure was useless. Aizawa scrabbled at his wrist, nails digging into skin. Kan hissed, but didn’t let go. 

“Stop,” Aizawa gasped. “Stop. Stop it.” 

Kan’s blood-red eyes, glazed over, didn’t even seem to register the words. 

In a fleeting moment of rationality within his panicked haze, Aizawa drew upon the dregs of his training, wound up a kick, and deliberately sent it into Kan’s neck. 

That’s when Kan let him go. He stumbled back, hands darting up to his throat, while Aizawa crumpled to the ground, Aizawa gasped, taking deep breaths of delicious air, coughing and choking in an attempt to get the precious oxygen to his lungs. 

Aizawa looked at Kan’s face. Though it had been alight with rage only moments ago, it was now stark with horror and confusion. 

“I’m sorry,” Kan said. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” 

He looked down at his hands with wide eyes, as if it were them alone that had done the strangling. Aizawa still felt a spike of fear looking at those big hands and murderous red eyes. 

“Stay back,” Aizawa croaked. 

Kan, regret etched into his features, backed away immediately, giving Aizawa plenty of space. “I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I’m so, so sorry, Aizawa… I don’t know what happened…” 

So apologetic. Well, if he really cared that much, he wouldn’t have done it in the first place. And Aizawa didn’t want to be around when Kan’s anger returned and he had a repeat outburst. 

“Should I get Recovery Girl?” Kan asked, looking anxious. 

“No,” Aizawa said. “Just leave. I have something more important to do.” 

Kan didn’t interfere, and Aizawa limped towards Nedzu’s office. 

Aizawa threw open the door into Nedzu’s office. He didn’t bother with knocking, he simply swung it open, letting it hit the wall. 

“Why are you here?” Nedzu asked pleasantly, though he had some idea. He’d seen the incident on the security cameras. Just as he’d thought he might need to intervene, Aizawa had managed to free himself, thus saving him the trouble. 

Clearly, Aizawa had come to him to report the incident.

“I…” Aizawa took a breath, seemingly trying to steady himself. “I’m quitting.” 

“Oh?” Nedzu said. He peered at the bruising that was beginning to show on Aizawa’s neck. Interesting. “If it’s about what happened with Vlad King, I can assure you that such an incident will not be repeated.” 

“That's your entire reaction?!” Aizawa snarled. "What about Vlad King? Is he still going to work here?" 

"He will." Nedzu’s smile got wider. “Regardless. There will be not quitting.” 

“Is that all you care about?” Aizawa's voice was tinged with disbelief. "I can quit whenever I want." 

“On the contrary, you’re under contract.” Nedzu opened his mouth in a grin, revealing his fangs. “You can’t just quit mid-year.” 

Aizawa huffed, looking offended. “Well, what would you even do, sue me?” he challenged.

“Maybe,” Nedzu said. “Imagine, being sued for breach-of-contract with UA. The legal fees would certainly be something, plus the payout, since you would most certainly lose. And with a scandal like that under your belt, I wonder if the Hero Commission would even be keen on you continuing as a hero.” 

Aizawa’s heart sank. 

“I personally wouldn’t recommend it. I mean, unless you’d rather it go back to the way it was when you were a child,” Nedzu said. “Always hungry, scrabbling for purchase. Before all this. I wonder if you still remember that life?” 

Aizawa did remember. 

“Why are you doing this?” Aizawa searched Nedzu’s gaze for something to indicate he was lying. He found nothing. Nedzu didn’t even look guilty. The shine of his eyes was simply that of excitement, the same as whenever one of his plans came to fruition. 

“You’re an asset,” Nedzu said. “I’m keeping you.” 

A fountain of frustration hit Aizawa, and suddenly he was shaking with muted anger. “Is that it? That’s your only reason for doing this? You-” 

The emotional exhaustion that came with having been attacked by Vlad King was a lot to handle, but even worse was this anger. It permeated Aizawa’s entire being. 

Anger with Nedzu, and even anger at himself. Why hadn’t he seen this coming? Nedzu lied to everyone, manipulated everyone. He threatened and blackmailed like his life depended on it. Aizawa had been present to see many of Nedzu’s schemes come to fruition. 

How had he been so stupid to assume he was the exception?

How had he not seen this coming?

The worst part was that he’d legitimately thought that Nedzu was mostly honest with him. That any manipulations he wrapped Aizawa up in were incidental, rather than malicious. Even Nedzu hadn’t claimed these things. No, Aizawa had fallen for a trap that wasn’t even there, hook, line, and sinker. Like tripping over his own feet, or getting lost in broad daylight. 

Aizawa had ‘quit’ mostly just to show he wouldn’t put up with being attacked at his work. He hadn’t even really meant it. He'd just been posturing, if he were honest.  

But after Nedzu had tried to blackmail him to his face? 

He meant it now. 

“I don’t know why I ever trusted you,” Aizawa said, venom in his voice. 

Nedzu hummed, unbothered. 

“You’ll never leave this job,” Nedzu said, voice casual. “Not yet, at least. You can take the rest of the day off to acclimate to this state of affairs, but you will not be quitting.”

Aizawa’s anger flared to bursting. “I hate you,” he said. 

Nedzu didn’t even react to his response. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Aizawa.” 

Oh, you won’t, Aizawa thought, eyes blazing. He scowled at Nedzu and walked out the door, still fuming. You just watch. You may think you’ve cornered me, but there’s nothing you can do to stop me. Good luck finding me, you damn rat. 

Aizawa walked out of UA, with no plans of ever coming back.

Chapter Text

Power Loader shifted in his sleep. Recovery Girl put down what she’d been holding and turned her attention to him. He shifted again, and then slowly opened his eyes. 

“Here… why am I here?” Power Loader croaked. 

Recovery Girl handed him a glass of water, which he began drinking without explanation. 

“You were found in the storage room, extremely dehydrated,” she said. “Do you know what happened?” 

“Dehydrated… I…” Power Loader clutched his head. “I don’t remember… but… it doesn’t matter. I need to get back to labs…” 

“You certainly don’t,” Recovery Girl said. “Unless you have something that’d be dangerous if left unattended.” 

“No… no… just need to work…” Power Loader rasped. “Please…” 

“You certainly do not,” Recovery Girl said. “I don’t need you picking up Aizawa’s work habits, thank you very much. Now can you give me any explanation over what happened to you? I doubt-” 

Power Loader, still mumbling about work and need to finish project, sank back into bed and fell back asleep, likely from exhaustion. 

Recovery Girl sighed. Idiot teachers, always thinking of work. 

A letter laid on the counter, hastily written. 

Dear Hizashi, 

I know that you’re struggling. I can tell that you need to be around me all the time to feel happy. I know this probably hurts, but I think it would be healthier for both of us if we spent some time apart. I know you won’t like this, but I think it's for the best. 

I just think the stress from the USJ is just catching up with all of us. Some of the other teachers have just decided to take it out on me. I know why, everyone thinks I’m an asshole, so it’s the obvious choice over the nicer, friendlier teachers. I can’t say it hasn’t left me disillusioned with UA, though. 

I’ve left a few avenues of communication open in case I’m wrong about Vlad King and Nedzu’s cruelty only extending to me, but I’d appreciate it if you could keep an eye on the situation too. I trust you. Check on Nemuri for me. 

I’m sorry for worrying you, I’ll contact you soon.

Love, 

Shouta 

Hizashi read the note, and wailed. 

“Okay, okay… we need to get out of here,” Izuku said, turning to Tsukauchi. 

“Let’s go to one of our rooms to talk,” Tsukauchi said. 

Izuku followed Tsukauchi into his room, which was much plainer than Izuku’s. While it was simple and clean, with a bed and other basic furniture, Izuku could tell almost immediately that less effort had gone into it than his bedroom. Maybe because Nedzu hadn’t been sure who it was for before he kidnapped Tsukauchi? 

“The layout is simple,” Tsukauchi said. “This place isn’t very big, I explored it yesterday… when I got here. Two bedrooms, a living room between them, and one bathroom. The main door, presumably leading outside, is in the living room. It’s an electronic lock, made from steel. There’s a panel in it that he sends items through.” 

Even though Tsukauchi had closed the door, meaning Nedzu shouldn’t be watching them, Izuku still felt like insects were crawling over his skin. “Do you think he was telling the truth? About the cameras?” Izuku asked. 

Tsukauchi nodded. “He was. My quirk, remember?” 

Izuku blinked. “Oh.” 

“I forgot to ask him about audio devices, though,” Tsukauchi said, shrugging. “We’ll have to ask him the next time he comes on… if he does. Anyways, I have reason to suspect that we’re beneath UA.” 

“Why’s that?” Izuku asked. It made sense, but Nedzu theoretically could have plopped them anywhere. 

“The food,” Tsukauchi said. “It tastes like Lunch Rush’s, and it’s hot.” 

“So unless he kidnapped Lunch Rush too… we’re underneath UA,” Izuku said, frowning. “I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse. I know UA better, which could help us escape, but it’s totally Nedzu’s home turf.” 

Tsukauchi sighed. “I’m sorry.” 

“It’s okay,” Izuku offered. “We’ll figure it out.” 

Priority needs to shift to saving myself immediately, which means using the fullest extent of my abilities. What can I do? 

Izuku had thirty-five spell points, and twenty-four unallotted stat points. “Stats,” he muttered. 

VIT: 50, STR: 18, DEX: 21, INT: 50, WIS: 50, CHA: 22

Unallotted Stat Points: 24

Even if he put all his stat points into a skill, he wouldn’t reach fifty to get a new unknown ability. Ugh, But that was a bad strategy anyway, relying on the random chance of getting a good ability. Oh well. At least he knew he could buff any one of his stats by a decent margin right now. In fact, he could get up to 59 spell points if he totally invested it in VIT. 

With that kind of investment… 

He could learn Flame and Fireball together, Heal Major Wound, or both Jolt and Arcing Bolt. There was a chance that the electric abilities could damage the lock on the door, but that was just as likely to trap them inside as it was to set them free. None of his raw stats (like strength) could free him. Healing wouldn’t help him here. Investing in anything was risky. 

“I can’t think of anything,” Izuku said, trying not to break into hysterics. “I can’t.” 

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Tsukauchi said, soothing. “It’s only been a few minutes. We have plenty of time to strategize. We’ll think of something.” 

Izuku sat on the bed. He was pretty sure he’d seen notebooks in his room, but he was feeling much too touchy to write down any plans right now. 

Tsukauchi and Izuku talked strategy for a while. None of their plans were good exactly, though Tsukauchi suggested combing the place for weaknesses before they did anything rash. Izuku highly doubted there would be any weaknesses, but he supposed it might still be worth it. 

A pleasant chime sounded. 

“Huh?” Izuku said. 

“The bell rings when it’s time to eat,” Tsukauchi said. He frowned. “Hm. I forgot, it must be around lunchtime.” 

The idea of that rubbed Izuku the wrong way, but he was too hungry to complain. When he and Tsukauchi got to the living room, there were already two plates of food sitting at the door, piping hot, and chopsticks in plastic wrap sitting beside them. 

“Katsudon,” Izuku said, a bit faint. “How’d he know it was my favorite?” 

“I don’t know, kid,” Tsukauchi said. “I just got plain rice on my first day here.”

The two stared down at the food a while longer, saying nothing. 

Izuku puffed out a breath. “I guess we should eat.” 

Nedzu wouldn’t… drug Izuku again, right? 

Izuku jumped back as the intercom crackled. 

“It’s good to see you two are getting along!” Nedzu said. 

“You’re already back?!” Izuku said, startled. 

“I like to check in on you!” Nedzu said. “Don’t stress about it! Do you want a treat?” 

“...A treat?” Izuku said, frowning. 

“You’ve been exhibiting signs of stress, but it seems like you and Tsukauchi have been getting to know one another! Proper socializing is good behavior. Good behavior is rewarded,” Nedzu said, sounding excited and cheerful. “Do you want any toys?” 

Ugly shock roiled through Izuku. He was not a dog. 

“I want to go home,” Izuku said, angry and upset. 

Nedzu sighed. He sounded disappointed, now. “That’s okay. I’ll get you something anyway. Now, if you want me to go-” 

“Wait,” Tsukauchi said. “Any listening devices?” 

“A few. In the living room, and Midoriya’s bedroom,” Nedzu said. “None in other places. So long as your voices can’t be heard through the walls, I won’t be able to hear you in the two other rooms.” 

Izuku glanced at Tsukauchi for a verdict. 

“He’s telling the truth,” Tsukauchi said. Izuku sighed in relief. 

“Try not to spend too much time plotting against me!” Nedzu said. “Spend some time relaxing, too. Things will be just fine.” 

The intercom clicked off. 

“Let’s take our food to my room, then,” Tsukauchi said. “No one listening.” 

Izuku nodded and picked up his katsudon, deep in thought. 

Maybe the room itself didn’t have any weaknesses… but Nedzu definitely did. 

Nedzu legitimately thought that the two would never be able to escape. He was arrogant. And, secondly, he really seemed to care about Izuku in his own twisted way. That was both an exploitable weakness and their saving grace. 

“I think I have an idea,” Izuku said. “But… there’s… things you need to know first.” 

Tsukauchi perked up a bit. “Oh?”

“There’s a lot I didn’t tell you about my quirk,” Izuku said. “But the most important thing you need to know is that I can set things on fire.” 

Chapter Text

“I know this is probably a bad time to explain my quirk,” Izuku said, nervous.  

“No, this is definitely a good time to know what you’re capable of,” Tsukauchi said. 

“Okay, my quirk is called The Gamer,” Izuku said. “It lets me live life like a video game.” 

“Like a video game?” Tsukauchi echoed. “What does that mean?” 

“I can gain experience points and level up, and put stat points towards my abilities!” Izuku said. “And there’s like, skill trees and things.” 

“Okay,” Tsukauchi said. “This is all registering as true… but a video game quirk?!” 

“I know, it’s unbelievable!” Izuku huffed. “That’s why I didn’t tell anyone. But it’s true. And the reason my previous lie worked is because whenever I almost die, I complete a quest by surviving, which gives me new abilities.” 

This was partially so that Tsukauchi could make suggestions about how to use his quirk in this dire situation, but it was also partially a test. The fact that he hadn’t gotten a pop-up saying from The Gamer about completing the ‘tell Nedzu and Tsukauchi about your quirk’ meant that Nedzu didn't know. This meant he wasn't listening, which meant they could discuss their secret plans knowing Nedzu would be oblivious to them.

“I suppose it’s not unlike your classmate Jirou’s quirk,” Tsukauchi said, still struggling to square the idea of this quirk existing. “Yours, a video game. Hers, headphone jacks. Another example of technology affecting quirk development…” 

“I’ve never thought of explaining it like that,” Izuku said. “Huh.” 

“But… setting things on fire?” Tsukauchi brought up. 

“Ah,” Izuku said. “There’s a magic system skill tree. Fire magic’s in there. I’m not that far along yet, but I can do a little…” 

“What else?” Tsukauchi asked. 

“Um, okay. I can use Observe, of course, and I’m hyper-durable. I can heal when I eat certain foods, and I can heal using magic,” Izuku said. “But I have a limited number of mana, so I can only cast so many spells. I learn very fast, and my problem solving abilities are very good. Poison-resistance. I also have a relationship screen where I can see how people think of me.” 

Tsukauchi blinked. “How does Nedzu think of you?” Tsukauchi asked, probably out of morbid curiosity. 

“Right now? Um, relationships,” Izuku said.  

Nedzu. Rep +99999. mineminemineminemine 

“Nothing good,” Izuku said. 

“Hm,” Tsukauchi frowned, creasing his forehead. “Okay. So fire, hyper-durability, hyper-intelligence. Several good abilities, but I’m not sure how many would be useful in this situation…” 

“I do have an actual plan,” Izuku said. “Using an ability I haven’t told you about yet. But it might put you in danger.” 

Tsukauchi sighed. “We don’t have many options left. What’s your idea?” 

Nedzu threw a pile of papers to the ground, pacing frantically for a few moments before deeming it waste of time and rushing back to his computers. 

Aizawa was gone. Gone! Nedzu’s breath hitched, he’d just received the message from Yamada. Nedzu hadn’t anticipated this.

What had he done wrong? It quickly sprang to his mind. Aizawa was stubborn and contrarian, of course he wouldn’t put up with that sort of thing. Nedzu had been far too rash, deciding to threaten him. He required a gentler touch--if Aizawa came back, Nedzu would remember that.  

Through the panicked haze, Nedzu ran through all his options. 

Check all the places he’d go--where would he go how to track him--

An automated alarm went off, and Nedzu was horrified to recognize it as the one for Midoriya’s living area. Now this too? Shoving his thoughts about Aizawa aside, he quickly pulled up a camera feed to check on Midoriya. 

“Nedzu,” Midoriya breathed. His face was a mess of bruises, and he was curled in on himself, as if protecting stomach injuries. 

“Let me out right now or I kill the kid,” Tsukauchi said, blank-faced. He held Midoriya up in the air by the back of his uniform. 

Nedzu saw red. “Hound Dog, basement area 1-2-5. Main building. Intruder threatening student,” Nedzu whispered harshly into his communicator. Once Hound Dog gave the affirmative, Nedzu clicked the on button for two-way communication. 

“Release Midoriya,” Nedzu said. 

Tsukauchi paused. “Would you let me go?” 

“If you were to release Midoriya with no further injury, I would,” Nedzu said.

“You just lied to me,” Tsukauchi said. 

Nedzu growled. “If you release Midoriya now, I will give you a painless death,” Nedzu said. “You will die no matter what. Spare yourself the suffering and release him.” 

Tsukauchi’s muscles stiffened, clearly sensing the truth in that statement. 

Hound Dog would be there in a few minutes. He would capture Tsukauchi. 

Then, Nedzu would have the chance to seal him off in a separate room. He could keep Tsukauchi there for days, and give him the slow, torturous death that he deserved. By starvation, maybe, after Nedzu had the chance to personally dig his claws into the man that threatened his things.

“All Might would find out if you killed me,” Tsukauchi said, slowly. 

“You think All Might is a threat to me?!” Nedzu barked a laugh. “And by the time he finds you, it’ll be too late! All he’d be finding is your decaying corpse! Let Midoriya go while you still have the chance!” 

Hound Dog threw the door open to the room. He’d been given access to the room the moment Nedzu’d seen Midoriya in danger, now he could stop--

“AGHH!” Nedzu shouted in surprise, pain, and fear as sharp pains erupted around his face and muzzle, and in his abdomen under his shirt. He slipped off his chair, clutching his face. 

Ithurtswhere’sAizawaMidoriyaindangerI’mindangerithurtscan’tsee--

Everything felt like it was spinning, even though Nedzu couldn’t see. Why was the world so cloudy? Everything was all foggy--

Nedzu laid on the ground, dazed. 

Hound Dog entered the room to see a man (familiar, but that didn’t matter now) holding a bruised student hostage. That same student who’d he had to rescue early from the support basement! The moment he entered, however, the student shot a fireball right at him! 

“Wait--I’m here to rescue!” Hound Dog barked, but even though he’d tried to twist out of the way his fur caught fire. He tried to put it out with his jacket, but then his jacket caught fire. He dropped the jacket and tried to pat himself out, but he ended up just burning his paws. As panic enveloped him, and the smell of burning fur became unbearable, the man and student went racing past him through the door. 

“Stop, drop, and roll!” the student shouted, shoving him aside as they ran out the door. 

And though he wanted to run after the student, his whole shoulder was on fire now and it was burning and burning and Hound Dog threw himself to the ground in an instinctive panic. Even as he did, however, he fumbled for his phone and called the teachers’ emergency groupchat. 

“Intruder on the loose! Black hair, tall, skinny! Carrying green-haired first-year!” Hound Dog shouted into the phone. 

Alarms started blaring as Tsukauchi ran at top speed out of the school, carrying Izuku as he went. Once they were a few hallways down, he dropped Izuku, who started running beside him. “East hallway!” Izuku shouted. They sped past a group of students, who gave them puzzled looks. 

He’d just have to hope that Retaliate would keep Nedzu down long enough for them to escape. Izuku had sort of had to guess at how much HP Nedzu had. 

Tsukauchi had been horrified when Izuku asked him to punch him until visible bruises appeared on his face, but it had served two purposes. 

One was catching Nedzu’s attention, and getting the door open.

And the second was disabling Nedzu. Retaliate would hit him with unexplained injuries, which would at the very least shock him and throw him off his game. 

Izuku knew that Nedzu likely wouldn’t come to the door himself. Nedzu was fast and quick, an excellent fighter--but he didn’t have any bulk, which would make it hard for him to play defender and keep Izuku safe. Izuku had thought either Vlad or Hound Dog would come--either way, he would have set them on fire. 

Hopefully he did not just kill Hound Dog with Fireball. Hound Dog was sturdy, right? 

Izuku decided not to think about it any further. 

The alarms were definitely bad, but they’d considered the fact they might go off. Izuku had purposefully chosen the second-shortest route to the exit, the one that didn’t go past the teachers’ lounge. At this point, it was just running, hoping, and improvising. 

They got out the doors. 

Yagi walked into Nedzu’s office. 

Upon hearing Hound Dog’s message about an intruder kidnapping a green-haired student, Yagi had been frantic. But then he realized there wasn’t any reason to worry--Aizawa had told him earlier that Midoriya would be home for a few days because of some kind of family emergency. Luckily, Midoriya wasn’t in the school at all! 

Still, it was a problem. Ectoplasm and Cementoss were still out looking, but they hadn’t received any further communication with Nedzu, which was concerning. Yagi was coming in to check on him. 

“Nedzu?” he called. 

The only response was a muffled sob. 

Yagi’s head jerked towards the source of it, a lump laying beside Nedzu’s chair. Nedzu. 

“Nedzu! Are you okay?” Yagi quickly walked over there. 

“I lost them,” Nedzu said. “They’re gone--I failed--” 

Yagi quickly checked Nedzu for injuries, horrified to find there were many. The worst of it seemed to be his face, where bruising was already noticable even under his fur. Both his eyes were swollen shut, and blood trailed down his face. Tears clumped the fur near his eyes. 

Yagi resisted the urge to gasp--he’d never seen his boss in such a state. Crying, or injured. The whole situation felt like an affront to nature. Nedzu had always seemed so invulnerable-- Had the intruder attacked Nedzu?

“Are you okay?” Yagi asked. 

There was no answer. 

“I’m going to take you to Recovery Girl,” Yagi said. “Is that okay?” 

This time, a shallow nod. 

Yagi gently picked up Nedzu and started walking towards the infirmary. Nedzu shifted in his grip, pressing against him. 

The sinking feeling that something horrible had gone on when Yagi had entered the room was nothing compared to this--now Yagi knew something was wrong for certain. And he was going to find out what. 

Izuku didn’t feel safe until they were a few miles and a train ride away from UA, and even then he knew they’d have to keep moving. How did one avoid being tracked?

“Okay, we escaped,” Tsukauchi said as they walked down the street. “Any other plans?” 

“We have to get Aizawa,” Izuku announced. “He can erase quirks--if we can get him to Sparklebright, this all should be solved!” 

“We ran in the wrong direction, then,” Tsukauchi said, dryly. 

Izuku blinked. He’d been so focused on escaping UA--

“So we have to get Aizawa without catching Nedzu’s attention,” Izuku said, head already hurting at the idea of trying to pull off that heist. 

“I have a better way,” Tsukauchi said. “We can talk with some of my police buddies--let them in on what’s going on at UA. At the very least have them call Aizawa to the station, then we can fix all this for good.” 

“Good idea,” Izuku said. “Okay--let’s find your police friends!” 

“We should be careful, though,” Tsukauchi said. “Nedzu might suspect us going there.” 

“We’ll be careful,” Izuku said. “We just need to contact Aizawa.” 

With a little luck, they’d be able to get in touch with Aizawa before Nedzu even knew what was happening. 

Chapter Text

The remaining first-year teachers sat at a round table. 

Ectoplasm, Snipe, All Might, Thirteen, and Cementoss. Startlingly few. 

“Where is everyone?” Snipe said, glancing around the table. “This is an emergency, it should be all hands on deck..”

“This is everyone available right now,” Yagi said. He stood up, face serious. “The location of Midnight, Eraserhead, Vlad King, and Present Mic is currently unknown. None of them came in to teach today for unknown reasons, and Midnight has been absent for two. The police are checking their homes for them as we speak.” 

It was dead silent as all the teachers took that in. 

“In addition, Hound Dog was attacked by two intruders. A green-haired male teenager with a fire quirk, who was pretending to be a student at the time, and a tall, black-haired man,” Yagi said. 

“Is Hound Dog alright?” Thirteen asked. 

“He’s stable, but badly burned,” Yagi said. “He’s in the infirmary right now with Power Loader, who, as you know, collapsed yesterday. We have word from Recovery Girl that it was dehydration.”

“Dehydration?” Thirteen echoed. “How did that happen? Could it be related?” 

“How did they get in?” Ectoplasm asked grimly. 

“We don’t know, but Hound Dog said he’d seen the student before, meaning this was likely some kind of long-term infiltration,” Yagi said. “But we know he doesn’t go here. There are no green-haired students with fire quirks at UA.” 

“Okay, so we know why the other teachers are gone,” Snipe said. “But where’s Nedzu?” 

“That’s the last thing,” Yagi said. “Nedzu was attacked in his office at the exact same time the two intruders were spotted. Across the other side of the building, likely a third intruder. He’s expected to recover soon, but he’s not able to be here.”

The table was shocked. Cementoss, though, continued right along with business. 

“Did his injuries give any clues into the attacker’s quirk?” Cementoss asked. 

“No,” Yagi said, shaking his head. “Nedzu was beaten with fists, not a quirk.” 

“Someone punched Nedzu?” Snipe said, in disbelief. “Seriously?” 

“Okay, what do we do?” Thirteen said.  

“Well, I told the students that the alarms were a drill, and emailed parents saying the school is closed down for maintenance tomorrow,” Yagi said. “Right now our primary focus needs to be finding the missing teachers, capturing the intruder, and discovering who else was involved in this plot.” 

The teachers nodded. It was obvious that All Might was taking command. If this were any other situation, there might have been protests, but All Might was the oldest and most experienced hero of the group. Not to mention that infighting at this point would be idiotic, considering how weakened UA was already. 

“Snipe, I need you to go on the security cameras and figure out what the hell happened in the past hour. Thirteen, investigate the areas where the attacks happened, and you’ll be responsible for escorting forensics to the right location when the police arrive,” Yagi said. “Ectoplasm, take the perimeter. Use clones to make sure we don’t have any additional intruders or lingering students. Leave a clone or two in charge of the security system so we have access to it. Cementoss, I need you by the infirmary, in case the attackers swing by to try to finish off Hound Dog or Nedzu while they’re injured.” 

“What about the other missing teachers?” Thirteen asked, rising from their seat. 

“I’m in contact with the police,” Yagi said. “Once we know more, we’ll have people searching for them right away. I’ll keep all of you posted.” 

“Understood,” Thirteen said. 

“I will put the security system at high alert,” Ectoplasm said. 

“Good,” Yagi said. “We need to figure out exactly what happened, and fast.” 

Not long after, Yagi’s phone rang. He picked up immediately. “Tsuragamae? Do you have news?” 

The police chief barked an affirmative. “We found three of your teachers. Midnight, Vlad King, Present Mic. None in good condition. All of them were delirious. Vlad King and Present Mic could be convinced to return to UA with our men by playing on their delusions, but Midnight had to be sedated. All of them are on their way to you right now. We sent some additional nurses and a doctor with them to help you, they’ll be a handful.” 

“Delusions?” Yagi echoed. “And what of Aizawa?”

“Not found in his home. Present Mic was sobbing about how Aizawa had, ‘left him’,” Tsuragamae said. “But again, he seemed to be strangely hyperfixated on Aizawa. I don’t know how much I trust his word.”

“Alright, understood,” Yagi said. At least they’d found them, though Aizawa’s absence was worrying. “What do you think this was?” 

“My guess? A quirk, or a mass drugging,” Tsuragamae said. “Test for both those things and everything else you can think of. I’ve got to go, woof. There’s more to be done.” 

“Got it, thanks. I’ll keep you posted,” Yagi said. 

Izuku and Tsukauchi went to the police station that Sparklebright was being held at. Izuku stayed behind the building (with strict orders to run if Tsukauchi didn’t return in twenty minutes) while Tsukauchi entered, evidently planning to either explain the situation to his superiors or at least contact Aizawa from the station. 

A few minutes later, Tsukauchi poked his head in back. “Alright, we’re in the clear. Come in.” 

Izuku followed him.

“We can’t get Aizawa in, but my coworkers believe me,” Tsukauchi explained. “They said the story tracks--apparently, Midnight, Present Mic, and Vlad King are all acting oddly, and Aizawa is missing. My story is an explanation.” 

Quintuple teacher rescue, Izuku remembered. Five teachers in need of help. Could it be Nedzu, Midnight, Present Mic, Aizawa, and Vlad King? 

Wait… Sparklebright had been seen at the party, right? But Aizawa hadn’t been at the party, while all the other teachers had. How had Aizawa come in contact with Sparklebright if they hadn’t met at the party? Maybe it wasn’t Aizawa. 

“We need to find him,” Izuku insisted. 

“He’s not in his home, he won’t answer his phone,” Tsukauchi said. “We’re trying to catch him, but… well, Aizawa’s a skilled hero, Midoriya. An underground one at that. He definitely knows how to escape detection, it will be tough to lure him out if he doesn’t want to be found.” 

“How are we going to cure everyone then?” Izuku asked, worried. 

“We’ll have to try other methods,” Tsukauchi said. “And there’s a chance he might come out if UA asked him too--I’m going to try to tentatively contact a teacher who we know isn’t affected by Sparklebright. I’m going to try to contact All Might and let him know what’s going on.” 

“Wait, did Sparklebright say who she infected?” Izuku asked. 

“She said she infected ‘every UA teacher she could find’, but All Might was busy with preparations away from the general public, so I know he’s not under the influence of it,” Tsukauchi said. “We just have to convince All Might to side with us before Nedzu gets involved.” 

“Okay, good luck,” Izuku said, nervously. 

Thirteen called Aizawa. 

There was a muffled sound, like the shifting of fabric. “Thirteen, I thought I told you not to call me if it wasn’t an emergency,” Aizawa whispered. “If Nedzu figures out you have the number for my burner, he’s going to be able to track me.” 

“This is an emergency, Aizawa,” Thirteen said. “I don’t think you’re in your right mind right now. We just got in Present Mic, Vlad King, and Midnight in. None of them are acting anything like themselves, I think they were affected by the quirk of a potential intruder. You probably were too.” 

“A quirk?” Aizawa sounded puzzled. “That would explain why Vlad King and Hizashi were acting so weird to me. But I don’t see why I would be affected.” 

“It’s not like you to just quit your job,” Thirteen pointed out. 

“I had a reason,” Aizawa snapped. “Vlad King and Nedzu betrayed me.” 

“See, this is what I’m talking about. You sound paranoid-” 

“I’m not paranoid!”

“-and we need you back here, don’t you understand?”

“It sounds like you’re just going to stuff me into an infirmary room until you figure out I’m not affected by a quirk. I don’t think I’d actually be able to help with your situation if I went back, so I’m not sure if I should,” Aizawa said. “Besides, if you’re just going to believe Nedzu about everything--” 

“Nedzu was beaten unconscious this morning!” Thirteen said sharply. 

There was silence on the other end of the line. 

“We don’t know who did it. It feels like half our teachers are out of commission. This is chaos. We need you, Aizawa--and if we find who did this, we need your quirk to undo it,” Thirteen said. 

Aizawa hung up. 

“Dammit!” Thirteen said, throwing their phone across the room. 

Cementoss, once in charge of making sure nobody came back to attack anyone in the infirmary, was now more in charge of containing everyone in the infirmary. His cement-based powers quickly came in handy as he was forced to separate many of the patients. Midnight, at this point, screamed obscenities at anyone who came close, and destroyed everything in her room out of rage. Cementoss was a little concerned she would injure herself, but she seemed at least to have the presence of mind to rip into pillows rather than punch the walls and hurt her hands. 

Vlad King was sitting in his room. He’d been hostile when they first arrived, but now he was obsessively going over plans on how 1-B could trounce 1-A on their next training sessions. He quickly became angry at anyone who interrupted him, even if it was to give him food and water. 

Present Mic, on the other hand, was simply inconsolable. He was sobbing nonstop for seemingly no reason. Hound Dog, physically unable to rise he was so weak from his burns, still tried to sooth him from his hospital bed.

Meanwhile, The swelling around Nedzu’s nose was getting bad, to the point where Recovery Girl was getting worried about his airway. Power Loader was still unconscious, but he was starting to stir here and there, mumbling about needing to get back to his projects. 

Even with the doctor and nurses that they’d been lended, everyone was being run ragged. This was an absolute disaster. 

Suddenly, Cementoss noticed Snipe running by him in the halls. 

“Snipe, what-?” 

Snipe skidded to a stop. “I checked the cameras. The intruder… the green-hair… they do go here! Midoriya Izuku, he’s from Class 1-A! And the other ‘intruder’ is Tsukauchi, the detective! And there is no third intruder, Nedzu collapsed by himself.” 

“What?” Cementoss said. "That doesn't make any sense." 

“I’ve got to tell All Might--maybe he’ll know what’s going on or be able to contact Tsukauchi--see you later, Cementoss!” 

Snipe gave a quick wave and ran towards the teachers’ lounge. 

Cementoss dearly hoped whatever affliction had taken down the rest of their teachers hadn’t affected Snipe as well. They had enough problems already. 

Chapter Text

Yagi’s phone rang once again. At first he assumed it was Tsuragamae, so he was surprised to see that the caller was actually Tsukauchi. Yagi answered the call immediately. 

“Hey, Toshinori-” 

“Naomasa,” Yagi said, surprised. “You weren’t answering my texts earlier.” 

“I got caught up with… something,” Tsukauchi said. “But there’s something urgent going on. Some of UA’s teachers were affected by a quirk.” 

“We know that now,” Yagi said, wishing that Tsukauchi had told him that sooner. But there was a chance he knew more. “Do you know what quirk it is?”

“I do. It’s called Dark Reflection, and it exaggerates a minor character flaw until it becomes their entire personality,” Tsukauchi said. “We know Nedzu’s been affected for sure, but I’m not sure how many others.” 

“Nedzu?” Yagi said, confused. 

If Nedzu was under the influence of the quirk, then why would the intruder with the fire go the extra mile to attack him? Was it because he was the principal, or because this was a completely separate attack? “We’ll have to keep an eye on him, then. He’s in the infirmary right now, he was attacked.” 

“Ah,” Tsukauchi said, awkwardly. “I see. Regardless, the person who used their quirk was arrested, they’re at the police station. You really need to find Aizawa and get him here, stat. Before Nedzu wakes up. Or, barring that, you need to be able to contain Nedzu.” 

Yagi paled. “Contain Nedzu? Is that even possible?” 

“For a short time, potentially,” Tsukauchi said. It seemed he’d already thought about this. “I wouldn’t trust anything we came up with to keep him, but someone else has already done the work for us. Double-check the documentation from when he was experimented on in the labs. They must have done something right, considering how long he was trapped there.”

“That’s horrific,” Yagi said, a bit disbelieving.

“You do need to make sure he doesn’t escape,” Tsukauchi said. 

“Maybe he’s unaffected,” Yagi said. “High Specs could have let him fight off the quirk, right? If we wait--”  

“Trust me, he’s not fine,” Tsukauchi said, firmly. “I’m sorry, but he’s not normal right now, and he’s definitely dangerous.” 

Yagi sighed. As much as he hated it, he trusted his friend’s judgment on this. “Alright.” 

“Thank you, Yagi,” Tsukauchi said, sighing. “I’ll try to find a way to stop the quirk.” 

“See you soon,” Yagi said. Then, he set down his phone. 

The moment he did, he felt cool metal against his neck, and a paw resting on his shoulder. 

“I could slit your neck before you turn on your quirk,” Nedzu whispered, holding the knife against Yagi’s throat. “So don’t move.” 

Yagi froze. He hadn’t even seen him enter. 

He was pretty sure he’d be able to transform into All Might before Nedzu killed him (he transformed quite quickly) but Nedzu sounded so chillingly certain that he stopped himself from doing so. 

“Just stay calm and nothing bad will happen,” Nedzu said. There was a strange affect to his voice, it almost sounded like a purr. “With my advanced hearing, I could hear Tsukauchi’s side of that phone call. I would have never expected this sort of thing from him a week ago, but now I understand his true nature.” 

Yagi made a decision. He would power up and stop Nedzu if it seemed like Nedzu’s mental processes were degenerating or he was about to strike--but he’d hold off for now. There was a chance he might still listen to reason.